Swimming with Shark could be dangerous!

My friend.  The shark.

This past weekend was very productive. With regards to the best baseball road trip ever, that is!  It wasn't really all that productive in any other ways.  Birdie & I have successfully procured tickets to the Cubs @ Brewers game on Wednesday, June 6th.  We hadn't really planned on going to this game but it is after all on our way from South Haven, MI to the Twin Cities!  And it just so happens that I have a friend that owes me a favor - big surprise right?  This friend will absolutely want to remain anonymous so he will just be known as Shark.

Shark is a lawyer by trade but does a variety of other things as well.  And since he definitely will not want to be identified, I will leave it at that and not go into the fun and fascinating details about his many other pursuits.  The one pursuit that I do need to mention is that he is a huge Brewers fan.  Huge.  I know, weird, right?  Anyhoo, not only is he a huge Brewers fan but also happens to owe me $150 on some misguided football bets from this past season.  He actually owed me $300 but magically talked me into taking the Vikings over Green Bay - I'm pretty sure I had been drinking.  Actually, I'm positive. I was drinking.

Miller Park

Home of the Brewers

So as part of his repayment plan, I called in the "Hey Shark, I need tickets" favor.  And POOF!  we now have tickets to the Cubs/Brewers game.  When asked where the tickets were located, he said, "On my desk".  Arrrgg!  He knew darn well I meant where are our seats located!  But he is a wordsmith of sorts so I shouldn't have been surprised.  He claims to have an IQ of 169, which I usually believe.  Until, of course, he starts calling me 132, which I do not appreciate.  That's a story for another day - or another blog.  (Ha ha, it still cracks me up that I have a blog.)  Shark can't remember exactly where our seats are located because he has purchased so many tickets to so many games blah, blah, blah.  Show off.  But they are either Left field bleachers or Left field baseline.  The really amusing thing is he provided me with the names of the beer vendors in both of those sections.  The man is prepared if nothing else!  So we are either sitting in beer vendor "Bucksnort's" section or in beer vendor "Jerry's" section.  Priorities people! 

I also asked Shark to make a recommendation for a hotel.  I wanted something cheap but not dirty.  Seems like there is a joke in there somewhere...So he gave me the name of the hotel he usually stays at when he goes to games.  And he is coming to this game too - which ought to be really interesting  - we like to party.  So I called the hotel this morning to inquire about availability and price, etc.  I totally dropped Shark's name to see what would happen.  And it was actually kinda funny.  She's all "Ohh, well since you know Shark, we will give you the double room at the single room rate".  This worked out to be exactly $5.  Bahahaha!  It's good to have friends in low places.  I'm totally going with the assumption that she thinks we are prostitutes coming to "visit" Shark.  Not.

Even Jesus Hates the Yankees

Just sayin'...

Oh ya, ya betchya!

Target Field, Minneapolis, MN

Home of the Minnesota Twins!

So we actually have tickets for one of the games we are going to!  Not imaginary tickets or "I got it covered" tickets but real life actual paper tickets - and it just so happens to be for the game on my Birthday.  Did I mention the big birthday I'm having this year?  So Bridie went ahead and purchased these tickets a few days ago and apparently it was a huge pain in the ass!  I mean HUGE.  It took her multiple phone calls to multiple sales outlets just to track down the tickets.  And then figuring out how to get them to us was an even bigger problem.

As you all know, we live in Big Sky, MT; one of the most beautiful places on earth. No, really, it is.  It also happens to be a fairly remote place.  Living on the top of a mountain sounds really glamorous, I know.  But it does have its drawbacks.  Like getting things shipped to you.  We have a post office but no direct-to-your-door mail delivery.  Everything goes to the post office.  FedEx will deliver to your door and I think maaaaybe UPS does too.  But, and this is a big but, you have to actually have a street address.  I lived here for a good year and half before I knew that A.) I had a street address and B.) what that address actually was.  Then, about a year ago, the town or county or the google map guys or someone had the bright idea to change all the street names and or house numbers.  No big deal, right?  Wrong.  Apparently Fed Ex and UPS are not privy to our address changes so in their "system" our houses don't exist.  And if our house doesn't exist then they can't bring you baseball tickets.  Eventually Birdie gave them the address for the Mail & More shipping place in town and had the tickets sent there. 

Mama B & Ahab

So anyway, the tickets arrived this morning and we are good to go for the Cubs at the Twins on Friday, June 8th.  And we will have the pleasure of the company of my friends who we will call Ahab and Mama B.  Ahab was the best friend of Manfriend Driver (RIP Driver - I miss you!) and Mama B is Ahab's lovely wife.  He is a total hoot and she is arguably one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  I'm always so jealous of calm people.  I try to be calm.  I swear, I do!  I'm just not good at it.  Calm seems like such a good idea and it looks so relaxing on other people.  I just really, really don't seem to be able to get the hang of it.  So they will be joining us and I'm so excited about it there is just no way I could be calm!

Big T comes through in a Big Way......

I'm thinking we should have called this "Birdie & Sippi's Big Bad Ass Fun Baseball Road Trip"!  I just spoke with my friend from Chicago today.  He may not want to be identified by his really name so maybe we will call him by his initials.  Let's call him Big TP.  Big TP?  Now that does not sound like big fun.  Maybe just Big T is better?

So Big T lives right in Downtown Chi-town.  He has been kind enough to offer us a place to stay while in Chicago and has worked his bullshitting magic and is going to hook us up with tickets to the Cubs-Phillies game(s) and maybe the Cubs-White Sox game(s) too!  When I say Big T is working his bullshitting magic - I mean it as a compliment.  He's a big dude and a big talker and gets big things done.  If Big T tells me he's got us taken care of, then he has us taken care of. 

Big T was a very close friend of my Manfriend Driver (RIP Driver - I miss you).  Big T and I haven't seen each other in 2 years but I have no doubt that it will be just like we haven't missed a beat.

Prepare yourself Chicago cuz crazy is coming to town!

We have a plan - I swear!



Sippi & Birdie

So Birdie and I are going on a little baseball road trip in about a month.  We thought we would try a blog.  May have been a really, really bad idea as I have never blogged and am not really sure what I am doing.  Right now I am trying to figure out how we can both write on the blog.  Apparently it is possible by "Adding Author, in WordPress" but since I have no clue what WordPress is, it has been a bit of a struggle.  If we ever get this figured out, here is our intent...

Birdie and I love baseball.  Well, ok, I like baseball alot; Bridie LOVES baseball.  But not just any ol' baseball, Birdie LOVES the Chicago Cubs; and in a pinch the Detroit Tigers.  Although, she is mad at Detroit right now.  No, not the Tiger's baseball team but at the actual City of Detroit.  That's a whole other story...Anyhoo, I digress...so Birdie LOVES the Cubs.  She's from South Haven, MI and apparently you can be a Cubs fan based on proximity to Chicago.  Did I mention her dog's name is Wrigley???

I'm a Twins fan myself, being the good St. Paul girl that I am.  Twins baseball is good - some seasons really good.  We have won two, yes two, World Series in my life time - take that Birdie! - and usually have a pretty good line-up.  But as much as I may, and people from Minnesota in general may love the Twins, they can be a little disappointing.  Watching them choke at the end of multiple amazing seasons is really annoying.  Watching players that they brought up go to other teams because we won't fork over the dough to keep them makes me insane, yes, insane.

Our current plan of action...
Leave Big Sky, MT and drive to St. Louis.  There we will meet up with our friend who we will call Cookie and see the Cubs at the Cardinals.  After St. Louis we head to the Mother Ship - Chicago that is.  We will meet up with my friend Big T and go to a couple Phillies at Cubs games.  We have another friend Dougie who keeps threatening to take us to a White Sox game but that is still undecided.  Then we head to South Haven, MI to visit Birdie's family.  I leave Birdie there so I can go back to work for about two weeks and then head back to South Haven (yes I am flying - cheap ticket less than $200).  From MI we then head to WI where we are still waiting to hear from another of my friends - we call him Shark - to find out if he can get us tickets to the Cubs at Brewers game.  Then from there we continue on to the Twin Cities (ahhhhhhhh) to see the Cubs at the Twins.  Did I mention that game is on my birthday???  Hmmmm?  Did I?  Well it is.  And it's a pretty big birthday so I'm looking forward to it!  Then we leave there and travel back where it all began, Big Sky, MT.  And back to the real world and jobs and stuff.  Sounds good, no?