it sucks to be sick... especially on the weekend...

so today . . .  i am sick.  as a dog.  and it's easter!!

i got sick friday night.  in the night.  you know what that means...  i spent all day yesterday trying to keep the stuff inside my body that belonged there, but my body was not very cooperative.  so i spent the day laying on the couch, unsuccessfully ingesting saltines and 7-up, and trying to stay awake.  because even when i am sick, i have a plan...

i had a plan for yesterday.  my plan was to get up early, go to the nursery and buy beautiful flowers to plant, come home and plant them, take a shower, and then spend the afternoon at angels stadium (collecting my free blanket giveaway and watching them win!)  none of these things happened, because i was sick.  as a dog.

so i naturally went to plan b.  which was to lay on the couch with my computer and work on the wedding album i am designing, catch up on my emails, maybe learn how to use a few of the gazillions of apps i have downloaded onto my ipad.  because just because i was sick, was no reason to waste a perfectly good saturday, even if i didn't get to buy plants or go to the ballgame or get my free blanket...

i thought i would accomplish all of this while watching tv on the new tv we bought yesterday for the family room.  we decided if our tax return would cover it, we would get a bigger tv for the family room, so i could see it better while i am in the kitchen.  (yes, sometimes i am in the kitchen!  especially now when i can watch tv while i am in there!!)  and also because when it comes to tvs, rollie thinks bigger is always better.  in fact, i had to measure the space to be sure he didn't come home with one that was TOO BIG FOR THE WALL SPACE, because that was a real possibility...  but this morning when rollie unpacked the tv and prepared to install it on the wall, he found a big crack across the screen!  which means the tv probably has to go back, and now rollie is seriously bummed, because we got a really, really good deal on this particular tv (with the crack... could there possibly be a connection?) and there is no way we can afford an unbroken tv of the same size.  which means, we are going to have to go smaller.  but now that he has seen how a really, really big tv looks on that wall, anything smaller is not going to make him happy...

stupid crack.

i tried to do the computer stuff, but i had no energy and no brain.  it was taking everything i had to keep from being "sick."  ok, so on to plan c--catch up on all the stuff my tivo had been recording.  i settled in with the remote (only now it took two remotes to operate the tv, because the better tv that was in the family room was now in the bedroom, and the inferior tv was in the family room, instead of the guest bedroom where it was headed.  and if you are planning to someday sleep in that guest bedroom, you should know that it isn't a bad tv--it just doesn't play well with tivo.  and since there is no tivo in the guest bedroom, it will be perfect there.  but it isn't perfect in the family room...  especially when there is a 59 inch plasma tv just sitting there in a box... with a crack in it... stupid crack!)  i watched one show, but had to keep rewinding it because i kept falling asleep.  i finally gave up and just went to sleep.  but my phone kept beeping with text messages and facebook updates.  and yes, i could have just shut the phone off, but rollie was at the angels game, without me.  what if he needed me???  what if he got hit in the head with a foul ball and was unconscious??  what if he had an accident on the way home???  so i left the phone on and just dozed...

when rollie got home (safely) from the game, i was still on the couch.  he gave me the terrible news that the angels had not won, but the good news that our friend dan, (who graciously used my ticket,) had also graciously given me the free blanket from the giveaway (and by graciously, i mean with many sighs and talk of what a sacrifice it was...)  i decided i had been up long enough.  i trudged up to bed and finally slept.  and didn't throw up!  i thought that was a good sign. 

but not good enough for me to accomplish my plans for today.  since i hadn't been able to keep anything down yesterday, i figured my plan b for today was going to mostly consist of trying to eat and drink and not get sick.  no church (on easter!!)  no ballgame (which they lost... i think i might be the angels good luck charm.  they are 1-2 this season, and they won the game i was at.  so, yeah, i think they should be paying me to come to their games...)  and no orange chicken (which was my plan for easter dinner, which was going to be eaten at the ball park, in the more than warm enough sunshine.)

my weekend was pretty much a total bust.  why i couldn't have been sick on a tuesday and wednesday, or wednesday and thursday is beyond me.  in fact, i am seriously considering being sick just one more day...  after all, i accomplished NOTHING this weekend...

...well, except for collecting my free angels blanket.

 thanks dan ;)

friday, part 2

so today . . .  we went to our first angels game of the season.  (i know, i know, that is how the last blog started, but then i got sidetracked about the tv...)  we were so excited!

this was going to be a new experience for us.  we have never had season tickets to anything.  we have been to angels games before.  we know some people who have season tickets, and when they can't go, sometimes they give us their tickets.  and they have really, really good seats!!  our seats are not "quite" that good...  or even close.  but we think they are going to be fine.  they are on the top level just past third base, which is the side of the stadium we like.  and after 2:00 p.m. they should be in the shade.  at least, that is what they told rollie when he bought the tickets.  i hope that is true, or i will probably not be going to many day games...

but this was not a day game.  this was a friday night game (which meant fireworks at the end,) and the first game of the season (which meant a giant flag on the field, david cook singing the national anthem, and a military flyover.  i took video of all of this, but it is too big to use... now i wish i had just taken photos.)

 we were so excited.

we left an hour and a half early, and i didn't even complain.  not once!  traffic on the freeway wasn't bad, so it didn't take us long to get there.  we have this cool parking pass that lets us into a special parking lot, but we weren't sure where it was.  as it turned out, navigating the freeway traffic and finding the parking lot turned out to be the easy part...

the reserved parking lot was on the first base side of the stadium.  which was a bit of an issue since our tickets were on the third base side.  no problem, we thought, we will just drive around...  that turned out to be impossible!  there were sheriffs on horseback, little old guys in red vests and hats trying to direct traffic that didn't want to go where they wanted it to go (including us!) 

and then...  we ended up... in the tailgating section!!!  i didn't even know there was a tailgating section, but let me tell you, those people just sort of took over their part of the parking lot!  it was crowded with not just cars, but people as well... and those sheriffs on horseback.  who, btw, were going the wrong direction!

it was a nightmare.

one of the parking attendants finally stopped us and asked if we were lost.  "yes!" we said.  he stopped traffic and let us go in through an exit.  maybe he thought we were a traffic hazard, or maybe he just didn't want to see us go around one more time.  either way, it got us out of the line of fire and into a safe place...

...but when you park on the third base side of the stadium and your tickets are in the top section on the first base side of the stadium, you have a loooong walk ahead of you.  trust me.  and so, walk we did... along with 44,106 other people...

we have decided that next time we will forgo any special treatment and park in the regular lot on the first base side of the stadium.

still, we got to our seats with plenty of time to spare.  but that worked out great, because since this was the first game of the season, there were lots of preliminary festivities.  (which i can't show you, because as i said, i took video instead of photos!!  next time i will know better...)  but i did get a few pictures.  this is our new superstar player. 

i think his last name is puhjoles.  don't ask me how to pronounce it--it's embarassing--but he is apparently a home run megahitter.  and he is from cuba (which, now that we have a cuban son-in-law, seems noteworthy enough to mention.)

puhjoles chose not to hit a home run tonight.  in fact, nobody was hitting much of anything. it was a slow game.  at the seventh inning stretch, the score was still 0-0.  i was beginning to doubt all the hype i had been hearing about our angels this year.  so far, i wasn't seeing any of it...

and then, there was the seventh inning stretch.  apparently david cook had left the building, because his was not the voice we heard.  instead, a young teenaged girl (who was pretty good,) led the whole stadium in "God bless America," and then, "take me out to the ballgame," followed by the traditional "build me up, buttercup!"  yes, it was quite an eclectic musical interlude...

and then... the rally monkey made his first appearance of the season.

the rally monkey comes out after the seventh inning stretch if the angels are behind.  and that thing is magic!  angels fans tend to be pretty laid back.  as a whole, they don't really get on board with the whole "let's make some noise!" stuff.  they will make a little noise.  they will cheer and boo according to what is going on.  but they are not the wild and crazy fans that some teams have...

...until the rally monkey comes out.  then the crowd gets loud!  (maybe it is because they have been drinking for two hours by then.  i don't know, but i choose to think it is more about cheering their team on to victory!)  people dance.  people swing their rally monkeys around.  people yell.  it gets crazy...

and the team scores.  not every single time, but often enough.  they score.  not only does the rally monkey inspire the angels to score, but he also strikes fear into the hearts of the opposing teams.  he is a double threat.  and tonight, he worked his magic, and we won.

not without incident though.  i got beaned with a cell phone...

i was sitting in my seat, minding my own business, eating nachos (because really, i go to the games for the food, freebies, and fireworks,) when something whacked me on the head.  at first, i thought it must be a stray ball, and i was wondering why it had struck my head instead of resting in rollie's hands!  because surely if a stray ball had come near us, he would have caught it... or at least knocked me out of the way... or thrown himself over me to protect me!  but there i was, with a knot on my noggin, and enough pain that i was seriously considering crying.  and the ball was still on the field.  don't ask me why someone's cell phone was flying through the air, or why it landed on MY head instead of the thousand other places it could have landed...  i kept rubbing my head.  i'm sure the people behind me thought i was a big whiny crybaby, but that thing felt like it had been dropped from outer space!  i'm telling you, if i ever get hit with an actual stray ball, i will probably just die...

then again, maybe not.  i was pretty darned brave when i broke my wrist!  let's just hope we never have to find out...

but i survived.  and the angels won.  and since it was friday night, there were fireworks! i told rollie when he bought these tickets that i probably wouldn't go to all the games.  i know there will be other people that he would like to take once in a while, and i am good with that--especially during those weeks when they play every single night of the week.  "but," i said, "i want to go to the friday night games.  all of them."  why?  because there are fireworks at the end on friday nights, and i looooove fireworks!!

especially on a night when we win.  although on a night when we win, more people stay for the fireworks, which meant that getting back to our car and out of the parking lot was a bit of an ordeal.  clearly we had parked on the wrong side of the stadium!  it felt like we were salmon swimming upstream to spawn (wow, two hunting and fishing metaphors in one day!  my oregon roots must be showing.)  but we finally made it back to our car and onto the freeway...

...which seemed oddly safe after navigating the stadium concourse and parking lots!

one game down, eighty one to go...

:)

i think i'm going to need some new shirts... red ones, with an "A"

so today . . . rollie went a little crazy.

rollie is not the one in our family who goes a little crazy. i go a little crazy. diandra has been known to go a little crazy. even the dogs go a little crazy! (ok, the dogs go a little crazy all. the. time!) but not rollie. rollie is the calm, rational one...

well, we can't say THAT anymore!

this afternoon, i got this text from my calm, rational husband--"i am at angels stadium trying to get tickets to take mike to a game on may 28." ok, this was not exactly news to me. mike's birthday is really close to rollie's, and the last couple of years they have gone to an angels game to celebrate. even though mike has moved a few hours north, i knew they had been discussing trying to make it happen again this year. so why he was texting me this information was a mystery... unless he was standing in a long line with nothing to do... which seemed highly improbable to me... how could there be a long line for tickets when the season doesn't even open for another month? apparently i don't understand the fervor of angels fans. yet.

and then i got this text--"how would you feel about season tickets?"

HOW WOULD I FEEL ABOUT SEASON TICKETS?!?!?! ARE YOU INSANE????? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH SEASON TICKETS PROBABLY COST???????

that's what i was thinking. that is not what i texted back. because the truth is, i love to go to angels games. and even though i knew it definitely was not in the budget, i wasn't quite ready to kill the dream just yet. so, being the supportive wife that i am (stop laughing!!) i merely said, "why? are they making you an offer you can't refuse?" and he said, "i'm not to the window yet. i was just wondering."

rollie was standing in line at angels stadium, contemplating season tickets. the only thing i can compare it to is when i am in the shoe department at nordstrom rack. it's like, suddenly everything seems possible...

we continued to debate, by text, what to do. this is something we had sort of talked about possibly doing one day... i just didn't think today was that day. so i said, "well, it wouldn't hurt to check it out, but don't get them today! you need to think about this. if we do it, there will have to be budget trade-offs i'm sure." what i didn't say was, "and i'm not sure i am willing to go without home improvements, a vacation, or food, to make it happen!"

he finally got up to the ticket booth and told them he wanted two seats for the may 28th game. the ticket seller clicked around on her computer and said, "i only have two seats left for that game." ONLY TWO SEATS LEFT FOR A GAME THAT IS ALMOST THREE MONTHS AWAY?!?! "and," she continued, "they are in the very back row, clear out in center field, and the view is obstructed by a pole."

ok, now this was a problem. who is going to want to sit in those seats? certainly not rollie and mike for their birthdays! so after waiting in line for 45 minutes, rollie got out of line...

... and went in search of the season ticket office. (i choose to think that at this point, he was following my advice to just check it out. i choose to think that he had not yet made the decision to actually buy season tickets. i may be wrong, but let me just live with my delusions...) he walked in and was greeted with, "do you have an appointment?" you need an appointment to buy season tickets? really?? he obviously didn't have an appointment, but they allowed him to wait for the first available season ticket seller. when he was finally seated in the conference room, the season ticket seller said, "so, what do you want out of your season tickets?"

what kind of a question is that?!? if we are going to get season tickets, we want a world series win! duh!!

but rollie handled the question with a bit more tact than that, and said, "well, i have a budget..."

something you may not know about rollie is that he is a hoarder. i know, i know, you thought i was the one who was in danger of being buried by my stuff, but rollie is a hoarder too--he just hoards something a little smaller than most of my stuff. he hoards $20 bills. whenever he can, he puts $20 bills in a stack somewhere (somewhere where i can't find them, obviously!) he calls this his fun money. he saves it in hopes of some day taking a dive trip somewhere or skydiving or something else he thinks would be ridiculously fun that isn't in the budget. i think he also dips into it when we go to the swap meet or the outlet mall. but the truth is, he hasn't had time to do a lot of fun things in the last year, so his fun money stash has been growing...

the season ticket seller went to work. they discussed his choices. they went into the stands and checked out the best options. he sent me a picture of what our view of the baseball diamond would be. and in the end, he signed on the dotted line.

my calm, rational husband went a little crazy.

so we are season ticket holders for the angels, at least for this year. rollie is deliriously happy. if he was the sort of person to make a bucket list, this would definitely be on it. and i'm happy, because he is happy. and let's not forget that since he is married to me, i am pretty sure i am going to be sitting right next to him for most of those games :) he has assured me that this will not affect our budget at all. we will still have food to eat. my home improvement projects will not suffer. we may even still get to go on some kind of vacation...

... although, now that we have 82 games to attend, our vacation may have to wait until after the world series...

... because, you know, a world series win was part of the deal... wasn't it?

sooooo tired. oh look, a gnome . . .

so today . . . was technically my first day of summer vacation. i say technically, because i actually went in to work this morning.

last week was jam-packed with end of the year activities. monday was totally dedicated to graduation practice, complete with tiny little pink, blue, or purple graduation gowns and hats (yes, i am rolling my eyes.) tuesday was a total loss, because the kids were all excited about graduation that night. wednesday was field trip day, and thursday and friday were busy days of cleaning and closing down the classroom. so by friday, i was pretty tired.

and then it was the weekend. i would have liked to spend it recuperating from my week, but that was not the way it went down. friday night was movie night at the church, saturday was consumed by diandra's birthday activities, and sunday was church and then father's day activities. it was a lot of fun, but by sunday night, i was totalled! if a mac truck had rolled over me, it would have been an improvement.

and THEN, today i had to get up even earlier than usual, because in a weak moment i had said i would substitute for summer camp, which meant getting to school by 7:30 this morning!! after working harder than i had planned to for almost six hours, i came home and drove diandra (who is kind of sick today,) to the post office and then the ups store.

after that, my plan was to take a nap, but it never happened.

and here it is 11:00 at night, and i am still awake. and blogging. which is proof that it is actually my summer vacation, even though i got up early and went to work. i figure i can sleep until lunch time tomorrow, if necessary . . .

rollie had the sense to go to bed a couple of hours ago. i am still up, because even though i am too tired to go to bed, diandra and i are watching tv and doing computer stuff, and i am wishing for barbeque lay's potato chips. we decided to take a short break so that diandra could move her car into the driveway--thus thwarting the parking police--and i could go to the kitchen in search of salty snack food.

i know there are no potato chips in the kitchen, but i went to look anyway. i thought nuts might be an ok alternative, but i know we don't have any nuts either, and yet still i opened the nut container to look. (i am thinking it might be time for a trip to costco.) as it turns out, it was my lucky day! i found two almonds . . .

when diandra came back into the house, she had a package. we looove packages at our house. in fact, i have decided that is why i buy stuff from shopping tv--just so i can get packages in the mail! however, i figured this package was for rollie, because the return address said angels baseball. but as diandra pointed out, it was addressed to occupant. we decided that meant US! so we opened it. and this is what we saw peeking out of the end of the mailer . . ."a garden gnome?" diandra said. well, that is what it said on the box top, but it seemed too good to be true. we pulled the box all the way out of the package, and it sure looked like the angels had sent us one of their garden gnomes.i noticed the date on the box was from a few weeks ago. in fact, now that i think about it, we had tickets for that game but were unable to attend. so perhaps not too many people went to angels stadium on garden gnome night. i don't know why--a garden gnome seems much more useful than some of the stuff they give away . . . but did they really send out garden gnomes to everyone in orange county? or were we just one of the lucky few?

we opened the box, and there he was--the coveted angels garden gnome! diandra picked him up and looked him over. she handed him to me, and said, "i'll bet you could get high from sniffing him." (did i mention how late it is and how tired we are and that she is kind of sick today?!?) so of course, i had to sniff him. let's just say that i am fairly certain he is made from some sort of petroleum product, because he does have a distinct odor--which will hopefully dissipate now that we have released him from his box . . .and i know he looks a little scary, but that is what happens when a flash goes off inches from a person's (or gnome's) eyes. we decided it was good we had opened the package, because we were way more excited about this little guy than rollie would have been. i am sure that in a few years he is going to be valuable, because we are keeping him inside. i'll bet lots of garden gnome recipients will put their gnomes right out into their gardens--where they will fade and crack and eventually end up in the trash. but not us. we will treasure him right along with the rest of our sports memoribilia.

which has nothing to do with my extreme tiredness, except it gave me something to blog about, which is why it is now after midnight and i am still not asleep!

blast the angels and their garden gnomes . . .