Ahh, that familiar sting of defeat

I had a venting write-up of games 1 and 2 of the Cubs NLDS all ready to go, but I never posted it and now it's pretty much a moo point. (no that's not a typo, figure it out if you want.) The Cubs completely fell apart and were swept by the Dodgers. And not in competitive fashion. They got beat like a red-headed step child riding a rented mule. They got Rodney King beat. They got...you get the picture.
Right now it's more shock for me. I'm mostly through my newly formed traditional bottle of champagne, which is taking the sting out of things tonight. After feeling like I jinxed the Cubs in 2003 by buying a bottle of champagne mid-playoffs, I decided that I'll now buy a bottle at the start of every season, then consume said bottle after the final out is recorded. If we win, it's a celebratory bottle. If not, I get what I have right now. Something tasty and bubbly to let the healing begin. And this is no sparkling white wine. I only want the best no matter how the season goes down.
Quite frankly, the Cubs got beat in every facet of the game. They allowed their starting pitching to lose game 1, their defense to lose game 2, and their (lack of) timely hitting to lose game 3. It's almost poetic in it's futility. And in some ways, the non-competitiveness of the games made them easier to take. It's not like game 6 of the 2003 NLCS where we were cruising along 5-outs away from our first World Series appearance since 1945 and then collapsed. No no, we were never really in the first 2 games. We were winning for a couple innings in game 1, but that was quickly fixed and the Dodgers never looked back. The last lead we had was the going into the top of the 5th in game 1. That's it. Last time. Not even close in game 2, and while we were close on the scoreboard in game 3, you could tell that it wasn't close on the field. We wasted every opportunity given to us. Any brief flicker of hope was extinguished by our futility. The Dodgers didn't beat us; we beat ourselves. In spectacular fashion.
I can't believe we actually hit 100 years. And I really thought this would be the year we did it. I allowed myself to believe again. All year long I thought that this would be it. And now I have to admit I'm not sure that we'll ever win it all again. I really hurts enough that I'm doubting things that much. It's even hard to blame it on the curse this time. There wasn't 1 or 2 moments that you can look back on and say that the curse got us. Maybe the curse was especially strong this year and forced the entire system to fail. I don't know.
And as far as I can tell, this whole October baseball thing is very over-rated. It's been nothing but pain for me in my life. Swept in the 1st round this year and last year. The painful and well-documented collapse in 2003. The beating from Atlanta in 1998. Luckily I don't remember 1984 and 1989, or this would be even worse! I guess it comes down the great debate: Is it better to have loved and lost or to have never loved at all? And while I can't answer that right now, I should be able to give a good answer in about 56 weeks. I mean, we've got most of our starting rotation returning, some great young hitters coming up through the system, and lots of great young arms that gained experience this year. Next year, baby. Next year is going to be the one. I can feel it already.