Spring Training!

And just like that, baseball is back. Hooray! Last weekend I headed to Florida with Jenny, Katie, & Courtney for a baseball trip. And when I say baseball, I mean baseball: 5 games in 3 days. It was awesome.First stop: Atlanta Braves vs. Toronto Blue Jays, at Champion Stadium, the spring training home of the Braves - at the Disney Sports Complex.
We started off our trip with lawn seats and enjoyed every minute of the Florida baseball and sun. Some of us a little more than others (more on that later).That night, we headed to Lakeland, home of Tigertown, to see the Detroit Tigers take on the Tampa Bay Rays. We had bleacher seats for this game, but they were so crowded that we found a nice spot on the grass in right field to enjoy the game.The game was great, and it even got a little chilly that night. The stadium was packed - I guess there's not much else to do in Lakeland on a Friday spring night! Halfway mark: Houston Astros vs. Philadelphia Phillies. Jenny's team - and they were great. The game was probably the most exciting one of the weekend, and it didn't hurt that we had seats about 10 rows behind home plate.The Florida sun sure beat down that day - we were sooo hot by the time the game was over!! Thanks to the burn on my legs/feet from the day before, I spent most of the game like this ...Nice, huh?!? I kept getting comments all weekend about my sunburn ... and I'm really not sure how it happened that I missed that entire part of my legs. Oh well. It looked a lot worse than it actually was.

Next up: New York Yankees vs. Cincinnati Reds in Tampa at the Yankees Steinbrenner Field. As much as I hate the Yankees, they sure know how to make things nice. Their spring training facility is nicer than some of the MLB parks I've been to. And they even won their game. I did find it odd though that when they sang the National Anthem, only 5 Yankees were lined up outside of the dugout, and 3 of them were coaches. As opposed to the almost entire lineup of Reds. Hmm. Oh and Richard Gere threw out the first pitch - that was entertaining. Speaking of entertaining, here's a shot of my sunburned legs enjoying the game ...
Katie's parents came to the game with us, and since her dad is a huge Yankees fan, I had to pretend to be happy that they won...it didn't work out so well.At least the game ended with a bang:
On our last day, we went back to where it all began only two short days earlier: to see the Braves take on the Yankees. Unfortunately, they couldn't win. Why is it that when I go to spring training, when the Braves had the best spring record going into the weekend, they lost both games I saw them in? Hmm. I guess that's nothing new as a Braves fan, but still. How cute is this little boy though? He's holding the foul ball that his dad scrambled to catch for him. Lucky kid!Spring Training in Florida? Awesome! Baseball, friends, sun, and every night when we got back to the hotel, we watched NCAA basketball games before going to bed. It really doesn't get much better than that!

Round 2: Greensboro

Saturday, March 21: Luckily for us, the games in Greensboro weren't slated to begin until 5:45p on Saturday night, so we didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn and start driving. We took our time and arrived in Greensboro late afternoon-ish to meet Sharyn's brother at a little sports bar/pizza place for dinner before heading to the Coliseum. One thing is for sure: Greensboro is not a happening town. On the flip side, however, the Coliseum was incredible. UNC Tarheels fans dominated the entire arena. Light blue was everywhere. I haven't been to a sporting event that LOUD in a long time (ok the World Series was...!) and we loved every minute of it.

UNC-LSU was first. LSU kept the game a lot closer than I thought they would, but UNC dominated as the game went on. The crowd was electric, and we had so much fun. After the break, the Duke-Texas game begun. In my naivete, I was surprised how few Duke fans exist. All the UNC fans turned anti-Duke for the second game, and cheered for the Longhorns. Despite their efforts, however, Duke prevailed in a closer-than-expected game. I was a little nervous at the end when Texas came within striking distance, but Duke held out and won the game (and kept my bracket alive).

Being in North Carolina for March Madness was phenemonal! Definitely something you just can't explain in words, and I'm so glad I was able to experience it. What was less than phenomonal was our estimation of how far Richmond was from Greensboro. Pulling in at 3am was not in our gameplan, but we survived.

Round 1: Philadelphia

Thursday, March 19: NCAA Tournament begins. I headed up to Philadelphia with Chris & Josh and a group of other Cougar fans. We were thrilled when we got our tickets and found out that we were about ten rows from the floor. The excitement didn't last must past the introduction of the players and the first 3-point shot by BYU, which ended up being the only time they were ahead in the game. They were pathetic. Not that I was surprised, but I hoped they would at least put up a better fight - or some kind of fight! They kind of forgot to show up - at all.

We stayed for the UConn v. Chattanooga game (which made BYU's game not seem so bad) before heading into the ghetto otherwise known as Philly for cheesesteaks. And getting a parking ticket when our meter expired 9 minutes prior to our return. That's just the kind of day it was. At least I was with good friends to laugh about it with!

March Madness

Long before Selection Sunday, I decided that I wanted to go to March Madness this year. A few friend were on board, and we bought tickets to the Greensboro, NC round. Why Greensboro? Because the Philadelphia tickets were sold out. And Greensboro wasn't. Fast forward to Selection Sunday ... who is playing in Greensboro? Round 1: UNC/Radford, Duke/Binghamton, Texas/Minnesota, and LSU/Butler. Fun teams to watch! The plan was to sell our Thursday tickets and go to the Saturday games. With that lineup, we figured it shouldn't be that hard to execute our plan.

Until...BYU was slated to play in Philadelphia, and most NCAA Tourney-goers were heading to PA, not NC. It is closer, after all, and Cougars will follow their team anywhere. Myself included.

I think I called, texted, and/or emailed everyone I knew to see who wanted the tickets. But to no avail. Nothing seemed to be working, no one seemed to be able to take work off and go to the games, and we started to feel mixed emotions. Sure, we were out the money for the tickets, but more than that, we didn't want them to go to waste. Four games in one day? Someone needed to be able to experience the sheer excitement of that!

Wednesday night, 8:25p: I came home from running a few errands, and upon turning my computer on, noticed a message on Facebook from my friend Trevor. Trevor and I met at Duck Beach about three years ago, he lives in Raleigh, NC, and I completely forgot that the day before, I'd sent him a message to see if he or any of his friends were interested in the tickets. He asked if I still had the tickets, and gave me his phone number. I promptly called him to touch base. Yes, I still had the tickets. The question was could I find a way to get them to him by the next morning? The last FedEx pickup by my house was 7p, but I knew where the FedEx building by the airport was. I wonder if I could take it there?! I told him I'd do some legwork and see what I could do, so hang tight. And text me a shipping address, just in case. And this is what ensued:

I grabbed my purse (which had the tickets in it), and ran out the door after the 30 second update to Jenny, who was on her laptop looking up an address to call me with so I could get on the road and head in the general direction I thought I should go. I stopped by a FedEx Kinko's to get the packaging, got Trevor's text with his address, told him to pray that this worked, and filled out the label while I drove. Jenny called, gave me the address, and told me their last pickup was 9p. It was 8:40p. I punched it into my GPS and drove. Exited into a very dark business park, and drove until I was instructed to make a left turn. Into a parking lot with security gates, and a sign that read "delivery trucks and security passes only." Hmm, not a good sign. And no FedEx in sight either. A car came the other direction. I hung up on Jenny, and jumped out of my car to flag him down as he sped by me. Luckily, he slammed on his brakes, reversed, and rolled down the window just enough for me to see his dark sunglasses covered face. I asked if he knew where the FedEx place was, he naturally didn't have any idea what I was talking about, since this was the FAA building where he worked. Even if there had been a FedEx drop, I wouldn't be able to get in because this is a secure building. I told him the address, he didn't know what to tell me. Thanks anyway! I got back in my car, freaking out now that it was 8:50p and I was so close, yet so far away. I drove across the street into another "private property, no tresspassing" sign. And then I turned the other direction. Literally, out of nowhere, appeared the FedEx building, with a giant semi pulling out. I parked and RAN in, and must have looked pretty ridiculous since the two guys manning the counter were laughing at me. I said "do you know how hard you are to find??" They laughed and said "were you using your GPS?" Yes, I was. "Do you want to know why it doesn't work?" Yes, that would be nice. "That building over there is CIA, and they have all the satellite signals blocked." Huh, that makes sense. At least there was a reason! Then one of the guys said "and hey, you still have 5 minutes to spare! If you would have been here an hour ago, your package isn't going out for another 5 minutes anyway." WHEW!

Signed, sealed, waiting to be delivered. I got back into my car, took a deep breath of relief, and called Trevor to let him know he'd better call his three closest friends and tell them what they were in for on Thursday. After all of that (I felt like I was on The Amazing Race or something), I can't believe it actually worked!

What would we do without Facebook and FedEx??