Category: Baseball

NY Yankees, Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals, Syracuse Chiefs. I like baseball.

Me Time

Lately I’ve felt overwhelmed. Too much to do and not enough time. Every day I murmur a prayer of thanksgiving because my children are grown and gone. If I were still doing the mom thing . . . I can’t even contemplate it.

It’s not all bad. I’m realizing my lifelong dream/ambition of being a published author. It’s the peripheral obligations that are getting me down.

One of my goals for this calendar year is a monthly date with myself. Too bad I haven’t had time to do that. I barely have time to get in a weekly session of yoga. My second quarter goal is to add another half hour of exercise into my week. But exercise isn’t me time. It’s a peripheral obligation that takes away from the writing time.

I’m in serious need of not only a date with myself, but some substantial me time.

  • I’d like to go to a baseball game.
  • I’d like to do some real cooking on the weekend.
  • I’d love to go to a movie with my husband.
  • I have several ideas for custom music mixes I’d like to work on.
  • Reading without guilt would be so nice!
  • I’d like to sip a glass of wine and relax when I get home from Day Job.

I would also like writing time. Writing is my dream. Something has to give.

Another one of my goals this year is “say no.” Don’t be surprised when you start hearing me say it more often.

Slice of Life Sunday: The Madness without Me

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It’s NCAA Basketball Tournament time again. In years past, I would take the afternoons off from work; I would have a tuna sandwich bar party; I would watch men’s college basketball until I dropped.

That habit gradually changed. The tournament was no longer exclusively on broadcast TV (and Superman help you if you refuse to pay your local cable monopoly for the higher tier channels, and I’m cable-challenged anyway.) Last year, my team left the beloved conference (ruined by football), so that dampened my spirit. And this year, my “home team” isn’t in any post-season at all.

This year, all the madness of March means to me is . . . baseball is right around the corner!

I watched college basketball—it’s practically a law in Syracuse—but it was tiring. There was no space or time to breathe the way there was in baseball. Baseball was spiritual, like yoga.

I could really use some spirituality right about now.

 

Former Yankee Great Bernie Williams

Bernie Williams was in town last weekend. It was Father’s Day, and TV Stevie wanted to go to the ballpark to see him. Well, hear him. You see, Bernie is now a professional musician. His CDs have been nominated for Latin Grammy Awards. And Bernie was scheduled to play the national anthem on guitar. So we went to the game. I hadn’t been to a game all season. It was nice to be back, although we couldn’t get our old seats (we were season ticket holders for three years, and I wrote a blog with the woman in the seats next to us:  From Section 207). Still we did sit in 207 and got to chat with our former neighbors.

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And we got to see and hear Bernie.

We left the game early (me with a nice sunburn), grabbed take out from a local Italian restaurant, then went downtown to hear Bernie in concert.

 

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No, I did not take photos during the concert. I am under the impression that to do so is illegal. Too bad the jerk in front of me didn’t care. Every time he turned on his camera to record Bernie, he blinded me. So I would kick the back of his seat. Childish, I know, but he was completely rude and completely oblivious.

The concert was nice. Bernie is incredible on the guitar. I never knew he actually went to a performing arts high school in Puerto Rico–studying music.

But . . . there’s always a but, isn’t there?

I am not a fan of big, brassy music. I know many people who are huge Chicago (the band) fans. I am not one of them. And Bernie’s band had a lot of brass, soprano sax, etc. After a while, the music all started sounding alike to me. To me. That is not a criticism of the performances. The musicians were all amazing. The band leader/saxophonist was indescribable, especially on the alto sax. The style of music just isn’t my cuppa.

But hey! I got to see Bernie Williams in concert, and baseball fan that I am, that’s enough.