Life 2.1

I have yet to complete my adventures of my trip to NYC/Jersey so a recap is due, mostly because the longer I put it off, the more likely I am to forget something.

Upon my Saturday morning arrival, I headed to Brooklyn to meet up with Jersey J and a couple of his friends. Check out this view from his friend’s balcony.

Yea, it’s not bad.

Following me changing out of my pajamas which I had flown in, we headed to the Guggenheim Museum where we took in the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit. I felt very New York City in the museum, but it definitely wore me out and the idea of ordering pizza in was a solid way to cap off my first day.

Sunday was the Mets game at the new Citi Field, which was already covered in a previous post.

Monday I set out to wander the city. I wandered around Union Square, spending more time in a bookstore than I probably should have but I like bookstores. I like the smell of the pages and I like to browse, what can I say? I also purchased 2 books and am pleased to report that I finished them both. Also a sign of a productive vacation. The subway rides to Brooklyn and back certainly helped with that too. Monday afternoon, I had made plans to meet Jersey J and another winery alum for drinks. Since I was a bit early, I took my new book and read it in Madison Square Park, which was close to my beverage destination. Talk about relaxing.

The three of us watching the Home Run Derby at a local establishment where the bartender created new drinks and had us test them. That part wasn’t bad either. The food was great, including the sliders and shrimp dishes we had.

Tuesday, Jersey J and I cruised around Jersey City, made a Target run, and went to Liberty Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty, along with Manhattan.

The following photo ops presented themselves:

Lady Liberty

The Manhattan skyline (the Statue of Liberty is not pictured but would be at about 3 o'clock)

My hair is totally in a (small) ponytail

Tuesday night-Thursday were pretty much spent in Brooklyn at the Cyclones game, since they were playing Williamsport. Two former players for the price of one

I saw Josh get his first pro win on Tuesday night and met his delightful family.

The winning pitcher and me

Sam played in games 2 and 3 after getting cleared by the trainer. Good thing too, because I was going to be seriously bummed if he didn’t play any of the games I came to!

You know you've hit the big time when you're on the jumbotron

One of Sam's at bats

More at bats

I would like to take a moment to point out that he is 10th in the league with a .323 batting average. Well done, sir, well done.

Holdin' it down at 1B

Following the game Thursday, I hot-footed it to JFK and boarded my plane to head back to the Boot. Sadly, I had to sit on the plane for an hour while they cleared the airspace around JFK for Air Force One. This did NOT make me a happy camper. I would have much preferred to sit in the terminal, where my dinner would have most assuredly consisted of something more than a coke and a snickers bar.

I did finally make it back to Nola and special thanks to B-Squared and Big Metal for coming to get me waaay later than anticipated.

Top-notch vacation, in my book.

No Comments | In: Social Adventures | tags: baseball, New York City, vacation. | #

It hasn’t been an awesome 2 weeks in my auto world. First, a slight fender bender left a hole in my bumper that looked alarmingly similar to a bullet hole. In New Orleans, it’s not a far stretch, but thankfully that was not the cause. Last week, I took the car to the body shop just around the corner from my house. Since I hadn’t gotten a workout in, I figured I would drop the car off and just get my run in then, running home. I strapped on my iPod to my arm and slipped the house key, ID and debit card to pay in my iPod arm band.

It was a magnificent idea.

Until I realized that the backroads that I thought I could take were blocked by a canal and train tracks. The only other route I knew of was over the overpass at rush hour. Perfect. That wasn’t going to work so in my effort to find another route, I wound up running about five miles (that’s waaaay more than I prefer to run) out of the way, on a route that included the periphery of Zephyr Field. That’s an entire baseball stadium. Then I realized the only way home was via the overpass. On the plus side, there was so much traffic, no one was going more than 5 miles an hour so it was way safer than usual. Sorry Mom.

Not in my favor, however, was how swollen my fingers got from the heat. I couldn’t get my ring off and my fingers were tingling. Boo.

Fast-forward to Friday, when, $250 later, I had a new bumper.

Tonight, the girls and I were supposed to go out to dinner for Big Metal’s last night in Nola and the evening was also going to include some entertainment: in the form of getting our palms read in Jackson Square. Post-dinner, we went back to my car and I put the key in the ignition. I turned said key.

Nothing.

I flicked the dome light on.

Dim.

I checked my headlights but they weren’t left on.

Damn.

I tried again, coaxing the car into turning over.

Nothing.

My coaxing turned to threats of kicking said car.

Still didn’t work.

30 minutes later, P-Money came to rescue with jumper cables. The car turned over and P-Money offered to switch me cars so we could continue our adventure. Into P-Money’s man truck we went and we headed to find the palm reader that came recommended to us. We found no parking and before we could get out of the lot, P-Money called to tell us the car cut out at Elysian Fields and he had to enlist the help of two men off the street to help him push it to a side street.

Swell.

We went to pick him up and B-Squared called AAA. She gave them the address where we were parked and the dispatcher’s response?

“I’ll be sure to rush that truck. It seems here on the map that you’re not in the safest of neighborhoods.”

Phenomenal.

Gary, from AAA seems to think it’s not my battery but rather my alternator.

Craptastic.

On the plus side, P-Money is very handy under the hood of a car and is going to teach me to either change a battery or replace an alternator tomorrow. Awes.

1 Comment | In: Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: car trouble. | #

• nice people on the subway
• going into bookstores when I have no time restriction as to how long I can stay
• seeing two of my former players play against each other in pro ball, which included the first professional win on the mound for one of them
• hanging out with the aforementioned pitcher’s family during the game–super nice people!
• Stouffers lasagna
• my Aunt Maggie pillows

2 Comments | In: Get Meaningful Fridays | tags: Get Meaningful Fridays. | #

Today was an exciting day. Today, ladies and gentleman, I continued my baseball stadium expedition and visited Citi Field, home to the New York Mets and, more importantly, David Wright. Who is awesome, in case you didn’t know.

Jersey J and I took the subway (obvi) and were greeted by this site:

The view as we got off the subway

As we walked made our way to the gates, the outside area of Citi Field was a buzz of activity. Including this crowd-pleasing moment:

Betcha didn’t know Spidey plays the sax outside CitiField on the weekends

We went to pick up our tickets at will call at about 12:30ish. We met a friendly usher kid, who told us about the kiosks they set up for will call internet sales.

**THIS IS A HUGE TIP AND EARNED CITI FIELD POINTS IN OUR SCORING SYSTEM**

Because it’s a new stadium, the lines to pick up tickets/get in looked horrendous. BUT instead of waiting to pick up tickets at will call in the traditional sense, the usher told us to go to these kiosks (think self check-in at the airport) and slide the credit card used to purchase and it will print your tickets and away we went. Score yes.

So we get into the field and per baseball stadium tour tradition, snapped first pitch from the very enjoyable “open-air” concourse.

First pitch from Mike Pelfrey

Never will one feel claustrophobic in the concourse. Never is one’s view of the field really obstructed while walking around the yard unless it’s by a moderately overweight man, guzzling beer and wearing some form of sleeveless shirt and a backwards hat. I’m just sayin. And even then, just kept moving, there is room elsewhere. One downfall might be that, while they have great site lines throughout the ballpark, if you’re trying to get directly behind home plate, the view is obstructed by the Ebbet’s Club Suites, where the fancy people watch the game. Bummer.

The field from the Ebbet’s Club where we went after the game for a photo op

The starting lineup for today

We arrived at our seats in left field, about 20 yards away from Gary Sheffield. The left field and the left side of center field seats are partially covered, thus keeping the hot Queens summer sun off of us for the majority of the game. The sections weren’t excessively deep, making movement up and down the stairs easy. Even the last row wasn’t terribly far removed from the field. The only foreseeable downfall to our seat was that, because we were so close to the field, any sort of ball hit with warning track power to straightaway center field was a blind spot to us.

Around the 5th inning, we decided to get some lunch. We opted for a pulled pork sandwich at Blue Smoke (yes Mom, I ate pork. Mostly because it wasn’t in tenderloin form. Just to clarify.) The sandwich was served with a side of pickle slices and points for these pickles being Clausen pickles because those are the only kind I like. It was served on a good bun and it also scored with us because it wasn’t over-sauced. Jersey J was pleased with the Carolina-style BBQ, which is more vinegar based than a Texas-style, which is saucier (read: much easier to eat in public while balancing it on your lap). Minus half a point because Citi Field is a Pepsi ballpark and I’m a coca-cola kinda gal. But the sierra mist wasn’t horrible.

They seemingly had plenty of other solid food options, with the Shake Shack (premo burger joint in NYC) next to Blue Smoke but the line was so flippin long, we weren’t patient enough for that. They literally had a Disney-style line weaving in front of the stand. We also enjoyed Carvel ice cream, which definitely tasted better served in the Mets helmet. Two helmets are now in my purse. The soft-serve reminded me of Swensen’s bubble gum ice cream, sans gumballs. I enjoyed every bit of it, except the drops that went down the front of my shirt. I’m not exactly sure how long I walked around in my blue tank top with white drops of ice cream down the front but a kind-hearted older lady (who, bless her heart, wanted a cup of coffee on our 85+ degree day) made me feel better about myself when she told me a story about how she always spilled on herself. Even when the employees in her (work) kitchen gave her an apron, she still managed to drop sauce down the front of her, under the apron.

This would bring me to discuss the atmosphere. It was lively, friendly and a good time was being had by all. Definitely a place where you can bring the family. It reminded me of Pac Bell in the sense of the mix of people, only these folks were all united in various Mets jerseys. The whole stadium feel had a good vibe. Especially when they broke into collective cheers calling for the Apple (which neglected to pop up a second time in the 7th inning after Fernando Tatis hit the second Mets HR in the inning.)

Take a gander at the failed HR apple

The apple when it worked

They also had just enough concourse activities (like the dunk tank–awesome idea) to make the stadium a fun place without taking away from the fact that one is there to watch a baseball game. The open-air styled concourse totally adds to the good atmosphere.

Also earning points would be the scoreboard/jumbo-tron is also nice. They essentially have two– one in left center and one in right center so that the people in the outfield can see at least one of them. Huge plus. Citi Field also gets points for posting out of town scores and their minor league teams’ scores. Since I didn’t have a computer with me, I appreciated knowing that the Brooklyn-Staten Island game was still 0-0 in the 3rd.

Overall, this is one of my new favorite stadiums. I’m talking a top 5 ranking. And not just because DWright had two hits and a RBI. Although that was pretty awesome too.

Inside the Jackie Robinson Rotunda

3 Comments | In: Sports, because, have you met me? | tags: baseball, Citi Field, David Wright, New York Mets. | #

I have decided to adopt a new blogging habit. This new ritual will be called “Get Meaningful Friday” since the purpose of each Friday’s post will be to list the things that I currently enjoy in my life…something that maybe inspires me or that I’m just downright grateful for having as a part of/in my life.

I wish I could take full credit for coming up with this grand idea, but it’s sort of a hybrid of Helen Jane’s 365 Days of Grace posts and Kayla Aimee’s Thursday This segment.

So without further ado, this Friday’s edition:

• Spending a quality Thursday evening with the girls at the Zephyrs game for Ladies night
• the fact that a mainstream radio station here posed the following question to their listeners: ‘where have you seen God today?’ and that people were stoked to answer and didn’t get bent outta shape at the question.
• Red Gatorade
• Not spilling the aforementioned red gatorade on my white shorts
• My complete series set of Gilmore Girls on DVD

1 Comment | In: Get Meaningful Fridays | tags: Get Meaningful Fridays. | #