Day 4 - Listen

I like watching baseball, playoff baseball in particular. Live at the ballpark is my favorite, but watching from home on TV is also fun for me. Even better than the watching, though, is the listening.

We are fortunate in DC to have a FANTASTIC pair of radio people - Charlie (Slowes) and Dave (Jagler). They really bring the game to life with details and then an array of facts and baseball trivia and interesting tidbits to fill in all the in between. 

I let the girls listen when they go to bed if there's a game on. We listen when we're in the car. And I keep the radio up and the TV down when the Nats are on TV here. Charlie and Dave are my favorite baseball companions. 

Late last season, the Nats did a giveaway of a radio lanyard. This clever thing is a lanyard with a small radio built into a reversible single headphone. The wonder of this is that with it, while you are live at the ballpark, you can put Charlie and Dave right in your ear, no delay. It lets you get the detail you missed when watching. It lets you hear what's going on when you can't quite figure it out from the stands (he was ejected? why? ) I also use it when I want to tune out the chatter from some folks sitting around me. 

I listen to Charlie and Dave almost every night of the season when I am not at the ballpark. This year I have LOVED being able to listen to them while I am live there also. 

I got my hands on a few extras - one for each of the girls. A used it while we were at the Wild Card game this week and said it helped her track stuff better as well. Big win all around for the added gift of listening to the radio live at the ballpark.

Day 3 - Problem

Today's prompt is PROBLEM.  And I have a problem ... I am drawing a blank here. Interesting. I usually reason so hard and through so many permutations when trying to think through solutions that I wear myself to the point of exhaustion.

Today - the opposite. My brain is off. Perhaps that's too many late nights in a row (thanks playoff baseball - YAY and too much homework on practice nights for the girls - BOO). 

I am amused - it's been a long time since I felt like there was NOTHING happening in my brain. Sure sign I need to go to bed.

Although - another positive of my lack of topical thought here, I guess, is that there aren't any major pressing problems in my inner brain circle tonight. That should make a restful night in a few minutes. (CHEERING!!!).

So, with that I'll say - glad I made the effort to throw a few non important words on the page tonight to keep the streak going. That will help me want to write tomorrow. And keep me on track for all 31 days.

Goodnight friends.

Day 2 - Gift

Last night was a baseball game here in DC. My favorite team playing in a one game winner-take-all Wild Card game.

with our friend K, (left) before the game

Baseball as I've often written is my safe space. When I need to reset my brain (redirect, actually) or when I need to do some hard thinking, I do it best at the ballpark.

None of that was happening last night. The whole night was super intense. At least for me. My youngest got to come along with me. Oldest had a game with her varsity team and she made the right (if hard) choice to stay with the team. 

the view from our seats as the Nationals celebrated their win

We trekked down to the ballpark, smooshed in our little Subaru outback with friends. We watched the ebb and flow of the game. The horror of the early home runs against us. The glee of the home run as we tried to come back. The middle innings of good pitching and NO HITTING.  And then as we were down to our final 5 outs, the tide turned. You can read about it and listen to the radio call. 

And after it had turned, and the crowd roared all through it - the loudest I've ever heard my ballpark in person, and after the last fly ball was caught, we exhaled. And we screamed. We cheered and high-fived with strangers. A playoff win. A move forward to the next round.

a bunch of my in real life Nats friends, cheering with the win! 

And the gift of celebrating it with real life friends and stranger but family fan friends. There is little that compares to a playoff win. And the joy that comes when you share it? A gift of a memory to last a lifetime.

Day 1 - Why

Well, this is an appropriate prompt to start with! Why write? Why share my words from my head with friends (or even random internet strangers)? 

For me, sometimes I write (when I make the time) to help make sense of the jumble of thoughts in my brain. Sometimes it is to record some things we did so that I can share with my family (see the unfinished spring break posts) and friends so that I don't repeat myself, or so that far away friends can see and share in our adventures. Or so that I don't forget a memory that I later want to share with the kids. 

Occasionally I write because I am bored and need to refocus on something. Or because I've been meaning to call and catch up with someone but due to time zones and crazy schedules, it is ALWAYS the wrong time to call them. My bestie lives in Seattle.  I don't need to wake her at 4:12a just to ask how her kids are adapting to new schools. She would answer, every time I call, but that is hardly an emergency. So instead I write an email.

And sometimes I write here because it helps me keep a commitment or dust off some rusty skills that may need to be re-engaged. Maybe there's something I need to let out that I can't even put my finger on yet.  Or maybe I just need to see if I cam muster up the energy to make this a regular habit again. I was on a roll for a while and then for 2 years --- ZILCH. And I have missed the writing. And I have missed hanging out with the FMF community on Thursday nights. Life got in the way. 

As fall arrives this year, and I think about what 2019 has brought so far, it's brought a lot of new connections, but also a reminder that there are some old connections I have been missing more than I realized.  So thanks, Kate, for this chance to oil the rusty joints and reach back out to the FMF fun. Glad to be back.  And glad to see the why can still drive me to action.

31 Days of Five Minute Friday

Dusting off the keys again. And wading into the 31 days writing challenge again.  Not sure how it will go, but maybe it will get me back into a writing groove.  (Maybe I will finish the spring break 2017 posts.... )   We shall see.

Anyway, this year, I am joining Kate and the Five Minute Friday crowd, for 31 days of Five Minute Friday posts.  5 minutes a day - of whatever comes to mind on the topic presented.  This will be the landing page, where all the posts of this exercise can be found.  I've tried it 2 or 3 times before, and I seldom make it past day 10, but I have some energy and motivation this time to try and get to the end. Once I get there, it's wedding day!  (for my brother, not me).  So we can conclude, have a fun weekend and then maybe I will circle back and share the amazingness of welcoming Michelle to our family.

See below for the planned adventure of this month. And come join us on any day you like.  Cheers to a new month of fun with some of my favorite on line writing pals.

----------------
Day 1 - Why
Day 2 - Gift
Day 3 - Problem
Day 4 - Listen
Day 5 - Other
Day 6 - Notice
Day 7 - Same
Day 8 - Gather
Day 9 - Join
Day 10 - Scored
Day 11 - Deep
Day 12 - First
Day 13 - Reach
Day 14 - Voice
Day 15 - Open
Day 16 - Avoid
Day 17 - Consistent
Day 18 - Active
Day 19 - Strong
Day 20 - Tell
Day 21 - Person
Day 22 - Sense
Day 23 - Need
Day 24 - Different
Day 25 - Wait
Day 26 - Accept
Day 27 - Better
Day 28 - Rest
Day 29 - Practice
Day 30 - Memory
Day 31 - Enjoy

Practice (Five Minute Friday)

Go.

Hello friends. Dusting off the keys after (gasp) a few YEARS and trying to get back at it. Seems fitting the first time I make time to write, the prompt is practice. Lord knows I am out of practice with writing. And also out of practice with keeping up with this community.

Seems high time I jump back in. I've been feeling the needling to write, and have been pushing it down. Not really sure why. But then it seems I needed more than just a nudge. And I love how that was provided in the form of a Five Minute Friday in real life encounter.  (On a Tuesday - which also seems fitting - since I seldom wrote on Friday, why would we meet on a Friday??)

About 2 weeks ago I traveled from the DC area to Phoenix for a friend's wedding. Any my guy and I decided to take advantage of our time out west and add some vacation exploration onto the trip. So we started in Flagstaff. Which as it turns out is less than 2 hours from where dear FMF friend Anita lives. She decided that if I could traverse the country, she would bridge the final few miles.

So that is how these two internet strangers came to spend a Tuesday afternoon laughing in a Starbucks along historic Route 66. Thanks, Anita, for coming to meet me. And for the wonderful conversation and afternoon of laughter. A little catching up, and a little getting to know you a little bit more. And a little nudge to dust off the keys.

Pleased to report that after that visit, and a terrific vacation with so many reminders of the wonder of friendship, I'm hopefully back at it here with a little more consistency.  So, some catching up to so (including the end of that 2-17 spring break trip - HA HA) and some other things to explore, and whatever else the prompts throw our way this year.

Stop.

Anita (L) and Jen (R)

Spring Break Days 4 and 5

somewhere in Connecticut.
anyone know why the signs have
those teeth on the edges?

Tuesday morning, we slept in (are you seeing a pattern? This is a good vacation pattern) and then took a quick walk to Starbucks for breakfast. Could we have found a little local place? Sure. Did we? Nope. Because this was easy and walkable and everyone was happy. Grabbed one last fun photo with the Empire State Building, loaded up the car, took one last spin through the fancy revolving door, and onward towards Boston.   Traffic was a bear for a few blocks. Then we got on the FDR parkway (FDR drive?) and all was well. We moseyed through Connecticut  and then on the Massachusetts Turnpike, and then into Boston.  Final destination: The Verb Hotel.  This was a fairly easy leg. We arrived in Boston early in the afternoon.


The Verb is Fenway Park's next door neighbor. We could see the brick wall out our window. It's a retro style little hotel and the girls were fascinated by the record player in our room. We picked out a few albums from the lobby and gave it a whirl. Once they understood how it worked, they had a blast changing the tunes. The Beatles (I don't recall which album) and a Disney greatest hits were their favorites.  It was a gorgeous day in Boston so we went for a leisurely walk to meet some friends for dinner. We hit Copley Square and a few other sights on the way.  Our dinner destination was a restaurant called Picco.

This was by far the most anticipated moment of the trip for the girls. They had seen an episode of some show on the Food Network in which they featured the top 5 chocolatiest desserts in America. I think they saw it over a snow day or winter weekend. Anyway, they begged me to check out and see if the Boston restaurant was a place we could go. Thank you, Google ... it looked like a little mom and pop pizza joint, and walkable from our hotel. So we decided to add this to our itinerary. We have some Nats friends who live in Boston and we invited Mr. Dan and Mr. Steve to join us for the Picco adventure. Reminder, this dinner was all about dessert.  We trekked down to the restaurant and put our name on the wait list. (Not a long wait. Maybe 30 minutes on a Tuesday evening.) We got there a little earlier than the planned meetup, so this worked well. The 3 of us sat down on the sidewalk with our MadLibs book and a pencil and settled in to wait. Mr. Dan arrived soon after, and joined in the MadLibs fun. (Side note, this has yielded many post spring break fun tweets with fill in the <PLURAL NOUN> and lots of <ADJECTIVE> laughing.  I think I need a whole post about MadLibs but I will put a few pages here in the photos.) Mr. Steve was the last to arrive and he, too, hopped into the MadLibs adventure.  When our table was ready, we headed inside and settled in with menus. The girls wanted to order something large, but I reminded them of dessert, and they quickly changed the plan. We ordered a pizza to share, and Mr. Dan and Mr. Steve each ordered an individual pizza. After we finished pizzas (they were tasty!) it was time for dessert. The LONG ANTICIPATED DESSERT.  We got dessert menus and spied out the "thing" of interest. It was some kind of homemade chocolate chip brownie square, that came with your choice of ice cream flavor plus whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top. We ordered two of these to share (different ice cream flavors) and then Mr. Steve also tried a beer float.  (Which was also tasty for the adults to share). 2 sundaes, 5 spoons.  There was nothing left. Better than anticipated and there were high expectations to be met.

my turn at MadLibs

the spoons

before

after

the gang

After we ordered dessert, while we were waiting for the sundaes to be assembled, Mr. Dan breathed a huge sigh of relief and then shared a story with us. We were seated across the table from each other. Turns out, the wall behind me and the girls had some menu items listed on a chalkboard. Including what appeared to be the whole dessert menu. Mr. Dan knew that we'd been looking for this special dessert and nothing on the dessert menu on the wall looked even remotely like something that would warrant a feature on the Food Network. He spent the entire meal dreading the moment we would get to the dessert menu and realize there wasn't anything special available at all. He said he was contemplating how he could throw some money on the table for dinner and run out of the restaurant before the inevitable meltdown arrived :-)    Thankfully, the printed dessert menu had the special feature and the mad dash was avoided. We all got a good laugh out of that.  Dan and Steve drove us back to our hotel and we settled in for the night.

Our Fenway view room provided entertainment far into the evening. We tuned into the Red Sox game on the TV and then muted the sound. Since the TV is about 19 seconds delayed, we could hear a big cheer and then know when to look up and watch the play go down on our screen. The girls started to get the hang of hearing a home run / good hit crowd cheer as compared to a long fly ball crowd cheer.  My favorite part was the singing of Sweet Caroline in the 8th inning. You could hear the whole ballpark singing along and I was happy to contribute my voice in the room.  After the last out, we turned the lights out as Wednesday was going to be an early-ish day.

our evening view

Wednesday we woke up to another beautiful day. A little chillier than Tuesday, but still sunny and pleasant for early April. We took a tour of Fenway Park and heard a lot about the history of the ballpark and some interesting trivia. The girls filed away a lot of fun facts to pull out when watching the game Wednesday night. S's favorite part of the tour was sitting in the original wooden seats. A's favorite part was sitting atop the Green Monster.  After the tour, we stopped in the team store to get some postcards to mail to friends back home and then we headed out for lunch. The plan was to grab lunch and then walk down to take a Duckboat tour. We passed an ice cream shop that was next to a burger place. The girls asked for ice cream. I made them a deal that we would eat at the burger place and then get ice cream before we walked on to the Duckboat. The sky was starting to cloud over, but for the moment it was still dry. The girls agreed to the plan ... and it worked. Until we saw the "Freaky Frappes" on the menu. In this case, Frappe was a fancy name for a milkshake. The girls ordered milkshakes, and when they arrived, the ice cream plan was abandoned. I have NEVER seen a milkshake like this in all my life. The top of the glass was rolled in cake icing with sprinkles. They were huge and sugary and delicious. The girls did manage to eat a little actual lunch as well, and then off we continued to the Duckboat.  Just as we got on the duck, it started to sprinkle. Not to worry - we pulled down the windows and enjoyed the tour of the city. This was a good way to get a little history and see a few things and still have a quiet afternoon after the ride. Our tour guide was fun and the girls learned a lot. We all loved the conversion into a boat and our journey along the river. When we got back at the end of the ride, we took a cab back to the hotel because of the rain. We nestled in at the hotel for a nap. By the time we were ready to go to the Red Sox game, the rain had passed and it turned out to be a great, if cold, night for baseball.

We met up with a few friends at the game: Doug, Allan, and Allan's son K. The 6 of us enjoyed the game, despite the Red Sox loss. The girls enjoyed the little side stories that we had learned during the tour. The favorite was watching the scoreboard. If you don't know, Fenway Park has a manually operated scoreboard at the bottom of the Green Monster. There's the in-game section (managed by person A), the American League out-of-town scoreboard (managed by person B) and the National League out-of-town scoreboard (managed by person C). The first 2 segments are handled from within the Green Monster. But when they added the seats on top, the concrete support column came down and blocked the internal access to the National League board. So person C has to use a stepladder (for the top rows) and has 2 minutes and 20 seconds in between each half inning to run out of the Green monster, change all the scores, and get back inside. The girls watched this with great amusement and amazement.  He made a few errors that night and we watched the Braves score go backwards (wouldn't it be nice if that happened in real life. LOL) a couple of times when he placed the wrong game score on that game. We all sang along to Sweet Caroline and my kiddos thought I was nuts. (They are not necessarily wrong).

After the end of the game, we walked back to our room across the street, said farewell to our friends, and snuggled in for one more night.

Day 4 mileage: depart NYC at mile 300, arrive in Boston mile 517.  Day 5 mileage: zero. All on foot, duckboat, or taxi.

Fenway during the tour

all of us on top of the Green Monster

freaky frappes

feets with Tessie

with Tessie, in our David Price shirts

see the scoreboard guy?

with Allan and K

with Doug

MadLibs

MadLibs 2

our stamp!