Series Score, 2-2 WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I freaking love this. I love the Sabres. I love going to these games. I love being so effing nervous that I forget to breath.  I love the feeling of my body trying to relax and recover from the stress of the game during the intermission.  I love the fact that I’m still buzzed with adrenaline an hour after the game ends. I love it when Lindy is proud in the postgame interview. I love it when Nathan Gerbe is a honey badger. I love it when Mike Grier gets a scoring chance. I love it when Goose puts his head down and pumps his arms and skates as fast as he can. I love it when Tyler Myers knocks Briere over, repeatedly. I love it when Sabretooth has his little drum. I love the little “ding ding” sound that the ticket readers make as they scan the tickets. I love trying to decide which outfits are lucky. I love watching the players lean against the bench during the tv timeouts. I love that I have such a great view of Ryan Miller’s saves from my seats. I love whooping with victory on the escalators on the way out. I love my usher. I love listening to the postgame in the car on the way home (when they win, ONLY when they win). I love having a pom-pom. I love watching the out of town scoreboard. I love watching them fist-bump Sabretooth at the end of a game. I love how Niedermayer really IS better in the playoffs. I love the responsiveness of the crowd. I love how “Let’s go Buff-a-lo” twirls around the arena. I love that all around me I can hear people saying, “I can’t handle this stress,” when really, they can. I love drinking beers faster than I ordinarily would, because I’m nervous. I love watching the other half of the arena leap to their feet a split second sooner than us when the Sabres score on that end. I love how I manage to look from the ice to the clock, from the ice to the clock, a hundred times in those last 5 seconds. I love it when Ryan Miller is the hero. I love being with Buffalonians, all of us cheering for the same thing.

I love this.

6 Things

1. You may have noticed that I’ve changed my blogging philosophy this season.  After years of working under the mission statement of, “Writing everyday is a practice that is both enjoyable and healthy,” I’ve recently discovered the joys of, “Eff it.  The Sabres blow and life is too short.  Poor me another glass of boxed wine please.”  (Sidenote: Did you know that boxed wine has evolved significantly since the days of keeping Franzia in your fridge in college?  I can report that Sabres games are a LOT less annoying to watch when you stop counting your wine consumption in “bottles” and start counting it in “boxes”.)

2. I just spent about twenty minutes writing a detailed list of all the ways in which the World Junior Championship and Buffalo’s response to it are on my nerves, but I’m currently experiencing some doubt about whether I want to go full-blown crankypants about this issue.

I’ll just say this:  I have realized that if I want to have any hope of making it through this tournament with my sunny disposition intact, it is my own responsibility to stop looking at Twitter.  If I stop reading Twitter, the WJC will revert back to something I never ever think about, and then I might have the opportunity to attend some games with an open mind.  As of right now, I’m so turned off by the tone of the conversation around town that I’m resisting the urge to hate the World Juniors just on principle.

I like liking things, and I dislike being all grouchy and annoyed.  So, no Twitter it is.

World Juniors, I’ll see you on January 2nd.  I’ll try to have a better attitude about you by then.

3. I hosted Christmas this year, which was really a lot of fun, but after weeks missing games because of work or house related chores, by the time the Sabres/Calgary game came along on the 26th, I was pretty adamant that I wanted to watch it.   The original plan was to herd the whole family out to a bar, but my regular haunts were zany that night (Left Bank was closed.  CLOSED!), and so we wound up back at my house. This is how my entire family of non-Buffalonians, non-hockey fans wound up gathered around my television to watch the Calgary game.

Sadly, the game was boring and the lose-iness was palpable, but at least I got a good laugh from my family at the end when I quipped, “And that’s the sport and the team that changed my life forever! What a wonderful holiday treat that was for you!”

4. I’ll write more about this later, but it sure feels like this season is basically over for the Sabres.  Roy-Z is out for the year, and Crunchy is in some sort of “I just got engaged to a mega-hot starlet and I refuse to be cranky about anything, including the fact that my team blows” haze, and it feels like the entire organization is just waiting for Pegula to take over so they can see which lifetime-contracts will be honored and which ones will go up in smoke.

I’ve never experienced a season like this as a fan.  During the other non-playoff years the Sabres were in the playoff hunt until the last week of the season, so this dead-in-the-water sensation is something new.  What I’m learning is that the it’s perfectly possible to allow the Sabres to fade into the background of your life, and still enjoy a rich, satisfying existence.  I know!  It’s actually a very lovely life lesson.

I’m not at all in the mood to hate the Sabres these days, so, I won’t.

5. I’ve written a little in the past about how I love Sidney Crosby mostly because everyone else hates him.  (I think it’s hilarious how almost every hockey fan criticizes Sid for being boring and whining….while uniformly whining en masse about Sid.)  Sid is really cementing his place in my heart right now because not only is he infuriating his strongest detractors with his scoring streak, but he’s doing so with the ugliest mustache in the history of mustaches.  Delightful.

6. If you want an example of stellar, non-redonk coverage of the WJC, I highly suggest you keep a close eye on Andrew Kulyk over at Artvoice.  This piece about Kassian and Etem is a great read.

State of the Onion

I was originally going to write a post about the Sabres, inspired by the Bills, titled “State of the Union”.

The post was probably going to be totally lame because the plan was to talk about how my relationship with the Sabres feels different this season and blah blah blah whine whine blah blah blah shut up Katebits blah blah.  It was all planned out.

But then, I sat down to write this emo post, and when I was writing the title, I accidentally wrote “State of the Onion” instead of “State of the Union,” which made me giggle.  Then, figuring that the Blogging Gods had intervened in order to prevent me from writing a lame emo post, I realized that maybe I have the strength to forge ahead as a Buffalo sports fan after all.

So, I guess that’s the state of the union.  I’m listing towards mopey-ness, but I’m easily distracted by other, happier things.  Like funny typos about onions.

(When is Festivus, by the way?  I think we might all benefit from some organized, “airing of the grievances”.)

Onward

After a lifetime of indifference to basketball, I’ve spent the last 24 hours rather obsessed with the curious case of the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James.  As a result of that drama, I’ve been either over-empathizing with Cleveland, or shamefully reveling in the opportunity to witness something so grim from a relatively safe distance.

I’ll probably write more about this topic in the future, but some days you just have to brush yourself off and try not to dwell on things that you don’t quite understand.  That’s how I feel about Buffalo/Cleveland and their tortured sports histories- I don’t quite understand it, I can’t claim it as my own history, and the whole thing is both alluring and horrifying.  I’m tempted to dig in and root around in these stories in an effort to find the beautiful, chewy center (I do believe that at the core of Buffalo sports fandom is something beautiful, and faith in that beauty is what attracts me to being a fan), but to get the heart of the matter will take many decades of research.  It can’t be rushed, and I’ve only just begun.

So, for today I’ll take a break from my hyper-conscious examination of “The History of Sports in the Rust Belt,” and carry-on as usual.  Trudging merrily along, willfully ignorant, a Buffalo sports fan in the making.

Cleveland

Recently my friend Dinesh made a joke about how I’m a silly little innocent who doesn’t understand true sports pain because I grew up rooting for the Twins.

He’s right.

My only other true, with-all-my-heart sports rooting interest before I came to Buffalo was the Minnesota Twins.  As a small child, I cheered like all kids do, without really worrying too much about wins and losses.  I loved the Twins either way.  Then, in 1987 when I became old enough to crave wins (I was twelve), the Twins won the World Series, and then they did it again in 1991.  During my formative years, I saw the Twins lose plenty, but I never saw them lose a playoff series, and I saw them win the World Series twice.  So, my friend Dinesh is right.  I was spoiled as a child, and I don’t intrinsically understand how it feels experience a lifetime of sports fandom without ever seeing a championship.

Dinesh is from Cleveland, so he DOES understand true sports pain.  As he says about cheering for Cleveland sports and the expectation that eventually his team will lose, “It’s always something.”

For one reason or another, I’ve become temporarily transfixed by the drama occurring around LeBron James today.  I know almost nothing about basketball, so my interest in this is coming for a position of complete ignorance.   Last night I became intrigued when the tone of the LeBron discussion in my Twitter feed became dramatic and scathing.   As the game wound down, Bruce Arthur wrote, “This isn’t just a capitulation by LeBron. It’s not just a surrender. This is a betrayal.” Whoa.  That’s some hardcore losing.

So, I’ve spent the morning reading about LeBron James and the history of Cleveland sports, and my final conclusion is, “Holy crap, poor Cleveland fans….they’re like Buffalonians.”

I don’t feel comfortable closely identifying with the history of losing in Buffalo.  That history is not my true experience and to over-identify with it seems a little disengenuous, but I have gotten increasingly aware of “it” in recent years (heh) and I deeply empathize.  My empathy is in part selfish, because it’s for my future self.  After all, if things stay the course, eventually I will have a genuine history with Buffalo’s losing ways.

I’m curious about how born-and-bred Buffalonians feel about Clevelanders.  I feel a combination of deep deep sympathy, and also a little bit of petty, “Ha ha!  You guys never win either.  LOSERS.”  I’ll admit, the idea of the Cavaliers delivering a championship to Cleveland made me jealous, and sort of cranky.  But now that it’s looking so grim for the Cavs, and LeBron is about to become a free agent on top of everything else….boy.  Poor, poor Cleveland.  They don’t deserve that.

So, Buffalo.  How does Cleveland make you feel?  Sad?  Petty?  Happy?  Would it make you happy to see them win, or would it make you feel lonelier here in Buffalo?

Are Cleveland fans our brothers in pain, or are they the competition?

The Peoria Sabres

I’m reading Will Leitch’s “God Save the Fan” right now, and it’s often pretty funny, and it’s often really repetitive (Yes, ESPN sucks.  WE GET IT ALREADY), but one essay really jumped out at me last night.

Leitch writes about sticking with his boyhood football team the St. Louis Cardinals when they move to Arizona.  He even goes so far as to suggest that a person who doesn’t follow a team through a geographical move is not a real fan.  This idea blew my mind mostly because my instincts tell me that if the Sabres ever moved, I would devote my life to rooting against them.

Leitch’s argument:

See, here’s the thing: Being a sports fan is a year-round job.  At the end of the season, You’ve got your free agency period and then the draft and then your salary cap cut date and the next thing you know, it’s training camp.  So, when exactly was I supposed to switch loyalties?  Was there one day that I cared about Vai Sikahema, and another day when I was supposed to stop?  I read some piece of information about my Cardinals every day of the year.  I know the fifty-three-man roster.  I know the draft picks, I know the coaching staff, I know the name of the guy who plays the mascot.  It’s a full-time position, rooting for a football team….so how am I just supposed to say, “All right, yesterday I cared about these players, but now I care about these”?  If something as wishy-washy as geography guides your rooting interests, isn’t it wishy-washy to move your loyalty around just because someone realized the franchise could make more money in Boise rather than Topeka?

He loses me a bit when he argues that geography is a silly reason to choose one team over another (the reason I became a hockey fan was so that I had an excuse to cheer for Buffalo- nothing wishy-washy about it), but he does make a good case for loyalty.  Once you have your team, you have your team.  Plain and simple.

Although the Bills are the most obvious comparison (and the most likely to actually leave) I’m going to use the Sabres simply because I just don’t care enough about the Bills to make this interesting. If the Bills left town, I’d be sad for all the Buffalonians who love them, but NO WAY would I cheer for Marshawn Lynch if he were running girls over with his car in Toronto or LA instead of Buffalo.  The Bill can just forget it.

The Sabres might be a different story.  Would I suddenly STOP rooting for Goose and Crunchy just because the team moved away?  It’s difficult to imagine.  As much as I bitch about the Sabres and claim that I want them ALL TO BE TRADED, it’s hard to picture rooting against them as a group.  If Lindy and the whole gang were playing in a different city, would I still cheer for them?

I’m not bringing this up to get everyone depressed imagining a bleak future without the Sabres, I just think it’s an interesting way of thinking about the team.  It’s an interesting way to measure what it is that we’re cheering for.  I really think I’m mostly cheering for Buffalo, but I spend so much time watching these players that I do have attachments to them.  I am cheering for the players too.  In the absence of an NHL team in Buffalo I might find myself cheering for the Peoria Sabres just out of habit.

I really don’t know!

Please don’t get yourself depressed by thinking about this too hard, and please don’t spend any time trying to figure out what kind of terrible situation would have to evolve in order for the Sabres to leave.  This is just a simple exercise.  If the current Sabres were plopped down in Peoria, Illinois tonight, would you still be a fan tomorrow? I think it’s interesting and kind of fun to ponder.

After a lot of thought, I voted for “I’d probably keep cheering for the Sabres,” but honestly, I might devote my life to hating them.  It’s a really tough call.

Lindy and Buffalo

“We think, and many people think, that the town needs to win a major sports championship, to correct the inferiority complex in the psyche of the community.”

-Byron Brown, Mayor of Buffalo, NY

This quote from Byron Brown was part of the Sports illustrated article about Chris Drury a few years ago.  When I first read it, I was taking my very first baby steps towards Buffalo sports fandom.  Of everything I read in that article, this is the thing that stood out most to me, and it’s a quote that I have returned to many times since I first read it in 2007.  At the time, I thought it was preposterous, even scandalous, that our mayor would say such a thing.  The idea that we MUST have a championship to correct the inferiority complex in the psyche of the community seemed downright unsightly, and certainly inappropriate for a mayor to admit out loud.

In the two years since then, I’ve come to read this quote quite differently.  It no longer seems embarrassing, or preposterous, or scandalous.

Now, it just seems honest.

________

I’m pretty shocked at the degree of passion I feel over the FIRE LINDY RUFF issue.  It’s not that I passionately want Lindy to be fired, it’s more that I feel as if a lightbulb has flickered on above my head, and suddenly I’m all, “Duh.  Lindy Ruff should be fired.”  The trouble is, very few other people have had this revelation, and for the most part, I find myself ranting alone.

I assure you, it has not gone unnoticed that very few of you are rushing to agree with me in the comment threads.  I know you hate this topic, I know the majority of you don’t agree with me, and I know I am risking alienating a lot of my readers by continuing to harp on this issue….but I can’t stop myself.  I feel strongly about this, and the more I think about it, the more strongly I feel.  Just bear with me for one more post.

I don’t want to argue that Lindy is a bad coach.  I don’t think he’s a bad coach.  All I’m arguing is that he’s getting bad results, and that I think the Sabres should consider firing Lindy.  I’m not even sure I think they HAVE to fire him, but I am sure that it should be on the table as a perfectly reasonable option.  Firing the coach should be on the menu of things we hear about when people discuss the Sabres on the radio and in the newspaper.  That’s all.

But that’s NOT all, because Buffalo has an incredibly strong love for Lindy Ruff.  This fanbase loves Lindy more than we love any one player.  We love Lindy.  He’s important to us, and he’s important to this community.  I’m not discounting that love in the slightest.  I love Lindy too.

On one hand, this attachment to Lindy is incredibly moving.  It’s loyalty, it’s gratitude, it’s respect, and in an interesting way, I think it’s a tribute to how we as a community want to be viewed.  We love Lindy, and we want him to represent us.  I think that’s beautiful.  I can think of very few people I’d rather have representing Buffalo than Lindy Ruff.

But on the other hand, I also think our attachment to Lindy Ruff is a symptom of a deeply rooted problem.  It’s a city-wide inability to let go of some romantic notion of how we want Buffalo to be, and meanwhile, we’re neglecting a whole host of other serious problems.  It’s as if the entire city is enchanted by some mirage, and because of that glimmering illusion, we won’t settle for anything less.  It’s a symptom of whatever it is in our makeup that makes it so difficult to build a much needed new bridge, or a fishing mega-store, or to downsize the government to match the actual size of the population.

I think there is something going on here that runs much deeper than sports.

Whether or not you agree with me that it’s time for a new coach, I think it’s very hard to dispute that this is a conversation that could have started a year and a half ago.  If we had been thinking critically, we would have started this conversation a year and a half ago.  The fact that the entirety of the sports media has been virtually silent about this speaks volumes.  In my opinion, we’re not just reluctant to have this conversation, we’re downright scared of it.

I think Buffalo needs to take a hard look in the mirror and we need to prioritize winning.  And not just in hockey.

I’m not talking about prioritizing winning in some make-believe, warm and fuzzy, Lindy-holding-the-Cup-over-his-head-in-HSBC way.   It’s time to prioritize winning in the forget-the-romantic-ideals, make-the-hard-choices, and get-the-job-done….WINNING way.

I know that this is just hockey.  I know that we fans have no control over any of it, and I know that some of you will think I’m seriously stretching the parameters of a sports blog by writing this post, but I guess I just had to say it.  From the beginning of my romance with the Sabres, above all else, I’ve been drawn to how this town is shaped and effected by its relationship to sports.  I think there are direct sociological lines that can be drawn between how we approach sports, and how we approach the future of our city.

In no way am I suggesting that we should “demand more” from the Sabres- that’s foolishness- but until this week, it was nearly taboo to criticize Lindy Ruff in this town.  Until this week, I had never heard Lindy criticized in the paper or on the radio, ever.  That means something.  We should notice that, and we should think about what that says about our willingness to change and evolve in Buffalo.

Whether or not you agree that Lindy Ruff should have a job for life, this conversation is worth having.  It’s good for us.  It’s good to discuss change and seriously examine our options, and it’s good to question the status quo.  It’s healthy.

And in that way, this conversation is about much, much more than hockey.

_______

Let’s Go Buff-a-lo!

Hockey Night in Kleinhans

Because we perform almost every weekend, my job with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra often prevents me from watching the Sabres game.  It used to bother me that my job so frequently conflicts with hockey, but this season I’ve enjoyed watching bits and pieces of the games in our break room at Kleinhans Music Hall.

Most Sabres games start at seven pm, and our concerts started at eight.  So, on game nights I go to work early, and watch the entire first period in the break room.  It’s fun.  There are a LOT of Sabres fans in the orchestra, but there are only a handful of us who go out of our way to make sure we can enjoy a good chunk of hockey before our concert.  These are the diehards.  Then, the BPO intermission usually lines up with the beginning of the third period, so I catch a few minutes of the game during our break.  Also (between you and me and the entire internet), there’s an orchestra member (not me) who is quite adept at using his/her cell phone to keep track of the score discreetly during a performance.  It’s a rare night when I don’t know the final score before I leave the stage after a concert.  At the end of the night, those of us in the orchestra who love the Sabres always take a moment to celebrate the win or commiserate over the loss on our way out the stage door.

This is obviously an unconventional way to experience a hockey game, but it’s not without it’s charm.  Frankly, I kind of like it.  Yesterday it occurred to me that there will almost certainly come a day when I am on stage during a Sabres playoff game, and it made me downright happy to imagine.  Even when I can’t watch a game from beginning to end, if I’m at work, I know I’ll still have a fun and memorable experience.  I sincerely enjoy cheering for the Sabres with my colleagues, even if it means I don’t get to see every single minute of every single game.

The Sabres have brought me closer to my community in almost every way.  It still amazes me.

Thoughts

Huh.  I can honestly tell you I didn’t see that game coming.  I did not expect the Sabres to play a decent defensive game and get shutout by Marty Biron.  When I got home last night I was too tired and cranky to write about the game, but I woke up this morning feeling rejuvenated.  Here’s what I was thinking about in the dawn of a new day:

1. Beer

Until last night I had never had a beer at HSBC arena.  It’s weird that I never drink at the arena because I have absolutely no objection to drinking, in fact I do it frequently.  I attribute my non-drinkyness to a few things (not the least of which is that I’m not much of a beer drinker these days), but I think the number one reason I wasn’t drinking was it just seemed like too much of a hassle.  When you don’t eat or drink at games, you’re all settled in for the evening once you get to your seats.  Drinking involves dealing with crowds in the concourse, lines at the concession stand, and of course, peeing. Oh, the peeing!

I’ve already been to five games this season, and I’m getting really good at maneuvering around in my little portion of the 300 level concourse.  I’ve learned that if I bolt out at the end of a period I can hit the bathroom, hit a concession stand, swing by to wave hello to Anne (and buy some cotton candy from her if I feel so inclined), and still have PLENTY of time to be back in my seat to see the majority of a weirdo interview with Maria Genero and Paul Gaustad on the jumbotron. (Seriously, what was that all about?  I couldn’t hear the audio on the clip on the jumbotron.  All I gathered from the feature is that Goose went fishing at some point and that, judging from the body language, he and Maria might very well be in love.  That was a LOT of bashful giggling.  Not that I’m complaining.)

My point here is this: I was totally wrong to not drink beer.  Beer helps.  A lot.  I’m never not drinking beer at a hockey game again.

(Maybe at some point I will investigate those gigantic beers that they pour out of bottles, but maybe not.  What’s up with those?  Why can’t they pour a gigantic draft at the concession stand?  My inclination is to assume draft beer is colder and more delicious, but ENORMOUS beers have their attributes as well.  Please advise, dear readers.)

2. The Crowd

The crowd was terrible.  I’m not judging, because I was a part of the crowd and Buffalo sports fans have had a real rough week, but MAN, the crowd was flat.  I’ve never been to such a subdued game.  Granted, the action was very, veeeeery slow, but still.  The crowd was skeptical, belligerent, and cranky from beginning to end.  As you know, I am PRO booing. I like to boo, and I don’t care who knows it, but…..I’m not a fan of booing just because you have no particular reason to cheer.  If I had my say, we’d save our nonsensical booing for the opposition (like Chara! BOOOOOO!), but I fully recognize the crowd is gonna boo when they’re gonna boo.  That’s just how it goes.

Our section did have one nice crowd moment: In the third period when it was 2-0 and the arena seemed library-level quiet, a guy about five rows back from us screamed out in a very clear, loud voice, “WE WANT MAX!”  He yelled it at just the right time and it seemed to boom over the entire arena.  There was lots of giggling in response.  Then, a guy in front of us yelled, “I TOTALLY DISAGREE!”  And I then I yelled, “ME TOO!”  And someone else yelled “ME THREE!”  I’m sorry to say that this exchange might have been the highlight of the evening.  I like the idea of an orderly discussion occurring in the middle of the game.  I was tempted to shout, “I’M CONCERNED THAT LINDY’S THREATENING INSISTENCE ON DEFENSIVE PLAY IS BACKFIRING!  THE SABRES SEEM AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES.  THEY ARE NOT PLAYING AGGRESSIVE OFFENSE!,”  just to see if some else would shout, “SOLID DEFENSIVE PLAY LEADS TO OFFENSIVE OPPORTUNITIES!  THEY JUST HAVE TO STICK TO THE SYSTEM AND BURY THEIR CHANCES. THE GOALS WILL COME!”

3. The Sabres aren’t that bad, but they’re also not that good.

If the Bruins game was when I lost all perspective, last night’s game was when I got it back.  Listen, it’s still early in the season.  There is LOTS of Brahms hockey left to be played.  After the Bruins game I reached a level of unhappiness with the Sabres and sports in general that crossed a line I have drawn for myself.  There is only so much angst I am willing to tolerate in the name of sports.  It’s a long season, with a lot more annoying-ness yet to come, so I realized I need to dial it down a bit if I am going to survive with my sanity intact.

These Sabres are just not dominant and we need to stop expecting them to be dominant.  They have lots of potential to dramatically improve, so I guess we just hope for the best.  They tricked us by coming out of the gate so strong, but it’s time to accept that those first six games were a bit of an anomaly.

4. Thank GOD I have to work tonight.

I love my job, but it’s a drag that it so frequently conflicts with the Sabres schedule.  Usually I’m sorry to miss the Saturday games, but not tonight.  I need a break.  To make matter even better, we’re playing a REALLY cool concert at the BPO this weekend.  The concert involves a lot of great music, but there is also some truly dazzling acrobatics that will steal the spotlight.  We’re playing a full concert with the acrobats tonight, and then a truncated version tomorrow afternoon as part of our Family Series.  I can’t get comp tickets for tonight, but if you are interested in coming to the show (for free) tomorrow afternoon, shoot me an email.  I have four tickets set aside for anyone who would like to use them.  I can’t imagine anyone not liking this show, and I think kids will LOVE it.  Our family shows are usually about an hour long, without intermission.  Yes, it conflicts with the Bills game.

Another super neat thing going on in Buffalo this weekend is the opening of the Burchfield-Penney Art Center. In the middle of a terrible economy, in an already economically depressed community, Buffalonians managed to get a brand new, state-of-the art, museum built.  This is an accomplishment that really really needs to be celebrated.  The museum is opening today, AND it’s going to be open ALL NIGHT. That means, that you can go out, do whatever, and check out the museum at FOUR IN THE MORNING AFTER YOU GO TO JIM’S FOR A CHICKEN FINGER SUB!  I’m SO there.  I really encourage everyone to check out the Burchfield-Penney Art Center tonight.

I love Buffalo sports, but sports are not all we’ve got around here.  When sports are getting you down, try something else!

Let’s Go Buff-a-lo!

Home Again

I’m home from band camp.

While I was away in the wilderness whining about the overabundance of nature (but secretly having a grand old time), my computer died. It died to the point that a certified Apple dealership declared the motherboard (whatever that is) dead and gone. It was a sad, sad time.

So today, after a day spent listened to a looooong concert and then driving the six hours home, I just rolled back into town. (I’m tired and covered in bug bites, if you must know.) For some reason, despite all logic and reason, I decide that I should just check to make sure my computer didn’t magically come back to life during the trip home.

Guess what? It did! My computer came back to life! Upon arrival in Buffalo, my previously unresponsive computer was all, “Oh. Hello there, Kate.” I guess it was just mostly dead.

Coming back to Buffalo after a trip away feels like coming home. That may seem obvious to a lot of you, but frankly, it took me a long time to feel this way about Buffalo. Over the last year and a half I’ve enjoyed reveling in that happy feeling of “Yay! I’m hoooooome” after being away.

I guess my computer feels the same way. Me and my retarded computer….we’re Buffalonians. Out in the wild we get testy.

_______

(Hey, doesn’t NHL free agency start, like, thirty seconds from now? What’s going on with that, anyway? Is Marion Hossa a Sabre yet? Heh. I’ll try to write about hockey again soon. Sorry about all this band camp and computer talk.)