You make lemonade. Or so they say, whomever the fuck 'THEY" is... I wonder if "THEY" is related to "THEM!", you know, the giant ants in that awesome 50's movie?! If "THEM!" is giant ants, maybe "THEY" are giant mutated ultra smart lab rats, who believe in jesus, as, that adage is pretty optimistic, and one thing Jesus was was optimistic. For rats to be saying stuff like that, I feel a healthy belief in Jesus, parred with lab experiments by the government to make them smart, well, you can just finish my imagination from there.
Anyways, that adage came to mind last night cause, I had, for 2 months now, pretty much like the first or second week I had moved out here, wanted to go hit up that race at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale. I told my gf about it, she agreed. But with her being sick this week, and with her struggling to get into work yesterday, I decided, ANY time outside wouldn't be helpful for her, as, there was a fan walk at 12 to meet the drivers and get autographs, than at 2 I believe they started the qualifying and the races started at 4. Not 100% sure, but you get the picture.
Side note, I'm like 2 miles from Auto Club Speedway, thats the 2 mile track that NASCAR has races at, and something must be going on testing, cause, while I"m in the bathroom, I can hear cars tear assing around that track. It reminds me of home, cause, on quiet days, and especially at night, I could hear the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) trains. Actually alot more soothing that you would think.
But, so I decided Weds that it prolly wouldn't be a good idea that my gf be outside at all as shes getting over her flu. Apparently that was the wrong way to think, because last night I was informed that she was spending all morning and into the afternoon... OUTSIDE fixing sprinklers. The amount of time she would've been outside for the races I planned to see TWO MONTHS AGO (not counting being in a heated car if need be), she wound up doing something. I mean I COULD be wrong here, but, if the option was to fix spinklers, or to go to a race I asked her to go to 2 months ago.... shouldn't the race have won?
How this pertains to my Lemons comment, well, I was kinda upset, but, that I realized that this gave me the oppertunity to come on here and discuss some past sporting events I have been to, specifically with a friend of a long time, Shelley, and, her wonderful husband, whom I have also counted as a good friend since I met him.
Shelley worked with me at the heartless drug chain, Shelley is a good person, shes the one, it seemed to me, that actually CARED when speaking about the people I worked with her position, the other, we'll call him, HearLess, didn't give shit #1. Meaning, Shelley would bust her ass all night to make sure everything got done, would stay late to make sure the following shift would be able to understand everything, while HearLess, he slept on AVERAGE 4 hours a night on his shift, as if THAT wasn't breaking the rules ENOUGH, he'd leave his highly sensitive area OPEN when he was in the bathroom or the breakroom or whatever, luckily, no customer ever took advantage of this, well, as far as I know. Shelley is a good caring person, which made it all the more awesome that when she started dating Andy, her husband, he turned out to be such a great guy, on top of that, Andy is a Marine. Don't want to say EX, since, while I haven't served in the armed forces, I think that "Once a marine, always a marine" is a mantra they live by. So, if you read this, stop now, and say thank you to Andy for taking the time out of his life, to serve and protect our wonderful country. Anyone that does that is a hero. On a side note, its pretty cool cause one of the places Andy served is the home area of my gf's mom's family.
Back to it tho. I knew Andy was kick ass from the first time we met, and was of course excited that my friend found someone like that. I enjoy when my friends find kick ass people to date. Shelley and Andy are NY Mets fans, and thats one of the (many) things they bonded over. Myself, I used to play baseball, and, while I find baseball kinda boring to watch, nothing made me happier than going once a year with Shelley and Andy to watch the NY Mets play my favorite team, Cinnicinnati Reds. For me, its always a good time and fun to spend time with my friends, and when its something we both enjoy, it makes it all that much more fun.
So, we used to pick a game to go to once a year, most of the time we'd hit up the afternoon game, whenever they played the Reds, even if the games seemed to land in the middle of the week, one of the games was early. There is many stories that I get a chuckle out of everytime I think about going to these games, heres a few.
One of the times we went, the Reds had a hot new rookie playing, Ryan Freel, whom since that time has labored in the minors, playing for independant league teams, which is funny, cause Shelley and Andy are big Long Island Ducks fans, and one of those games I went to with them, he was playing I believe, anyways, Ryan comes up to bat, and all of a sudden you hear a gravely voiced woman screaming "Lets go Freel!!!" Hey, works for me, I'm a reds fan, but, why it's funny is cause we're at Shea Stadium, the home of the Mets, and pretty much its quiet when he's coming up to bat, so I'd suggest the whole stadium could hear her.... Side note, thankfully the Y Mets fans aren't complete fucking douchebags like Yankees fans or NY Ranger fans, cause if you did something like root for another team at their stadiums, the fans acost you, and not to your FACE mind you, but, by throwing things at your BACK or ganging up on your with other fans.... trust me I know, I went to see the St Louis Blues play the Rangers.... and I'm a St Louis Blues fan.... but thats a story for another time. But, what made this funny was, the woman was so drunk THAN.... but all game she just continued to get drunker, and drunker... and louder and louder.... it went from being like... ok shes rooting for him, to being kind of obnoxious, to being so ridiculously laughable that we weren't the only ones laughing.... ah, crazy drunks at the ball park.
Another time, actually both the next 2 stories, we were on the third base line, first row with an Aisle in front of us, so we could lean on the railing if we choose to, or put our feet up without really bothering anyone....
But, we're watching the game, and, low and behold, here comes a foul ball, kind of a looper, Andy, glove at ready is watching it, but, it fell short of where we were sitting, and, bounced on the aisle in front of us.... all you see is this gaggle of people go DIVING for this foul ball all over the concrete aisle, bodies piling up.... one of these people, an asian man, looking like a tourist, but, he had, what at that point, looked like a top of the line digital camera... not one of those small rectangle/square type ones mind you, you know those ones in 2011 that look like the 35MM cameras of yore, with removable and changeable lens and such? one of THOSE hanging from his neck.... and, when that foul ball came into the vicinty of the aisle... he must have forgotten that he had that thing on his neck, cause he dove into that pile for that ball like it was nobodys business.... can't say for sure here, but the way he was looking at that camera afterwards, well, seems to me it was broken.... the worst part is? He didn't come away with that foul ball.... poor guy.
Which leads me to my next story, if it's one thing people suggest when going to the ball park, but, doesn't seem like most people follow it.... when your there PAY ATTENTION!!! We're chilling relaxing and such, and, here comes another foul ball our way.... again, we're on the railing, aisle in front of us, and an old man, sitting in the last row before the aisle, his seat back is up against the concrete of the aisle, not paying attention to the game, but chatting away...... foul ball.... hard line drive... hits him right in the shoulder.... now the reaction is what was the best part, it hummed at this guy, hit him HARD in the shoulder, and, when it hit him, it kinda just startled him, he was looking around like... "huh? wtf?" ...... it took a good 4 or 5 seconds before he realized what happened, and, just if the dumbfounded look on his old face wasn't enough, he pulled a child like maneouver.... after realizing what happened.... he than started acting like he was in pain... needless to say the first minute or 2, he kinda was so dumbfounded, that it was laughable.... but, like a child when they get hurt, he didn't start ACTING like he was hurt till he noticed people looking at him, and until people started asking him if he was alright. My opinion is, that he noticed most of the people laughing at him for being a dumbass and not paying attention, and then decided to act like he was hurt so they people laughing at him would feel bad they were laughing. Needless to say, I'm kind of an asshole, so I continued to laugh, and, am getting a huge chuckle out of thinking about his face that day.... what a lessoff.
One of my favs tho is one year we get to the park and start looking for our seats. Shelley and Andy always bought the tickets when they first went on sale, mostly cause I'm a scatterbrain and would forget, so, thankfully when you have friends that aren't stupid like you, they remember these things.... so, we're walking around Shea, looking for our gate and such, and, were sitting just about where the seats end above the bullpen at Shea... We take our seats, and, what do we see? Shelley sitting down, and having to deal with having a HUGE pole between her legs all game.... her seat was LITERALLY directly behind the foul pole.... had to laugh everytime I looked over to talk to her that day.
One of the best parts about moving out here was that I got to spend alot more time specifically with Shelley and Andy before I left. It was awesome, cause, a few months before I left they finally took the big step of buying a house, and, I got to help them move... while they were thanking ME the whole time, it's really more of a me thanking them situation, there is nothing better than spending time helping people you love, and getting to just spend TIME with them. I could keep going on and on and on, but, my asscheeks are getting numb...
So, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, as my friends the mutated smart Jesus freak rats would say, while I feel cheated I won't get to see that race today, live OR on TV, as they don't have the Speed Channel on their cable package, it's fine. Getting to think about my friends, Shelley and Andy, make it ok. So many funny stories, so little time.
