All the cool kids have been saying it for a while, which is why it’s so surprising that I’m just learning about it now.
If you’re like me, you don’t really keep up with slang and acronyms and LOL this and ROFLMAO that, and when people starting saying “FOMO,” you just assumed that they were talking about that one “vintage” shirt that Point photographer Chris Clark always wears on Casual Friday.
But it turns out that FOMO is actually just another one of those acronyms the internet is always coming up with, and actually stands for “Fear Of Missing Out,” which, somewhat ironically, I had somehow missed out on, and, also somewhat ironically, I found out about after missing out on not one, but three sporting events that I would have liked to be at this week, if I hadn’t been so busy looking up acronym meanings.
Not only did I miss opening day for the Baltimore Orioles and have to listen to my Baltimore buddies going on about Matt Wieters’ walk-off RBI when they called me after what sounded like at the very least 90 American dollars’ worth of $9 beers at Camden Yards (each)… Not only did I let Point technical director/photographer/infamous Eskimo Shaun Lambert talk me out of making the two-hour trip to Wilmington for the IR softball matchup against St. Mark’s and miss their first win of the season (something about if an Eskimo is concerned about the weather, then I should definitely be). But also, I fell asleep before halftime of the NCAA national championship and missed Villanova’s buzzer-beating/game-winning three-pointer.
So, after missing the boat on three big events in just three days, I decided to take a look back at what else I’ve whiffed on over the past, almost three years, of being the Coastal Point sports reporter. And it turns out, that there’s a lot.
Every Eliza Bomhardt home run in 2015
I’ve seen plenty of homers off the bat of Indian River senior slugger Eliza Bomhardt over the past few years, yet somehow was somewhere else for every single one in 2015.
There was even one game where I missed two. With both baseball and softball going on at the same time, it almost seemed like every time I walked over to the baseball field last season, not even as soon as I’d pick a spot along the fence for a good shot, I’d hear the softball bleachers erupt and rush all the way back, without the assistance of like, let’s say, a Segway or maybe Todd’s gator or something, and ask “What happened? What’d I miss?” The answer would almost always be “Eliza just hit a home run.” Once, I’m pretty sure it was “Eliza hit a grand slam.”
I don’t know if that means that I’m bad luck or good luck, but either way, I’m just glad “the Lizard” kept going yard.
Brooke Beam’s last-minute goal against Tech
This must have been two springs ago now and was certainly before I fully understood the Indian River/Sussex Tech rivalry.
It was my first spring sports season on the job, and one Thursday night I had decided that I had done a pretty good job so far and deserved some R&R and that it wouldn’t be too big of a deal if I missed a Thursday game for a trip to D.C. I also rationalized that I could always catch the Tuesday game (which was against probably, like, Seaford or something).
Big mistake.
I remember Coach Steve Kilby describing it as, “You would have thought we’d won the World Cup.”
Tied 2-2 with regulation winding down, Beam took the ball on the edge of the 18 in the 79th minute and beat two Tech defenders before firing a shot into the back of the net to give the Indians a 3-2 win. And I missed it.
Good thing Coach K can paint such a picture with words. I almost felt like I was there. I hear he writes a pretty good column every once in a while, too.
The chance to interview Robby Krieger
For those of you who don’t know the name Robby Krieger, he was the lead guitarist for The Doors and played with the legendary Jim Morrison. And for those of you who have never heard me go on about it in “Tripple Overtime” before, I’m a huge Doors fan. So much so that there’s an old “Waiting for the Sun” album cover hanging next to my desk and I continue to decline all of Point graphic artist David Elliott’s invitations to join his Doors cover band (they’re called The Windows and, apparently, they aren’t very good).
My old-school taste in music is probably reflective of my old-school resistance to technology, which came back to bite me when I checked my email one day to find a freelance offer to interview Krieger before he played in Frederick later that month. I, of course, responded immediately, only to find out that the story had gone to another writer about four hours previous, when the email was sent.
If only I had email on my phone. I guess I’ll just interview David about The Windows instead, or something.
The Ravens 2012 Super Bowl
This one is more the NFL’s fault than my own.
Since they refuse to show the Super Bowl any earlier than 6 or 7 p.m., or whenever they show it, and since the Ravens were in the Super Bowl and we were excited about it, we all got to the old One Coastal in Fenwick around noon on Super Bowl Sunday, back when the Ravens won it in 2012.
Needless to say, around two kicked Miller Light kegs later, I might as well have missed the game. Although, technically, I’m pretty sure that I was, in fact, there.
Well, there ya have it. I’m sure I could go on, but I’m starting to get the feeling that I’m missing out on something, which, hopefully, is just band practice with David Elliott and not something important…