Wednesday Thoughts

We're already at the end of June, which means summer is a third of the way over. As you know, I love summer, so I really don't want to waste any of it. Time to assess where I'm at, summer wise.

So far this summer I've:

• Become addicted to bomb pops (I had four yesterday and was afraid my lips had permanently turned blue.)
• Gone to two Tigers games
• Been to Amococo (see pictures below)
• Played frisbee
• Gone swimming several times
• Gone to an olde timey baseball game at Greenfield Village
• Seen two fireworks displays
• Ridden my bike into the ground
• Saved a turtle
• Saw the New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys
• Been to Lake Michigan & Ludington

Goals for the rest of the summer:

• Go back to Ludington several more times and swim in Lake Michigan
• Ween myself off of bomb pops (sad face)
• See Strange fruit at the Ann Arbor summer festival. I saw them once a long time ago and they really were strange (but oddly, I saw no fruit.)
• Go the the Fourth of July celebration at Greenfield Village
• Attend the Ann Arbor Art Fair, even though I have a love/hate relationship with it
• Either go to the Grand Canyon or buy season 3 of the Brady Bunch and watch the three episodes where the Brady's go there, and live vicariously through them. (Though quite frankly, I'm tired of living vicariously through the Brady Bunch.)
• Attend a BBQ
• Go to Cedar Point (in the works)
• Survive a camping trip (you know how I feel about this)

...and so much more! What have you done this summer? What do you still want to do?

Happy Wednesday.

Olde Timey Baseball

Ever since Conan O'Brien went to (and thoroughly mocked) an olde timey baseball game, I have wanted to see one (here's the best link I could find to Conan's sketch - it is definitely worth watching). Today that dream became a reality when I went with some friends to Greenfield Village to see an authentic game: the Greenfield Village La-De-Dahs vs. the Columbus Buckeyes.

It far surpassed my expectations and what I'm about to say next might blow your mind: I enjoyed it more than a Tigers game. And I love Tigers games. Even the occasional shouts of "huzzah" couldn't get me down (yes, I still have an aversion to that word).

I'll paint you a picture: olde timey costumes, players ranging in age from 18-70, no mitts (ouch), stopping the game to wave at the passengers whenever the train went by, and here's the nicest part: when my friend and I walked past the announcer, he tipped his hat at us and said, "ladies." I've never felt like more of a lady.

As I was watching the game, I kept thinking, who are these olde timey baseball players? How did they get into it? It fascinates me when people pursue off the beaten path hobbies. If you could be a reenactor, what would you reenact?

These players were nice enough to offer their bats to Sarah and I for the picture.

In closing, today is my 7th day in a row of blogging. I figured I'd make it a full week and see how it felt. It was kind of fun! Heaven knows I have plenty to say - unfortunately, not all of it is necessarily blog worthy. I think I'll give you a little break from reading my daily thoughts but who knows... I may miss writing every day and do it again (insert evil laugh here).

Wednesday Thoughts

It's only July 7th, and I'm already tired of yelling "woohoo." Summer is the season of woohoo, I've decided. I've been forced to yell it at baseball games, concerts, summer festivals, and fireworks so far and there's more to come. I can't yell "woohoo" without feeling self conscious. I just feel silly. It seems that once you get on this side of 30 you should be allowed to simply clap. But that's never enough - you feel like a dud if you only clap. And everyone thinks you don't really care about baseball or you don't really support the Tigers if you don't cheer. "Make some noise," they say. So I cave. I don't want people to think I don't care. I've decided that a simple "woo" is less embarrassing than woohoo, but I still feel ridiculous. Am I alone in this? I can't be.

Ok, moving on. How was your 4th of July? Mine was fabulous. I went out of my way to try to be patriotic over the weekend. To start, I ate the most deliciously patriotic ice cream sundae ever. But if that's not patriotic enough, I wore the flag that came in the sundae in my hair on Sunday night while watching fireworks. Oh, and I bought an apple pie (which I did not end up eating, but that's neither here nor there). Top that.


I also got a very nice deep sunburn which I was going to post a picture of but won't. I showed Justin the picture yesterday, which is of the area just below my shoulder - showing the whiteness of where my bathing suit strap was and the redness around it. I asked him if the picture was appropriate to post and his expression told me it was not. Then his words confirmed what his expression told me. So no shoulder shot for you. I won't scandalize you like I did Justin, who by the way will no longer make eye contact with me. (I'm exaggerating, of course. He's over it - I'm the one who hasn't moved on.)

Anyway, I had a great weekend. I swam in the waves (one wave was so tough it yanked my pony tail holder, which was triple wrapped, right out of my hair!), I walked along the beach, I hiked the trails, floated down the river, watched fireworks on the beach, tested different kinds of smores, and bonded with friends. I hope you all had a wonderful 4th as well. I'd love to hear about it!

Happy Wednesday.

Easy in, easy out!

Today was opening day for the Tigers! The game was awesome, the weather was perfect, Kid Rock was there, and we had a great time. There was only one thing...Christi and I didn't arrive as early as we'd planned and our favorite parking lot (between the two abandoned buildings) was already full when we got there. This kind of threw us off our game, and not sure what to do, we circled the block looking for reasonably priced parking lots. And by lots I mean weedy empty land between gutted out abandoned buildings.

Suddenly, next to the lot we normally park in, some guy started waving us in yelling, "Easy in, easy out!" Two things worried us:

1) what gave this guy the authority to park us there? Was he homeless? He kind of looked homeless.

2) there were no other cars in that lot. Which brings me back to my first questions.

But he was so convincing. He kept nodding at us and smiling and waving in a way that said, "Yes, I know you suspect I have no right to park you here, but let's just put that behind us. Easy in. Easy out. You know you want to."

And we did. We did want to. We really wanted to. His lot was cheap-ish, close to a lot we trusted, and quite empty. So we did it. We took a risk, parked in an abandoned empty lot because some dude accepted our ten dollars to do it, and we went to the game.

The game was so good we almost forgot about the possibility of the car being gone (towed or worse) when we got there. But after we left the game it all came back. As we walked towards the lot I think I heard Christi mumbling, "please be there, please be there, please be there." She sighed a huge sigh of relief when we looked up and saw her car was still there - still the only one in the so-called lot, but still there.

I knew we could trust that guy. Plus, he was right. It couldn't have been easier to get both in and out.