Does anybody read these?

I made it out alive!!!

So yesterday you'll remember I was going with my grandma, my mom and my mom's two sisters to go freeze my tookis off at the Cleveland Indians game. I actually had a lot of fun, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't share all the adventures with you.

My aunts call and tell us to be ready at 11:15. I am running a little behind because Julie had sent me over to KennyLand to investigate something. Apparently a girl I barely know (whom I'm guessing is a nervous talker) put up a post that said "Please Laura Jo don't hate me." Now, of course, I need to go read that. The gist of it was something like this: Ran into the yellow-haired boy. Told him you loved him and only came to shows to see him and some other great crap. Here's a picture. Yikes. I'm thinking that's not good. I don't know her. But I'm guessing from the subject she realized maybe she laid it on a little too thick. I was kind of nervous about it, but everyone thinks that it's about damn time that he figure these things out if he didn't already know. And honestly, you'll remember that he's my self-esteem twin and I'd guess from what she told me about his reaction that he has a really hard time believing that any woman could think he's the hottest thing since sliced bread. Oh, who am I kidding? He's like 800 times hotter than sliced bread!!!!

But now back to the baseball game. My aunts ended up being late, so it didn't really matter that I was also late. I took plenty of clothes with me, but I didn't put them all on right away. Why? Remember when I stayed at Grandma's and their house was 612 degrees the whole time? Well, they keep their car about 5 degrees warmer than the house. So, we're driving along cooking like Thanksgiving turkeys and I mentioned Grandma promising we could go to Cracker Barrel. I'm not a huge fan of Cracker Barrel, but I suck at making chicken and dumplings and they do a good job. About once a year it sounds like a good place to go. I was excited when Grandma told me we were going to Cracker Barrel.

Except Grandma lied. She does this sometimes. But now I am going to freeze to death and there are no chicken and dumplings. Urrrgggh.

The car ride was fun. They just got XM radio, so we played a game where they covered up the receiver and we guessed at the names of the songs. It was pretty fun. I did surprisingly well.

Really they needed me to get them into downtown Cleveland and to the stadium. If I hadn't gone they'd STILL be looking for it. Every time they go to a city, they are very much "country bumpkins go to town." I can't wait to see them when they come to visit me, although of all the cities I've lived in, Nashville has more than its fair share of country bumpkins going to town. And good golly miss molly, there's no subway system for them to navigate. That's ALWAYS fun.

It was cold at the game. Whoever thought putting a ballpark that close to a lake was a good idea needs to be slapped. Baseball in April in Cleveland wasn't exactly brilliant either. It was so unbelievably cold. It was 37 degrees when the first pitch was thrown out. I couldn't bring myself to drink beer and eat hot dogs even though I was starving because I got screwed on Cracker Barrel and EVERYONE knows I save all my points for the day when I know I'm eating out. (Yes, I know that is really bad, but it works.) My aunt did buy some hot cocoa for us. And I went to the gift shop and waited in the longest line I've ever seen to buy a pink Indians bucket hat. My head was cold and I don't do ball caps. The gift shop was running low on the following items: big, fuzzy Indians blankets, those blue knit headbands to keep your ears warm and toboggans. People were buying things to keep warm.

We stayed until the third inning. We left our seats and kept moving around to seats that were still in the sunshine. A lot of folks left after the Indians made a home run early in the game. We toughed it out until the top of the 4th inning, but then Grandma had enough.

We got back in the car and somehow managed to get out despite the way they pack you in at those private lots by the stadium. We drove on up the highway (again with me getting the hillibillies out of the big city), and then we drove out to the suburbs where we stopped for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse because grandma needed a blooming onion. The food was good. Actually my steak was one of the best steaks I've had in quite a while. I just don't understand why other people cook the hell out of steaks. The redder the better. I pretty much just get my steak brown on the outside before I eat it. And yes, I know I'll probably get e. coli or mad cow disease but something's going to kill everyone.

While we at Outback, I've decided that I think I will just always call the ladies' room "Sheila" now. It seems like a grand idea. Unless you're grandma and you weren't really sure if you were a "bloke" or a "sheila." Luckily she figured it out.

On the way back I got a couple of phone calls, including one about a present but it's arriving in the mail in 3-4 days. Is it a present like the last present or something else? That present could easily be e-mailed. Hmmmm... I will keep you posted if there is anything worth reporting. There really hasn't been lately, but life is grand. It'll all work out if it's supposed to.

But then it was 900 degrees in the car and I fell asleep until I got home. What a long day!

posted by Laura at 11:27 AM