fun at angels' stadium

So today . . . we went to an angels' game. the good news is, we got the tickets from some friends of ours who have AMAZING seats. the bad news is, it was a day game and it was pretty hot today.

every time we go to angel's stadium i have to take a picture from the parking lot. there is just something about the gigantic red hats that says, "take my picture!" usually i take their picture alone, but today rollie said, "why don't you stand there and be in the picture?" i think he thinks that now i won't ever have to take that particular shot again. boy, is he wrong . . .

since we moved to get a little different angle on the requisite "big red hats outside angels' stadium" shot, i noticed as we walked in that the big red hats were scale replicas of real authentic baseball hats--right down to the size tag . . .the angels have improved dramatically in the last 8 years. coincidentally, that is exactly how long we have lived here. hmmm--could there be a connection?the game started at 1:15. rollie likes to get there early to watch the players warming up. i like to get there early and look for photo ops. this one is rollie shaking hands with gene autry, who is apparently the founder of the angels. of course, he is dead now (gene autry, not rollie)--this is just a statue. usually there are too many people around to get a good picture, but i think because of the heat, people didn't come out to the ballpark quite as early.we got there about noon and sat in our seats for about 10 minutes. we quickly realized it was too hot to sit there for an hour before the game even began, so we found a table in the shade and shared a soda. and that is where our trouble began . . .

the 2010 all star game is going to be held in angels stadium next spring, and so they are apparently trying out the souvenier cups. i think they need to keep trying . . .

the design needs some work. can you see how the top edge is curved? that isn't a camera trick--it really looks like that. this makes it hard to fit the lid on tight. in fact, the concession people wouldn't even try to put it on--they just handed us our soda and the lid and basically said, "good luck." rollie managed to get the lid on, which amazed the concession people, but then they said, "yeah, well, it also crushes the straws!" rollie, not one to be outdone by a cup--even an all stars souvenir cup--just pulled out his trusty pocket knife and cut the little triangle pieces out so that he had an open hole for his straw. which might have been an excellent idea, but the brilliant marketing people who chose this particular cup design with this particular lid design did not take into account that the cup was too tall for their current straws. we tried several different approaches, and finally rollie thought his tongue would work as well as any of our other ideas. so he tried to make that into a straw--with limited success.
still, even with the heat and the "defective" cups, we had a beautiful place in the shade to sit. i am so in love with palm trees . . . at 1:10 we made our way to our amazing seats. and proceeded to sweat and then sweat some more. after three innings i couldn't take it--i had to get out of the sun. my heart was racing, my pulse was 140, and i didn't feel too good. when i stood up, i realized the entire back of my clothes were wet. it was kind of embarrassing! i'm sure i wasn't the only one in this condition, but i appeared to be the only one walking around this way. i headed up the stairs to the shade, found a nice breeze, and sat down on the cool concrete floor with my back against the cool concrete wall--right next the the restrooms, just in case i got really sick. the problem was, now i couldn't see the game. this is what i saw--and then i saw this in the lens of my camera, which was quite shocking until i realized it was just my out of focus knees hunched up in front of me . . .
finally the cool concrete and the breeze did the trick, and i got to feeling better. i looked at the scoreboard--we were ahead 1-0. ok, time to get another drink and try braving the heat again. but there were lines everywhere. well, i say lines--most of the concession stands had 5 or 6 people waiting, which isn't too bad, but i kind of wanted to be in my seat by the time the angels were at bat again.

i decided to try the outer concession stands. i figured the traffic would be lighter there, and it was. i got my drink, made my way back to our seats, looked at the scoreboard, and realized we were now behind 1-2! how could this have happened?! i had only been gone a few minutes . . .

it was the middle of the sixth inning. the shade was moving in our direction. there was a little breeze blowing. and then the angels got a hit. things were looking up . . .

our best pitcher was pitching and had racked up 12 strike-outs before they finally took him out to rest. our batters started doing their job, and the final score was 3-2--the angels won!

this is what i learned today--
1-if we get tickets for a day game, let rollie take a friend and stay home where there is air-conditioning.
2-if i ignore my inner voice and decide to go, wear different clothes--preferably something dark with a pattern that will not look like i had an accident when i sweat in my seat--because i will sweat in my seat.
3-take more water. and a hat.
4-sunscreen is a good idea, but i will still be hot.
5-instead of spending $5 for a tiny little hot dog and $4 for a bottle of water (and how ridiculous is that?!?! but that is a blog for another day,) buy the spray bottle/fan thing.
6-no matter how much sugar is in it, buy the frozen lemonade! it can be held it on my neck to keep me cool and then if i don't want the sugar, i can toss it when it melts. (hey, today it would have been worth the price just for the cooling effect. and it takes those things a long time to melt . . . )