Did That Just Happen?

Today has been a bad day in terms of weather. It is winter time, but today has been exceptionally poor; the snow has been constant, the wind bone chilling, and the temperature numbing.

Big Red, Hedman and myself had just finished throwing around some weight in the gym (Hedman was throwing around less, but doing his fair share), and we were on our way back to the car. We had decided to take the long route to the parking lot because the snow had filled the path that is the short cut to the parking lot. Deciding to not be the trailblazers that sacrificed the dryness of our pants to reconstruct the short cut, the longer route was deemed a better decision.

Turns out it was a good decision.

Big Red and I had been waiting at the lights to cross the road and were observing cars drive by at speeds not conducive to the poor weather conditions. As the light turn orange there were two cars preparing to turn into campus. One was making a right turn, the other a left. Both cars seemed to ignore the existence of the other, and had decided to make their turns.

I had been just starring off into space, when the silence was broken by Big Red asking "is this about to happen?" As I looked up to observe these two cars starting their turns, I responded simply "yup".

The car making the left turn was a small sedan while the right turning vehicle was a truck that towered over the left turning vehicle. Both vehicles attempted to turn into the one lane road into campus, when both back ends started to fish tail.

CRASH!

"Did that just happen?" Big Red inquired. I nodded in agreement that we had just witnessed a minor accident.

The young lady got out of her car and was hysterical that she had just been hit by the older man in the truck. "Did you just hit my car you..." insert a slew of expletive language to finish her sentence. The old man was much more calm about the situation, and asked if the girl was alright or injured. After being assured that nobody was hurt, the two pulled up the road a bit to begin exchanging information.

The long route turned out to be a good decision, because we were able to witness two examples of poor driving and bad judgement. Drive safe.

Cherry Popper

Well here it is everyone. My stories are finally going to be published, and I figure I am doing service for the people I know, and society in general, by writing them down. I've joked with my friends for a few years that my life should be documented, and that I should write a book; this is the first step.

I've been known to drink at inappropriate times, make fun of posers and idiots, indulge upon every opportunity I can that allows me to have fun, and ignore the consequences that result. I am much more responsible of a person than this makes me sound, but I try to live my life 90 feet at a time.

Let me take a second, well more than a second, to explain the title of my blog. I am a student athlete, a baseball player to be specific. Baseball has been, next to family, the most consistent part of my life. But, after a few disappointing occurrences around the game, I was ready to retire. Hang'em Up!

I spoke to my mother about this, and I remember the conversation exactly: "baseball has been air to you since you were 4 years old, what has replaced air?" I thought about that as the conversation continued, "just because you can't have baseball in this way, doesn't mean you can't still play. Why not give it one more year, season..." the fall season is what she was referring too, "and if you still don't enjoy it, then stop playing."

She then dropped a bush league line to end the conversation "C'mon, do it for your Mama!"

On the scale of the things that your mother can ever ask of, clean your room, put away your dishes, don't stay out too late, chew with your mouth closed, take that chewing tobacco out of your mouth, to play a game for a few more weeks is probably the easiest of her requests.

So I decided to give it one more go.

What resulted was one of the best seasons of baseball I have ever been a part of. Everyday, we showed up at the "yard", put in our work and shot the shit. And for the first time in my entire life, I played on a team where top-to-bottom everyone got along, the first actual team I ever played with. These are The Lords....aren't we sexy?

The cohesiveness showed on the field, we won, and we won, and we won. What made it better almost, is that we lost some games we shouldn't have. It made the wins taste that much sweeter. And the bus trips, the bus trips were epic. The most memorable line of the season came from one of my good buddies on the team during a "who has the hairiest ass" contest. Conceding defeat without even competing, I made the comment "my ass is like my face" referring to the ability to grow hair, my good friend responded with "your ass has a goatee?" The bus erupted into laughter.

But I have digressed a bit. Over the 8 week season, the team had its ups and downs, and rallied around them all. We won the provincial championship, and the veterans on the team claim that this is the best Lords team that they have ever been on. We were essentially a game away from becoming national champions.

But through all of that, the most important thing I walked away with, was a renewed love of the game. This season with the Lords represented everything that is good about baseball, and why it is so perfectly imperfect; kind of like life.

This season provided me with a great group of friends as well, and a has started me on a path of self-acceptance, realization, and given me even more confidence (the jury is still out on whether that is a good thing or not). I am a Lord, and I live my life with my teammates day in and day out. We go to class just to pass the time between opportunities for fun.

So now that you have a better understanding of the title, this is where you can find my stories about the adventure that is my life.

So thanks to CMO for giving me the inspiration to start writing this blog after continually reading his blog (check it out at http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/) and my Mom for begging me to keep playing, I've reached a point in my life where I have never felt more assured about myself just because I was willing to "do it for my mama". Thanks also goes out to my friends that are there for all the 90 foot intervals, hup hup hup flip it and row and then we can do it live!

And to everyone else, I hope you enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoy living them.

Later Days!