I sing the body eccentric

Ahh, Designated Writing Time. It's a rare commodity lately, just slightly less in demand than Designated Napping Time. We're coming off a whirlwind Memorial holiday weekend--complete with around 45 miles on the bike, a tee-ball barbecue, and a few thousand trips up Those Goddamn Steps--and the parts of my body that had been merely cranky are now in full revolt. My lower back is chronically throbbing, I have a pinched nerve that sends little shivers of numbness down my left arm, and my hip is still wonky from when I was playing tag with TwoBert and threw myself down a slide that was a bit narrower than I anticipated. I have a physical next month (on Friday the 13th, aptly), and when my GP gets through prodding I fully expect him to call a factory recall on most of my torso.

Aside from physical gripes, though, you'd have to work hard to top the weekend. On Saturday, Robert and I saw the Yankees and Mariners from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium. (The tickets were a gift from the sitter, who, though from Oregon, has turned to the Dark Side and loves to fuel Robert's Pinstripe Worship.) The panoramic view was the coolest thing ever! And we got a program with Derek Jeter on the cover, which was the coolest thing ever! And the vendor threw that bag of Cracker Jacks from like 200 feet, and Daddy caught it and it was the coolest thing ever! And you can see the new stadium being built next door, and it has YANKEE STADIUM engraved in gold on the side and it's the COOLEST THING EVER!

We also took turns scoring the game, and if you had seen this boy, one leg folded over the other, tongue out, carefully coloring diamonds for the 18 runs we saw, you might have just plain fallen over dead from the awesome. You might even have fallen onto the Lout Brothers two rows beneath us, who expressed every displeasure with buckets of choice expletives. F-, C-, D-, and S-bombs flying like a swarm of mad honeybees toward Robert's ears.

I spent most of Sunday on my bike, on the first big ride of the season. I'd put off lugging that thing up and down Those Goddamn Steps for too long, and enough was enough. Twenty-five miles later, bike on my shoulder, thighs boiling, I met Michael Emerson in my stairwell. He was attending a party on the top floor, and when I recognized him I said, "The last time I saw you, didn't somebody knock you flat with a rifle butt?" He was very nice and chatty, and every bit not a slippery, scheming crazygazer locked in a primordial war with a megalomaniacal British plutocrat. Though he sure looked it.

Monday was more biking (because I temporarily lost my mind) and then the highlight of the weekend: The big, baseball-based, come-as-you-are, pay-what-you-want, hey-have-a-beer cookout at the tee-ball diamonds. This was, hands down, the most profoundly low-stress gathering of parents in the history of molecules. Even the nuttiest stage parents, the ones who wear their own jerseys and run the bases with their kids, saw the opportunity to just chill the eff out and enjoy the moment. The Tee-Ball Commish made it all happen, and he is a genius. Full stop.

OK, so right at the end of that paragraph my cell rang, and when I answered I realized I have completely lost my voice. (This is what happens when you sit quietly, reading and writing for three hours.) If this is the by-product of burning my candle at every end over the long weekend, though, it was worth every lost decibel.

Comments

[Jennifer H]

I did just fall over (almost) dead from the awesome.

[Backpacking Dad]

I love those long bike ride days. I haven't done one in 6 months. In unrelated news, my pants are fitting kind of snugly today. I think that bike and I are going to get reacquainted this weekend.

For motivation? I always bike to a movie theater about 14 miles away. Then I watch a movie. Then I bike home. Because otherwise it's just pedaling with no purpose, and I could just stay home and do that.

[margalit]

You saw Michael Emerson in your BUILDING? And you didn't kidnap him and drag him up to your apartment and threaten him with bodily harm if he didn't reveal the secrets of the island? Because if you didn't, I'm very very disappointed in you.

[SciFi Dad]

Dude, you actually met Ben? Do you know how much Widmore would have paid you for that information?

But seriously, that is too cool. (As is the ball game scoring... I used to do it as a kid, at the old Tiger Stadium, but now when I go most kids don't seem interested.)

[kellly]

if i had to score a baseball game, guaranteed the ones with the best uniforms and manners would win somehow. and i might have had to accidentally spill something on the lout brothers.

[Sprite's Keeper]

Sounds like a wonderful weekend, although the Michael Emerson nod got me a little LOST. (Um, not funny, all right.)

[LetterB]

You just described my husband's greatest wish: to be sitting at an MLB game teaching his son to keep score. The awesome indeed.

Also, at the end there, I thought you were talking about your writerly voice, not your literal one, and I was like, "No, LOD, it's all good, especially liked that bit about the swearwords." In short, your voice, also the awesome.

[RubiaLala]

I had a doctor recall a body part one time. But they didn't have a replacement part.

[21stCenturyMom]

The awesome score keeping moment reminded me of Doris Goodwin's book "Wait Till Next Year" Have you read it? Very entertaining - probably more so for a baseball enthusiast.

[21stCenturyMom]

ps- I rode for 90 minutes yesterday and 2 hours today and I'm REALLY glad I don't have to lug my bike up more than 3 steps.

[MaiTai]

YOU? MET? BEN?! I shall never need to read another word. I mean, I too have experienced the awesomeness of the upper deck at Yankee Stadium whilst watching the new place of worship being constructed (allow me to take a moment) and I am forever changed. But Micheal FRICKEN Emerson in person! I am basking in the glow of your weekend's awesomeness... miles away in Ottawa, Canada.

[JBM]

I've always wanted to take my kid(s) (any of them) to a MLB game....most especially the Yanks.....one day we will live the dream.....for now we are just trying to get to a MLS game.

[Alli]

You should change LOD to OLD, ha ha ha kidding.

[dot]

Gotta LOVE LOVE those Yankees! I need to be climbing those steps you have no idea how much I pay for what you are getting for free! Don't kids just make you smile?

[Brenda]

I can feel your happiness! It's the coolest thing ever!

Have to give you some major credit for lugging the bike up the stairs TWICE in one weekend. Yeah, you probably did lose your mind.

For the record, Friday the 13th is not a bad day. At least when it's in June. I've always loved them.

[LiteralDan]

Awesome weekend, and I totally second margalit's notion of kidnapping and interrogating Michael Emerson-- it happens so often, I don't even think he would notice, right?

[Mom101]

I always love your descriptions of baseball with your son. It's like the ultimate American father-son experience, raised to the level of the literati.

[Lunasea]

Benjamin Linus was in your stairwell??? Aaaaughhh! I think I would have fainted or wished to God I had a candy bar to offer him. That is the coolest thing ever.

[Matthew]

My son and I sat and watched the Padres/Giants game on TV today (he'll be 3 in a couple of weeks) and he kept getting excited whenever he saw a closeup of either hat: "You have that hat, Daddy!" (I used to be a Giants fan and then gradually switched allegiances in the six years I have lived in SD)

He now wants his own Padres hat and I can't wait to take him to a real game.

It will be... awesome.