Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

So those who have known me for a while will probably feel shocked that I went to a baseball game. Even if it was minor league. And maybe they'll be even more shocked when I say I had a great time. But I'll get to that. There's always the importance of re-capping my week for kicks (and some sort of posterity purpose ;)).

Monday was mostly a typical day. Back to work. One of my co-workers was out for the week, so that meant I was doing two jobs. Makes for a busier day, so that is always good :). I am settling into the job and feeling more comfortable with things, so that is good.

Tuesday was a good day. Mostly for the part that came after work :). It was a chance to see Jeremy for a small hour during the week. I'm such a goober. But in a good way :). What can I say?

Wednesday I had to sit in a meeting all morning with the commissioners and then I had to type up the minutes from that meeting later in the week. There's some good times. I walked with a friend from church (Andrea). It was sort of a last minute thing, but since I had a pretty "low-key" week (at least as far as a typical week in the Nilla Life goes), I was pretty much open and available to walk. It's always fun to chat with a friend while getting some ejercisio. I'm working on my Spanish. One word at a time. Haha.

Thursday was quiet again. Casual jeans day at work, always a bonus. I'm sure there were probably some adventures or something at work. Obviously not of enough importance to have stuck with me. I think I average about one random citizen phone call a day. I thought I'd heard it all, after working in a couple different public libraries. Turns out, I was wrong... I had an early night on Thursday. Seriously early. Lights out by 9:45. Such a rarity for me.

And the result of that was not really sleeping in on my only day to sleep in. Oh sweet irony. I did give it my best effort, though, and pretty much stayed in bed until around 8:00. Then I got up and got moving. I had pop rocks to glue, Sharing Time to plan, errands to run. And the list goes on. I did not work at the funeral home, though I did go by there. In my bright yellow shirt. You know... The one from my fashion faux pas? Yep. I'm sure I blended right in :). We didn't have Primary Presidency meeting Friday, because Christina (not my sister) was out of town. I also watered my plants once I got back home and then eventually got a shower and got ready to head to T-town (in Washington State, that is Tacoma, not Tuscaloosa) with Lea and Chuck. You see... Back before I quit the library, there was a pretty decent deal where we could pay $9.95 to buy a ticket to a Tacoma Rainiers baseball game. This is minor league, in case you were curious. I don't tend to be an avid sports-watcher (and that may be a slight understatement), so this is somewhat shocking for a Nilla such as myself. But a good deal is a good deal, and lately I've started to appreciate the opportunity to enjoy an experience of something, even if it's not something I would ever make a priority. So for $9.95, I figured this was a pretty awesome deal. Plus Lea and Chuck were going, so I knew it'd be fun regardless of how the actual game was. So I bought a ticket right before I quit, and they mailed it to me in the mail about a month or so later. Oh yeah, and this is the reason for my song title post.

So I got to Lea's and after a few minutes of gabbing about coupons inside, we piled into her car and headed to Tacoma. Woohoo! We caught up on the previous week's goings-on and when we got to the parking area at the stadium (where the security people were directing us to go, mind you), we got told rather rudely that "the lot is full." And that became our quote for the majority of the night. We finally got parked, and really our parking space wasn't so bad, if you ask me. We headed into the game and tried to take a picture with the mascot (which we spent the majority of the evening was believing a moose, but it turned out to be a reindeer (and I did think it was the weirdest looking moose I'd ever seen, but it did have antlers, and I figured Chuck knew what he was talking about)), but the reindeer had to leave to go elsewhere. We felt a little jipped. Until we saw the big red key mascot walking around. For a bank that was sponsoring the team, I suppose. Well, it's all about the experience. And so we got a picture with the key.
Chuck made fun of us the whole time he was taking our picture. Which made it extra funny when the key walked over to him after our picture, put its arm around him, and took a picture with Chuck. Hahahahaha. Hilarious. I don't have that picture, since it's on Lea's camera. But it was hysterical. So we walked around for a bit and looked around. I'd never been to a baseball park before, so I didn't really know what to expect. It was pretty cool, really. Oh, I should also mention that, along with our $9.95 entry came a free hot dog, free chips, and free drink from the ballpark. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and tell you right here. I had high expectations of the hot dog at the ballpark. I mean, you always hear about awesome hot dogs at the ballpark, right? My expectations were high. So we find the line to get the free hot dogs. And we stand in the line. Basically who knows when these hot dogs were even cooked. Probably several hours before, because that was the grayest hot dog I've ever put mustard on in my life. Which should have been clue number one. Chuck embellished his with relish (mixed with a little trash can germs) and proceeded to eat it and tell us that it was a rough hot dog -- and we know him: he eats anything and likes it. (The man has a love of "heat lamp food" I will never understand.) Which should have been clue number 2. So we get to our seats and learn that the game is going to start an hour late "due to traffic." Ummm, what?!? We got there on time, so I'm not sure how the players didn't manage to. Anyway, so Lea and I found our seats and I got to see a couple people I haven't seen since leaving the library. And then we chomped into our hot dogs. Oh. My. Gosh. So that was the 2nd worst hot dog consumed by me in Nilla history. Topped only by the mushy, flimsy, red-dye hot dog in Alabama, which I ate out of courtesy to my hosts who were being very gracious. So let me tell you this... This hot dog was gray on the outside and flesh-colored on the inside. Like human flesh-colored. Nasty. On the way home, Chuck began referring to it as a hot dog: medium rare. Oh man. We laughed so hard. It was gross. Between the hours of 7 and 9, I experienced something awful: allergies. I have never had allergies in my life. But last week, I started experiencing them. The inside of my nostrils, literally, were itching. Grrrr. I wanted to scratch them off my face. It got particularly bad at the game. Over the course of 2 hours, I got the itchy nostril thing, a stuffed up nose, and slightly more moist eyes (I think the contacts kind of help prevent some of the eyeball reactions). But by 9:00, the symptoms started to lessen, and that is wonderful! And we were able to take a picture that was not a stuffed-up Hila picture.
We did not stay the whole game. I think we left during the bottom of the 6th, because it was simply getting too late. We had a bit of a drive home, after all. But we got a picture a bit closer to the action on the way out. I put the first picture up, even though we both look horrible, because of the action shot in the middle of us. Which was awesome! And then the 2nd shot just for the fact that at least we were looking forward and ready.

And then, as we left the stadium, we got a shot with the lit up sign in the background. And then we left the lot that wasn't "full." Haha.
During the drive home, we laughed so hard about everything from the lot being full, the pictures with the key, the garbage-hot-dog (which wasn't much worse than the ones without garbage remnants on them), the medium-rare dogs... But in all seriousness, my stomach was not doing so well with that hot dog, and it was hurting to laugh. So I finally said, "Oh don't make me laugh! I'm fighting the dog!" Which was meant to come out as "this dog is barking!" Which it turns out that is supposed to be referring to tired feet. Hahaha... So I messed that all up. But it made us laugh even harder. And, much like "it's only fun when it's fun," I think it will take on a life of its own, because Lea and Chuck laughed hysterically and said, "Okay, from now on, people aren't feeling sick... they're fighting the dog!" Hahahaha. Anyway, I got home around 11:30 and talked to Jeremy for a teensy bit and gave him the brief run down of my hot dog adventures. Then I went straight to sleep, because seriously I was kind of beat. Those allergies kicked my tail. Plus I had a really early morning coming up.

Because on Saturday morning, I work up at 5:45 (gross) to head with my mom to the Temple (so worth it). We took the ferry. I tried to sleep on the ferry. My mom, however, has a habit of falling asleep within 2 minutes and snoring in the next minute. No sleep for me. It was a nice morning (rainy, though), and it was nice to go with my mom to the Temple. We headed home around 10 and stopped to get gas on the way. My mom and I have a good time yakking and talking. It's fun to laugh with her. I changed clothes and got a few things packed to take with me when Jeremy got there. He got there about a quarter to noon and then we went and ate at this local cafe for which I had a gift card (thank you Melanie...). It was a neat. Different. A lot of food. And had we wanted to, we could have eaten with "friends." Haha... We were okay to wait or eat outside. I don't necessarily mind meeting new people, but sitting down halfway through someone else's lunch at their table: slightly awkward. But the food was good, and the ambiance was pretty interesting. And then we went to a new park to walk around and spend some time until it was time to watch Jeremy's co-worker's cat. The cat is in need of some TLC lately, so we got to cat-sit for a few hours. Which gave us an opportunity to study scriptures and for me to whip Jeremy at Chinese Checkers (okay, so I only won by one move... and I went first). I usually win without strategy. Which is more hilarious when my opponent has worked on strategy. Hilarious or ironic. Depending on how you want to look at it ;). (Or both). When the cat owners got home, we ended up playing Cranium. I'd never played that game before. I don't do so well at the creativity box (like trying to draw a flying buttress -- what is that anyway!?!) But I can spell subpoena sin problema. I also didn't know what faux pas Dan Quayle had committed on Murphy Brown back in 1992 (though I did know he had committed one). And look at that! I've used faux pas in this blog post twice (three if you count that one ;)). So Jeremy and I started out pretty slow. But it doesn't take much for the tides to turn -- especially if you know the theme song to Gilligan's Island (but not if you mistake an impersonation of Queen Elizabeth to be an impersonation of R2D2 -- that was me, by the way ;)). Anyway, we lost at that one, but only by one move. And it was fun. Which is the most important part, at least to me :). So I got home around 11:30 and took a shower and crashed.

This morning I got up earlier than usual, because I thought I had to set up the chairs for Primary (someone had been nice enough to do this already, though) and then have choir practice. The choir sang. So did the Primary (for Father's Day), and that was fun. Then it was off to Primary, which was pretty intense today. We had a lot of people out of town, so I ended up plunking out melody notes (and more when possible) on the piano for singing time and then taught Sharing Time. Plus we helped the kids with their "My Pop Rocks!" cards, and had to monitor all the classes to make sure all was well. But it turned out just fine. I got home and found that my mom had bought some Nalley pickles yesterday. Oh my gosh. My new favorite pickles. I had told her about them on the way home from the Temple, so she found them on sale at Safeway and decided to get some. I have an obsession with pickles lately. Except the one that came with lunch at the Cafe yesterday. That was not a good pickle. In my opinion. Anyway, so I ate a pickle or two. I like the baby or petite dills. Not that you care :). I baked a cake for tomorrow night's Monday Meals (we are resuming after our 4 week hiatus) plus put together the breakfast casserole I'm taking for work brunch tomorrow (will have to cook for an hour in the morning, which means an early early morning for me. Boo). It was a good day, all in all. But I am bushed. And so I am turning in early tonight :).