You guys know how busy I've been, right?
We just got done with a pretty big and very fast production filled with late nights and early mornings and casting and location scouting and shooting and that whole thing.
Always super fun, but the pressure was on.
We stayed at a hotel in Santa Monica.
And I wake up early - people in Chicago start sending emails at 9, which is 7 in CA.
So I need early coffee.
This place had room service, but room service coffee costs about the same as renting a car, so I always go down to find either free coffee or a machine or something.
I pack a Cubs hat for just this reason.
And throw on a t-shirt and jeans and hustle down long before the morning shower.
And the beauty of super early morning coffee is there's nobody around or if they are, they're like me: haul ass to coffee, haul ass back to the room.
This hotel has a little "nook" that was waay too brightly lit and it had a counter with magazines and papers and some bagels or whatever, and coffee.
So I walk in and hidden around a corner is a woman sipping coffee who's been up for hours and is already ready for whatever meeting she was going to.
Makeup, smart outfit, heels - the whole deal completely unnerving at this hour.
She says, "So tell me, how ARE the Cubs going to do this year?"
Accchhhhhh - my stupid Cubs hat has opened the door to conversation hell.
As she expectantly looks into my bloodshot eyes I think, "Well, the bullpen is going to be freaking AMAZING, which will be fantastic for young Andrew Cashner who better be starting and I'm so jazzed to root for although I fully expect him to run into all kinds of trouble and I'm super excited about new manager Mike Quade as he seems to have that early-in-his-Cub-tenure respect from the team even Big Z seems to be in some weird happy-dream state and there's some hope for the bats if the sophomore jinx doesn't sink in on Castro and Colvin but Geo Soto should do some excellent things and Marlon Byrd may or may not be a rock - we'll see - and Soriano maybe hits again? I really think I just like the team because they seem like good guys and that's half the summer's battle this year is just plain liking the Cubs again and maybe just maybe they'll surprise us all."
But out of my mouth comes this, "Well, they're the Cubs, so..."
I think I even eye-rolled.
What the hell, man?
Why am I participating in the perpetuation of the stereotypical perception that the Cubs will suck?
So now she's all the way into the lobby and I still haven't even ordered coffee and I semi-yell to her, "But that's what everybody thought in 2003!"
Okay so that went right over her head and she thankfully just kept walking.
One of these days, we'll be able to talk about a season that changed everything.
So we can say, "But that's what they thought in 2011! When the Cubs won it all!"
Yeah yeah, I know...
But one year ago today, I promise you there wasn't a soul in San Francisco thinking the Giants were gonna go all the way, either.
Okay, Randy Wells officially the 4th starter, and Andrew Cashner starts again today with Quade sure to make a decision on the 5th starter soon.
I have a bad feeling that even if Cashner throws a no-hitter, Silva takes that last spot.
I think I need an aspirin.
