Post Season

Hello All!!!  Guess what time it is......

That's right, you guessed it!!  We are knee deep in post season baseball and it makes me so happy!!  Don't get me wrong, I love me some football but when my St. Louis Cardinals are kicking ass through the month of October, nothing makes me happier.  For the past 2 weeks I have worn the same red articles of clothing over and over again.  My red stripped sweater may be worn out before I know it.  Its a time where I become so superstitious, it is kind of crazy.  For example, the Cardinals played to Dodgers on Monday night in LA, they held a 2-0 series lead.  My 2  Cardinal tervis were dirty so I grabbed my 2011 World Series Champions cup instead...HUGE mistake.  I jinxed them.  Lesson learned, Trust me!  In 2011, it was rally undies

I think my favorite part about post season baseball in St. Louis is how the entire city gets on board.  Businesses put huge signs on the sides of their buildings to show their support of the Boys in Red.  The stadium fills with excited fans game after game, never leaving an empty seat in the house!  This is the time when heros are born and memories are made.  I can't count the times I have been downtown celebrating a cardinals post season victory and run into old friends or made new friends.  You can only imagine how fans are during the post season when in 2010, we lobbied to get Opening Day a Missouri Holiday!

Right now the Cardinals have a 3-1 series lead over the LA Dodgers in the NLCS.  This is a familiar place for us.  Last year, the Birds appeared to be unstoppable as the they took at 3-1 lead over the Giants, only to be stopped dead in their tracks.  That sting takes a while to wear off.  We spent our winter reading what we  can and trying not to believe all the rumors.  We wait and wait for the day when pitchers and catcher report to Spring Training.  And finally, that fateful day in April is here...Opening Day and it is a new year...a new time and what happened last year is a thing of the past.  While we never forget, the excitement of the upcoming season takes over.  A winning streak in April means we will win the World Series, a drought in July means we have no chance at the Post season.  The unexpected success of a division rival makes for an interesting and exciting season. Taking the NLDS to game five against a high flying Pittsburgh Pirates had all of Cardinal Nation holding their breath.  We sent our Ace to the mound and he did exactly what he needed to do.  With the help of good hitting and some great defense, we find ourselves here, playing in the NLCS, against a young and very talented Dodger team.  The wins and losses through out the season don't matter now.  The slate is clean.
Well accept for the All-Star...that one still  matters.  All that matters now is that you come out on top today.

I will put money on the the fact that the bars today at 3 PM will be full of people in business attire "taking a meeting" or "having a late lunch".  I say that because I know that I will be one of them.  Bosses understand, they want to, or will be doing the same thing.  The entire city is behind this team.  As much as a series win at home is nice, we would all just prefer they win.  I am literally counting down the hours until the first pitch.  I can't wait!  So until that time comes,


Eat, Drink, and Be Mary

On the Run

I need to get much better about posting, I mean, its not like I don't have the time, comes more from being lazy.  This week, another tragedy happened....there was a bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  I mean honestly, what is wrong with people these days??  First of all I am a "runner".  I put that in quotes because as of late, it is not something I have done too much of.  I played college soccer and have been doing  half marathons since the summer I graduated, I think it is ok for me to take a little break!

We have made running a family thing in my family.  I got my dad hooked and it was a trickle down from there.  We are all participating in some capacity in the Carle Clinic Race in Champaign in a couple weeks.  I am looking forward to doing my first marathon relay and enjoying some fun times with family.   While everything is fun and exciting, I hate that from now on, runners may be afraid.  Afraid of what will happen to them as they approach the finish line or cross a certain mile marker.  I just don't understand it.  Why are people so horrible?  I feel like I was brought up to believe people, in general were good, and the bad ones started good.  I am learning now, as I approach 30 that, sadly, people are bad.  The good ones are hard to find.  I am lucky enough to have tons of good people in my life and I am so thankful for that.  Isn't there enough bad in this world that we can't control?

Family Pre-Race

Obviously, the deaths and injuries are the worst part about this whole situation.  I cannot imagine what the father of the 8 year old boy that died is having to deal with emotionally....I actually would prefer not to think about it.  As I sat and watched replay after replay, one thing I noticed was that the first bomb went off in the middle of all the flags representing the different countries that runners come from to run this race. This event is supposed to bring nations together regardless of what is going on in the world. 

 The Boston Marathon is a chance for people, real people, to be at the top of their athletic field and they travel from all over.  Yes, some may be Olympians or the best from their countries but some may be a guy like my future brother-in-law and his friends.  They love to run and because of that,  become one of the best.  To even qualify is an amazing fete in and of itself but I cannot imagine what people feel as they cross the finish and know that they competed with the best of the best, in the world.   I only run half marathons at this point and in discussions, people say "Would you ever do a full?  Would you ever try to qualify?"  In the running world, you ask that question and everyone would know what you are talking about.

I will tell you, that I will run and continue to do races and trust the amazing people in charge of keeping me safe.  I will put faith and hope in our government that they will find the sick person that did this and punish them to the fullest extent of the law.  I refuse to let bad people dictate what I will or will not do with my life!

Dad finishing his first Marathon, Miami


Until Next time,
Eat, Drink and Be Mary

Family Post Race

There Really Are No Words....

Fry Fest 2012

As most of you know, I LOVE my family.  We are fun, funny and just overall good people.  No bias here though.  I think we are one of those rare families in that in our immediate family, we are super close.  We have our moments but generally we get along.  Throw the cousins in there and it is one big party!
Having a such a strong alliance to University of Illinois in my family, we try to make it to at least one football game a season and "tailgate".  About 4 years ago, my dad had the brilliant idea to bring his deep fryer and literally fry everything!!!  It was then that "Fry Fest" was born!

Fry Daddy!!

My dad does most of the shopping and let me tell you, he absolutely does not hold back.  We have everything from homemade doughnuts to corn corn dogs, toasted ravs and one year, we even tried to deep fry a chicken pot pie!  And of course, there are a couple of turkeys that go and this past Fry Fest, we had a dish of mac and cheese and we decided to ball that up and throw it in as well!!  Along with all of the eating, there is definitely a lot of drinking.  My uncle makes the most amazing bloody mary's so that starts the day off right.  It has become a huge family event now!  Even my cousin from Texas who is at IU now drove over for the day to eat, (not drink) and be Merry!!

Everyone is invited and as the day goes on and the beverages are flowing, we extend to our right and left because a small country could never eat the amount of food we have.  So we offer it up to everyone around us!  We are very popular.  The first couple years, some people actually used to go to the game...this year, no one went.  Let's be honest, who wants to watch that football team when you could be eating friend food, drinking and spending the day with the Rybicki family!!

Seems like a fitting time to take a Christmas Card picutre!!

Not so sober sibling love

We have so much fun it shouldn't be allowed!!  And in all honesty, probably isn't!  Not sure how we have not gotten in trouble before, deep fryers are definitely not allowed.  But we will continue to party hard and eat right until they stop us!  If you are ever up at a U of I game...check out research park and look for the crazies with the deep fryer!  Everyone is welcome.  Maybe one of these years, U of I will be a football team worth watching:)










Until next time my friends!


Eat, Drink and Be Mary!!

Been a LONG TIME!!

Sorry for being SUPER MIA...there is no reason what so ever for it!!  But, I am going to try really hard to make blogging a priority since it is not like I have much else going on right now.

Who is ready for the holidays??  I certainly am!!  There are lots of fun things coming up for me and my family over the next month.  First and foremost, THANKSGIVING!  It is a favorite holiday of the Rybicki family for sure.  I have cousins that are extremely close in age to my sisters, brother and me.  We have pretty much grown up together and I think of them as brothers more than cousins.  As children, we loved our Thanksgiving basketball games.  They were fun and generally ended up with someone in tears...one of the boys most of the time  As we have gotten older, we actually have way more fun!!  We eat at 2 so everyone arrives and my mom and dad's at around 11.  Generally, we started drinking at about 10.  Once we start we never look back!!  Tons of fun and lots of drinking!  There is usually a pretty intense euchre game that one time lead to a full table flip and then this happened last year....

Yes, that is my dad, in the kitchen, with the beer pong table!  After everything was washed, put away, taken back out, re-heated and washed again, we decided it was time for a little family beer pong.  Alas, we realized we had not ping pong balls.  What did we do, all but broke into my best friend's house and searched high and low through her basement while her family was at her grandma's house for the day.  Thank goodness for them never changing their garage code...in my defense, I called first!  It was a family affair and the people who wanted to play but not drink had "designated drinkers".  And to top off all the fun we normally have, my Brother's birthday is on Thanksgiving Day!  The beer, wine, whiskey and vodka will be flowing!  Thankfully, the wee one (my little sister) is a very good mixologist and we have a half barrel in the living room.
After all the fun family time at Thanksgiving, we will get to head up to Champaign to celebrate my niece's FIRST birthday!  I can't believe she is already ONE!!  I love her to death and would do anything for her.  It should be a great day!
I hope everyone else has an amazing start to the holiday season.  If I can offer one piece of advice to everyone, don't get too hammered the night before Thanksgiving.  While it seems like the best decision at the time, take it from someone who spent most of Thanksgiving day yacking or passed out, it's not worth it.  Thanksgiving dinner never tastes as good on the way out as it does on the way in.  And, let's face it, you become the laughing stock of the family until someone else does something really stupid!

Eat, Drink and Be Mary!

Bring Home the Gold!!

It is literally one of my favorite times right!!  First of all, it is summer, and I LOVE SUMMER!!  I love the hot hot weather and the sun and fun summer drinks and bbqs and the list goes on!  But this year, 2012 is the year of the Summer Olympics in London and I am so EXCITED about it!

What are my favorite events you ask??  Well, clearly, like every other girl in the world, I love to watch Gymnastics.  Those teenie tiny little girls are freaking unbelievable.  Of course I like to watch Women's soccer (USA just beat France 4-2 if you were interested).  And I think my all time favorite sport to watch is Sand Volleyball.  I mean, are you kdding me?  After the last 3 Summer Olympics I had it set in my mind that I was going to be a pro volleyball player...you know, training for something like that at 24 years old is pretty standard right??  I guess I will settle with watching them play on my couch, with a cold beverage in my hand.  I hope everyone else is as excited as I am for the games.  I literally cannot wait for it to get in full swing.  If you happen to be working and would like updates on what is going on throughout the day with the Olympics, feel free to follow me on twitter...@mkrybicki... I am sure I will be tweeting about it!!  You can visit this this site to find schedules and results for the London games!!  Cherrio my good friends!!!

Eat, Drink and Be Mary




Whoa....

I would like to apologize for my long absence!!!  I need to make a much better effort to blog.  I find myself jotting down post ideas in RANDOM places and then alas, never remembering a) where I wrote them down and b) to actually log on and post something!  I promise, I am going to get better:)  (like anyone really cares!)
Lately, I have had something on my mind that has been driving me CRAZY and it all stems from Facebook.  Don't get me wrong, I am an avid facebook member and enjoying seeing what is going on in people's lives that I care about.  But my goodness, some people have taken it WAY TO FAR!!!  I would have never thought Facebook would be a platform for people's ridiculous rants about the most controversial subjects.  In my opinion, wrong forum!!  I don't really care about Billy's opinion on...well on anything now that I think about it!  I guess the biggest frustration for me is when someone posts about something that is truly controversial and then almost appears offended when people disagree or call them out on their comments.  Uh, shouldn't that be expected??  Differing opinions are what makes this world go round!  I know I can always hide this stuff or unfriend people but it is like a car accident...I can't take my eyes away from it!  I have a feeling that as we get closer to the election, this is only going to get worse!  I also don't like when people use Facebook in a hurtful way.  I have a very great friend who has fallen victim to this and it makes me CRAZY!  Not only did said person make her feel stupid, he really hurt her fellings as well!!!  NOT COOL!!  It is really easy to have a strong opinion on something from behind your computer.  If you want people to respect you and your opinions, I suggest not posting them all over facebook!  It makes you look immature and kind of silly!!  If you want a platform to express your opinions...START A BLOG!
I am not saying I am going to go and deactivate my account by any stretch, but these days, I am enjoying Twitter mch more!  Hard to get on a soapbox with only 140 character!!
Hope evreyone has a great Thursday!

Eat, Drink, and be Mary