I loaded sockparade up tonight right after I got out of the shower.

But I got caught up on email and Google Reader instead.

So now I have no time for a proper update.  But I thought of you.

**This might not be a good post for vegetarians or vegans to read.  It’s very meat/pork focused.

I’ve been to Italy before but I didn’t know what Porchetta was until I visited the SF Ferry Building Farmer’s Market.  At that Farmer’s Market (on Thursdays and Saturdays) Roli Roti serves up an amazing Pork Porchetta Sandwich.  (Just FYI, the “ch” is pronounced like a “k”.)  A lot of people miss out on the Porchetta sandwich and go for the Rotisserie chicken.  Major rookie mistake.  A mistake I committed several times until I tried the Porchetta.  Then never again.  I will never pass up Porchetta again.  Although I will admit the Roasted Pork Knuckle tempts me every time.  I don’t think it’s good to eat too many pork knuckles.  I should probably limit myself to 2 pork knuckles a year.  Just to be safe.

So what makes the sandwich so good?  Well first of all, I think every good sandwich starts on good bread.  Roli Roti know this and they do it right.  They serve their sandwiches on yummy Acme Bread (yay artisan bread!  weird, they don’t have a proper website).  Okay and do you see all that roasted pork juice and pork bits on the cutting board in the picture at the top of this post?  They take the bread and soak up all the juices by rubbing it on the cutting board.  I almost want to squeal when I watch them do this.  They put on a generous hunks of porchetta on the bread.  They top it with crispy, beautiful layers of pork skin.  Then they put a LOAD of fresh arugula on top.  They then smear a slightly sweet onion marmalade on the other piece of bread, close the sandwich, smush it down a bit and cut it in half.  It’s a pretty rustic (read: simple) sandwich.  No pears and brie here, people.  But man is it amazing.  It’s got to be one of my top ten favorite things to eat in life.

So a few weeks ago, I get an email from one of my neighbors titled “Porchetta Event”.  Intrigued by the subject line, I read on to find out that it’s an event hosted by Canvas Underground of the Ghetto Gourmet dining party network.  Wait a sec, Ghetto Gourmet?  Didn’t I blog about this… oh, I don’t know, in 2007?  Yes I did!  Here’s the post. So here was an opportunity to finally try out a Ghetto Gourmet dining experience, the menu was titled “The Great Porchetta” and it was hosted by my next door neighbors!  It was a no brainer.  I signed up right away.

Here was the menu for the night:

First Course: Fresh Mozzarella Wrapped with Grilled Summer Squash, Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil Vinaigrette

Second Course: Smoked Garlic Soup with Gypsy Pepper Cream

Third Course: Porchetta Marinated with Rosemary and Sage, Creamy Polenta, Slow Cooked Greens

Fourth Course: Roasted Peaches and Nectarines, Chestnut Honey Ice Cream, Toasted Almond Biscotti

Here are some photo/video highlights:

We walked into the loft to find Enzo, the butcher, deboning the pig.  It was kind of shocking, a little grotesque, but then really, really fascinating.  Enzo is also a really cool old school Italian guy so it was fun to listen to him talk about his craft.

Table Settings

There was lots and lots of wine.

La Caja China

Cooking instructions on the side of the roasting box

Roasting peaches on top of La Caja China.

Towards the end of the cooking time, they removed the foil and cut slits to let the skin get crispy.  The bad focusing is my fault, not the camera’s.

Here it is on the cutting board.  Enzo’s untying the string and then it’s ready to plate.

First Course: Fresh Mozzarella Wrapped with Grilled Summer Squash, Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil Vinaigrette

Second Course: Smoked Garlic Soup with Gypsy Pepper Cream

Third Course: Porchetta Marinated with Rosemary and Sage, Creamy Polenta, Slow Cooked Greens

Fourth Course: Roasted Peaches and Nectarines, Chestnut Honey Ice Cream, Toasted Almond Biscotti

Chef Peter Jackson answers some questions after dinner

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As you can see, it was a pretty great event.  Can’t wait to go to another one!

Man, Inception was a really cool movie.  I haven’t seen a movie this creative since The Matrix.  (By the way, I just found out last week that a lot of the youth I work with have no idea what The Matrix is and who Keanu Reeves is.  Crazy, I know.  It’s finally happened.  I’ve stopped being pop culture relevant.  I’m the old lady in the room now.  I need to go listen to Gucci Mane or something.  Or is he irrelevant already?)

***** Okay here’s my obligatory SPOILER ALERT WARNING.  Stop reading if you haven’t seen Inception (or Shutter Island) yet. *****

Inception was so fun to watch and I really didn’t want it to end because I wanted to explore more possibilities in dream life and witness more jaw-dropping scenes!  I don’t really want to spend this post discussing alternate explanations though.  This other blog post I found lays it out pretty well.

For the record, I don’t think the whole thing was a dream because I feel like that would be a copout.  I also don’t think it was real at the end because it would be too nicely buttoned of an ending.  Aaaand not to mention too coincidental that his reunion with his kiddos was so much like his memory of leaving them.  But none of the other explanations are perfect, there seems to be loopholes in all of them.  The main problem I’m stuck at is what exactly limbo is and what are the different ways to get there and leave.  It seems a bit inconsistent in the movie.  And if Cobb was going to be stuck in Limbo, Arthur and Ariadne seemed pretty nonchalant about it when discussing it on the bank of the van crash.  Anyway, we can chat explanations later.  I do like how there are so many discussions that can come after the movie.  A mark of a great movie, right?

Here are my comments (in no particular order):

• It was alarming how many similarities this movie had to Shutter Island.  Leonardo is getting really good at questionable sanity roles!  Haha, seriously.  When he went to the bathroom to splash water on his face, I chuckled to myself.  (I wanted to say, “Get it together, Teddy!”)  And of course, let’s not forget the psycho wife.  The general feeling of creepiness that stayed with me after the movie felt the same too.  The main difference is that Shutter Island had a lot of harrowing images and is downright grotesque at times.  And it wasn’t quite as cool.  I’d watch Inception again but I really don’t want to watch Shutter Island ever again.
• Why didn’t they make all the characters more likable?  Sanky made a comment about character development and I agree with her.  I’m usually pretty generous with character development when it comes to movies, too!  My imagination can carry me pretty far… I was sad for Kevin Costner’s character in The Bodyguard for days.  But I don’t feel like Inception even made an attempt to get me to like the characters!  I mean, I liked Eames and Arthur but I found myself questioning why they would risk their lives like this.  I didn’t get the feeling that either was particularly attached to Cobb and it felt shallow if they were just mercs, doing it for the cash.  I normally like Ellen Page, she’s a cool kid.  But sometimes she could be annoying in the movie.  When she ran into the elevator and snuck down to Cobb’s Basement Level of memories, I was horrified.  Why would she do that?!  And there were times where I was thinking, “Why does she have to go?  Why does she have to go after Fischer with Cobb?  Isn’t she kind of a liability?”  It was like watching Bourne Identity, wondering why the CIA was relying on Julia Stiles in her one-bedroom apartment playing recon central.  Cobb was pretty likable until we found out that he FAILED TO MENTION THE WHOLE LIMBO FOREVER RISK IF YOU DIE  to his teammates.  It’s great that he wanted to reunite with his kids but sheesh.  I wouldn’t exactly call him a great leader.  The worst part of all the unlikable characters was Cobb’s wife, Mal.  I really think they should have softened her up instead of making her the SCARIEST PERSON IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE.  It was hard to sympathize with Cobb’s conflicted heart of deciding between reality and being with her because every time she showed up on screen, instead of thinking, “Aww… there’s his beautiful wife,” I was thinking, “OH CRAP, GET AWAY FROM HER, SHE’S GOING TO STAB YOU, RUN AWAY NOW!”  At least in Shutter Island they waited until the end to show you what a nut job she was so you could feel the emotional collapse that Teddy felt.  By the way, I think one of the most well done, yearning-for-wife, movies has got to be Minority Report when they show Tom Cruise watching home movies over and over on his super high tech AV system.
• I really enjoyed Arthur’s character.  I know Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s bandwagon has been pretty full since 500 Days of Summer but I’ve got to comment on the guy anyway.  I like how he did everything in the movie with such a *shrug*, just-another-day-in-the-life-of-a-dream-invader attitude.  His zero gravity fight scene was pretty sweet and he’s opened the door for all the skinny actors out there to wield a gun in an action movie more confidently.  I also like that he’s not attractive.
• I think they did a great job with all of the action scenes.  I had no idea the movie would be so action packed with so many chase scenes, gun fights, and hand-to-hand combat scenes and they were all surprisingly well done.  When they were on their mission in the rain, I could sense the vulnerability and danger of the gun fights, which is usually hard to do when it comes to action movies.  Usually the characters seem invincible but I was actually scared for the team.  Even though I knew they were in a dream.  And before I knew about the whole Limbo risk!
• I love that they created all these rules and consequences for the dream life.  I think that’s the draw of a lot of sci-fi movies like Harry Potter, Twilight, etc.  Rules.  This group of people can do this, this other people can do this, but they can’t do this because if they do, this will happen.  Advantages and disadvantages for certain people (or animal?) groups.  Offenses and defenses.  I think it’s the same reason why people like Pokemon, Magic Cards, Starcraft and the like.  I think we’re naturally drawn towards these kinds of movies and ideas.  A clear structure in an obvious fantasy.  I especially liked how time was exponentially faster the deeper they went in dreams.  Especially because it’s based on truth —  we can definitely dream of days in one night.
• After the movie, I tried to think of whether or not I’ve ever gotten an idea from a dream before.  The closest I could think of was being scared into remembering something because I dreamt I forgot something and it was disastrous (this happens a lot when packing for a trip).
• I like how they used Ariadne’s introduction to show us the dream world piece by piece.  I always enjoy that part of a movie.  When they show one character being trained up.  That was my favorite part about watching Wanted.
• I like how they set up the planning at an abandoned warehouse with old lawn chairs.  It was cool how gritty everything was.  Seemingly high-tech but to the casual eye it just looked like a group of people taking naps on lawn chairs together.  I also like how they didn’t try to explain the technology of connecting IVs to their arms and entering other people’s dreams.
• Cillian Murphy is still SUPER scary from Red Eye and The Dark Knight.  I knew he was a harmless character in the movie but I kept getting the sneaky suspicion that he was going to become Dr. Jonathan Crane a.k.a. The Scarecrow at any given moment.
• I didn’t know anyone’s names until after the movie when I was reading online about alternate explanations.  Right after the movie, the Husband and I discussed the movie by saying, “Ellen Page, Leo, Ken Watanabe, Funny Guy, etc.”  Ariadne?  How do you even pronounce that?!?
• I’m not sure how old Ken Watanabe was supposed to be in the opening and final scenes with Leo, but geez, I think they may have overdone the makeup job.  He was waaay past old — he was in alien territory.
• The more I think about it, the more I think the movie was brilliant because it used so many tried and true devices.  So let’s see:  structured sci-fi world creation, apprentice training, team of people with various strengths/abilities, team heist premise, a connection to something we can relate to (dreams), visual entertainment, action sequences, creepy factor, and debatable ending.  Well done, Christopher Nolan!

What are the top three most overused essay/paper/speech openings?

1. Definition of a word

2. Inspirational quote

3. Personal story or insight

Here, let me give you all three:

hope (n.) — the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”  – Albert Einstein

In elementary school, I hoped that my parents would let me play in a basketball league.  In middle school, I hoped that I would be noticed by a boy.  In high school I hoped to make friendships that would last me a lifetime.  In college I hoped I would find a career I could love.  In working at Halliburton, I hoped I would find meaning in the work I did and friendship in the people I worked with.  In graduate school, I again hoped I would find a career where I could use my strengths to their potential and find meaning in the work I did.

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I can’t remember a time when I didn’t hope for something.  I guess it’s been a pretty restless short existence, hoping for better relationships, hoping for stronger spirituality, hoping for a more charmed life — I feel like I’m always looking a little further down the road, hoping for bigger and better.

Now is the first time in a long time where I feel like I’m living in my hopes.  Or living out my hopes.  I don’t even know how to word that properly.  I finally moved to California which I’ve been plotting since Freshman year in high school when me and Babs visited LA for a week.  I’m happily married to a great man who challenges me and pushes me spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually.  I’ve found a church that tries its best to address the reality of Christianity in a secular world and the social problems that exist that we are compelled to do something about.  A church that doesn’t pride itself in isolation but rather, engagement with the city and surrounding community.  I’ve got a great job working for a youth program I believe in that has plenty of room for my thoughts, ideas, and contributions.  I feel like I’m using my project management experience and business sensibilities as well as my social work training — something I thought I’d have to wait years to do.  I live in a loft that is as modern as I can handle and as fun to modify and renovate as I’ve always dreamed of doing.  It’s not everything I want, I mean, I still want to have a big family and make new friends out here, but it’s really pretty close.  And now that I’m here, I realize how selfish all my hope has been for the large majority of my thought life and prayer life.  It’s not exactly a new revelation, and yeah, we’re all selfish when it comes down to it, but being at this place in my life has really opened my eyes to it.

As we’re nearing our one year mark since moving to the Bay Area, it occurred to me that I no longer have any large scale life-changing plans that I’m procrastinating life for.  For the longest time, for the two years before we moved, I was just waiting for grad school to be over so I could finally start my life.  I’ve always joked that doctors are one of the most disillusioned people because they spend so much time preparing for their careers to start.  But here I am at 27 and that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.

And it’s not like I’ve been living in a vacuum.  I’ve tried my best to stay aware of world/state/local issues and topics that need hope and that need hopeful people.  It’s just never been my main focus.

The Chairperson of Bright Futures (a national health care promotion and disease prevention initiative) gave a really inspiring talk at one of the weekly lectures during my Baylor College of Medicine Social Work Fellowship and to this day I’m still turning it over in my head and digesting it.  She spoke of a notion that she likes to refer to as her “True North.”  She suggested that everyone has a True North, or should find their True North.  It’s not really a career, because she’s gone through 4 or 5 different careers, ranging from doctor to school teacher, but it’s more of a general thing that no matter what you’re doing and what stage of life you’re in, you find yourself reorienting to that same thing.

I think I’m still looking for my True North.  Which is why my hope up until now has probably been pretty misguided.  I think hope can be powerful, especially if it’s NOT the kind that allows you to rest easy because you think fate will magically intervene for you, but the kind that drives you to work harder and be more purposeful in how you spend your time and how you live your life.  And it just seems like a waste to use my hope on such frivolous things like luxury and comfort.

I won’t lie, it’s pretty nice to be where I am right now.  And I do want to enjoy living in the present.  But I also want to refocus myself a bit.  And re-evaluate what it is that I want to be hoping for nowadays.

I could watch this jellyfish for hours.  I took this at the  California Academy of Sciences.  The blue background in the tank makes the orange look incredible.  Somebody knows the primary color wheel opposite trick.

There’s a spot in Alameda that we go to on the weekends quite a bit called the Crab Cove.  They have concerts in the summer, picnic tables, lots of grassy area and farther along the coast there’s this kite surfing launch place.  You’ll notice there’s a videographer in the water taking capturing jumps and tricks.  Pretty cool.

Kite surfing is interesting because I don’t think you can really launch by yourself.  You need a buddy.  Here’s a launch that happened as the sun was setting.

Here’s a video of the live crawfish that we flew in from Louisiana from the Lousiana Crawfish Co.  I highly recommend it!  They were delivered early in the morning and the crawfish were very much alive and kicking not to mention nice and sizeable.

We finished dinner early and had some time to kill before the movie started so we went to the Apple Store to check out the iPhone4 (and to look at iPad accessories).  The iPhone table was full of people playing around with the phones and there were small plastic displays teaching you how to use FaceTime.  A couple of teenage girls next to us were trying to figure it out and they kept giggling because they were pushing each other to ask us if we wanted to do FaceTime with them.  We told them we were cool with it and also wanted to see how it worked so they quickly dialed our phone.  At first we didn’t know how to engage it, but we finally figured it out and all four of us excitedly exclaimed that it was “connecting”.  When one girl’s face showed up in our screen and my face in her screen, she squealed in delight.  (I may or may not have squealed as well.)  The other girl pushed her face right next to her friends so they were both on screen and the husband did the same.  ”This is so cool!”  ”Omigosh, tight!”  We were all smiles as we stood next to each other, looking at each other through the phones and lamely exchanging various giddy words.  It was sort of awkward, sort of geeky, and really really neat.  I’m still waiting to see the white one to decide whether I want white or black.

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Toy Story 3 was so great!  If you haven’t seen the movie, stop reading and go watch it!

****** WARNING ****** SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

• I loooooved the opening scene of the movie.  So creative, I love how they acted out Andy’s make-believe world.  I laughed so hard when they emptied the barrel of monkeys!
• When they first showed Molly, I thought, “Look how big she’s gotten!”
• I don’t know why, but I was kind of shocked so many of the old toys were missing.  But that’s pretty realistic, I guess.
• I didn’t like Toy Story 2 very much because of Jessie but she was much more likable in this one.
• I gasped when Andy put Buzz in the bag and Woody in the college box.
• I think Bonnie, the little girl, is so adorable!  She’s almost as cute as the little girl in Up.
• I loved the scene when Woody is at tea time at Bonnie’s house and he meets all of Bonnie’s toys.  Haha, especially the part where a chat window comes up on the computer and the Rhinoceros tries to hide it.  Hahaha.  I laughed when Dolly made fun of Woody’s name.  I loved seeing Totoro and the Edamame toy!  I especially liked when Woody hugged Totoro and his eyes just got really big.
• The whole theater laughed so hard when Chuckles the Clown was telling the Lotso story.  He just looked so bitter as he told the story.  I don’t know why but I laughed really hard when they showed that Daisy got another Lotso.  Nobody else was laughing at that point so I felt kind of mean but it was so funny!  Hahaha.
• Ken’s character was predictable but funny.  I like that they gave him a semi-dark side.
• Spanish Buzz was also funny, the dance moves were impressively choreographed!
• I have a fear of baby dolls with those automatic eyes so I was really freaked out by Big Baby.  I like how she was the strongest out of all of the toys.
• I thought the use of the tortilla with Mr. Potato Head was so clever!  Hahahaha man.
• So, in the incinerator scene… I was really worried that they would end it with them all peacefully accepting their death.  One of the youth at our office had made some comments like, “There will never be another Toy Story again.”  So I was like, “Oh no…. please don’t end it like this.”  I was also worried it would start to get preachy… sort of like Wall-E but it was pretty subtle about the trash/landfill message.  I don’t think they went overboard.
• So the scene where Andy is telling Bonnie about each toy — it was surprisingly emotional for me.  It caught me really off guard which is why I think it was done so well.  I thought I was in the clear and then Andy got in the car and said, “Thanks guys,” and I had the choke back the emotions all over again.

I don’t know exactly why I like the Toy Story series so much.  I didn’t grow up with a lot of the character toys in the movie so it’s not nostalgic for me in that way.  I do think the movies speak strongly to the part of me that longs for aspects of my childhood and a more innocent time.  They challenge my adult sensibilities that I’ve carefully built up around myself over the years.  And they push me to wonder and to want to play.  Pretty good reasons, I guess.

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With the summer in full swing, the Husband and I have been stocking up on tons of fruits.  Something about fruit and summer just goes hand in hand.  We’ve stocked up on blueberries, apricots (a new favorite of mine!), peaches, cantaloupes, clementines, grapes, and more.  With that said, we still indulge in some sweet treats here and there.  We recently picked up Haagen-Dazs’s new frozen yogurt line.  I love the peach flavored one!  It’s not too sweet but light, creamy, tangy and refreshing.  We got it at Pak ‘n Save which means you can probably find it in any grocery store.

Here are some of my favorite photos from it.  I loved all the imported european ceilings.

Neptune Pool

Guest Bedroom

Another Guest Bedroom

Gregorian Chants for Lampshades

Home Office

Tennis Courts on Top of Indoor Pool

Indoor Pool

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We also had the greatest tour guide EVER who sounded like she should have been a cast member on Reading Rainbow.  She added a lot of interesting tidbits and was patient with these kids in our tour group that kept “forgetting” to keep their camera flash off.  The speed in which the girl navigated her camera menu to turn off the flash when she was scolded or when I gave her a dirty look indicated that she was purposely turning on her flash.  Pet peeve of mine.  One of my favorite tidbits that she shared was about Marion Davies, the actress that William Hearst had a long relationship with.  When Mr. Hearst died, he left a huge portion of the publishing empire to Marion but she sold it back to his family for ONE DOLLAR stating that she didn’t want to be remembered for being with him for his money and that she really did love him.

Also, if you’re wondering, as I did, whether this is the same Hearst as in Patty Hearst… it is.  What a fascinating family.

Click here to view full set of photos.

Anyway, lots has been going on.  I have three unfinished drafts titled “debates”, “eyesight”, and “marijuana” that I don’t think I’ll ever finish.  Oh geez, the Husband just walked out of the restroom with the face mask on and it scared the bejeezus out of me.

Anyway, I just upgraded to WordPress 3.0 and I like the cleaner dashboard interface.  Nice work.

I just got back from a relaxing Vegas trip with the Husband and my in-laws and I feel completely rejuvenated.  We stayed at Aria (which was comped through the in-laws!) and the Husband and I spent most of Saturday at Qua Baths & Spa at Caesar’s Palace.  I haven’t been to too many spas before so I’m pretty new to the whole thing.  The neat thing about Qua is that they have a lot of amenities that you can use if you get any of their treatments.  You can also get a day pass to just use their treatments for $45.  They have 3 different pools — one hot, one body temperature, and one cold!  When I got into the cold pool I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me.  But when I got into the hot pool it felt pretty amazing, your skin feels like it’s on fire.  It’s what I would imagine jumping into a pool of icy hot would feel like.  They also have these heated stone lounge chairs that you can take a nap on.  They also have 3 rooms– an herbal steamroom, a cedarwood sauna, and an arctic room (which was cooled to 50 degrees and was refreshing after all the heat).  We both got massages and they were really thorough and worth the money.  I’m not really sure how Qua compares to the other spas in Vegas but my boss, who is a bit of a spa junkie, swears that this one is the best.  I don’t have any good pictures of the spa because it’s clothing optional so photography is prohibited.  I kept my bathing suit on… sigh, not there yet.  Maybe one day.  It’s separate facilities for men and women which is really nice.  The husby wore his birthday suit — but he’s used to that since he’s used to being nude in the 24 Hour Fitness locker rooms.

Anyway, being pampered is fun!

Oh, and in other news, I joined my company volleyball team.  I don’t know how to play volleyball, but I’m going to learn!  We practiced last week and my forearms were all bruised because I don’t think I was hitting it right.  Sigh, we’ll see how it goes.  At least there’s free dinner that comes with it!

Do you remember this neato YouTube video of violin with hiphop beats?

I recently came across this video by the same guy:

Pretty cool, huh?  I think it’s funny when he’s singing the Rude Boy lyrics.

I also found this vid of hip hop harmonica while trying to find Chris Brown’s MJ Tribute by Bad News Brown:

I’ve never been a real fan of baseball. because of that, I don’t know much about the sport. I’ve probably been to less than 10 baseball games my whole life.

Since moving to Oakland I’ve been torn about team loyalty. It’s fun being a Warriors fan but it’s really hard being a Raiders fan. For baseball I liked the idea of going to the giants stadium with the views of the water. But I like the idea of being loyal to the home team whenever possible.

So we finally got the chance to go to an A’s game this past Sunday. It was Mother’s Day so they had a deal for half off ticks. We got great seats for $16 a pop. Saturday night I insisted that the husband and I “study” for the game. We looked up the stats for all the players on the A’s roster to see who were the stronger players which immediately highlighted the fact that we didn’t know what all the abbreviations stood for. It felt really weird to know so little about a sport that you’ve grown up with a strong awareness of.  I had heard of RBI and ERA but what was CS? (Apparently it stands for “caught stealing”).  Thank God for wikipedia: baseball statistics abbreviations.

So we were sort of prepped for the game. The weather forecast said rain but we were optimistic because the sun was out. After church we headed to the game, inhaled a couple of burgers from In-and-Out, and went to the game.  Next time we go to a game, maybe we’ll eat there since they seem to have a lot more food options than at the Oracle Arena.  The family in front of us smuggled in an entire picnic!  We sat next to this big man with a well worn A’s cap and was watching on his own which I concluded must mean he’s a pretty die hard A’s fan.  It was nice sitting next to him since he could spot the strikes and balls well before they were scored on the scoreboard.  I clapped and hollered when he hollered, and pumped my fist when he pumped his fist.

Halfway through the game, I turned to the husband and said, “Aren’t the Tampa Bay Rays supposed to be pretty good?”  The husband shrugged and I chalked it up to good luck.

It was fun to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and I was amused by the fact that the big guy next to me sang it enthusiastically with us.

Towards the end of the game, I didn’t exactly know what was happening.  I just thought our defense was really good!  The Rays were never at the bat or long and we did pretty well at the bat.  The game felt fast.

We then heard people talking about it possibly being a perfect game.  I wasn’t sure what a perfect game was.  I figured it was like a no-hitter.  Which I thought was pretty cool but I knew Nolan Ryan alone had 6 or 7 (for the record he had 7).  The last out of the game was pretty nerve wracking.  The Rays had a hit and I held my breath as the outfield got the ball the first base in time to get the batter out.  The stadium (not very full of fans) erupted in cheers and applause.  The big guy high-fived the husband over me.  It gave me chills to see the dugout rush the field and it was touching to see Dallas Braden (the pitcher) talk to his grandmother after the game (great article here).

I don’t really know how to explain this but it felt really really good being there to watch this happen.  And I’m not even a baseball fan.  I can’t imagine how it felt for the big guy to be there.  He looked like he was getting a bit emotional.  I can now say that there is something charming about being at a baseball game.  I’ve always loved cheering and yelling at refs at sporting events but there’s something about baseball that just feels so leisurely and so oddly patriotic.  Yeah patriotic.  Best way to describe the feeling.

As we were leaving we overheard people talking about how it’s only the 19th time this has happened to MLB history.  Crazy talk.  I am lucky to have witnessed it.