Achey

Thursday AM: I'm very sore this morning. I love that I get to do physical work, especially outside. I think there's only one other person I'm working with directly who has had a job outside of college- or maybe he hasnt even yet- so even if everyone else is grumbling about the operational tasks we have to do, I'm glad for them. It beats sitting in an office all day. Office work is ok but it's fantastic when that stuff is interspersed with real activity. After being dormant all day long for two+ years, the action I am a part of every day is a welcome change.

Yesterday there was a graduation at the park.. but the day before, we had some serious play time. During down time, we've created several rubber band balls (one is nearing the size of a basketball). The other two 24/25 year olds (Leo and John) and I went to play catch with one under the bleachers, and eventually it got thrown into the area that's fenced off. I'm actually not clear on why it's fenced off because there's nothing under there. Anyhow, I had personally created the rubber band ball that we lost, so I had the guys hoist me over the fence and I ended up finding a bunch of baseballs and tennis balls on the other side, a big bouncy ball, a wiffle ball bat (!!!!!), even some plastic maracas. I climbed the fence and launched myself towards the ground on the other side of the fence and that wasnt the smoothest leap I've made in my life but I survived.

We returned to the ticket office, which is our HQ for all intensive purposes, and stored our new toys away. Then we rounded up the others and went to play. Some went for the kid-sized basketball hoop, but before long I was in the batting cages with a few others who were starting to play wiffle ball. First, I caught for the pitcher, and I when I threw the ball back I'd put a little something on it so that they'd notice. Just showing off a little I guess. When I got to bat, I did alright, but I wasnt necessarily better than anyone else who had been up. Eventually John offered me the ball to take a turn pitching. I gave some weak warning about how I'd give it a try but might be terrible... threw a pitch that was about 4ft high and 2ft outside, and then got down to business throwing sliders that froze my first victim Leo time and again. I was even getting plenty of swings and misses. No matter where the ball started, it always seemed to bend its way back into the strike zone in time to hit the chair behind home plate. John took a try and I struck him out swinging on three pitches to start his at bat. They were calling my "stuff" "filthy". I hardly knew I had stuff to begin with... I only just discovered my slider about a year ago when I played with my friend Victor. I hadnt had many chances, if any, to play for at least 9 months. After about 25 minutes, my arm was tired and Tom had come to put us to work anyhow. But let's just say that I walked out of the cage feeling pretty good about myself.


Friday AM: What a great week. I have today off, and then will work on Saturday and have Sunday off as well. They're hosting a couple championship games at the park today and tomorrow, so we're split-staffing it. My name just happened to not get pulled out of the hat (THANKS A LOT John) and so I dont get a 2-day weekend. For the record, once I learned that a 2-day weekend was a possibility, I was planning to visit you guys in Maine. My friend Leo, great guy that he is, even offered to switch as he has Saturday off- but it's fine, really. I was mostly bent up because the people I'm closest to are all working today.
Yesterday we started the morning by pulling the tarp to get all the water off it. Most people were going barefoot so I joined in, and it was blissful. The grass was sopping in many places, especially in left field, and the water wasnt too cold. Looking behind when the tarp is billowing up into the air will give you quite a sight. Most everyone else I'm working with dont seem to have this genuine love in their hearts for the game and the baseball experience, but pulling tarp on and off the field makes me almost giddy with excitement. Yesterday was my first experience of actually putting on the show of a minor league game and although it's definitely a different thing to be a guest at the ballpark I loved even the most grunt-workish things, like sweeping the stadium afterward. Not as bad as it sounds- there are about 10-15 of us working on it at once so it takes 15-20 minutes. I was actually pretty busy, or at least occupied, for most of the day. We pulled tarp, then rolled up some mats that we had laid down for the graduation ceremony (i liked this part because I had a chance to comically exhibit the near-full extent of my super strength... we have a good time), did some last minute detailing of the concourse, ran a few errands for Karissa who runs the ticket office, helped Leo with merchandise inventory, checked teachers in for teacher appreciation for about 3 hours, and finally when game time came around, manned guest services and pretended that I knew the answers to questions that I was asked. (Sometimes I actually did.) Dan was officially at the guest services post for the night but a lot of us seemed to be more or less jobless so we stood in small packs and chatted. I found out that Leo is a big fan of Mayflower Brewing as well, and has been to the brewery a few times. I guess that the Rox used to serve Mayflower .. last year? But it sounds like that partnership doesnt stand any longer which is such a shame. My favorite. Hmmm... what else... oh, your usual baseball-loving characters were present. We were all worried about the rain that was heading our way- which would mean we'd have to pull the tarp on the field and wait it out for a while. It was cold and wet last night and I must have missed the memo about bringing long sleeves for underneath my Rox polo shirt. WOW was it cold. And damp, drizzling for most of the day. Leo finally got me to slip a hoodie on beneath my polo. I only resisted because I didnt want to get my doubly-overpriced Sox hoodie dirty, or his hoodie which he was offering initially, but we didnt end up having to pull tarp after the game anyhow so that was a nice end to the night for the people who cared that they were missing the Celtics game. After lots of little runner-type tasks were completed, and sweeping was finished, I headed home... but not before being delayed and detoured on 95N, just 2 exits from my home exit.
It was a long night in the car. Think 4 lanes of traffic- even nighttime traffic- squished into one for about 2 or  3 miles, and regulated by a traffic light on the off-highway detour route. Not pretty.

Not much to do today which will be nice. I HOPE to head into Boston and walk around but the weather is looking... undecided... outside my window. Bank, groceries, the usual. Oh, I'm psyched for next week because John is having any of us who want to stay over at his house.. he's only about 20 min from the park so that will be incredible. Sleepovers with fun people are always sweet.

Muse is the soundtrack of life right now.