B is for Brad

This may sound silly and a bit ridiculous, but I recently realized that I LIVE in New York! Shocker, right?

But seriously, prior to the past few months I always would answer the question, “Where are you from?” with a statement along the lines of “I am originally from Rhode Island, but I am going to school in Syracuse.” Or “I am from Rhode Island, but I’m living in NYC for the summer.” And when I was abroad it was an even more complicated answer of “I’m from the United States. I grew up in a state called Rhode Island. No, I’m not here with a group from Rhode Island, but I am here with Syracuse University, where I have gone to school for the past few years.”
Recently, when I’ve been meeting people out in Albany conversations have been going along the lines of…

- “Albany sucks.”
- Yeah, but its better than Syracuse
- “Is that where you are from?”
- Well, no, I’m from Rhode Island but I just graduated from Syracuse
- “Oh so what are you doing in Albany?”
- I have a job
- “like a summer internship?”
- No, it’s a full time job
- “Oh… so you live here permanently now?”
- Yeah, I guess I do…

Before it was always temporary but now I LIVE here.

Ugh.

I do not want to LIVE in New York. I do not like LIVING in New York. I don’t like the way it sounds I don’t like the way the license plates look. I don’t like the way the license is made. I don’t like not getting NESN. I don’t like the “thruway”. I don’t like the accents. I don’t like seeing Yankees/Mets/Giants/Jets crap everywhere. I don’t like it at all!

Last week I was at a party when M-diggity was visiting (you happy that I said your name there lil lady?) and I saw a boy with a Giants T-shirt on and a Boston baseball cap. First of all, my eyes have radar for Boston hats after being in NY for so long. I spot them and am drawn to those people from miles away. I immediately want to go up and talk to them and find out where they are from, why they are in this God forsaken state (that was a little harsh but I’m going to leave it) and if they want to be my friend and bitch about New Yorkers with me.

Usually I meet some cool people this way (although on a recent trip home to New England, my Boston hat radar didn’t register the change in location and was going off the wall with excitement and BoSox overload). So when I saw the boy with the Boston hat/Giant T-shirt combo I went up to him and initiated a conversation by asking him about it. When I asked if he was a Boston fan AND a Giants fan he said, "Nah, I don't like Boston, I just bought this hat because it has a "B" on it and my name is Brad."

He. was. dead. serious.

What? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? Has anybody in their life heard of something as ridiculous as this? As a Red Sox fan and as a fan of baseball and baseball hats in GENERAL... I was offended.

All I have to say is... what a tool.