Sacrifices

"You're the cutest thing that I ever did seeee

I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree.

Lovey dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time.

C'mon baby, I'll sure show you a good tiiiime..."

I am one of those sentimental, superstitious, live-by-routine types, and it used to sort of get in my way. Now I've reigned it in somewhat so that it doesn't interfere with day-to-day things (I don't have to sleep in my Santa hat for the two weeks leading up to Christmas after all!), but I do still set invisible rules for myself. And I've been living in one of those big, personal rules for the last few months - since November 2nd, to be exact. It doesn't interfere with anything I do, but it is a bit of a setback occasionally.

On November 2nd the San Francisco Giants won the world series (I'm still celebrating, in case you were wondering). And since I'm a lifelong Giants fan and overly superstitious, I made a promise with myself when the team began their post season run. I was listening to Steve Miller Band on my way home from work and I was thinking about how much I love his music, but also how much I love the Giants. So I promised myself that if my boys won the World Series I would give up listening to Stevie for one entire year. I didn't tell anybody this, I didn't promise anyone but myself, but somebody up there listened and the Giants won. So since November 2nd I haven't listened to Steve Miller (unless of course he plays on the radio, which is beyond my control, and thus not part of the pact).

I know it doesn't sound like much of a sacrifice, but I really do believe that it made a difference in the Giants' season. Not by itself of course, I wouldn't presume that much importance. But everyone I know had some sort of sacrifice like this during the season - some people never washed their jersey, some people placed a lucky Giants hat next to their TV, some people never left the room when the Giants were up in a game. It's one of those things where all of those thoughts and hopes and prayers get sent up and mingle together, and somehow they make a difference.

So for 10 more months I will not listen to Steve Miller's lovely music, which gets a little tough from time to time. But it's worth it. If you don't know much about the Giants season, go learn about it. It was amazing to live through and forever unforgettable. And every once in a while, whoever heard my promise helps me out and sends some Gangster of Love out on the radio to help me get through until the next Fall Classic.