yes. we went to the braves game on 100% exhaustion and overstimulation and on 0% notice. this was miraculous on several levels:
-i am an antisocial introvert who tends strongly towards eremitism (i went for "hermicy", but learned it's not a word). large crowds at sporting events, amusement parks and concerts literally have me screaming inside my head "i hate EVERYONE!!!" by the end of the evening. like, all of these people that are smothering my personal space and having all these different odors need to just disappear before i snap. probably not good for my whole "love your neighbor" efforts.
-i HATE day baseball games because they are hotter than the center of a red dwarf star and i am 100% uncomfortable the entire time. mixing sweat with a bud-light filled redneck in a tank top whose arm is pressed against mine for 4 hours due to the 14 cubic inch seats at turner field is pretty much my idea of a slow death of soul. no matter what i wear i always feel hot and fat and sweaty and miserable by the bottom of the first inning.
if i had had more time, i know i would have talked myself out of it. but because the game was starting right when i realized we had the tickets, i kind of just impulsed it past all the fear and overwhelmed centers of my brain. even still, i ALMOST balked (get it?) and stayed home with layla while jesse took judah. but somehow i pressed on. heroic, i know. where's my monument?
when we arrived at home from church just after deciding we were going to attempt this we feverishly changed everyone's outfits. i knew there was NO way i could wear jeans without ending up hating my life due to sweat and exposed booty crack. and the world is not ready for these ultra-pasty flabberwompuses that i call legs to be rocking shorts, so a nice breezy dress was selected (this will be very relevant later this week). it was only 75 degrees, but i am not an outdoorswoman and anything above or below 71 degrees has my complaining circuitry on overdrive.
judah wore his official braves PJ-top and some shorts and sandals. he looked ADORABLE. 5 miles from our house i am driving, trying not to go 493 mph like i want to in a rush to get to atlanta so we dont completely miss the game. i am telling myself that we rushed at home to get ready, now all i can do is drive safely, but my brain is still in frenetic hurry mode. no delays will be tolerated. jesse in in the back with the kids feeding layla sweet potatoes and a bottle and i hear judah say, "layla spoon. i try?" and jesse says, "you want to try some sweet potatoes and oatmeal?" a pause. then i hear the ever-so-faint sound of a gag/dry heave and a splashdown.
i am still not sure how we didn't shut it down right there. normally i would be going DEFCON 5 apeshit bananas on jesse for feeding the world's most touchy-gagger some baby food! judah gags at cheese or pasta. did we really think pureed yams with oatmeal and baby formula would be a winning texture??? luckily all that came up was lemonade and some candy coloring. i pulled over and toweled him and his seat off while jesse looked to see if we had extra clothes. amazingly we did (thank god for the fact that we never clean our car). we put him back in wearing just his diaper in case he was sick and not just gaggified, and saved the clean outfit until we got to the stadium.
we were back on the road in literally 3 minutes. you have no idea how amazing this is for me. i will pull the plug on an outing if i have a hem that doesnt want to lay flat. so this was new territory.
about an hour and $10 later we were parked RIGHT next to the stadium and on our way in to catch innings 6-9.
right outside the gates. FYI the ring sling*** i am wearing, i made last weekend using some target sheets that i had bought for fabric. it is my new favorite method of baby-wearing (i have tried 4 others so that is saying a lot)
notice we arrived in the 6th inning. thats okay! we only wanted a child's-size portion of baseball anyway. it's funny to me that this picture is 75% bricks.
the dot on my shoulder is a bug that would end up on layla's head, very near my mouth, prompting me to spazzz out and smack it. sorry, tiny baby.
judah was mesmerized by the whole affair. he has learned the appropriate little boy vernacular and everything is "guys" now. soccer guys, biker guys, robot guys, and now baseball guys! he loved seeing the baseball guys swing a bat just like his and throw a ball. he was tickled by the tomahawk chop and did it like a pro. he loved having an excuse to clap every 5 seconds and about went nuts saying "WHOA" when the fireworks went off for our home run.
no chance he was going to look at mommy and the camera. he was all, "yeah right, out of everything here those are the two things i see every day. i think i will find something else to stare at"
we found our seats and joy of joys realized that logan's family actually had given us their extra tickets and that they were in attendance too! judah is in LOVE with logan. he is in his preschool class and they just started coming to our church too. if you ask judah any question that begins with "who" the answer is ALWAYS "WOGIE!" whether it's "who is in your class?" or "who is your teacher?" or " who is that with elmo?" the answer: WOGIE!
one time judah was sitting in the main cabin of our cart at target (actually the same day that i had this encounter) and at checkout he was chatting himself up talking about logan. and i am like, "yeah we love logan, dont we? and you will see him at class on monday!" and he just wouldn't stop. so i finish paying and turn around and he's pointing to the checkout line beside us and, what do you know? there's logan in his mom's cart peeping back at judah. it was hilarious. judah knows his homeboy (and now probably thinks he can summon him on demand).
as expected judah didn't understand the whole sit in your seat and just watch and sweat theme that is baseball game attendance. the poor little kids cant see the field while sitting so they try to stand up on the fold down seats and when they put their weight on the back of the seat they fall right through like a trap door. hilarious. also when he would turn around in the seat his face was essentially IN the college kid's crotch who was sitting behind us. judah has no concept of personal space. even sausaged in at the braves game, there are limits, my son.
so jesse and i took turns letting him run up and down the stairs and through the hallway thingies around the perimeter of the stadium where it was nice and shady. the kids is flipping fast.
layla as expected could have been swapped for a teddy bear while before we left home and it would have required the exact same amount of effort. the child is so chill and good-natured (she get's it from her mama). this is what she did the entire time:
um, is she being coy? i think she is even bordering on coquettish. probably my fave pic of us ever. jesse is taking is from beside us, so camera props for him.
have i mentioned that i am obsessed with this child and that my love for her makes my brain want to explode? we must be best friends.
we had taken $40 out of the ATM on our way up and we spent $0 on our awesome tickets thanks to logans sweet parents, $10 on prime parking and $5 on some bottled water being sold out of coolers by the neighbors of the stadium. we were thinking we did hit it out of the park (keep em coming!) with saving our money and eating our home-packed snacks rather than spending like $30 on dippin' dots and chili fries like we (i) normally do.
and then we went to merge on to the highway and saw an elderly lady with a homeless sign. we never carry cash so the fact that we were sitting there with $25 and there was this frail little blonde wrinkled women living on the streets just killed us. i just said "all of it?" to jesse and he said, "yeah." and then we prayed really really hard that she wasn't addicted to any substance and that the money would actually help her instead of furthering an addiction.
i ALWAYS think after i give money to homeless people that i need to buy and pack bags full of stuff that could ONLY help someone who didn't have a home rather than being forced into a choice between: doing nothing, giving money that could be spent on damaging things, or giving them a ride or taking them and buying them a meal which might not be wise as a chick with babies in a scary broken sinful world (i am not sure those excuses even matter though...jesus asks tough things).
what would be good to put in these love-bombs? like i try to imagine if i was homeless what would help me the most? like not just help me live more comfortably on the streets, but maybe help me get a job or find a center to live in? do any of yall know any good stuff about the best ways to help the homeless that could be packed in bags and given in just a few moments at a red light or if i was alone and didn't feel comfortable inviting someone into my car?
i think this would be an awesome thing for us to make with our kids and for them to see us always having in the car ready to be given. i know that seeing us pick up and give rides to or go buy a meal for or invite into OUR home folks who have no home will have an even bigger impact, but i am weak and afraid and entitled and i don't always do that. but i never want them to see me lock my doors, ignore it and do nothing.
that would be kind of awkward when we read the red letters from jesus' mouth about the poor: "right judah, well, i know he explicitly says 'whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, [strangers, the sick, prisoners, the poor] you did not do for me,' but that doesn't apply to mommy and daddy because...er." i am pretty sure there is no end to that sentence that i could say with any integrity to my kids, much less to jesus.
feel free to comment on just the baseball game or to leave a detailed packing list for our lovebombs. that post kind took a turn for left-field there at the end (i can do these puns all day, yall).
***several of you asked (on and off the record) about the ring sling i made in the above pics. i set out to buy a ring sling and found maya wraps. you can get them factory made here for $75 or make one yourself like i did using their FREE tutorial.
I used to try to keep some extra granola bars and crackers in the car. There's a homeless guy with a broken foot at West Peachtree and 14th that used to call me "snack lady". Now I wonder about having military MRE's on hand (also good for bad snow storms)... they sell them for $7 at my grocery store. But I think they have a lot of msg. No one would read a handout, but it would be nice to include one. I think it would turn into litter. Biodegradable handouts!
ReplyDeleteI am full of hesitation to actually send a comment because now my creeper tendencies will be revealed but it is for a good cause, right?
ReplyDeleteWe do a big Christmas gift bag drive with an organization we partner with here in NYC. The ones we make for people who are still on the street include:
Healthy snacks- granola bars, water etc...
Hotel/travel size toiletries
Hand sanitizer or wipes
Lip Balm
For winter (hats, scarfs gloves)
I just recently came across your blog from Finding My Feet -
ReplyDeleteI read about doing "Sock Lunches"
You buy a pack of socks and then fill each sock with non-perishable food items.
The idea I saw had a bottle of water in 1 sock and then a small can of fruit (with pop top lid of course), one of those tuna/salad with cracker boxes and a granola bar or something. Tie the tops of the 2 socks together and keep them in your car!
The socks come in handy as well...although it's warmer where you are than in Indiana where I am!
when I volunteered at a homeless shelter they said clean socks were big in demand items - esp in winter. We actually discussed this very thing in my bible study and someone suggested carrying around mc donalds gift certs to give away. that way they can get food plus a warm or cool and dry place to hang out if for only a while. Even better, it can't be used for the purchase of drugs or alcohol.
ReplyDeleteLove these peeps' ideas, bee-tee-dubs. Also, your brain isn't screaming, "I HATE PEOPLE" until the END of a social function?! I typically can't finish my shower the morning of without the anticipatory panic attack. Is there REALLY a better way to describe my antisocial tendencies than your first paragraph(second?)? I think not.
ReplyDeleteThese are really great ideas--I'll be thinking about what I want to keep in my car for my trips to Pittsburgh! Just wanted to ask-do you have a tutorial up or a link for how to make that ring sling? #2 is due in December and I'm already feeling like I'm preparing/nesting. Also, you and Layla looks so cute and summery! Love that "coy" picture of you two! :)
ReplyDeleteHomeless people with signs make me think of my dad. When we were little there were always tons out at the mall near our home. My dad would direct them to the McD's and then buy them a meal and listen to their story about how they got the the place they were in (i.e why they were homeless). I am way too scared to go that far (and my hubby, ever the cop, would NOT be happy with me) so I settle for stopping at the nearest fast food restaurant and buy two extra large value meals and then turn around and drop it off with the homeless person. I feel better doing that then giving money, but I really like the ideas that people posted above about keeping "necessities" on hand to give out.
ReplyDeletePS-I am not antisocial but very clastraphobic (sp?) so I totally feel you on big crowds.
Wonderful post, Keight, and i love the home run at the end! Blue hats on beautiful girls are great too. A friend who went to Atlanta the Thrashers games always took blankets with. I wonder about making the same kind of roll up mats they use for kindergarteners, only longer and wider--tied with one of your amazing twists.
ReplyDelete