Birthday Week Shenanigans

I had high expectations for my birthday week.  It was going to be filled with sports (and wins), fun with friends, the Nats, dinner, and birthday cake.  Much of this… didn’t work out.

As we know, the UVA vs GW game didn’t so much go as expected.  Wednesday, I wasn’t feeling well and stayed home from work and slept in.  When I got up in the afternoon to run out and get some juice, my car wouldn’t start.  One jump, trip to advanced auto, and $120 later, I had a new battery.  Just what every girl wants for her birthday!

I had plans to go to the Caps game on Thursday on a date, and was teased with the idea that I might get to meet Karl Alzner.  Amazing, right?  After making these plans, I was offered tickets (that included free beer!) to that very same game from a friend, which I turned down, obviously, because I was already going to that game.  The day of?  Everything fell through.  No date.  No Karl Alzner.  No tickets with a friend that included free beer.  Whomp whomp.

Oh, and there was that whole being trapped in a bathroom thing.

My family plans for my birthday night fell through (more on this later).  So all I had left was my Nats Park tour.

I scheduled this tour weeks ago, and I’ve been super excited about it.  What better way to spend my birthday than at my favorite place??  Everyone at work was going on a cruise on the Potomac, so I scheduled to work half a day, figuring I could get some paperwork done in the peace and quiet, and, if needed, I could help put out any fires or deal with any emergencies that arose (as they always tend to do on Fridays).

What actually happened this morning was nothing like I’d planned.  Thanks to… thorns in my side, my morning ended up being extremely frazzled and frantic, and I scrambled to cram 7 hours worth of stuff into about 4 hours of time.  My beyond wonderful coworkers attempted to do several very sweet things for my birthday, but I wasn’t around for any of it.  I got a text from one coworker with a picture of some donuts from Sugar Shack, saying she had brought some goodies for my birthday, but I wasn’t there to enjoy them, so a picture would have to do.  She was very kind and put a red velvet donut on my desk to make sure it was saved for me.  (Have you had a red velvet donut from Sugar Shack?!  Seriously…. It’s a life changing experience.  I’m not joking.  Life.Changing.)  When I finally made it back to my desk for about 25 minutes before having to run out the door to do something else, I found the delicious donut on my desk, along with a cup of coffee another coworker had brought in for me.  Luckily, it was still warm, and it was MUCH needed.  They’d also hung up several birthday signs around my cubicle.  It’s great working with such wonderful people.

After finishing up the rest of what I needed to do, I finally got to skip off to the ballpark (aka, one of my 3 happy places).  My tour ended up being me and Lulu, and a dad from out of town and his two kids.  Damn kids.  Totally stole my birthday thunder.  Stupid kids ruin everything.

The tour was still interesting.  We went into the club area, where I’ve been many times, but they talked about several pictures on the wall that I admittedly haven’t ever paid much attention to.  Interesting information.  Perhaps I should pay attention to more of the pictures in the future.  We also went into the lexus presidents club and into one of the suites.  Obviously, these are places I’ve never been, and will likely never be again.  We also got to go into the media center, which was kinda nifty.  We sat for a few minutes where press does during games, and I saw where the official scorer sits.  Hello, dream job!  Life goals – to one day sit in that seat and officially score a game.  (See also: delusional thoughts of grandeur.)  I tried to convince the tour guide to take us up one additional level so we could see where the tv broadcasters sit.  I even played the birthday card.  No such luck.  BUT, we then got to do the greatest thing of all.  We went into the Nats Clubhouse!  I WAS STANDING WHERE JAYSON GETS NAKED!!  I may have sniffed one of the chairs.  We also got to walk through the dugout and out to the bullpen.  All in all, a pretty good way to spend some time on my birthday.

While there were several disappointments this week, there were also numerous bright spots.  Did I mention I got to be where Jayson gets naked?!  I’ve got wine tasting on Sunday, and family stuff next week.  Always fun to stretch out the birthday fun as long as possible.