I started dating my girlfriend January 20th, 2002 at approximately 1:37a.m.  Approximately.  To put this in perspective, I've made a short list of the things that have gone on in the world of sports, the world of Bobby Price, and the world in general in that time... In no particular chronological order, here we go...

• The Patriots won their first Super Bowl as two-touchdown underdogs to the St. Louis "fastest show on turf" Rams.
• Chris (Masure, who will be simply referred to as Chris for the purposes of this article) dated AK, followed by our foursome road trip to Hershey Park, leading to our unanimous boycott of Captain Morgan and Rolling Rock products from then until eternity.
• Two people had the cops called on them in that same city for lewd and lascivious behavior in a public pool in that same city, but I'm forbidden to say who.
• Chris and AK broke up.
• Aaron Boone added his to the list of names in the Red Sox Hall of Shame.  Joining Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, and Grady Little (From that same game).
• The Patriots won their second Super Bowl.
• The Red Sox pull off the greatest comeback in the long history of organized sport, besting the Yankees in 7 games in the ALCS, followed by a four-game sweep of the Cardinals to win their first World Series in 86 years.  I have to say, one of the more satisfying moments of this win was the hoards of fans who stayed at Yankee Stadium to chant "Who's your Daddy" during the post-game shows.  Revenge, is their anything sweeter?
• The Patriots won their third Super Bowl, 2nd straight and 3rd in four years, becoming the unofficial dynasty of the "otts."  Yeah, I decided that it'll go 80's, 90's, otts, teens, 20s.  Any complaints?  They're almost over anyway, so get over it.
• Michele McKinnon and Eric Byrd started dating.
• Ben Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, breaking Tom Brady's record from just a few years before.
• Chris started dating Sarah Cote.
• Kim Sullivan started dating Ben McGrath.
• My cousin Katie Hendricks started dating Rob Hill.
• My cousin Mandy DiMatteo and her husband Frank got married, and had their first son Jack and new daughter Natalie.
• Kevin McHale gifted his former franchise one more time with Kevin Garnett, without taking Rajon Rondo with the plethora of players he received in return. Preceeding this was the trade for Ray Allen, creating the "New Big Three."  Less than one year later, Boston hung its 17th championship banner.
• Leah and I went to Disney World.   Twice.
• "The Old Man of the Mountain" in New Hampshire collapsed and crumbled into Profile Lake after standing for thousands of years.
• The United States elected a black president for the first time in its history.
• Pluto was downgraded from a planet to some kind of giant rock rotating around the sun.
• "Shock and Awe" allowed us to invade Iraq for no reason, but damn did we enjoy watching those bombs drop on that country which was harboring neither weapons of mass destruction nor terrorists.  Well, that is, until we invited them in to fight with our soldiers on their side of the world.
• A United States space shuttle exploded upon reentry over Texas, killing all 7 astronauts aboard.
• George W. Bush wins his reelection bid because the democratic party couldn't come up with any better candidates than John "Too Liberal for Massachusetts" Kerry and Howard "Screamin' Demon" Dean.
• An earthquake in the Indian Ocean measuring an unfathomable 9.3 on the Richter scale sends a lethal tsunami through Sri Lanka to Indonesia killing 290,000 people.  But, don't worry, supermodel Petra Nemcova survived, by hanging naked to a tree for hours.  If that turns you on, you're sick.  And I'm apparently deathly ill.  United States sends some cash and a crate of assorted Lil' Debbie's snack cakes to aid the suffering survivors.
• W. Mark Felt reveals himself to be the Watergate informant known as "Deepthroat."
• Lance Armstrong wins his record 7th straight Tour de France, lifting a middle finger to the French so high it temporarily dwarfed the Eiffel Tower.
• Hurricane Katrina breaks the levees in New Orleans, floods the city and kills 1,300 people, leaving thousands more homeless, sick and injured.  George W. Bush goes fishing.
• Major League Baseball releases the Mitchell Report, naming dozens of players tied to steroids including most notably Roger Clemens.
• Michele and Eric got engaged.
• Chris and Sarah got engaged.
• Craig Leger and Ashley Murphy started dating.
• Ashley got pregnant.
• Craig and Ashley had a beautiful daughter, Cassidy.
• Craig and Ashley got engaged at some point during all of that, then get married, with me at Craig's side as a groomsman.
• Katie and Rob got married.
• Michael Phelps breaks Mark Spitz's olympic record of 7 gold medals in one olympiad, with his 8th gold in the games at Beijing.
• Chris Mahoney dated Kim Sullivan for approximately 1 1/2 years, then a couple of other random girls we disapproved of.
• Mahoney then started dating Elyse, who we very much approve of.
• Pat and Abbey have been dating for the majority of our relationship.
• Leah has had a black Ford Escort from the late 1980's, a '94 Oldsmobile and an '88 Buick LeSabre.
• I've had a 1990 Mercury Tempo, a 2000 Mazda 626 in jet black which I loved, which got T-Boned and totalled on the way to the DMV to renew my license on my 21st birthday.  I then bought a 2001 White Mazda 626 which was not as nice as the previous one despite being a year newer, but still had the oscillating A/C vents.  And, let's face it, that's what's really important.
• American Idol began its 8-year (and counting) run as the ratings giant of prime time television.
• George Carlin, Anna Nicole Smith, Bernie Mac, Heath Leger, Paul Newman, Estelle Getty, Jett Travolta, Charlton Heston, Saddam Hussein, Gerald Ford, James Brown, Rick James, Kirby Puckett, Curt Gowdy, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Reggie White, ODB, Yasser Arafat, Christopher Reeve, Rodney Dangerfield, Johnny Ramone, Julia Child, John Ritter, Johnny Cash, Rosa Parks, Tim Russert, Peter Jennings, Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes, Warren Spahn, Otto Graham and Mr. Rogers all had their incredible lives come to an end.
• Chris's house in Amherst was raided, resulting in his arrest and various drug charges.
• "Newlyweds" stars Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson got married, stayed married for four successful seasons, then divorced so she could date Dallas Cowboy goat... er... quarterback... Tony Romo.
• Abbey graduated from middle school, high school, and went to Clark University.
• Danny graduated from high school, got an associate's degree, and transferred to Framingham State.
• Leah and I both graduated college, although I enjoyed one more year to do it.
• Holly left Hugh Hefner after a five-year relationship for magician Criss Angel.
• Tom Cruise kidnapped Katie Holmes, started dating her, went as crazy as post-brain injury Gary Busey, married her, and had a baby named Soupy Sales or something like that.
• But, perhaps nothing affected me more than the life and loss of Glenna Kohl.

Approximately three years ago, Glenna was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma.  For those who aren't (luckily) familiar with the disease and its progressions, this prognosis is one of the very bad ones.  

She fought Braveheart-blue-and-white-facepaint-crazy, and unimaginably bravely against her illness, but in the end we lost our good friend on November 20th, 2008.

The truth is everything has changed since that day.  Everyone who was lucky enough to have Glenna touch their lives in one way or another certainly never forgot her.  Our high school class was very unique.  Students floated in and out of cliques at a maturity level more advanced than could possibly be expected from teenagers.  A select few students made this possible.  Some, like Glenna, transcended cliques and stereotypes, and provided every person she came across with the same respect and kindness she provided her dearest friends.

People like this don't come into our lives often, so I personally believe it's important to not simply treasure the times spent with them, but remember them long after they've gone, and the one-in-a-million spirit they carried with them.  

I'm not a religious person, and could barely be called spiritual, but sometimes it seems as though God wants these incredibly rare individuals to hang out with, wherever it is that he lives.  Perhaps my uncle Steve was taken for comedic relief and vicious sports commentary, and Glenna was taken to literally brighten the day of whomever she's around.  That seemed to be her specialty.

I remember visiting my girlfriend at Salve Regina and frequently running into Glenna, briefly catching up, and somehow feeling better about myself after parting ways.  Maybe some people do, but I certainly haven't found many people who have an ability to turn everything they touch just a little bit more brilliant than it was when he or she found it.  Glenna did just that.

When re-growing her hair after a round of radiation treatment, because of a protective brace she had worn, it grew back at first as a mohawk.  Glenna dyed it, and named it the G-Hawk.

When visiting Leah once at Salve Regina, I had a brief conversation with her about how I was doing badly in school because of a number of things, not the least of which were frequent visits to Newport to be with my girlfriend.  She explained to me that this was okay, because college was not just about learning but making lasting friendships, and in my case relationships.  She did however, make me promise to do a couple of hours worth of real schoolwork when I got back to Fitchburg.  The strangest part?  I felt so good talking to her that I felt guilty enough to heed her advice.  To this day, they may be the only two consecutive hours I spent studying in my five years at college.  I suppose I should talked to her every weekend.  I may just have finished college with a degree that means something. 

I wasn't as close to Glenna as the lucky crew than hung with her the most, but I was fortunate enough to realize and embrace what a transcendent, caring, hysterically funny and beautiful person she was.  

Thank you, Glenna, for sharing some of yourself with me.

For my sports blog fans, I will be getting back to work now.  I have my site set up, I have many things to get out there, and I have scheduled hours to work now!  So don't worry, it won't be long between posts anymore.

By the way, very soon everyone should be "moderators" on the "My Madden" group. So, everyone who loves the Madden games should go on and rant as much as possible, believe me, it's a ton of fun.  

Super Bowl preview coming this weekend!

Reporting live from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, I'm Bobby Price.