This Will All Make Perfect Sense Someday.

Life is good.

First thing to love this week, seeing Kevin Kouzmanoff. I love it. The Royals’ affiliate is  in town this week; the Omaha Storm Chasers. It didn’t even dawn on me that Kouz might be with them until I saw he was in the lineup on Friday night. He obviously didn’t know I was in NOLA and he didn’t know until he saw me running out of the dugout after the 6th inning to change a base. We talked for a while on Thursday. I’m glad I got to see him; it’s nice seeing old friends when you’re surrounded by people you hardly know.

I love it.

Next up, Lafreniere Park. I love it. It’s a huge park close to the stadium. I decided to check it out on Wednesday because I didn’t feel like going home. It literally spent an hour just sitting on a bench next to the pond watching the ducks float on the water. I left because wild chickens were getting a little too close for comfort. I definitely plan on going back to hang out, maybe on my next off day.

I love it.

Finally, John Mayer’s new CD. I love it. Okay, so I don’t actually own the CD yet, but I have been listening to it on Spotify whenever I have my laptop out, which is almost always when I’m home. Currently my favorite song is “Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967”. I have no idea why, I just like it. Now all I need to do is physically buy the CD so I can jam out in the car.

I love it. It’s great. Everything’s great.

I love it.

My parents have a calendar in our house that has been there as long as I can remember. It’s wooden with individual numbers for the dates cut out and you’re supposed to change it every month to reflect the current month.

“Supposed to” being the key phrase.

It was usually my job when I was home to change the calendar. You would think that after passing by this thing multiple times everyday, someone else would notice it, but apparently not. I always was the one to change it and clearly my job is waiting for me to come home. The only problem is that I haven’t been home since December.

My mom and sister sent me this picture today.

This week has not been my favorite, but I could still find things to love.

First up, “Lie to Me.” I love it. I know what you’re probably thinking; “Carolyn, you just wrote about this show in December.” You would be right, but this week I was needing some Tim Roth in my life so I started the series over again. I find the topic of deception and body language fascinating. It was a nice break from all of the SciFi shows I’ve been watching. Half way through the second season already with the hopes to finish the series by tomorrow since I have the day off.

I love it.

Next, baking cookies. I love it. I like to buy the snack size packages of cookie mix now and then. It makes just the right amount of cookies and most of the time, you only need another ingredient or two to get the job done. This week I made chocolate chip cookies. I’m still trying to figure out my oven because it seems to cook things at twice the speed necessary so I have to keep an eye on what I’m making. Other than the fact that they were a little flat, they turned out pretty good. I gotta get them down better before I decide to take a batch to work to feed the fellas, though.

I love it.

Finally, getting new video games. I love it. On Friday, I went to GameStop for the first time since moving (and I’m actually quite surprised I lasted this long) and I bought “Kid Icarus” for my 3DS. I’ve been wanting to get it since my last trip to LA when I played Mike’s copy. The only problem now is that I can’t really play it because it’s one of those games that requires full use of both hands and with my now broken index finger, I guess I will have to wait to play it.

I love it. It’s great. Everything’s great.

I love it.

You know what it’s about.

First up this week, fixing things. I love it. Actually, I love when my things get fixed. I have a light that I got for Christmas that was broken on the move from Cleveland to Phoenix so it hasn’t worked properly since December. It’s one of those lights that looks like a fish tank and the fish move and all that jazz. Well, knowing that the fellas that I work with are quite handy, I took it to them to see what they could do. After Craig and Nathan gave up, Jose took control and actually fixed it! I’m so glad! I got the light because Travis, my fish, couldn’t come with me so it reminds me of him (and thanks to my mom for taking care of him while I’m gone).

I love it.

Next up, fruit. I love it. I mentioned in passing that I couldn’t remember the last time I ate a fruit or vegetable and my mom got concerned (for obvious reasons). So concerned, in fact, that the next day a fruit basket was delivered to the ballpark. Apparently the face I made when they told me was pure shock, but it was totally cool. Not only did I get fruit, but the basket it came in is now my mail holder.

I love it.

Finally, my mom. I love her. This could be the first Mother’s Day where I don’t actually see her but I want her to know that she is amazing. I don’t deserve a mother as great as her. She will do anything for me and has always been my #1 fan (and quite an excellent cheerleader). Thanks, Mom :)

I love it. It’s great. Everything’ great.

I love it.

We had quite the eventful day at the ballpark today. The beginning of the day was really boring, so I’ll skip ahead to the good part.

Around 7:00pm tonight, as the game was getting underway, I was sitting in Nathan’s office and there’s a call on the radio saying that there is a baby possum hiding under stairwell three (which happens to be a high traffic area when fans enter and also right next to the box office). Craig, Jose, Nathan, and I go over to take a look and sure enough, hiding in the back corner is a baby possum.

Because we had no net, we got two garbage cans. Craig took one and Jose took the other and they both crawled under the stairs (which only has a clearance of less than three feet) and they tried to trap it.

The first attempt didn’t work.

It was a sneaky little bugger. It ran past Craig and went towards the box office. I grabbed one of the cans and ran around the fence to grab it but a fan was corralling it back to the stairs. Craig tried to trap it by throwing a garbage can at it and after a few attempts, it worked.

“Okay, now what do we do with it?”

We took the little possum to the soccer field at the west side of the stadium to let it go. Jose shooshed him out of the bucket and he just stood there. Well, actually, he started moving around in circles like he had a hurt leg.

Craig felt really bad because he thought he had hurt it when he caught it. He kept poking it with his note pad trying to get it to get up and move on but it wasn’t working. He told me to grab the bucket again, but I didn’t know what for.

Then Nathan says “Hold on. Make sure no one is watching.”

Craig was going to kill it! He felt so bad he wanted to put it out of it’s misery!

I made the comment that I didn’t think he was hurt, he just looked dizzy. No more than 30 seconds after that, the little guy finally wandered away like nothing happened. 

He must have sensed that Craig was going to hurt him and stopped “playing possum” and faking like he was hurt so we would leave him alone.

Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.

That’s what my sister said to me last summer as we were leaving my friend’s wedding.

I didn’t believe it was true but I’m starting to consider the possibility.

Here’s the full story:

After getting engaged, one of my best friends and favorite people in the world decided to move away from Ohio to Florida to be with his fiance. I was happy for him, but it was really hard on me because I talked to him about everything and it was obvious that things wouldn’t be like that ever again.

He moved in September and I didn’t see him again until his wedding day in July.

I only got to talk to him for about a minute.

I get it. It was his wedding. There were a lot of people there to see him. It wasn’t going to be the same. But I was supposed to see him a few days before his wedding; we had made plans (and when I say “we”, I mean his Lake County family - my parents, sister, and some others) to hang out in the tiki bar in our backyard for the night, have a cookout, and just catch up.

Just like old times.

Not.

After I spent the entire day waiting for him to let me know when he was coming over and preparing everything for dinner and what-not, I come to find out his plans changed and he couldn’t make it anymore.

Totally bummed.

Whatever.

I got over it.

I went to his wedding and was happy enough that I got to see him for a minute at the reception. Obviously I was really sad when we were leaving (and all but lost it when my sister made the comment about losing him forever).

Fast forward to recent weeks and I learn that he was no more than 20 minutes away from where I live and he didn’t tell me.

Shocked.

I wouldn’t be so shocked if in even earlier weeks (like when I was still living in Phoenix and told him to come visit before I moved) he hadn’t made the comment that he was going to be in New Orleans at the end of April.

Silly me to think that meant he was going to try and see me.

I knew that when he moved things wouldn’t be the same. I know that he has a new life and other people to be with and talk to but I never thought it would come down to never getting text messages returned and seemingly forgetting about his Lake County family.

Maybe I really have lost him.

The other day I was in line at Walmart. There was a guy in front of me and a family with 4 kids in front of him. 

All of the children were screaming.

I generally love kids… when they’re well behaved. The kids that I’ve dealt with in the past (and when I say dealt with, I mean baby-sat), have always been great and easy to manage. But these children…

Out of control.

The mother didn’t seem to notice what her children were doing (you know, putting extra things on the conveyor belt, pulling each other’s hair, sitting on the youngest one in the cart) and honestly didn’t seem to care.

After several minutes of this, the gentleman in front of me but behind the family turns around, shakes his head, looks at me and says “This is the future of America.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Catch up on my life people. Here’s what I love this week.

First up this week: “The Avengers.” I love it. During the last home stand, the Zephyrs had promoters for “The Avengers” at the ballpark giving things out to fans like posters, t-shirts, and tickets to see an advanced screening of the movie. Lucky for everyone on staff, we all got tickets to see the screener on Tuesday. Because it wasn’t guaranteed that you get it, I got to the theater two hours before show time (but some people were there four hours early). I did get in and it was AMAZING! Totally worth the two hour wait. It didn’t feel like it was two and a half hours long either, which is great. The Hulk might have been my favorite part which is weird considering I am usually all about Captain America. No one else in the office actually went to the movie because they didn’t want to wait but now they are all jealous they didn’t go.

I love it.

Next, having marathons. I love it. No, I don’t run marathons, but rather, I watch them. This week alone, I had two of them; on Thursday (my comp day this week), I watched every episode of “Firefly” and yesterday, I watched the first season of “Eureka.” Love them both. Netflix is a beautiful thing. I can’t decide if I should watch season two of “Eureka” today or mix it up with some Charlie Chaplin. Decisions, decisions.

I love it.

Finally (and probably my favorite part of this week), hanging out with other people. I love it. I’m new in town so I don’t know anybody, really, besides the guys I work with. On Friday, Jose was nice enough to invite me to his softball game. His wife always goes and it gave me something to do rather than sit on my porch and play video games. I had a great time being with other people. That never happened when I was in Phoenix so I’m glad that I’ve been accepted into the group so quickly.

I love it. It’s great. Everything’s great.

I love it.