Morning baseball? It must be Patriot's Day

It's that time of year again. People are running all over the city and Fenway is filling up at 10 in the morning. Even though it's not a holiday here in Chicago, it's still a holiday to me. Wisconsin jumped on the bandwagon in 2001, but for the most part Patriot's Day belongs to New England. Actually just Maine and Massachusetts, but Connecticut is just New Yorkers who don't live there, and we won't even go into New Hampshire and Rhode Islandahs.

For as long as I can remember, the 3rd Monday in April meant no school or work and Red Sox baseball at 11:05. The last year I lived in Boston, my boss wanted to know why I was still there at 9:30 in the morning. I took that as a sign that it was time to meet my good friend S at Fenway and grab some scalped tickets. Since they were playing the Yankees, they weren't cheap. This is the first time I'll miss the marathon since I was protecting this great nation by doing my duty. Oh yeah...there's also a little road race on Monday too.

I guess I can pretend I'm there by drinking at 11 and watching the marathon on TV. I just don't think it will be the same. I'll just have to ride 26.2 miles in honor of Paul Revere making his ride.