Long weekend, this one. I got back last night from an overnight trip to New Jersey. My good friend JY's son IY plays college baseball, and his team is playing a series in New Jersey this weekend, so I met JY and our other friend DK and his daughter EK out there to watch IY pitch. He's a reliever, so it's unclear if or when or how much he will pitch on any given night. If you want to watch him play specifically, which is what we wanted, then it's a bit of a dice roll.
Luckily, our number came up. In fact, it couldn't have worked out better. Friday night, with us all in attendance, he came into the game in the 7th inning with his team up 3-0, and he threw three innings, giving up just one run, on one hit (a solo homer), striking out six, and walking zero (although he did bean a guy). It was a dominant performance, and it was really cool to watch. Here's a kid I used to play Wiffle Ball with when he was a three foot tall toddler, running around in nothing but a pull-up, and now he's a six foot six behemoth getting the save in a D1 college baseball game. Like I said, it's really cool.
I was worried it wasn't going to happen, because the starting pitcher had a no-hitter going into the sixth inning, but then he gave up a hit and walked a guy, and it looked like he was going to come out soon. (DK and I were half-jokingly imploring the manager to pull him from our seats in the stands -- C'mon, skip, he's looking a little tired; let's get a fresh arm in there -- which cracked up JY, even though he was shushing us, because he knows all the other parents, and didn't want anyone to think we were rooting against their kid.) IY had been warming up in the bullpen, which means he would almost certainly be the next pitcher in, but then it started to rain, kinda hard, and I was worried the umpire would call the game. But he didn't, the rain gradually abated, and we all got to see what we came for.
After the game, we all went out to eat, but it was on the late side (9:30 pm), and a lot of places were closing soon, so it was slim pickings. We went to this Cuban joint, but it was not the vibe we were looking for. The menu was way fancier/pricey than what anybody wanted, and the music was so loud it was giving me a headache. It's difficult to overstate how high the volume was in this place. It was like dining on a dance floor. So, we pulled a move I think I've only pulled one other time in my entire life, we just left after we had already been seated. We had even ordered drinks already, but just soft drinks, so they didn't even charge us (although JY said they seemed offended that we were leaving).
It turned out to be the right move. We went to a place that wasn't Smash Burger, but was just like Smash Burger, and it was much more suitable to us at that moment. I got a double stack, and it was really good. I hadn't eaten a burger like that in long time, and it really hit the spot. DK's car somehow got a flat tire, and he didn't have a spare,* so throughout our dinner adventure, he was dealing with AAA. Thankfully, a tire guy came out relatively quickly and fixed it, so it wasn't that big a setback. Hat's off to EK, by the way, she was a trooper throughout everything, including sitting in the gloom and rain for hours at a baseball game (I don't think she's a fan, being that at one point I overheard DK explaining to her what a walk is) and sitting outside a parking garage with her dads' friends waiting for a tire to get changed. I don't think those are a 14-year-old girl's idea of an ideal Friday night.
*He did have one of those spray cans that inflate your tire and seal it, but he didn't realize it until after he got it changed. It's probably better to get it changed, anyway. He had to get up at the crack of dawn the next day and drive several hundred miles, and I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable doing that on a jimmy-rigged tire.
JY took the red-eye in from Seattle that morning, so he was quite tired, and he's always been an asleep-when-the-head-hits-the-pillow type of guy, anyway, so he zonked out as soon as we got back to the hotel and started snoring very loudly. Thankfully, I was prepared. I'm such a fussy sleeper that I always travel with earplugs, and between those and the white noise playlist on Spotify I was able to drown out the sound of logs being sawed and get a bit of shuteye. I didn't get a great night's sleep, mind you, but it was passable. It apparently wasn't as good as JY's, as he was raving about his Fitbit sleep metrics the next morning.
I decided to drive back Saturday afternoon. Originally, I was thinking of staying another night, but since I had already seen IY pitch (and there's no way he would throw two days in a row), I figured I should get back. It would have been fun to hang out with JY another night, for sure, but I knew S was struggling at home (for reasons that will be revealed in a minute), and I also didn't want to get another night of hotel sleep and then drive back in the morning and then coach Lil' S2's football game (which starts in an hour and a half) and take him to his baseball game after that. I knew I'd be anxious about it the entire night, which would make it even harder to sleep. It was the right move, as I was completely wiped by the time I got home last night. I was not in condition to do anything other than sit on the sofa.
S was even more tired than I was because she had to pick up Lil' S2 two from a field trip at 1:15 am. No, that's not a typo. He took a class trip to NYC, and they left at 6:30 am and got back at 1:15 am. S is a morning person who is usually in bed by 9:00 pm, and she was already feeling a little under-the-weather, so this was especially hard on her. She was being cool about me going to New Jersey, because she knows I don't get opportunities to see these friends that much, but I knew she could use some relief. Also, I'm already going to be out of town all of next weekend (my annual crossword puzzle tournament), and I really didn't want to stick her with all the parenting duties for two full weekends in a row. So, I made the call to bail early. There are no solutions in life, only tradeoffs.
Alright, that's all I got for today. Last thing I'll say, however, is that Lil' S1's solo trip to Florida to visit my in-laws worked out very well. I picked him up at the airport for his return flight and got a special gate pass and met him as soon as he stepped off the jetway. He had icing on his face from a doughnut he bought at the airport in Florida, and I'm sure he did nothing but stare at his screens the entire flight, but he made it there and back safely and soundly, and that's by far the most important piece of this whole endeavor.
Until next time...