Rain, rain, more rain

I'm so happy every day. I hope that working in baseball long-term gives me this kind of unexplainable daily joy.

Nothing much happened yesterday. I did laundry, went to salvation army, got some groceries, rested. Walked around Cambridge. Tom called in the late afternoon and let me know that I was needed at the ballpark by 10:30am the next day. "Great, wow" I said. This was the latest I'd ever been requested to arrive to work. Then he added.. "One more thing, can I ask you to do me a HUGE favor?" Of course. "Will you be K-O tomorrow?" sure, chuckle; a momentary ugh flitted across my mind but being K-O really doesnt bum me out though it seems like it should. Then the big detail- the appearance was in Mansfield and I needed to be there by 8 or 8:15am. that's south of Foxboro. I have no idea why Tom asked me... out of the 3 of us who were coming in that day (today), I lived farthest away... by a long long long shot. By like 30-45 minutes. I just did a 2.5 hour appearance last Friday, and most normal appearances seem to run 30-60 min. Anyhow, maybe Tom has figured out that I'll do whatever he needs me to do. Or maybe I just happened to be the first person he asked.

So I was up by 6:30am this morning, already half-dressed to get out the door. Within 10 minutes of my alarm going off, I was in the car... trying to leave enough time for traffic/construction, one of which is ALWAYS an issue these days on I-95. This being Saturday, I actually didnt have any trouble. Kind of forgot about the part where I was hitting the highway on an early weekend morning. I met Nick there- Nick works in the front office and was accompanying K-O on this outing, which was a Relay For Life event. He's originally from around Bangor. The event itself was a piece of cake, especially after what I had been through in my other appearance. The tough part was that this one was outdoors, and I had to walk/run/shuffle around a track a few times in that huge gommy suit. I got my workout in for the day before I even got to the stadium. It was a fun time, and Nick got a pic of Pat the Patriot with me as K-O. I havent seen it yet but it's sure to be positively brimming with mascot camaraderie..

After that was done with, Nick offered to let me shower at his place (he lives about a minute away from the school we were at). So important. The film that coats my exposed skin upon exiting the K-O suit is smelly, but beyond that it's actually sticky, not just damp or wet like sweat. It dries and leaves this residue... I wont describe it any further, you get the point. Thank you again, Nick.

I was at Campanelli Stadium by 10. We did some detail-cleaning while we waited for the first high school championship game to start. Rain was an issue but it didnt cause any delays. We werent running the event, just there to be some extra hands if help was needed. I really just made sure that people werent smoking or going into the part of the stadium that was barricaded off. Made for a long day of standing, and I wished even more that I had been able to work yesterday instead or that everyone had been working today. Yes, we'd all be standing around, but we'd have people to stand around with. Ooh, we got free chicken fingers and fries! The fries are great there, and I'm generally not big on that stuff. And the chicken fingers are half of the conversation between all of us during a game... this was my first time trying them and I give em a nod, though they're pretty salty.
The most surreal moment of the day was when I noticed flashing police lights out beyond the bullpen in left field.  The cruiser was pulling through this small parking lot between two streets, and the grey SUV in front of it was crawling along at about 10mph- if that. Suddenly, the SUV peels out into the street and starts to make a getaway. I cant imagine who must have been driving. The cop car was seriously right on the SUV's tail... there's no way they were able to shake the cop.
There was a rain delay during the second game, finally, in the top of the 6th. They had us pull tarp, and 20 minutes later, we had to take it off again. I gave up trying to stay dry. You probably know that I hate getting my straight hair wet... as it turns curly at best, frizzy at worst... well, today was destined to be a horrible hair day given wearing the K-O head, showering without conditioner, letting my hair dry and having no straightener, and then being in the rain or drizzle for much of the day. ...but pulling the tarp on and off the field was as much fun as it was the first time I did it. I think that we were all just a little impatient, having stood around for the entire day and then with the whole on again off again tarp situation (it's a production) but the telling part of all this is that when the three of us were told that we could leave early, sometime in the 7th, I didnt really want to go. Yep, it was about 7:30pm and I'd been up and in work mode for at least 12 hours; still, I offered to stay if there was any possibility of them needing more than a few people to close the place up after the game. I hope they (Tom, Karissa, Nick) made it out of there alright... before I got home I hit a nasty storming raining mess.

Everything's good, I'm dry, I've eaten, and I'm off my feet. Hopefully my tarp-pulling sneakers will be dry by Monday. Our little group of 3 get to go in at 11 instead of 10 since we worked an extra long day (with the delay and all) but I cant imagine sitting around the house for that extra hour on Monday... I'll be awake and ready to go no matter what so I may as well go hang out with everyone else.

Here's an interesting aside.. I havent given much thought to the next Red Sox or Paw Sox game I'll be getting to. WHAT CAN THIS MEAN!? I'm sure I wont be away from either for too long but imagine that... something that could so entirely divert my attention. I love taking pride in what I do. I love believing in the "product" I'm endorsing. I love walking around a stadium all day long. etc, etc, etc.

Enjoying Massachusetts

I've been shuffling my life around since I last wrote- I think about posting at the end of most days but am usually too lazy to do so.

Pat and I had a good time in Los Angeles- he got to spend time with his friend Morgan, we went to the Grove, we caught a movie almost every day, took him to Universal City Studios, drove up the PCH, hit a Quakes game (of course!), Nadine treated us to a meal at the country club (she really liked Pat), we went to RealityLA (one last time)... ah, and watched the final episode of LOST before getting in a car to head to the airport. We spent that night at LAX and it was a sleepless one- Return of the King kept us more or less awake. That movie still gets me choked up.

Since it was the last Quakes game I would be going to, I left Pat to meet and talk with some of the pitchers who were sitting in the stands behind home charting the game. One in particular was Tyler Chatwood, and getting to know him was my goal for the night. Manaurys Correa and Matt Shoemaker were the other two, and I spoke with Manaurys quite a bit too. He and Tyler were the two nicest ballplayers I've ever had the chance to really converse with. Poor Pat- I sat with those guys for 5 or 6 innings! Very thankful that they were worth introducing myself to.

So now I'm here- hardly any thanks to Delta. I cant stand that airline. I have twice now arrived at my seat to find a significant amount of cookie crumbs on it. The overall cleanliness is subpar. The second leg of the journey from Salt Lake City to Boston was the most turbulent flight I've ever been on. I was so happy to touch down in Boston, albeit about an hour later than scheduled. I spent that night at my parents' house in Maine, drove up to my grandma's house (saw Joe in Bangor!) and stayed the night in Old Town, got up and drove down to pack my car at my parents' house and then drive a few more hours down to Cambridge to move in to my new room. I'm quite settled in- craigslist does it again- comfy papasan chair and large but room-sized fridge among several pieces of furniture acquired for cheap or free. I started with the Brockton Rox baseball team on June 1, but before that I caught a Red Sox game (vs KC, compliments of Jayne! mwah) and a couple (no, 3) Paw Sox games. That was quite a weekend- a Sunday game after my first service at Vineyard in many months (Michael Bowden started and did exceedingly well), manning a merch table for my friends in The Wrecking before/during a show that they had at McCoy after Monday's game, and then after work on Tuesday as the Paw Sox had a twitter/facebook friends promotion running that made it worthwhile! So far, the Red Sox are 0-1 in games I've attended this year... but the Paw Sox are 2-1! Huh.

The Rox gig has been a good time thus far. I have my eyes on the prize as they say, though I havent been put through the fire yet and wont be until our long homestand that's coming up in a week and a bit. I took my lunch out in the stands on my first day. You can probably imagine how happy this simple detail made me. I've been learning ticketing; I've been working with other interns to promote the team and distribute pocket schedules; and today I was KO, the mascot! They have a hired mascot for games, but everyone pitches in for appearances- today's was at an elementary school in Braintree where there were two reading award assemblies taking place. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to really describe the experience to you or not... suffice it to say that most of what I've heard from others is that being K-O is the least desirable job for a number of legitimate reasons. First off, from experience I can confirm that yes, it does get very hot in that costume. I was in there for about 2.5 hours today, and I may have well been swimming as sweat was pouring off me. Despite that, the heat wasnt overwhelming- I HAVE had heat stroke before, and I have been in other situations where I felt like I just couldnt go on- but this was just very warm. Ok, so besides the heat, it also smells. I wasnt sure what to expect along those lines, because I've heard tales from 4 or 5 other young adults who have paraded around in the costume, and we young people like our drama, our exaggerations :) Well, fair enough, it did smell bad- but having done athletics for my whole life, I quickly registered this smell as the "locker room" smell and moved on. Yes, smelly, but that smell hasnt phased me for many many years. Actually, those were the two big issues that had been talked about at length, and so I was very pleased that neither ended up bothering me much in the end. The tough part was seeing. The little mesh circle for breathing and seeing is not only small (and doesnt allow for peripheral, which made things interesting!) but is actually more situated where my nose and mouth are than where my eyes are, so out of the hundreds of kids I high-fived, fist-bumped and hugged today, I saw maybe a handful of them from the neck up. That was the part that got old, but I made it through and am happy to say that when (if) it's my turn again to be K-O, I wont have a problem making it happen. Nary a grumble will be heard from this mouth. In fact, I've started to think about how I can make it a better experience for me- maybe put some padding between my head and the top of the inside of the costume head so that my eyes are better lined up with the mesh. Anyhow. The most helpful thing was having another person there - my "escort" though I got laughed at by the principal (behind my back!) for calling John that. John is also with the Rox for the summer and when K-O goes out he is always accompanied by an "escort". John was instrumental in that I got him to kind of be my eyes, as I had tunnel vision. He'd tell me where different kids were coming from in the room, or let me know that someone behind me wanted a high-five, and he hopefully would have helped me not to fall on the steps I had to descend and climb from the stage to the cafeteria and back again (I had to do that at each ceremony- so much room for trouble but it went just fine!) Parents took pictures of me with their kids and it was surreal to think that I, as K-O, could end up in some family photo album- or somewhere on facebook!
By the way, if you're wondering what K-O looks like, you can see him on the front page of the Rox website: http://www.brocktonrox.com/
He's a kangaroo which is sweet.

Hmm. I felt like I had so much more to write about, but I guess I dont. I started watching Glee about 2 weeks ago and am all caught up- the season finale is on Tuesday. If you watch an episode you'll understand why I like it... very much up my alley with the whole singing thing. I wish I was good enough to be on that show, it looks like so much fun :)

I'm going to a Bocci BBQ tomorrow ... please no rain!! I'm pretty thrilled. My friend Heather is hosting and I havent really seen her in quite some time. Since I've been back I've had the chance to connect with some of my friends here... unfortunately, most of my close ones are guys and they're all getting married or in pretty serious relationships, so consequently their respective relationships with me are changing. Isnt this the story of my life?


Finally, I was informed by a pretty reliable (or perhaps conniving) source that my parents will be buying iPhones for the family in the near future. .......................