German Night Theme

   I enjoyed tonight's Saints game, as it was their annual German Night. Also nice how the Saints won, helped by a 3-run home run in the 7th. It put them ahead 5-3 and they went on to win 6-4. Enjoyed seeing things like a VW as part of 'what's in the bag' between-innings entertainment. I had a German great-grandma, and I like how there are ways to celebrate this heritage. Unfortunately, thanks to 2 world wars where Germany was the enemy there aren't as many as there should be. I say this night has to do until Oktoberfest in New Ulm in a few months. It was something I discovered in my first year in this state. There was a good feature about New Ulm on a travel show after the 10pm news one Saturday.
   Some of the things I did tonight aren't unique to German Night, like sauerkraut on the bratwurst, along with a beer, I like Grain Belt. But some were-after the game I went to a grocery store and found a piece of German chocolate cake.
   I like how I finally discovered this part of me, it took long enough. It helped to have my dad tell me what he could. I even found my great-grandma's Ellis Island records when I visited New York in 2005. She came here as a little girl back in 1902. I thought my dad was odd when he liked eating sauerkraut, until I tried it myself. It doesn't taste great alone, but on top of something it's really good, like hot dogs or bratwurst.
   Ah, New Ulm beckons me. I've had my dad tell me he likes visiting St. Joseph, MO, so sometimes I say New Ulm is my St. Joseph. The food, drink, and music is all good at Oktoberfest. The warm feeling I get in that town is rivaled by few things. My time in the French Quarter in New Orleans is likely the only place that tops it. The Big Easy is still my favorite place to visit and so enjoyable I've called it a 'benchmark' in my life.
    Online dating may be panning out, but too early to tell. A few more matches have reached email stage or will soon. Answering questions from one match was tough at first, but I was up to the challenge. She asked me to mention 5 random things about myself. This is what I told her: weight loss in the past year, done some standup comedy despite speech being a weak subject, equipment manager on my school's football team, lived in 3 different states, owned 4 cars in my lifetime. As the saying goes, nothing worth having is ever easy. I'm not going to quit just when the going gets a little tough. I recall a college instructor revealing at the end of the class why he assigned some reading and writing projects early on, in the first week. It was to weed out people, find out who was most serious about being there. And it worked. I found a way to stay, but others didn't. Whatever happens, I will be just fine. I do like how dating has allowed me to grow as a person, and this happens only when willing to take chances at times and allow yourself to be a little vulnerable.