Barb’s Burblings

I was at the O’s game tonight (but let’s not talk about that), and, of course, was surrounded by Yankees fans. In fairness, the ones right around me weren’t too bad. The couple behind me were idiots, but they weren’t loud. And around the 7th inning, I was ready to smack the kid next to me once he decided to start yelling “O’s suck!” a lot. (I may have yelled “OOH, COULDN’T EVEN HIT THE WARNING TRACK!” in the kid’s face when some Yankee flied out and the kid was all, “Get out of here!” even though the ball was obviously going to stay in the yard.) (This was possibly not my proudest moment.) But for the most part, the loud idiots were well behind me. This meant that I could focus my attention on the shirt of the guy in front of me:

At first I was fine with it, and was pleased to see that at least it wasn’t a 2009 World Series Champions shirt. (I was amazed at the number of people who had bought the official one. Seriously, very few knock-offs. Which is kind of sad, but when I was shopping for a Christmas present for my father, I discovered how hard it was to find non-official merchandise online.)

And then I took a closer look. This was obviously a knockoff. I started getting annoyed at the “East Division.” Nowhere on the shirt does it say “American League.” It’s not the MLB has a single “East Division.” It has, in fact, two of them.

Yes, my annoyance level was already somewhat high, but this just got to me after a while. (Obviously. I mean, I went to the trouble of taking a picture.)

Also, what’s up with the flag?

I was on the Metro this evening when I looked up and noticed a young man standing nearby holding a very familiar book. He obviously was either on his way to work or had just come from work, and was wearing an ID badge identifying him as a nurse. And the book he was holding was one I had worked out; it came out last year. I must’ve looked insane, because when I saw it, I just stared at it, grinning like an idiot. I’d never seen anyone with one of my books out like that! And really, we’ve only sold around 1000 copies of that particular book; really, what are the chances of me running into someone with one?

I totally would’ve gone up to him and asked him what he thought of the book, but we were almost at Gallery Place and I didn’t want to lose my seat. Ah well. It’s better this way. What would I have done if he said it sucked?

I was in downtown DC on Monday and Tuesday for a class, and since it was so nice, a coworker and I went for a walk during lunch both days. The classes were only a couple of blocks from the White House, so we walked over to Lafayette Park, where I bored her with descriptions of the history of Washington and the presidency. On the second day, we were talking about cities that we liked, and I was talking about how much I like DC and why–not intimidating, good theater scene, free museums. “Plus,” I said, “you never know what you’re going to run into when you’re downtown.”

We arrived at Lafayette Park and found a policeman moving people away from Pennsylvania Avenue into the park proper. There was a mob of cameramen and sound guys, and we saw a reporter talking intently to the police officer. We tried to figure out what was going on; there was a line of people in military uniforms right at the fence, and a truck by them. Our initial thought–before we really noticed the service members–was that maybe President Obama would be driving up or something. (The last time I had a class at that location, I ran into his motorcade.) After asking around, though, it turned out that the service members had chained themselves to the fence to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. We hung around for a bit, then went back to class.

Like I said, it’s always something when you’re downtown. And then I found a mention of it on Politico; apparently the whole “pushing the media away from the protestors” thing wasn’t supposed to happen. You can actually see me at the end of the video, if you know what I’m wearing. And recognize me from the back. Whee!

Over at the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, Laurie is having Tux Day, not Tax Day, and is showcasing pictures of the various tuxedo kittens she’s hosted. And you know, I have my very own tuxedo kitty right here! He is very attractively licking his butt at the moment, but here are some other pics…

Look how tiny!

So wee!

He really is very snuggly

Honest! Snuggly! I swear!

When I woke up this morning, my first thought was, pretty much, “Thank God I took tomorrow off.” It’s been just a crazy weekend. I took Friday off, too. (The only thing that makes the gap between Presidents Day and Memorial Day manageable is 4-day weekends.) But in the past 48 hours, I’ve been to two baseball games, gone to a parade rehearsal, been in a parade (which involved waking up at 5:45 Saturday morning), volunteered at the American History Museum (during peak tourist season), and hosted my dad. I actually got home from the museum this afternoon and took a quick nap–otherwise, I wasn’t making it through the day.

It was one of those weekends where everything has been really, really fun…but totally exhausting. So it’ll be nice to have a day to sleep in, hang around the house, watch some tv, play with the Internet-enabled Wii (yay!), and go to another game. (Oh yes. Three games in four days. Maybe the third time will be the charm and they’ll actually win tomorrow?) (Although I’ll have to distract myself from the sorrow of my boy going on the DL.)

God bless my large vacation day reserves.

Sure, yesterday was Opening Day for most of Major League Baseball. But it was put off until tonight for the Orioles and the Rays. Luckily their first game is at night, so I don’t have to miss the O’s first game of the season. It always sucks when they open away, but I’ll be there on Friday to welcome them home. I’m just bummed that Matusz is pitching Thursday, not Friday.

And since it is the beginning of the baseball season, I can’t help but include one of my favorite commercials…

Screw it, let’s throw in some of the MLB Network commercials, too.