Surfing the Bleed On Vacation - Boston

DAY 1

This past Christmas, I purchased my father and I two tickets to see the Boston Red Sox play the Baltimore Orioles in historic Fenway Park. The purchase was made on a whim, but what a glorious whim. I'd just started working at my current job (after nearly a year of unemployment) and I had money in my bank account for the first time in a long time. I was tired of the typical "here's a CD you'll like, here's some awesome movie" gifts I usually get my dad, so I decided to go bigger.

My pops and I have been talking for years about taking a trip to the great East Coast ball clubs. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to do it before the original Yankee Stadium closed down. The trip would have consisted of Baltimore's Camden Yards, New York's Yankee Stadium and (this Sawks fan's personal favorite) Boston's Fenway Park. We may still do it someday (though I don't care much about the new Yankee Stadium), but I got tired of waiting on Fenway.

I've been a Red Sox fan since I was a kid, which wasn't easy growing up in Tennessee because I never got to see any of the games. My pops taught me a lot about old baseball when I was a kid and I just decided that I liked the Red Sox best of all, probably, honestly, because they had a superstar with the same last name as me. I decided this was the year we would do it, the year I'd finally get to see Fenway, so I pulled the trigger and got it done. Now, pops, mom, the wife and I are all in Beantown. The game's on Saturday, but that doesn't mean we're sitting around on our hands until then.

Yesterday we had a couple of great pizzas from Regina Pizzeria, did some hoofing around the Italian area of town, had some Boston Cream from Mike's Pastry, then headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Well, dad and I did at least. Mom and the wife got stuck in a genuine all-of-a-sudden-man-this-must-happen-all-the-time Boston thunderstorm. After resting and drying were achieved, we went our separate ways. Mom and Dad to do whatever and Agnes and I to hop a train and go see my friend Ming Doyle, who you may remember from such work as Jennifer's Body, Girl Comics, and of course, The Surfing the Bleed Interview.

Ming and her lovely assistant (read boyfriend) Neil Cicierega met us down in the Newbury St. area of town and took us to a great light dinner at Trident Booksellers & Cafe, a simple bistro located inside an independent bookseller. At dinner we talked about comics (of course), being a You Tube superstar, spider bites and various other topics of interest. Afterward we took a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood and stopped to pose for one Facebook-pose photo which unfortunately has yet to be uploaded to the computer. But there are pictures coming, I assure you!

It was during this leisurely stroll that I got my first glimpse of Fenway Park. I have to admit to you that I had to pause and collect myself for fear that I would shed a tear for the legacy of Red Sox Nation right there in front of my friends. And as Tom Hanks so famously iterated, "There's no crying in baseball."



After we split up with Ming and Neil, we came back to the hotel for a much needed night of good sleep. Well, Agnes slept, I watched ESPN for two hours then did the same. Sorry this post wasn't much about comic books, but I've decided of late that this blog is about my life, not just comic books. Comics is a huge part of my life and will remain the focus, but I'm more than just a collection of glossy covers and paneled pages. After all, in the immortal words of Mike Gundy, "I'm a man! I'm 40!"



Well, 29.

GB Williams out.