Rangers!

As I'm sitting here watching the World Series I wanted to tell the story of why I love the Texas Rangers so much. When I was in 8th grade, my mom's friend, who is also my cousins aunt (just go with it) asked me if I wanted to go to Ft. Worth with her and help with a birthday party.  Royalin, who has always been a dear family friend, always put on the best birthday parties for her family. She has two sons and I always helped with their over the top birthday parties. Her sister Deanna lived in Ft. Worth and twice a year I would venture there to help with her daughters birthday parties.  These entailed months of planning, weeks of preperation and always a day before all nighter.  Every birthday had a theme, which included Little Mermaid, Star Trek,  Beauty and the Beast, firefighter, farm, Ninja Turtles etc.  And each one was absolute over the top, yet so fun and memorable.  I remember dressing up as Simba, a flight attendant, a clown, and a vulcan.  I remember staying up all night to finish making the Beauty and the Beast village out of cardboard boxes, paper machaeing a giant cow, and painting the house grey so it looked like a sewer for the ninja turtle party. But the most memorable party was the 101 Dalmation party.

     Deana was contacted by a friend to help with a large kid birthday party.  She obliged to do so and got Royalin and I involved.  I was so excited because the party was for the son of Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez son Derek.  I don't remember much of the party preparation, but I do remember making a load of dog bone cookies and croissant dog bones.   I also don't remember much about the party itself, but I do remember having the absolute best job.  I was in charge of going in and out of the house to get things from the kitchen, like utensils and ice and refilling the punch bowl. This was so awesome because thats were all the guys were hanging out.  And when I say guys, I mean super stars!  Not only was I in the midst of a 3 time Golden glove winner, Pudge himself, I also rubbed shoulders with Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzales and Mario Diaz. (Okay, not exactly rubbing shoulders. The people that really know me, know that I was a shorty until I was a senior in high school.)  They all said hi to me and were very nice.  They had a game that evening and they were eating beans and rice and watching a game in the next room.  I remember thinking it was odd that they were eating beans before a game, because I know that would've been a bad idea for me.  What I remember most was admiring all the awards that were hanging in the hallway and thinking about how normal these guys seemed to be.

     Ever since then I have absolutely been a Rangers fan. Im also a Yankees fan and I know a lot of you will be hating on me for that, but its always Rangers first. I was totally obsessed with Pudge Rodriguez after that.  I used to cut out newspaper slippings of him and save them in a scrapbook. I still have his bobble head on my nightstand next to my bed. I have a collectors baseball card with part of his jersey on it.  I kept up with his career when he moved to Detroit, and then to the Yankees. And was so happy when he came back to the Rangers to close it out.  I was in the Rangers parking lot tailgaiting before the OU / BYU game at Texas stadium a couple of years ago and in my tailgaiting stupor (some of yall know what I mean) tried to bribe a Rangers maintenance guy on a golf cart to go get Pudge for me. (No there wasn't a game that day but I was feeling really hopeful that he was just hanging out in the stadium for no reason.)

    So Im sitting here watching Game 1 of the World Series with the Rangers vs Cardinals, yelling at the TV.  The Rangers are down 1 run at the bottom of the 8th with a Cards runner on 3rd with 2 outs.  And I'm loving every minute of it because baseball has always made me happy ever since I was a little girl.