Pudge Rodriguez has captured my heart

Oh, what a night at Busch Stadium. Many revelations and truths became apparent tonight. And before you ask, no I have not been drinking. I may be a bit slap happy and sleep deprived but I have not had one drop of alcohol. Or any sedatives, opiates or amphetamines of any kind. Promise.

I'm pretty sure I only followed about five minutes of the game tonight. Pretty sad since I was there and all. But having a short attention span will do that. Sure, I scoreboard watched to see what my precious Cubbies were doing (what they were doing is apparently continuing to prove that for whatever reason, they cannot beat the Marlins. It's like one of those Unsolved Mysteries. No one knows why it's happening, it just is.), but that's about it. Yes, I paid attention when hottie du jour Mark DeRosa batted and got scared when they flashed Rick "Amber Alert" Ankiel's pic on the jumbotron,but other than that, I didn't really pay attention.

What I DID do is wear my fairly inappropriate Mark DeRosa shirt out in public. Yes.That.Just.Happened. Erin wore hers too, you know, the shirts that say "I want to get to second base with Mark DeRosa". Pics coming soon. Promise.

I swear I haven't been drinking.

So what revelations and truths did I discover tonight? Well, I learned that St. Louis Cardinal fans, much like children on the Autism spectrum, like bright, shiny things. Case in point-there was some concert downtown this evening (Live on the Levy-catchy, huh?) and at approximately 9:30pm CST, they began shooting fireworks off the levy. This is when I saw approximately 40,000 heads turn to look at the bright shiny light in the sky...and ooooo and ahhhh and then start clapping. What IS it with this city and fireworks? I mean, seriously?

The title stems from me and Erin's sudden fascination with Pudge. I mean, maybe I was getting some sort of altitude sickness from being so high up (section 435 baby-holla!), I don't know, but somehow in the course of the evening, I developed a liking for Pudge. It may have been when he tagged some douchebag Cardinal out at the plate, or when he got a big hit to score a run, or maybe it's the fact that he used to actually be pudgy but really isn't anymore. Anyhoo, one of us (who actually said it Ern? Was it me or you? I already don't remember.....) said "Pudge Rodriguez has captured my heart" and I swear to God, I laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. I'm still feeling giggly just thinking about it.

So, approximately one third of my hometown (Salem, MO what up????) was at the game tonight. Seems the Salem Upper Elementary honors choir was selected to sing the National Anthem at tonights game, and along with that, the fine folks of Salem got 1,200 tickets. I spotted the Salem clan immediately as they were about two sections away from us....and all.wearing.matching.blue.shirts. Adorable, huh? I'm ashamed to admit I actually missed the kids performance (damn Metro Link), but I did snap a pic of the Salem crowd and saw a few people I knew (most of the Salemites, sadly, I did not know. Guess that's what happens when you haven't lived in a place since 1998).

Speaking of people I knew, there was a large UBH group there, our Appeals Department, in an effort to team build, all went to the game together. Isn't that sweet? Erin and I met up with a couple of the girls and chatted it up.....then I started getting text messages from my friend Lori who was in the really good seats. Seems she saw on my Facebook status that I was at the game and was trying to find out where I was (my seats are nearly in Illinois they're so far away). Then...several minutes later, I get a text from Lori's hubby Mike asking me if I'm at the game....I was like "uh, yea, your wife just texted me, didn't she tell you?". No, no she did not.Seems the Luetkenhaus hubby and wife team were sitting in different sections. Interesting. Anyway, Mike told me I was dirty for my inappropriate Mark DeRosa shirt, and then proceeded to tell me that he's a Pujols man because he likes his men Dominican.....can't argue with that one. Oh, ha, and my friend Lori texted me when DeRosa hit his homerun: "there's your man, guess you got to more than second base!". Nice.

Alright, enough rambling for one night. May sweet dreams of Pudge Rodriguez dance in your heads. And may the Cubs effin win tomorrow. I don't want to have to drive to Miami and kick someone's ass. I'm not above it, I just don't want to have to do it.....you hear me Mike Fontenot?