rain and mud

Today was a crappy, rainy, muddy day. Doubleheader started at 1, first game started well but we ended up losing 6-5. It was off and on sprinkling, raining the entire game and by the end it was essentially a mudswamp. So the awesomeness of sports that is rain delays.... we waited around until 5pm to give the mudpit more time to get muddy, it continued to rain, so hey lets start the game. Mud, Mud and more Mud, rain, rain, rain. Another loss. The only good thing I can say is it wasn't cold thank goodness. So with more rain in the forecast, we plan to finish the last game of the series tomorrow at 11. But knowing our luck and the fact we have a 9hour bus ride to get home after, we'll probably push it back a few hours to watch it continue to rain....

back on the road

Well after a blissful 2 weeks of no travelling, we hit the road today for Binghampton, NY. Never heard of it?? Ya me either. Google tells me its in western NY, just above PA and its going to take 9hours to get there. Our trip was supposed to begin at 2pm on Friday, but due to weather in the western part of middle of nowhere, our games got pushed back to Sunday/Monday, with a departure time of 12pm Saturday. Ohhhh joy, this means I get the pleasure of covering spring football practice on Friday AND Saturday morning.

So I leave the comfort of the futon bright and early this morning, planning for a quick stop at Tim Horton's for a bagel in time to arrive at 7am. All is going as planned until I pull away from the drive-thru. As I hit the button to roll my window up BANG. I look around to see what had run into my car, but soon realize that bang was something snapping inside my drivers side door as I watch my window slide down. Awesome, its 7am, 35 degrees, impending rain, we're about to leave on a 2 day road trip and my window won't roll up. Insert many choice expletives here....... I get to work and putting my tiny fingers and hands to good use, try to reach inside and grab the window to see if I can at least get it up. Insert even more choice expletives providing bewilderment and entertainment to the football coaches in the parking lot. So greasy fingers, and a raging temper I storm into the Athletic Training Room and throw a bagel at poor Ryan. But the universe decided to play nice, and the quicky auto repair place up the street opens at 730 and they said I could drop it off and they'd at least get the window up. So after dealing with 30 whiny, sore football players (Ive come to learn that many of them are frightened of me, and on days like today, I can see why), I dropped the car off at VIP Auto Services. I figured it wouldn't be ready until at least Monday, but at 11am I got a call "Its all fixed" YAY!!! "Its going to be $300" expletive expletive expletive. But hey, gotta do what you gotta do, and I don't think riding around with duct tape and a garbage bag for a window was going to do much for my street cred. Just add it to the list of things my car needs, new windshield, new brakes, new tires, something jiggling somewhere in the underbelly (damn dirt roads).

But after a stressful morning full of broken car parts, expletives, yelling at football players and freezing my butt off outside, it was time to depart. Not too bad of a drive, watched a few movies, saw Shrek 4 for the first time, pretty funny, did some reading and then we were here. So 2 games tomorrow against the Binghampton Bearcats....

Pink Stink

Boston weekend wrapped up on a much better note than it started. Since we actually knew where we were going, driving to the field did not give me any chest pain, the weather was beautiful for new england in april, sunny and 40-45, and best part of all the girls won both games. Taking 2 out of 3 game from the conferences perennially toughest team was awesome, and they did it in style winning 8-2 and 6-1. Santa Clete brought brownies which of course were a hit, and the bag of candy my mom gave us fueled our drive home, along with a  a new game I had never heard of, called Pink Stink, I'll do my best to explain..... Someone comes up with 2 words who's synonyms rhyme, and the other people have to guess what they are. For example ROSE & ODOR. The answer would be PINK and STINK. Quite addictive and entertaining when stuck in a van for multiple hours. We arrived back in Orono around 10pm, returned the vans and I was home by 1115pm, early night!!!

Blissfully, we are home for the next 2 weekends, this makes me so happy I could cry. Maine will not give up easily though, it is STILL snowing. If we have to drive to New York because our field is covered in snow I might explode. So send all your good weather thoughts up north.

Have a great week and bring on spring weather!!!!

Boston likes to toy with my blood pressure

Would you believe that a 3 hour drive south would change from this winter wonderland to a NORMAL april day? We left Maine about 45 minutes later than expected because our rental vans were stuck in the snow. Then part of the highway was shut down, so we took a 45 minute detour through the sticks (It actually does get boonier than where I live) Arrival time at the hotel 1:30pm, game time 4:00. One of the vans got lost, because Boston is ridiculous, between 1 ways,  rotaries, split level bridges and crazy Masshole drivers, todays driving was an adventure. Met my parents at the hotel and then we departed at about 2:15pm, and what should've been a 20 minute commute...... lets just say we finally showed up at the field at 2:50. It is quite different to have a school, let alone a softball field in the middle of a huge city. Much different than what I'm used to.

Game was a close 3-2 loss, hopefully we fare better today. After the game the team left for a dinner at one of the girls parent's house, and I left with my parents to meet my cousin at the Barking Crab in downtown Boston. Pretty cool little patio seafood restaurant right on Boston Harbor. Parents enjoyed some seafood that you can't really get in Ohio, and gave me the stink eye for ordering a chicken sandwich. I live in Maine..... seafood is pretty easy to come by. Headed back to the hotel, and I must admit, it makes my chest hurt from driving through it but downtown Boston is very pretty at night.

Doubleheader starting at noon today, then back to the hopefully-now-thawed-and-snow-free-frozen tundra.

Think Summer

Thanks to that lovely meteorological wench called a Nor'Easter, this is how Friday morning started, some light snow flurries. By 2pm we already had near 6", so our drive to Boston in 12 passenger vans was postponed until today (Although you guys will miss out on a  blog that would've been detailing my anxiety attack while driving a giant van in a snowstorm through downtown Boston) So we had a light practice, and then I made my way down the back bumpkin dirt roads to my house, which of course had not been plowed, to arrive at the lakehouse who's driveway ALSO hadn't been plowed. So I had to shovel out a parking spot in the 12" we got. Have I mentioned our landlord owns a plow and is supposed to take care of this stuff? Ehh, anyways, get into the house to discover we have no power. Which at first seems like a minor inconvenience until we realize this means no heat, and no way to cook food. So as any rational person would do, we packed up and headed to the bar. Watched the last few innings of the RedSox opening day and had a pretty darn good dinner of mac&cheese and some gearheads. Our power still not restored, I made my way back to the gym where I spent the night in the doctor's office. I now know what homeless people who squat in buildings feel like as they spend all their time avoiding detection. I almost made it through in perfect ninja fashion, but at 3am I scared the crap out of a janitor collecting trash. Thankfully he laughed and just walked away as opposed to calling the cops and having me arrested for vagrancy.

Soooooo back to softball, we are now leaving at 8:30 this morning to play a single game at 3pm in Boston. My parents are coming out for this one, so I'm sure they're adventurousness will be rewarded with getting lost driving in Boston and freezing cold weather to sit through. Stay tuned, today could be an adventure