It's Post 107!!!

It's the best number ever...

Playing Catchup - The MLS Rally last Saturday was truly inspiring, and I've captured some videos from the event, and some pictures as well. The pictures are not only from the rally, but some of the sign work from Friday night. I loved being a part of something that contained so much energy, so much passion, and it was all home grown support from our group. We did have some cameras about, and a few bloggers that followed us along, but the atmosphere was all ours. There was no sponsorship from the team, it was all us. And while it didn't matter that it was a Saturday and the City Council wasn't around, it was still over 300 voices meeting at a place, sharing their dreams, and making a statement. Democracy may have its faults, but when it is at its purest form like this, it's truly moving.

Since then - The task force to study the MLS proposal voted 18 to 0 to pass the measure, with some stipulation about the positive recommendation. There are 11 things that the task force wants considered, but the task force was unanimous in supporting this initiative. The City Council will be talking about the issue next Wednesday, and putting it up for a vote to support the continuing of the plan.

The past week has been spent sending letters and emails to various city councilors, reading various blog posts and commenting, and putting together information to support the positive position on MLS. It hasn't been without challenges, because every article is met with comments to the negatives, matching my last blog post. I get the people being scared, but at the same time, it's a matter of deciding to do something because doing nothing makes no sense, or doing nothing hoping things will get better. I think the proactive approach is a better plan, and I'm not alone. But with the positive voices come the negative ones, backed with whatever facts they've managed to piece meal together to support their point.

Although if you read today's paper, it appears there are some snags in the process. This isn't unusual for something with this much money being thrown about in a situation like what we are experiencing right now. We've all tried to buy a car and walked away, or went to the store and they didn't have what we were looking for, so you left, and I view this simply as part of the negotiation process. I think everyone understands the stakes here, and why it's important to keep talking or walk away and take a moment to look at things with a new perspective. In my own experience, girl and I went car shopping after her Taurus started having issues. We spent a couple of hours at a Subaru dealership close into town, looking at another Taurus, and we had a great test drive. The negotiations came up, and the game changed, as girl and I really didn't want to over pay for the car, so we left. A few days later, we went to Tonkin on 122nd, and while they didn't have the car we wanted anymore, we found another deal that turned out to be the Row N mobile. Sometimes, part of the negotiations is knowing the strategy and doing the best ploy. We'll know more on Wednesday.

Midweek Distraction - I was able to get to the Trail Blazers game on Wednesday versus Indiana, which was a pure nail biting experience, as we almost gave away the game to the Pacers, and let their guards to the rim all night. In the end, it was too much Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge and we pulled out a two point win.

While the game was fun there, it was also good because my bowling team, the Gutter Punks, were there because of winning some game tickets during our league bowling. We've been bowling on Tuesdays in the Big Turkey Bowling league for years, and while we've come in second place once and third place overall twice, we mostly bowl for the prizes, drinks and bonding with friends. Our team has changed a bit over the years, from the days when S3K bowled since the beginnings, and I bowled with the old Bourbon Crew. Girl was an original Gutter Punk, who was then joined by graceless, KC, and S3K when the teams combined. Hornman came along later, and then we got NickyD, and we were set. Fenrus joined us after a while, and we had our 8, and while we miss KC terribly, we know she's happy in Pittsburgh, and still keeping tabs on us. Hornman's honey finally joined us this season, and so we're back to 8 again. While we are taking a slight break from bowling, we still hang out all the time because we enjoy each other's friendship. I've never met such a great group of people, and I'm proud to call them my friends. So being able to hang out with them and catch a game was truly fun.

You can check out the pics, and I can at least say that I finally got to make a free throw, so I'm officially 1 for 5 in free throw shooting at the Garden. Well, and considering that of our Underdog group of shooters, there was only 3 free throws made all night, I was in select company. But it was also what I needed, because with everything going on right now, it's just nice to be with people that care about you and you want to be around.