Barb’s Burblings

I was thinking of going to one of the Bowie playoff games; I particularly wanted to see Matt Wieters play. (I totally should’ve gone to Thursday’s game; it sounds like an awesome one.) Anyway, I saw that the Baysox lost to the Aeros, which is a bummer, but then I noticed something in one of the notes on the Baysox homepage: “The Baysox left Bowie and headed to Akron for games three and four of the best-of-five game Division series. Cleveland Indians slugger Travis Hafner was waiting.”
Wait…Hafner was playing in a AA playoff game? That seems wrong. And it looks like I’m not the only one who thought so, according to Roch Kubatko. Just a completely classless move, particularly seeing how Hafner had been in AAA for three weeks.
Not cool, Akron. Cleveland, you deserve the pounding you’re getting tonight.

The Silver Spring Metro station to going to be totally redone, which I could not be happier about. It’s such a mess during rush hour, with buses crossing and traffic backing up. On Friday I wound up missing my bus by about 30 seconds because I wound up stuck at the longest light ever, across the street from the station. (Well, that and the fact that the bus driver left 4 minutes early–screw you, bus driver! Because on a Friday afternoon, I totally want to hang out the bus station longer!)
Anyway. So while they’re renovating or whatever, the buses have to go somewhere for a while, and they’ve set up temporary bus stops along another road, which, happily for me, is between my office and the Metro station. And look at the cute signs they have for each stop:

I don’t know what it is with Silver Spring and penguins, but I can’t complain. So cute!

I’ve been a huge Will Gartshore fan since I saw him as John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, so when I saw that he would be part of a cabaret piece, “The Lost Songs of Broadway, 1940-1950,” I couldn’t help but buy a ticket. And the show was great (you can check out my other blog for thoughts on the show itself). But what I’m talking about what happened just before the show.
I arrived a bit before 8 for the 8:30 show, and when I entered the building, who should be chatting with the box office folk but Mr. Gartshore himself. Whom I recognized immediately. And so I immediately…did nothing. In retrospect, something like, maybe, “You were great in Merrily We Roll Along” or even “I’m a big fan of yours” would’ve been appropriate. Or “Break a leg.” But…nothing. (Which is better than sputtering out “Booth!” and running away, I suppose.)
It’s probably that I was afraid that he would blow me off or something, which is crazy. I mean, at worst, he’d probably say, “Thanks,” and take off. (He did, after all, have a performance in half an hour, and, judging from the bag and cup he was carrying, still had to eat something.) But my mind doesn’t work that logically. And it should. I have really fond memories of waiting at the stage door of The Scarlet Pimpernel (we were waiting for Terrence Mann, but he took a secret way out) and chatting with Douglas Sills, who had his first leading role on Broadway. He was super nice and seemed genuinely interested in what we thought of the show. So maybe I just don’t want someone I admire to not live up to that? I don’t know. Of course, I also froze like that when I went backstage at Spotlight, and there the actors were a bunch of kids that my sister was friends with. So yeah.
Of course, if he had blown me off, it would’ve been super awkward, seeing how in the cabaret, the lights were up enough that audience members easily made eye contact with the singers. Not that I think he would, because he seems awesome. (He just got a history degree and graduated summa cum laude! Awesome!)
Well, hopefully if I run into him again, I can do better. And then we can become BFF!

I spent yesterday at Harper’s Ferry, whitewater tubing with Brent and Katie. And it was awesome, though if I go again, I’d probably like to go when the water was a bit higher. There was quite a bit of tubes getting stuck on rocks. And I may have flipped out of my tube once or twice. OK, fine, three times. And I have the bruises all over my legs to show for it. I blame the shallow water, mostly. Also, it was a tad uncomfortable–my lifejacket was a bit annoying, and I’m wondering if I maybe would’ve been more comfortable in a larger tube. I don’t know.
On the positive side, it was so nice–floating along, or going through the rapids. It was a perfect day, all gorgeous and sunny and not too hot. We got there before the crowds and so the river was relatively empty. AND I totally worked my arms and abs. (I didn’t even know I had abs! But now I can feel them, so yep, guess they’re there.) I very much recommend it.