ooops, i forgot!

One more photo for Brenda!


I have an unhealthy obsession with the El Camino. That's right. I want one. So when I saw this one in the parking lot of Derby Lanes (the oldest dog track in Florida), I had Jesse take my picture with my phone. Oh it was so shiny and pretty.

back to the real world.

I decided to return home on our scheduled flight. So now we're home and I'm freaking out about school shit again. Since I'm studying and trying to get ready for a research exam, I'll just post some photos.

Sunday we went to the split squad Tigers game at the spring training home of the Phillies, Bright House Networks Field. Our tickets were in the front row, right behind home plate. The woman that sang the National Anthem stood right in front of us and I could see myself on the big video screen while she was singing. I tried really hard to behave myself. Here's a photo of Jim Leyland talking to some dude.


I believe this is Andrew Miller pitching. I just liked this photo because you can see the ball. The next day Mr. Miller was sent to the single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers.


On Monday we saw the Tigers play the Tampa Bay Rays at their park with some ridiculous name that I don't remember and am too lazy to look it up. We have been to this park a couple times in the past. I love the view of the water! That is Bonderman warming up on the mound. I think.


This guy cracked me up. Apparently the joke was on me because I ended up with a sunburn even after slathering on the 45 sunblock.


I was determined to go to a beach before we went home. Tuesday we found a beach! I don't even remember which beach it was.


Oh wait, I remember. It's a dirty beach.

i'm never coming home. until opening day.

I started to write a really long post but I'm on vacation and it felt like work. So I'll post some photos instead.

Holiday Inn Home of the Detroit Tigers. I am still not convinced the Tigers stay there. The bed in our room was really really really uncomfortable.


This thing was out in the berm area. From our seats it totally looked like it was getting railed when the little kids were jumping around in it. Slutty tiger.


Jesse doing his Uncle Rico photo impression. Joker Marchant playing field in his right eye.


Magglio at the plate. I don't know if this was the at-bat where Beckett nailed him in the head with a pitch.

Speaking of getting hit with pitches... Beckett had hit Sheffield in the 1st inning and then hit Magglio. In the 5th inning Todd Jones came in and pitched behind the batter. Bench clearing brawl ensued. Of course, we missed the whole thing because we had gone for a smoke break. Dammit. And yes, we know. Another reason smoking is bad.

Today I told Jesse I'm just going to stay down here until opening day. I will probably flunk out of school but it will be okay because I haven't been this relaxed since last summer when all I did was go to baseball games.

Time to drink more wine! I'll try to post photos from today's kick ass game sometime tomorrow. Or later tonight when I'm drunk.

uh oh.

I just realized that I forgot to pack pajamas. At home I usually sleep in my birthday suit but I don't like to do that when I have house guests or when I am at a hotel. What if there is a fire in the night? I suppose there could be a fire at my house too.

I need to stop worrying about everything.

The first few years I had my drivers' license I was terrified that I would hit a cow in the road. I grew up not far from the Ag School's farms. I've stopped worrying about that so maybe there is hope for me yet. Maybe?

there's a reason i don't stay at rustic campgrounds.

I like to pee/poop in toilets.

We're in Lakeland! And the hotel has free wireless internet so here I am sitting in my little hotel room with no working toilet. But it has free wireless so I suppose that's all you care about.

Traveling was fairly uneventful. This morning when we were printing out hotel/flight/rental car confirmations we realized that neither of us rented a car. Jesse got his ass on the internet and found one. I think he was lucky because we flew in to Tampa. In March. On a Friday afternoon.

Since we flew out of Detroit at 1:45pm, we decided to eat lunch at the airport. We went to a sushi restaurant so Jesse could eat that shit and I could eat something that tasted equally as nasty. Here's Jesse's lunch.

Airport sushi? For real?? The restaurant actually had Ramen on the menu. I was going to order it but couldn't justify spending $10 on Ramen noodles even knowing we wouldn't really be paying for it (no, we weren't planning on dining-and-dashing, Jesse actually gets a "travel bonus" so everything will be paid for... up to a limit...).

Our flight left on time and was relatively smooth and quiet. The noise reducing headphones work quite well.

We arrived in Tampa at about 4:30pm. 83 degrees. Palm trees. And Friday rush hour traffic. It took a while to get to Lakeland but it was okay because the car windows were open. And it's March. And we weren't shivering from the cold.

We stay at the Holiday Inn in Lakeland because it was always the "Home of the Detroit Tigers." Well, at least until a couple years ago. But when we got here today, the signs were back up! Jesse asked the front desk chick what "Home of the Detroit Tigers" means. She said it means they stay here. I'm not sure I believe that because well, if I was a Detroit Tiger, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't stay here. I mean, I know Willie Horton stayed here a couple years ago because we ran into him at the elevators. I just figured he didn't manage his finances well. It doesn't really matter if we do see Tigers here because I get all star struck and will be too shy to say anything anyway. Sad.

We got to our room and I had to pee really badly. I went in the bathroom and the toilet was full of toilet paper. I flushed it but it didn't flush so I called the front desk. They said maintenance would be right here. We left for dinner and figured maintenance would just let themselves in.

Dinner at Harry's was so yummy. We had to wait a long time but it was worth it. The obnoxious 50th birthday party with a bunch of loud and drunk old people didn't even ruin our dinner. We had the fried green tomato appetizer and it was really yummy. Washing it down with a spicy bloody mary was the way to go. We ate a lot of other stuff but I already wrote about food and I'm sure you're sick of it. Isn't that what vacation is all about though? I can't gain weight because I'm in a wedding in a few weeks and my dress is getting altered right now. I will be mortified if I go to pick it up and it doesn't fit.

We got back from dinner at 8:30 and nobody had come to fix the toilet. Come on, people! Jesse called the front desk and they said maintenance would be here right away. Yeah. Sure. I just went down to the front desk a few minutes ago (9:30pm) and she called maintenance again. The dude showed up about 3 minutes after she called. I am thinking they never called the other times. I would request free shit from them but we got free breakfast last year and it really wasn't that great. And we're only here one night anyway.

Jesse is doing stand-up at a restaurant/bar in the Best Western across the street. I'm sitting in the hotel room watching tv and writing really long posts about nothing. I'm thinking about going pee again just because I can. But I don't really have to.

Favorite things about FL so far: kids sitting outside an ice cream parlor enjoying their ice cream. I'm wearing Tevas. It is March.

Watch for exciting baseball photos tomorrow. Hopefully.

spring vacation!

I am officially on spring vacation. Kind of. I have to go to a meeting tonight for a group project. But then I'll be on vacation. We leave for Florida tomorrow and I can't wait! Oh. Wait. Yes, I can. I'm kind of freaking out about getting everything done before we go. And Barbaro Garbey has been acting more strangely than usual and I am worried she is sick. And because I am not an optimist, I worry that she will die before we get back and Willie Horton will eat her. We'll have to be sure to leave extra food and hope that Willie eats the food instead of Barbaro.

Once we land in Tampa I'm sure I'll forget we even have cats. And once we are at Joker Marchant Stadium watching the Tigers play the Red Sox, I'll forget I have one million assignments due before the end of the semester in April.

I am 99% sure that I will take my computer with me so hopefully I'll find time to post something.

i love spring training.

The Yankees are playing the Tigers on ESPN right now. The game has been all over the place with both teams making spring training mistakes. The announcers keep talking about how the unusually cool weather might be affecting their play.

Unusually cool at 65 degrees.

We leave on Friday and I cannot wait.

But first I have to find warm weather clothes and make sure they are clean. Then I have to pack the warm weather clothes. And I have to write two papers. And progress notes for the two families I see at internship. And a house guest tomorrow night. And find a place to do alterations on my bridesmaid dress. And I should probably clean so the house guest isn't disgusted and so we don't have to come home to a dirty house. And I have to go to a meeting for a class project. And I have to go to another meeting for another class project.

Last night I was thinking I would wear my glasses on the plane. The air is so dry on the plane and my contacts usually bug me. But then I decided I will wear my contacts because if the plane crashes and if I survive and if I have to find my way out of the jungle or the swamp or the desert and if I lose my glasses I will die because I won't see the big lion or crocodile or rattle snake coming after me. So even though we won't be flying over a jungle or swamp or desert, I think I will feel better knowing I might be able to see with my contacts if we crash and I survive.

something you don't want to hear during a home visit...

"I can't just leave my wife because I don't know when my dad is going to show up here with a gun and do something crazy. I need to be here to protect her. I mean, my dad is crazy. We don't ever know what he is going to do."

Great. I love home visits. Does anyone have a bullet proof vest I can borrow?

addiction.

Hi. I'm Jen and I can't get enough office supplies. Pens. Paper. Markers. Highlighters. White boards. Binders. 3-(or 2-) hole punch. Calendars/planners. Folders.

You get the picture.

When I go to the office for my internship I have anxiety attacks because they don't believe in office supplies. The other day, I walked around the office looking for a stapler that worked. I believe the 5th one I tried actually had staples. I looked for a couple folders to put papers in but never found any. One day I took a phone message for one of the employees and had to use my own paper because I could not find any message or note pads. Most of the time I can't get work done because the computers are super old and shitty or the internet doesn't work.

This morning I stayed home because I have all the office supplies I need at an arm's length. All is right with the world.

i'm moving.

I decided that I need to start a new blog that is family friendly. More specifically, one that my mom can read and not be disappointed she adopted me. And one that can be found by church camp people and I don't have to pretend it wasn't me that was the dean at camp last summer. Or the summer before. I've also realized that since school is all-consuming, I have been really bad at returning emails and phone calls. Maybe if I have a blog everyone can read, I won't feel so bad about not calling/emailing people back. Or maybe I'll just feel worse that I take the time to post but not call/email back. Oh well.

I don't know when this will actually happen. I have to come up with a name first. I had a couple but they were already taken. Assholes.

If you have a suggestion, leave it in a comment. But it better be nice.

And I'll let you know when I move. That way you can continue to be bored to tears.

espn makes me flunk.

I haven't been reading for my classes because I've been busy writing papers and stuff. I decided today would be a great day to read because I'm home alone with no internship shit to do and got a really great night of sleep and it's just time to try to catch up.

But no.

Spring training baseball is on ESPN. No reading will be done because baseball is back.

And no, it isn't the Tigers. It isn't even American League baseball.

I don't care.

No reading. Baseball is back.

stalking... and other stuff.

The guy we bought our house from is a photographer for the Detroit News. I was checking out the photo galleries from Tigers spring training and realized that he was the photographer! So last night I emailed him and asked if he wanted to get together for a cocktail or something when Jesse and I are there. I'd love to get to know him but I'm secretly, or not so secretly, hoping he'll say, "hey guys, why don't you come with me to the ball park and I'll take pictures with you and all of your favorite Tigers. Perhaps you can have Magglio re-enact his homerun that got the Tigs to the World Series? And all the players will probably want to hang out with you too!"

My 3rd class of the day was canceled today. I was happy and a little frustrated. We have a paper due next week and I have a ton of questions. But whatever. It's rainy and cold and gross here so heading home to chill on the couch was okay too. I was almost home when my friend from school called and her truck had broken down. She lives in Port Huron, which is a ways from here. I went and sat with her until her boyfriend could get here to help. I hope she makes it home all safe and sound and her truck is fixable!

So I got home and gmail doesn't work and I feel lost. How will I find out if I'll be hanging out with the Tigers if gmail doesn't work? How will I read the email from my professor that canceled class? How will I live??