Want to spend your Friday doing nothing but throwing paper into a trashcan? I’m here to help. I think I really could just play that all day.
Also for your amusement: Stories of working at a Barnes & Noble (speaking of which, man, I still have to reserve my copy of the next Harry Potter).
Current song in my head:
“Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley
Last night…
Carrie: And I got that in stage combat tonight.
Barb: Oh, did you not have the auditions?
C: Those are tomorrow night.
B: I thought you said they were Wednesday.
C: Barb, it’s Tuesday.
B: …
Dave has helpfully emailed the pictures to me, so we can prove that we did have fantastic seats. He also pointed out that I somehow managed to forget that we also got a game ball. At one point, it just came rolling over the dugout toward us. It even says “Nationals Inaugural Season” on it. It rocks.
OK, pictures.
Here’s Frank Robinson, watching the game progressing.
This is Ryan Church, who Dave apparently likes, after an at-bat. Church is the left fielder. He went 1-4 (a double), with a walk, a run, and an RBI.
And our buddy, James Carville. You can see that’s me next to him. Very nice guy, and apparently he was Bill Clinton’s campaign manager in 1992. Huh. Thanks again for the peanuts, James!
Late Saturday night/early Sunday morning (around 1:45) I was channel surfing between a few things. And then I discovered that TVLand was airing the Scarecrow & Mrs. King pilot. Which was, let me tell you, excessively exciting for me. I love that show. I am biding my time until a Lee Stetson-like secret agent pulls me into his world. This is why I live in the DC area. They aired another episode Sunday afternoon, but it was part of an evil plan to air shows that they don’t air that often. Whuh? Please, please stop taunting me. I now know that you own the show. You can air it if you want. Please air it! Or at least make them release it on DVD. On Sunday, after SMK, they showed Sisters, another blast from the past. Also exciting. Sadly, it wasn’t one of the George Clooney episodes. I was so sad when he left Sisters to go on ER. And now the back of my mind is trying to remember his character’s name. I could probably figure it out fairly easily.
Anyway, today I found another small pleasure. I was at Target returning a couple things when I walked by their pharmacy section. I saw a logo I recognized. It was only when I was a few steps past it that I realized it was all stuff from Boots–essentially, the British CVS. Whee! Target called it their “British aisle.” It was so cool that I had to call Carrie and share. And this is the same Target that carries Orioles merchandise. Hurrah!
Current song in my head:
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2
ETA: Falconer! Clooney’s character was Falconer.
Pardon the Interruption on Friday was really quite cool. And I mean that in both the literal and slang senses. The studio? Freezing. And yet that didn’t stop Wilbon from wearing shorts with his suit shirt and jacket. My coworker’s friend (MCF) was really, really cool. PTI doesn’t have a studio audience, so me and a couple guys just sat on some chairs along the wall of the studio. It was neat seeing how the taping went.
Then MCF gave us a tour of the facility, showing us various technical rooms and the newsroom and the other studio where The Daily Show actually filmed for a week, so there were pictures of Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, etc., around. Cool! We met some of the other folks that were around, and MCF showed us where she works–she does editing. Anyway, she pulled out a couple of tickets for that night’s Nationals game. I snagged them, figuring I could probably rustle someone up to go with me. Or just go alone. Whatever. I was told they were really good seats, just behind the Nats’ dugout.
After leaving the studio, I called around and Dave wound up joining me at RFK. And…”good” doesn’t even begin to cover how good these seats were. We were in the first row behind the dugout. We were closer to home plate than the pitcher. The on-deck circle was blocking Dave’s view of the batter. It was, to put it mildly, awesome.
Then, apparently in response to my complaint earlier this week that I’ve lived around DC for almost 5 years and have never just seen a famous person around, we wound up sitting next to James Carville. Who, it turns out, is awesome. He gave us his bag of peanuts and managed to get every kid in the section a game ball. Then gave the bat boy his card, “in case you ever need anything.” Plus, he was a very amusing heckler. We chatted about baseball throughout the game, and he wasn’t really noticed by anyone until the end of the game, when some folks asked for pictures with him. I also got his autograph.
And the Nats beat Seattle, so it was all good. Although Dave and I did decide that as awesome as it was, it would’ve been a lot cooler had we been in the row behind the Orioles’ dugout at Camden Yards.
My weekend of baseball wasn’t over. On Saturday night a group of us went up to Frederick to see the Keys (the O’s A team) play the Nationals’ A team. I was psyched, as Adam Loewen, a top O’s prospect, was pitching. I got another free duffle bag to add to my collection. Another very enjoyable night; the Keys also won. The seats weren’t as good as the night before, but…well, when are they ever gonna be?
Anyway, good times. And if Dave can figure out how to email pictures from his phone, I’ll post some for everyone’s enjoyment. Now I have to email my coworker to thank her.
Current song in my head:
“Being Alive” from Company
…Or not. It’s not like I’m going to be ON tv. But I will be watching a show taped today. Thanks to a friend of a coworker, I’ll be seeing Pardon the Interruption taped today. I’m pumped.
It seems like I have a few tenuous connections to cable television, between this coworker’s friend at ESPN and Brent’s friend Dave at CNN. And my dad’s been a guest on MSNBC and other such business-type cable channels any number of times.
Anyway. PTI airs at 5:30 on ESPN, and again at 6:30 on ESPN News.
The CBS Evening News did a piece last night on those spiffy contact lenses some players wear to allow them better vision during the day. Brian was featured at the beginning of the story. You can go here (scroll down to “Super Lenses for MLB Stars”) to view the piece.
Because we just can’t get enough of other people’s miseries, here are some links to more bizarre baseball injuries:
Baseball Injury Hall of Fame: “Giants head-case third baseman Chris Brown once begged out of the lineup because of a strained eyelid. He claimed he ’slept on it wrong.’”
Rash of Strange Injuries Afflicts Baseball: “San Diego Padres pitcher David Wells, whose colorful personal life is the stuff of legend, tried out a number of explanations for the severed tendon in his right wrist and the cut on his left palm before deciding on this one: He tripped over a bar stool while playfully chasing a buddy who had tapped him on the back, falling on a glass and bottle he was carrying.”
Top 10 Weird Injuries in Professional Baseball: “Nolan Ryan was bitten by a coyote.”
All-Bizarre Injury Team: “The master of all bizarre injuries, [Kevin Mitchell] once injured himself while eating a cupcake.”
The Weird World of Baseball Injuries: “Though he seems to have tried, Wells has never truly challenged the all-time-record missing-in-action excuse of Cardinals pitcher Flint Rhem, but who has? Rhem went AWOL at the height of the ‘30 pennant race. It wasn’t his fault, he explained to Branch Rickey. Gamblers kidnapped him and forced him to drink bootleg whiskey for two days.”
My company has tickets to the Distinguished Speaker Series at the Kennedy Center, and each time they raffle off the tickets. Which is to say that last night I saw Paula Zahn and Cherie Booth Blair. It was a pretty interesting discussion; there were some things I may incorporate into my First Ladies tour at the Smithsonian.
But the highlight of the night would have to be that they were introduced by Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was very exciting; I’d never seen a President or (former) First Lady in person before. She didn’t talk much, but she was amusing.
It’s one of the neat things about living around here; you can randomly one night go and see something like this. For free (well, other than parking). Hurrah!
Moving on, it looks like another baseball player has fallen victim to a random injury; this time, it’s Colorado Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes who broke his collarbone while carrying groceries to his apartment. He fell while climbing the stairs, as he didn’t want to wait for the elevator:
“I figured, I’m an athlete, I can walk up the stairs, it’s not that big a deal,” Barmes said in an interview Monday, his left arm hanging in a sling. “Obviously, if I had to go back, I would have waited, or at least been a bit more careful going up.”
I didn’t realize that Cordova was on the O’s DL because he burned himself tanning. That’s just sad.
In positive news, it looks like Brian may be heading to the All-Star game; he leads the voting at 2nd base by a good 42,000 votes (up from last week, when the margin was around 1,400). Hurrah! He’s still out of the lineup due to a strained rotator cuff, but should be back in by Friday at the latest.
Current song in my head:
“Stuck in the Middle With You” by Stealers Wheel
We’re heading into the third summer that Carrie and I have lived in the same apartment complex, yet yesterday was the first time we went to the pool (the pool that is so close, we could probably throw a stone from our balcony into it). Usually it’s swarming with loud, annoying children, but yesterday it was delightfully empty. Well, not completely empty, but there were only a few people there. And since it was around 90 out, we thought we’d head down. It was a great way to spend the afternoon; very relaxing. Of course, I’m still pasty white. Either I wear sunscreen and stay pasty white, or I don’t and wind up completely red. I went with the choice that doesn’t lead to skin cancer.
Current song in my head:
“I’ll Follow the Sun” by the Beatles