All right, I'll be the first to concede that the subject of this diary is a bit, shall we say, rudimentary.  But there is a point to it and it goes deeper than just Blanton facing off with Bedard.

You see, this is my first weekend as a Bay Area resident.  I moved down to Oakland last Sunday, after spending the past year (my first year out of college) back in my hometown of Arcata.  I still have no idea what I'm going to be doing in terms of a job or where I can find some good falafel, but the important thing is that I'm here and here I will stay.

Perhaps most importantly, I now have a chance to put my money where my mouth has long been and that's become the die-hard A's partisan that I should be.  Don't get me wrong, I've loved this team for a long time (for nineteen years, since I was a lad of six to be exact), but I've never had the chance to be an A's regular.  I would come down and go to a few games as a kid, but in the end, of course, my brother, my folks, and I would have to pack up and head home.

Now, though, I'm in it for the long haul.  Yeah, this season looks lost and yeah, it sucked to lose nine in a row, but dammit I'm just glad that I'll have a chance to be there from here on out.  So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I look forward to seeing the guys in person on a consistent basis.  And just as importantly, I hope that in doing so, I get to know more of you (Poppy, monkeyball, Bobby Crosby's Girl, etc) on a closer level.

So, um, there's that.  Anybody going to be there tonight?