Hometown Pride

During the trip to Florida for my uncle's funeral I realized something, albeit for the second time: My family (for the most part) loves and is loyal to our hometown sports teams. My uncle had all kinds of Phillies and Eagles paraphernalia around his house. It made me feel all warm inside to know I was a part of this legacy of fans.


What's funny is that I'm not actually from Philly. So how did this happen? My dad was born in Chester. My mom's grandparents lived in a Philly suburb. We actually grew up in South Jersey, about 30 minutes outside of Philly.  Very few of us are left in the hometown vicinity anymore. So now there are Philadelphia fans in Florida, DC, Kentucky, California, Chicago, North Carolina and beyond.

I think we were forced to claim Philly because the Philadelphia area is so small and includes New Jersey and Delaware in it's radius. There are no sports teams in South Jersey and North Jersey (home of the Nets, Devils, Giants & Jets - yeah, I said it!) is just too far away to attend games regularly. They also don't show those games in our viewing area (proving that NJ is actually two different states in one).

I was a team hopper throughout middle and high school. I was a fan of the Bulls, Cowboys, Raiders, Dodgers, and White Sox at one point or another. It wasn't until the Eagles drafted Donovan McNabb that I became a fan of Philadelphia again. One of my friends went to Syracuse and played with McNabb so I felt that was good enough to get my attention. And it's been a ride-or-die relationship ever since. About that same time I decided I was going to support all Philly teams. Allen Iverson was just blowing up with the Sixers so it seemed perfect to me.

Philly teams take a lot of flack for sucking. The Phillies actually became the losingest team in sports history in 2007 by accumulating 10,000 losses. And yet, Philadelphia is the only North American city in which all of its teams (Eagles, Phillies, Flyers and 76ers) from the four major sports leagues have played for their respective championships in one year, 1980. Only the Phillies actually won, though. Thankfully, the Phillies won again in 2008 and returned in 2009 to try for the repeat. Both the Eagles and Sixers have flirted with the championship over the past 11 years.  Yet, no matter how often they get my hopes up, only to dash them in the playoffs, I will always bleed Eagle green.

Bish I will cut you!

I've never been in a physical fight before. I've been pushed, and grabbed up by both arms, even wrestled a bit, but never have hit someone or been hit. I'm afraid of pain. I quit playing softball in high school because they were pitching too fast and I didn't want to risk getting hit with the ball. I played defense in soccer because I was too afraid to play against the other teams' defenses and be slide tackled. I don't like pain. I'm a wuss. I've got no problems admitting that. My weapons of choice are usually logic and sarcasm. But mess with my family and apparently I will snap.

Tonight my family was verbally assaulted by a bitter crackhead (not exaggerating at all) and I have never been closer to throwing a punch. In my family, I have always considered myself a few levels above the rest of my bloodline. I graduated high school (most of them got GED's), I am in college, I've never done drugs and I've never been to jail. I can also handle my liquor and keep my cursing to a minimum. So after my cousin ushered my rowdy aunts in the house to keep ish from going down tonight, no one was more surprised than me when I jumped up and ran out the door after the woman maliciously berating my family.

I was calling the police when a family friend knocked on the door to come inside. As I was closing the door behind him, I heard this bish say something absolutely horrendous about MY mother, who wasn't even there to defend herself. Next thing I know, I'm outside in her face with the cops on the phone. As she continued to spew her hate on us, I continued to talk to the cops, fearing that if I hit her they would hear it and I'd be catching a charge. I swear to God that it was only His grace that kept me. After she finally drove off (before the cops came of course) I was shaking with adrenaline. My mom called to find out what was happening and I tried not to cry. Then the cops arrived and gave us a hearty *Kanye shrug* while telling us that there was nothing they could do.

After it was all over, I couldn't hold it in any more. The tears fell as I was overcome with emotion. I couldn't believe that someone actually provoked me to want to punch stomp cut do some bodily harm to them. Nor could I believe that I jumped so quickly to the defense of my family. I normally sit back and poke fun at how trifling they act at times. No one else can talk bad about them but me though. That may not make sense, but no one else has been there through the good times and bad like I have. Nobody else has earned the right to drop a negative opinion on things they weren't around to witness. This is MY family, bish, I WILL cut you!! (I say that in jest, I do not own any weapons LOL.)

My family is crazy. But they are mine. We love each other. And nothing will ever change that.

RIP Uncle John

Have Love, Will Travel...

In yesterday's blog, I looked at how it's a small world here in Delaware because no one seems to leave home. It plagues me that with so much in the world to see, folk would rather keep it local. Delaware is a nice place to live, no doubt, but if I had to choose between living it up here (eating/drinking out, shopping, movies, etc.) and traveling elsewhere, I'd choose the latter every time. I'm a travel junkie. I love the excitement of planning a trip and the anticipation of that day arriving. I enjoy learning the roads or the public transportation routes to get me where I'm trying to go. If I could travel somewhere every month I would be complete!

I traveled a lot this year. Like a LOT. Semi-locally I went to Lancaster and Philly in PA; and Somerset, Hackettstown (pic at right is the road to Hackettstown), Princeton, Lindenwold and Atlantic City in NJ. Those were day trips and were relatively cheap. To get there I either borrowed or rented a car (which required gas & toll money) and had a meal with my sister or friends. Total cost ran between $30 and $100 for each of these travels. That is well worth it to spend time with people that I love.

This was the year of big trips though. I can't remember the last time I flew so often. In May I went to St. Pete, FL with my family for a long Memorial Day weekend (as I mentioned in a previous post). We stayed on the beach, visited with gramma (pic on left) and had a "funeral" for our family dog. I also tossed in a short road trip to have lunch with my friend Stephanie in Orlando at Downtown Disney while I was down there. I believe my mom paid for everything for this trip so my costs were minimal.

In August, I went on a "business trip" to Houston with my boyfriend at the time. He paid for all my expenses to drive his truck home to Philly. I spent the night in Knoxville, TN so that was nice. Later that month I took the train to Alexandria, VA to visit my cousin Johnny for his birthday. My gramma and uncle were flying up as well so it was a nice family weekend. We went to Mt. Vernon which was really interesting (pic on right). I had never met Johnny's wife and kids so I thought it was worth the venture. All I paid for was my train ticket, which was about $100.

My dad's birthday was in September, so I flew to Chicago to spend a long weekend with him, his girlfriend, and my brothers. It was a last minute trip and I hadn't alerted my dad before hand so we didn't do much. He and his gf are fabulous hosts and cooked an amazing dinner on his birthday. My brother and I ventured downtown (pic on left), went to the park, and did some shopping. This trip was almost the most expensive since I paid for everything. I'd say I spent $400.

This next trip was so exciting and so necessary. In October, I decided to fly down to Texas to meet this man from Twitter that I felt was fulfilling all my requirements. This was a great trip because it was action packed. There was so much going on that weekend. We stayed in a really nice hotel (see pic) that was right across from the infamous Alamo. We went to a Spurs game on Halloween and watched my Eagles slaughter the Giants. I had never been to San Antonio and I was greatly impressed by the RiverWalk. I even did some sight-seeing on my own before I left and felt so comfortable walking the streets. Best trip of the year, hands down. I paid for my flight and my cab to the airport so it cost me about $275.

The longest trip of the year was for Thanksgiving. My uncle invited us all to his house in the mountains to celebrate gramma's 75th birthday and turkey day. With mom covering our hotel room, I rented a car (the retarded firetruck) and drove down with my brother. After four+ days in Maggie Valley, NC, my brothers, Crystal and I traveled down to Atlanta for the weekend. We made a stop near Greenville, SC to have lunch with one of my best girlfriends. While in Atlanta I was introduced to being a couchsurfer. Football is important to us all so we went to the Fox Sports Grill (at the advice of my friends on Twitter) to watch the early games. On Monday we went to the largest Aquarium in the world where I stood in awe at the big tank before we headed home. Road trips are always fun but the drive home to NJ then DE was a long one. This trip cost me a pretty penny at about $350.

My last trip was actually a visit from my Texas man. While he was here in December, we went to a Sixers game to see Iverson back in his Philly uniform (see him shooting a FT in pic on right). We also went to Atlantic City to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday. We partied it up at the Tropicana and the Borgata. It was a short weekend, but we had a blast. I paid for the rental car (gas) and breakfast, so this was a cheap trip for me at $150.

Here's the kicker. Most folk won't travel like I do because it costs money. I might have spent about $1700+ all year taking these trips. That might seem a lot to some people, but to me it is a great investment in the relationships I cherish. And I did all this on a minimal income. I'm a student. I haven't worked full time in almost a year. Yes, some of my trips to see family were partially paid for by my mom, but the major ones were not.

I mentioned at the start of this blog that I would rather travel than spend money enjoying life where I live. Think about it. How much do you spend a year locally eating out, going to the movies/clubs/bars, shopping, etc? I hardly ever go out locally. I treat myself from time to time, but most folk go out every weekend. I live in Delaware by myself (no family or close friends nearby). So in order to maintain my relationships, I must travel. It's so worth it.

The Evolution of Siblings

I am the oldest of the three Sainson kids. My younger brothers have been like my kids at times. I definitely spent a lot of time taking care of them as we were growing up in a divorced home. Chad is only 16 months younger than me, while Trun is 4 years my junior. Growing up, we spent hours playing with our mutual friends and roaming the streets of our hometown. We played years of Little League together. We also shared a love of music: Chad sang with me on the high school choir while he and Trun later formed a rock band. Needless to say we were very close and very much alike.

Immediately after high school (1996) I moved away to Delaware and got married a couple years later (1999), so we lost touch. We saw each other randomly over the years, but not enough to remain close. In the summer of 2006, I left my husband and retreated to Florida where my mom and brothers were living. We were practically strangers at this point. They had no idea what I had been dealing with in my marriage. I had no clue what was going on in their lives either. We spent that summer getting to know one another again. We had our portraits done. We watched several great boxing matches. We had family dinners with mom. They introduced me to "The Dave Chappelle Show". We spent hours talking about our lives and beliefs, arguing like only Sainsons can. It was an awesome reunion.
Since then we have spent a lot more time together, though they went on a tour of America while I moved back to New Jersey. Within a year, Chad came and lived with me. For four months we shared some of the highest highs and lowest lows. We struggled together and we laughed together. But that came to an end when he decided to move to California with Trun. Then they traveled some more , visiting me in NJ, and eventually landed in Chicago with our dad. I went to visit them twice. We all flew to Florida for Memorial Day weekend. We also took a road trip for Thanksgiving to NC and Atlanta for a week. Now Trun is off traveling the world with his girlfriend and Chad is headed back to Florida. He and I spent the last few days together at my place in Delaware watching sports and having more laughs, which prompted me to write this.

I couldn't even begin to recount the stories of our adventures together over the last 3+ years. All I can say is that we laugh until there is no noise coming from our mouths and tears are streaming down my face. We argue til everyone's feelings are hurt. Yet we support and look out for each other to no end. I am so glad that I am not an only child. I can't imagine not having them in my life. Our parents may not have been able to stay together, but there is nothing that could keep us apart. I eagerly await the day we start reproducing mini versions of ourselves.