Well here we are in the midst of fall, my favorite season if you remember.

Baseball is a long season and the playoffs go even longer. But I happen to enjoy them, M’s or no M’s. In fact, I recently wore an L.A. Angels t-shirt to work, I believe it was game one of their series with the Boston Red Sox. I really didn’t think it was a big deal – I never wear the shirt when they are playing the Mariners. But like I said, the M’s are long gone from the playoffs, and there are a few guys on the team that I happy to actually kinda like. And I hate, I repeat, I hate the Boston Red Sox. So it seemed like a great day to bust out my shirt and not receive flack for it. But boy was I wrong. Quite the reaction my simple t-shirt warranted from people all day long. Starting with the coffee guy. “What’s with your shirt? You a baseball fan?” To which I replied, “Yep, sure am.” And he says “Oh how’d you get into that, your boyfriend forcing you to watch the games on tv all the time or what?” Boy was he way off. But whatever. Still didn’t think much of it. Brushed it off and continued on with my day.

But they just kept on a comin’! I must have received remarks about my shirt into the double-digits that day, remarks resembling “is that an Angels shirt?!?” “since when are you an angels fan??” “you can’t possibly be wearing that shirt right now” “what do you even know about the angels?” Whoa people. Calm down. It’s a t-shirt. And to answer your questions, yes, it’s an Angles shirt. I’m an Angels fan when I want to be. Yes, I can be wearing this shirt right now…and I am. And last but not least, I do know a thing or two about the Angles thank you very much. Didn’t expect so much hub-bub over my attire for the day, but the comments and questions continued to be fired at me one after another that I suddenly felt myself go on the defensive about this stupid t-shirt

You would think the comments stopped there. Your co-workers just messing around, giving you a bad time, blah blah blah. But no, it continued. The guy at the check-out in the grocery store seriously laughed at me and said “So your boyfriend probably bought you that shirt right?” huh? What does that even mean? I don’t know what he was trying to imply with that comment but I wasn’t amused. I just smiled at him, “Nope, no boyfriend. Bought it myself.” Clearly trying to show I wasn’t in the mood to chit-chat about a boyfriend, or the hows & whys of my shirt. But as so many people I come across in day to day life, he didn’t pick up on my hints. Instead he continued, “Oh. So you just like the color red then?” He was workin’ my last nerve.  If my boyfriend didn’t buy me the shirt, then I must have bought it for the color? Forgive me for not following that logic. For the record, I actually hate wearing the color red. I look terrible in red!  But this dude wasn’t getting it. I proceeded to tell him no, I bought the shirt because I like the Angels to which he laughed again and says “Sure you did, ok…”

I’m a fairly fashion-conscious chick. I like a lot of different styles and take a few chances here and there with what I wear so receiving comments (good and bad) about what I’m wearing is nothing new to me. But I gotta tell you, I never would have guessed that the article of clothing to draw the most attention from people, specifically men, would be my cotton, Angels baseball t-shirt. Needless to say when I woke up that morning and put on the shirt, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Even now I don’t really know what the big deal was? Can’t a girl wear an Angels baseball shirt without everyone assuming she bought it for every reason under the sun except for the idea that she just might like the team? And furthermore, why do you care so much why I bought the shirt?

Now I’m not trying to be “that girl,” but I can’t help but wonder…does a guy get the same response I did for wearing that shirt? Would he have been accused of buying it based on color? Hmmm. Just something to think about. Next time you see a girl wearing a sports team shirt that isn’t the local team, why not give her the benefit of the doubt that she bought the shirt the same reason you buy yours.

Oh yea, and go Angels!!

As you may or may not know I just got back from a lovely vacation in

Disconnect from sports radio, disconnect from people back home, disconnect from technology! Yep, you heard me right. Not once did I check my email (any one of my six email accounts), log on to Myspace, check my Facebook wall, Twitter my every step, I even put the cell phone on silent minimizing the amount of text message interruptions. Any of you that know me are probably shaking your head in disbelief thinking I made this up just for a blog post. Understandable you would think that, but not true. I really did it! Yes, I usually do live and die by the health and signal of my cell phone. Everyone’s got “their thing.” As we all know Doug is a big fan of the twitter! Me, I’m old school, addicted to the text messages and still leading the facebook bandwagon, both of which I access from my trusty little blackberry. 

I’ll admit, withdrawals were had the first day or two as I cut these things out of my life for a week. It’s not as easy as one might think. Once you make a conscious effort to be disconnected, you really see how outrageous your addiction is. Like a nervous habit. Anytime we were standing in line, waiting to be seated somewhere, basically anytime there were 5 seconds not filled with action or conversation, my hand would instantaneously reach for my pocket, purse, etc. Even with all the beautiful scenery surrounding me and the countless activities to engage in, my instant thought with all of it was to update my facebook status, or send off a picture text to show loved ones back home what I was doing. Yikes. Once I realized how ridiculous my addiction had become I was able to take a deep breath and put away the cell phone. And I gotta tell you, it felt great. An instant calmness came over me.

Like I mentioned, I was up at 7am everyday and on the go till pretty much 1, 2, 3am…with a few powernaps in between. Busy trip, but the peace I felt from being disconnected was incredible. Even when it came to sports, which usually I’m a junky with (obviously or my days working here would really suck). We’d walk into a restaurant or bar with TV’s on and I’d catch a glimpse of something going by on the ESPN scroll. I’d sit up, what happened? Who traded who where?  Who beat who in the first round of the playoffs? I didn’t have a clue about the information being shown. At first I freaked. You take a break from the sports world for even a day and you feel as if you’ve missed out on an entire year’s worth of happenings. But I survived. Much in the same way I silenced the cell phone and resisted checking the email, I turned away from the TV. It was great.

I am proud to know I have the willpower to disconnect, for however short a time, it can be done. And the world keeps on spinning. And I, too keep on going. Of course when it comes to cutting ties altogether with the social networking ways of the world today, I feel my throat tightening up just at the thought of it! No, that won’t be happening anytime soon. But I really would encourage you all to take a break every once in awhile. Even if just for a day…disconnect!

Now with all that being said….you must go join KPUG’s Myspace, Facebook and Twitter sites immediately!!!!  You are missing out on all kinds of great stuff, and getting behind with every passing second. Go sign-up RIGHT NOW!

Check back for my first blog.