Baseball and Friends

Last night, Jeremy and I got to go to an MLB baseball game with two of our closest friends, Brooke and Bryan.  It was an adventure, to say the least. 

Jeremy had been in Ocala working all week.  He worked nearly 70 hours in 4 1/2 days, so that gives you a clue as to how hard, and how long he was working up there.  He was ready to have a good time!  He literally drove in town, jumped out of his work van, and into Brooke and Bryan's car and we headed over to Miami. 

A few weeks ago, we realized that the rookie phenom pitcher I talked about a few weeks ago, Stephen Strasburg would be pitching against the Florida Marlins.  So, that was the occasion....we went to catch a glimpse of this new pitcher.

We had good seats, they were on the upper deck, but it was "the lower upper deck" as Bryan kept saying.  They were actually great...gave us a nice view of the field, we were right behind home plate.  So, we were only a few minutes late to the game, took our seats and started eating our hotdogs and chips. 

I'm not sure who was up to bat, but I had just placed a potato chip in my mouth and I heard the ball get hit.  I looked up and saw a ball coming straight for my face.  But, the whole time I kept thinking "Bryan said the ball would never make it up here, Bryan said the ball would never make it up here."  Brooke and Bryan (who were sitting to my left) never flinched.  As I realized the ball was coming my way and it was probably going to hit me, I pulled the bag of potato chips in front of my face, close my eyes and said "oooohhhhhh".  Then, I heard the hit of the ball against flesh, I flinch and was ready to let out a yell...but I realized it wasn't me the ball hit.  I opened my eyes and saw Jeremy reaching over in front of me and then I saw the lady in front of us jump up and down in jublilation from "catching" a foul ball.   For the next 10 minutes, all we could talk about was the ball coming up to us from our perspective.  I knew it was coming, and it probably would have hit me.  Bryan saw it coming, but again, he thought it would never make it to the upper deck.  I'm not sure Brooke even knew the ball was hit.  Jeremy also didn't see it hit.  He was putting his drink down, looked up, saw a ball and reached out his left hand.  It bounced off his hand and into the lap of the lady in front of us.  HE ALMOST HAD IT!!!!!  JEREMY ALMOST CAUGHT A FOUL BALL, PITCHED BY STRASBURG!!!  Wouldn't that have been cool?  Instead, it was an almost.  We all missed out.  In Jeremy's defence, I am certain that if he would have seen the ball coming a milisecond earlier, he would have had it, his arm went out in reflex and it just wasn't enough time.  But...it was exciting!

The rest of the game was fairly uneventful.  But, we had a great time laughing, sitting outside without taking "potty breaks" every 10 minutes or listening to whines of little ones wanting to go home.  We just got to relax together and watch a game.  It was good.

We basically got lost like 2 times on the way home.  But...I won't hound Bryan too much for that....none of us were paying attention.  HOWEVER, we were about 10 or 15 miles from the toll plaza in collier county, in the middle of the everglades on Alligator Alley.  We were all talking, I don't remember what about.  I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of the sentence when I hear 'DOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGG".  Then the car lurched to the left and swerved back to the right.  It was really scary.  I didn't see anything, but apparently there was a dog....A DOG!!!!!....in the middle of the road, in the middle of Alligator Alley, in the middle of the Everglades!  Bryan missed him, I don't know how, but he did.  We did not go off the road, we did not hit the dog...and for the second time that night, after about 15 minutes of non-stop talking and adrenaline rush, we were ok. 

It was a fun night, with a fun set of friends.  We are thankful that we have friends we can hang out with, laugh with, sit with and just enjoy...both with kids around, and without.