Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Getting to know the girl

So, like my profile says, I'm mostly doing this as a favor to my boyfriend who happens to be the originator of this blog. But, that's not the only reason I'm here either. I also happen to really love sports, or at least I thought I loved sports before I started dating Corey. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with sports thanks to his unending obsession with all things sports.

To explain this love/hate relationship of sports I have to start with my childhood. As a child who grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, I always had an affinity for sports and just hanging out with the guys. As soon as I realized I could get away with being aggressive and hitting people as long as it was within the context of some sport/game, I knew that sports were the thing for me. I decided early that it was also much easier to be friends with guys than girls...they cared about things like makeup (which sounded like a lot of work) and boys (but not just to chase around the playground or throw to the ground as I tackled them). Guys were so simple, as long as you didn't cheat or hurt their pride too much, they were easy friends.

After playing a variety of sports with the neighborhood boys, I joined softball and found my calling. While I really wanted to play hockey, my parents thought it was too expensive and dangerous, so I threw myself into softball and pitching. Over the course of middle school and high school, I really found a love for the game and worked hard to become the best pitcher on my team. My hard work paid off; not only was I the only pitcher who stuck it out, but my senior year of high school we made it to the State Championship (after not even making it to State any of my other high school years). We may have lost, but it was victory enough to have made it that far.

After high school, I decided that while I loved softball, my education was more important (especially since the professional softball league had not really started yet), so I pursued a great education at a Division III school in St. Paul. Macalester College became my new home. Here I found many new forms of adversity (which I will explicate at some other time) in my softball career. But I kept pitching. Now I am a senior in my last semester at Macalester, still pitching and also playing first base (much to my surprise, especially since it was one of the only positions I had not previously played in high school). While the team has not had the best record (read: the last two years we won a combined 6 games....), I have had a great time with the girls and enjoyed the opportunity to play ball for four more years.

More about me: I am also a soon-to-graduate senior at Macalester College. I am majoring in Political Science with minors in Legal Studies, History, and Philosophy. Basically, I'm Pre-Law and ready to argue with anyone who gets in my way...umps, batters who crowd the plate, White Sox pitchers, etc. I plan to graduate in May (about 45 days left!!!!!!!) and then take a year off from school because I am burnt out!!! During this time I hope to prep for the LSAT, take the LSAT, apply to law schools, and do some sort of law-related job/internship (something that pays! If you know of anything, let me know!) After my year off, which I hope will be relaxing and fun-though, it already looks full-I will hopefully be attending the University of Chicago Law School...or Harvard Law, whichever looks better at the time. My hope is that law school will prepare me for, and help me obtain, a job working in NYC as a criminal prosecutor, preferably in the Sex Crimes Unit.

But enough of that depressing stuff and back to the love/hate relationship I have with sports. From everything I've written, I'm sure most of you are wondering where this hate could possibly come from. Well, about a year and a half ago, I started dating Corey. Now you may still be wondering how dating such an amazing (sarcasm??? you decide...) guy could possibly cause me to hate the wonderful world of sports (sorry Disney for the ripoff). The problem is, Corey, as you may have figured out from the fact that he's starting this blog in the first place, is a sports addict. He is more than just a fan, he is a fanatic. In fact, sports are such a big part of his life that we once broke up for about an hour because he was upset about the way a football game ended (if you're interested, that can be another post for another day). Corey is so obsessed with sports that I have become jealous of all the time and energy he puts into watching, reading, talking, thinking, blogging, and living sports. I feel like I'm the uninvited third wheel at times when he is watching his favorite teams play. That is part of why I agreed to do this blog, so that I could include myself in one other aspect of his sports obsession and make sure I stay a part of his (sports) life. I mean, I'm interested in sports, but what woman can stand up to sports. I know there are thousands, maybe millions, of other women out there who feel my pain. It's hard playing second fiddle to something that, while enjoyable, seems so trivial when compared to actual human interaction. If Corey heard me say that he would scoff at, and maybe even scold, me. I just don't get the obsession. Yes, sports are a great release; a wonderful thing to spend time doing; a great way to bond with people you might not otherwise talk to; an excuse to get aggressive and downright mean; but are they really worth all this fuss?

My blog will, hopefully, offer some balance between the obsessive qualities that I'm sure the other male writers will have. I hope to entertain and also maybe inform some of you clueless men about how to get your girls interested in your sport of choice. Most of all, I hope to please my boyfriend so that he will continue to pay attention to me and give me back rubs and things like that. If you have any suggestions for content or just comments on the blog, feel free to post your thoughts or write me an email.

Thanks for reading such a long-winded blog. You can look forward to many more like it. <3

8 comments:

Corey Ettinger said...

I really love what you did with your page!

Anonymous said...

I shall be amused and interested by your point of view. Being single and reading as you speak for womankind, your attitude towards men who enjoy sports will inevitably be the deciding factor of whether I shall ever love a woman... or if a woman shall ever love me.

Kristen Mainz said...

Joey, there is hope for you. If I can put up with Corey (and inversely, if he can put up with me) there is hope for EVERYONE! But I know many women who thoroughly enjoy sports, and I am one of them. You just have to be careful, because depending on the level of your love for sports, she may get jealous of the sports.

Corey Ettinger said...

She's always asking me if I'm having an affair with Jason Bartlet...

Kristen Mainz said...

I just want to know if you're having an affair with him so that I know if it's ok to start my affair with Joe Mauer. You must understand that. If you get to have one, I get to have someone to (a really hot, talented, and nice someone)...

Corey Ettinger said...

Are you saying Jason's not hot, talented, or nice? Because I'll tell him you said so.

Kristen Mainz said...

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. First, you already have dibs on him. Second, I have a crush on Joe, like every other red-blooded woman in the US, if not the world. Third, if Jason were up for it, I would totally have a threesome with the two of you, he's very good looking and if you're interested so am I!

Jason-You're awesome and I appreciate you, you may not be my first pick on the team, but I think you're used to that by now after being on the same team as Joe for awhile. And I like pitchers and catchers, I'm biased. Sorry. I <3 you though.

Mike Pahl said...

Awesome first post!