It started with my 30-second purchase of Ray LaMontagne tickets when they went on Ticketmaster sale at 10am, which netted us second row seats in the centre of The Vic.
Then, with King in town for an extended weekend over fall break, we decided to do what we always do when we're together -- a day trip in or outside of the city that's all about kitsch, food and photo opps. Because it's fall, we opted for a jaunt down the Illinois & Michigan Canal in the western outskirts of Chicagoland. One-pound burgers, punkin pickin', bales of hay, homemade pie, legendary ice cream, and the biggest Hindu temple in the Midwest. Along the six-hour drive, we had a bird dump toxic-blue waste on the windshield two seconds after we closed the sunroof, stumbled upon a completely Mexican neighbourhood on the outskirts of Joliet where we ate chincharron (fried pork rinds), cruised down Main Street joints where everybody knows your name, and filmed guys singing and playing the guitar on a horse cart. Can you beat that?
The New York Mets know how to beat, because they eliminated my Dodgers from playoffs contention tonight. After dropping King off at Alex's, I sped up to meet LP at The Rail where we cornered an empty table and tilted our heads upwards to watch the game on a plasma screen. (I had a Reuben sandwich.) I thought we at least had another day -- I knew it was wishful thinking, but it was Mad Dog on the mound after all. He proceeded to give up three runs on five consecutive singles in the top of the first, all with two outs. Although Jeff Kent (me to LP: "This is Jeff Kent, he's got to do something!") hit a two-run homer to tie the game in the fifth and J.D. Drew was walked in to score the go-ahead run, that was all quickly erased a couple of innings later -- how does a team out-hit their opponent and lose the game by four runs? Bad pitching, no clutch hitting. Why do I sound like a broken record? Because I'm also a Cubs fan.
The Tigers beat the Yankees to advance to the ALCS, so that made major league baseball playoffs a little more bearable. But who gives a shit about the American League anyway?
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