Absolute Mayhem

Is what has overtaken Philadelphia (at nearly midnight on a frigid Wednesday night, mind you). This is nuts. I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. Dan & I just went outside of our bordering-Center City-and-South Philly apartment and there were literally thousands of people gathered in streets and intersections and sidewalks. Some of my favorite observations:

• Everyone is just so happy. We walked out our door and were immediately bombarded by half a dozen people giving us high fives. Guys and gals in the street were hugging and kissing and just had these expressions of pure joy. It was truly beautiful and special to watch. It was an experience I'll never forget.
  
• I love that the city completely bonds together. It truly is a CITY team. It's not just that Philly happens to have baseball fans. Practically everyone is thrilled about the win. And there were people out there that weren't just wearing Phillies gear (which, don't get me wrong, was at least 90% of the crowd, maybe 94%), but there were people in Eagles jackets, Sixers jerseys, Flyers paraphernalia...it was awesome. It's like it doesn't matter which Philly team it is; if it's about Philly, Philadelphians love and support it.
• The Phillies totally forgot about their trophy because they were too busy congratulating the Rays for their fabulous performance (Charlie Manuel's very first comment), profusely thanking and giving credit to their insurpassably devoted fans, thanking their teammates, thanking their coaches, and overall diverting attention away from themselves individually.
  
• Everyone came together as a team. I loved that complete strangers were running down the street yelling and slapping hands with fans of every other possible ethnicity, socioeconomic class, religion, you name it. Tonight, every Philadelphian is a Phillie, and is a winner.

Overall, I am SO grateful to be here right now. I was out of town for the past 5 days and was so sad about it. Hello blessing that it happened to get postponed to 3.5 hours after my plane landed. :) Pictures to come tomorrow.

(After the parade on Friday - on Halloween day, no less! could it get better than that?? - we will return to our regularly scheduled posting, and I promise I won't talk about baseball nonstop, or gloat. Maybe.)