The Autumn of Jim

I never use the word autumn, but I couldn't call this "The Fall of Jim" for obvious reasons.  Today was like waking up on Christmas morning.  I'll get to that, but first, a recap of the summer.

This was my first summer not working since I was 15.  On the first day of camp, Bobby and I got breakfast at Tim's Shipwreck Diner in Northport, one of Brother Robert's favorites.  That was symbolic.  The first three weeks of summer were especially busy for me.  I saw baseball games in Houston, Seattle, and Atlanta.  Seattle easily took the crown for best retractable roof stadium in baseball.  The only one I haven't been to yet is SkyDome, and I'm pretty confident it won't beat Safeco Field.  My trip to Atlanta was a lot of fun.  The only other time I was there was in 2006 when Notre Dame opened the season against Georgia Tech.  It was good to see Dennis and we did a lot of fun stuff.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the summer was my week in England.  I had wanted to go for a long time and Pete's wedding was a great reason to go.  London was amazing.  The only thing I didn't like about London was the lack of American sports.  I enjoyed the history associated with London and Canterbury Cathedral.  Wimbledon was the first professional tennis that I had ever been to in person.  That was a lot of fun.  I thought about going to the US Open this year, but that didn't happen.  Maybe next year.  The only thing I didn't like about the trip was being out of the United States for the Fourth of July.  Hopefully that won't happen again.

After the first three weeks, I got a little bored.  I did have two more fun trips, Valley Forge-Philadelphia and the Halls of Fame.  But it was weird not having anything to do most of the time.  I slept late for a lot of the summer, which was nice.  I did more preparation for school than I've ever done before.  And I did a lot of exercise.  So I didn't waste my time, but it was weird.

It was really weird not being at camp this year.  My best friends from camp all left before I did, but I found myself missing a lot of people that were still there.  I went to two wing nights and it was good to see a lot people there.  But there were still some people that I didn't get to see (the under 21 crowd).  The day before I went to Philadelphia was the last day of camp.  I was leaving early in the morning so that I could get there early for Valley Forge.  My plan was to watch the Dodger game and then go to sleep early.  Then I got a text from Connor at 9:30 inviting me to a camp party.  I hadn't seen him in almost a full year, so I had to go.  I was much too old to be there, but it was good to see Connor, Rob, Mike, Tom, James, Miller, Rudy, etc. (sorry if I left anybody out).  So I got to see most of the people that I wanted to see.  I actually ran into a couple of my favorite campers the last couple of days.  One of my favorite campers of all time is working there now.  She sent me a message on facebook telling me that she was annoyed at me for not coming to visit.  I laughed because it reminded me of many conversations I had with her when I worked there.

I missed this kid.  He didn't post this picture on facebook because of the red eye, so I hope he doesn't mind.

Speaking of the Dodgers, they went into summer playing some bad baseball.  On my last day of work, they lost to put their record at 30-42.  Their record over the next 50 games was 42-8.  If they win at least one of the next two with the Padres, they will have lost only one series during my entire summer vacation.  It was looking like it would be a miserable season and then they turned into must watch nightly TV for me.

So that was my summer.  When I was younger, I hated fall.  Summer has always been my favorite season and I never wanted to go back to school.  Over the years, going back to school got easier and I realized just how good sports are in the fall.  You have September and October baseball and the start of football.  There's nothing not to like about that.  Right now the Dodgers have a 10.5 game lead in the NL West.  I can't stay up late all the time like I did over the summer, so hopefully they'll wrap up the division quickly.  My plan is to watch every Kershaw start for the rest of the season, even if it's a Monday game at 10:10.  But other than that, I'll watch on weekends and when they play early games.  Once the playoff start, I won't miss a game unless I'm traveling for football.  You never know what can happen in the playoffs, but I think this is the best Dodger team I've seen.  Their pitching with Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, and even Nolasco gives them a chance against anybody.  And I really like they way their lineup is constructed.  There are no easy outs (even their pitchers are the best hitting pitchers in the league).  They've got a chance this year.

Right now, we're just a few hours away from the start of Brian Kelly's fourth season at Notre Dame.  Baseball is my favorite sport, but the Notre Dame football team is the team I care about more than anybody else.  I mean, I lived with Notre Dame football legend Kyle Charters.  As much as I love Clayton Kershaw, I never lived with him.  Anyway, I got up early this morning and played basketball.  Now I have my Tommy Rees jersey on over the ND shirt that one of my favorite students gave me my first year teaching so I'm ready to go.  I doubt Kelly will be able to duplicate what he did last year, but I still think this should be a good season, probably the second best of his four at Notre Dame.

I'm going to four games this year.  At least that's the plan right now.  I'm going to Oklahoma, Arizona State, USC, and Navy.  I never expected to win the lottery for Oklahoma, but I did.  Arizona State in Jerry World should be fun.  I've never been to Dallas before and I get to hang out with Wilhelm.  I have to see us beat USC in person, just like I had to see us beat Michigan in person last year.  So I was going to that game even if I didn't win the lottery (it actually turned out to be not very hard to get a ticket anyway).  And I applied for Navy thinking that I'd lose in the lottery for Oklahoma and USC.  I have a place to stay with Jon in his last year of law school, so there's no reason not to go.  Of course, last year I never thought I'd end up going to the National Championship Game.  I don't expect to get back there this year, but if we do, I'll do whatever I can to get to Pasadena.

And that should be my fall.  I'm looking forward to teaching this year more than I've looked forward to any other year before.  I guess that's what smaller classes, teaching social studies two periods a day, and a good amount of preparation over the summer will do for me.  My travel plans aren't as exotic as they were over the summer, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Notre Dame football and some old college friends.  Hopefully I'll see some basketball and maybe hockey games over the winter and then I'll get back to crossing baseball stadiums off the list in the spring.

Go Dodgers!  Go Irish!