RED RAIN IS FALLING DOWN!

so i'm walking down YAWKEY WAY, headed to GATE C and i am taking it all in. the sights (old, fat men wearing jerseys), the sounds (street vendors yelling in my ear asking me what i want) and the smells (the mix between sewage, sweat and a braut with mustard)... I'M ON MY WAY TO A RED SOX GAME! and i couldn't be happier.

i meet mary and her dad and we proceed through the gate to the FOOD... one foot long and a diet coke please! i'm ready for the game! i find my seat and begin SCHNARFFING my hot dog... i skipped lunch today because i was way too busy.

and then... the rain.

at first it wasn't too bad... just a light sprinkling... and i'm not squeamish about the rain... so i continue to enjoy my dawg. then, it gets heavier and now people are squirming like ants back down to the cave of dryness. mar and her dad head for the john hancock sign and find cover with about 30 other people. just as i am finishing dinner, the clouds decide to part like the red sea and take us all for a swim! down-pour like i have never seen in my life.

for a while our little 30-something group is rather enjoying the rain, laughing like little kids running through the sprinklers, but then the lightening came and it was no longer safe to stay in our little hide-away. i look over and see a guy who had dyed his hair red for the occasion, go from looking like a die-hard to night of the living dead and i realize just how dumb it is that we waited as long as we did before seeking cover! so with a little encouragement from the announcer, we all made our way to safety... with about 800,000 other people... that were dry... remember they were smart and got out BEFORE they were sopping wet!

and there we stayed for 90 minutes. then the rain stopped. lots of cheering. and we're headed back up to root, root, root for the home team!

the loud speakers were blaring one of my all-time favorite hits...

YOU'RE THE BEST AROUND (karate chop to the right)
NOTHIN'S EVER GONNA BRING YOU DOWN (yell out... "get him a body bag!")

okay... so we're still wet, the game has been delayed by 2 hours and we have to get up early the next morning so we can take john (mary's dad) up to maine for the bluegrass festival.

we stayed til the 5th inning... much to my disappointment...

7th inning stretch we all sing: "take me out to the ball game"
and bottom of the 8th it's: "sweet caroline... good times never seemed so good... SO GOOD, SO GOOD, SO GOOD!"
those are the best parts of fenway... and we missed them.

but i guess it's just as well... the sox lost miserably to the angels! but we still had a good time while we were there. cheering for big papi, ramirez... yelling out YOU and seeing the surprised look on the lady in front of us (who was from TX) who thought we were booing our own team... and giving CABRERRA a standing ovation... we miss you! oh and seeing just how excited we all get when we start the WAVE and it finally makes it all the way around the stadium... it just doesn't get much better than that!

I LOVE FENWAY... I LOVE THE SOX... I LOVE LIVING IN NEW ENGLAND!