Swings and Misses: MLD

Pre-Game:
Once upon a time, back in the 60s, in sunny SoCal, there played a man - a Dodger - named Rob Fairly. Fairly was a big first baseman who had a way with a bat. One season, his magic touch failed him. He was in a horrible slump, and no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to figure out how to get out of it. For the life of him, he couldn't seem to hit a change-up, and it was really frustrating him.

His batting average got worse and worse, and finally, he was desperate. The Dodgers were in Washington DC, playing the Senators. At the end of his rope, not knowing what else to do, he approached the Senator's manager, Ted Williams. (Williams, by the way, is commonly regarded as one of the game's greatest all-time hitters.) He told Williams his situation: huge slump, demoralized, really wanting to master the change-up but striking out (literally) every time.

Williams just said, "If you can't connect, then stop swinging at them."

Simple advice, right? Maybe a guy with less of an ego would have just left his jaw on the floor for random tobacco juice rebounds to collect (ok, that was gross, but it gets the point across), and written off such a basic strategy. But Fairly took what Williams said and acted on it, and stopped swinging at those darn change-ups.

And you know what? Within a few games, Fairly came out of his slump.

Game Time:
Turns out that baseball is a lot like dating. If you are swinging your bat a lot and just not connecting...
Don't swing at pitches you can't connect with.
Lots of people, like Fairly, go through big slumps in their dating careers. But if, as a hitter, there are some pitches that you just can't make connections with this season - like Fairly's change-up - then don't swing. It could be the perfect pitch, but if you routinely can't make a connection, then stop trying so hard to hit every ball of that type that comes across the plate.

Have realistic expectations.
Don't expect yourself to be able to get on base every time you're at the plate. (Even the bestest of them rarely hit better than one in three at-bats, much less every time!)

I'll say it again, in case you thought I didn't mean it: Have realistic expectations.
Some dating hitters not only expect themselves to be able to get on base with every at-bat, but they also expect to get on base with the first pitch across the plate. And to add even more pressure, some hitters tell themselves that it's within the realm of possibility that they will only hit home runs. Newsflash: Not. Going. To. Happen.

"Small ball" wins games.
It's the hitters that consistently get on base with grounders, pokes, and lucky drops who have the best averages (generally). Besides, just remember this: there's got to be someone on base before any RBIs can be counted, and there need to be THREE in order for a grand slam to occur. Solo home runs are fine and good, but it's the grand slams and slides that really make the game interesting.

A note on Perfect Pitches:
The pitch could be a fastball up the middle, perfect height, and you could miss it every single time. It could be a pitch that every other MLD(ating) player could - and would - blast out of the park -- but if you can't, then it's not a perfect pitch for you, and you should pass.

Don't be afraid to pull a Fairly:
If what used to work for you doesn't anymore, switch it up. Chase a curve or a slider. (Please, don't embarrass yourself by leaning into the pitch so you'll get beaned and get a base, though. Also, don't chase wild pitches. Bad idea.) Look at every pitch individually and decide whether to swing. Use your gut. And if your gut doesn't work, use your mind. And if your mind doesn't work, consider asking an expert, like Fairly did. It worked for Fairly...it just might work for you.

Panda time:
So before your next at-bat, think about your strengths and weaknesses. Think about not the pitch that you want, but the pitch you can hit. Sometimes, it's the pitch that's down and out that you connect with for a grand slam. Just ask Pablo Sandoval.

Post-Game:
If you can't hit the change-up, don't panic and swing at every pitch. If you do, you're liable to get a shoulder out of joint...or at least, a lot of strikeouts. Be patient. If you can't make connections like you used to, refocus and try different pitches. Just work hard and practice and hopefully your manager will see it and not demote you to the minors. (O, horrors!)

Famous Last Words:
But remember...even if you do get sent to the minors, at least you're still in the game.

Solstice

I went to the beach on the solstice.

It was beautiful.

When I was picking my way through the brush path, I got to the top and came down, this is what I saw. It immediately reminded me of Anne of Green Gables.

I was talking to a friend of mine who lives on the east coast, and shot over a few pictures. He commented that it now seemed odd to him to see the sun set over the water...as for him, when at the beach, the beautiful thing is to see the sun rising. I had never even thought about that before. Sunsets on the beach just seem so natural.

It occurred to me that almost my whole life, I have had easy access to seeing the sun set over the water. You can see the sun set on the water from the front porch of the house I grew up in. I have lived within a few miles of water for most of my life after leaving home, and so I could easily make the effort to see the sun set over the water if I wanted to. There's nothing like it. (Now, I'm kind of curious to see what the sunrise over water looks like...but chances are I won't be curious enough to actually get up in time to see the black to grey to pink to yellow of the dawn. At least, I assume the sunrise pinks. (Horrors, what if there is no pink?!?!)

I feel the urge to note that these have not been photo-shopped at all, seeing as how I don't have the software, because, as we have mentioned before, I am a little too much like Scrooge for the Bob Cratchets in my life.

Here I am, looking at the beach, sitting on my newly-finished quilt. Now it has sand all over in it. I suppose it was a good maiden voyage. Now I won't worry about whatever else gets on it in the future because I took it out, and it survived the Sandy Beach test. So bring it on! Many more adventures will be had on this quilt, I'm sure.

My favorite part of the night was talking to my friend Peeks. It was her birthday party, and her car, like many others, got stuck in the sand. (Why they ever decided to drive on the beach, I will never be quite sure, but there were at least 20 cars on the sand. It doesn't seem very environmentally friendly to either the beach or the cars, but hey, whatever...) In fact, while we were walking toward the party, we saw a car drive by and splash itself in the water....seemingly just for the fun of it. My car and salt water don't really like each other, but I guess this is like the cat that likes to go swimming.

We were talking about silly boy stuff and then I said, "there's no need to sully this sunset with such nonsense" and she just looked at me and proclaimed that I had been speaking Shakespearean not-sonnets to her and laughed. As we watched, the sky turned an almost steel blue, and a line of six pelicans came and were swooping up and down over the water in a delicate, almost mathematical curve. Up and down, never diving...skimming close to the water, rising about ten feet above it. Pelicans are big birds. Even the brown ones (which I'm pretty sure these were), that are the smallest of all pelicans, have a wingspan averaging seven feet. It was a treat to see them, wings unfurled, undulating up and down on the air currents I could feel, but couldn't see.

Aside: I think I'd have to be very trusting to be a bird. After all, you're being kept aloft by something that you assume will keep going, that you can't see, that's unpredictable, that you have zero control over. So while you're learning to fly, trust is a big deal. It's not like you can hold it against your mommy bird that the doldrums suddenly decided to appear and that you plummeted headfirst tens of feet toward a flat hard surface before wildly squawking and somehow finding purchase (or not, with my luck).

The moon was so bright and beautiful. The stars were small and, though visible, seemed far away because of all the light. It was gorgeous...no flashlights required. :) Though with my little point-and-shoot you can't see the details of the moon, they were there...it wasn't just a ball of reflected light upon which no life can be sustained. It was an embellishment to good times with good friends.

Life is Like a Drama

So, I started watching a T-drama last night. It's one that I've seen before...one that was the perfect medicine for me during a hard time in my life. Since I've kind of been struggling for the last couple of weeks, I thought it might be fun to revisit it.

Some of the episodes are hilarious. Others are so painfully cheesy that I just want to gag. The swelling of the mournful music as the lame ex-girlfriend (or girl who wants the guy but clearly isn't going to get him), and the happy, upbeat theme songs...there are many things to like in dramas; also many things that will make you want to roll your eyes.

But this drama has had a lot of nuggets in it.

There's a guy who's a lawyer (has his own hotshot firm at 32ish) and he's had a long relationship with an actress who has insisted on keeping their relationship under the table. He meets a girl we'll call Adorabella who is a 10 in personality but not quite the brightest kid in the class, but of course she is hard-working and diligent and loyal and adorable. Long story short, Hotshot realizes that he doesn't want to be with someone who shoves him under the couch whenever company is over, so he breaks up with her, saying that a few hours of happiness doesn't make up for months and years of loneliness. As Chris Titus would say, you don't get a rebate on life, so you shouldn't stick with someone who's always belittling you or who isn't fully supporting you in a relationship.

Of course, Adorabella is full of insights into people, so she is always noticing when people are angry or happy, how they're dealing with problems, and how they take their coffee. So how she gets to be so unobservant that she doesn't realize Hotshot is into her, I will never know. But Hotshot's best friend, who used to like the actress, likes Adorabella, but uses her to get back at Hotshot by pretending they're in a relationship. Adorabella likes the best friend, but she feels caught in a lie and eventually everything becomes clear and it comes out that Hotshot's friend was using her because he secretly still liked the actress and he wanted her to be happy, so he was using Adorabella so that Hotshot would realize she was taken and that he should go back to the actress. Not going to happen, since the actress is annoyingly petulant and almost stalkerish, which you think she would know to avoid since she is a big-time celebrity and has people following her all the time.

So.

Don't be with people who don't appreciate you.
Don't pretend to like someone because the person you really like is longing for someone and you want them to be happy so you bend over backward trying to make something that isn't going to happen, happen.
Just don't do stuff that will make you miserable.
Don't do stuff because you think it will make someone else happy, but makes you miserable in the meantime. ASK, for heaven's sake!
Be yourself. 

End of story, but not end of drama.

long day, not in reseda

A few weeks ago I made a trip from P-town to Sea-town. Oh, city on the water, how I love you!

It was a long day:

0600: wake up
0615: out the door
0725: call nephew/niece. IGPM told me the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, but he modified it. He had a storytelling project at school, and his mom helped him pick the story. He rehearsed it, and then decided that he really didn't like the traditional ending. So he changed it instead, and although the hare does fall asleep and the tortoise passes him, the tortoise and the hair cross the finish line at the same time, so they are both winners, and they are friends! (This is with no encouragement from the teacher, or his mom.) I wonder if Aesop's Fables lose their potency when changed?
As an aside, I talked to IPGM on Monday and he told me that he and K had gone a whole day without fighting. I said that was most impressive. He said he wanted to go TWO WHOLE WEEKS without fighting. I wished him best of luck. He promised me a hug when he sees me in October. I'm going to hold him to it.
0912: breakfast at Toulouse with MLB
1035: haircut!
1145: bellsquare shopping w/ Two Ace
1400: thai food
1500: migrate to Seattle again
1600: purchase every bottle of DRY cucumber soda the local QFC had
1700: meet RW
1745: score an awesome parking spot, courtesy of truck driver
1800: Mariners vs. As.
2100: Bases loaded in the 8th, one run behind, leads to nothing
2200: back to QFC
2230: EC's house
2300: Surprise!!!!!! Here are my ladies. We're all a little tired in these pics. It was like girls popped out of the woodwork. RoJo and Ronron surprised me, at the request of EC. They came over and we got caught up. But first we sat in chairs with swimming noodles and snuggies and laid on the floor. We laughed, and laughed, and laughed so hard. I don't even remember what about...except for one thing that will always be an inside joke: "Is she, or isn't she?"

And then suddenly, even though only five girls live in the house, there were ten girls in the room and a movie was going and I was dying, dying, dying of tired. I managed to make it until 0045 and then I just made room for myself on the couch and turned my head to the cushions. Girls giggling, lights on, movie going...I didn't care. I was so tired I barely even stirred as they all left. EC woke me up at 6 so I could sleep in her bed (she's an angel) and I slept until 10!!!!!! I never do that anymore. But I kinda needed the sleep. It was such a long, good day!!!

Rolling

So...last night I had A Cultural Experience: I went to Roller Derby.

It was loud. The speakers were like to blow my ears out. I felt sorry for the teeny tiny baby five rows in front of me. Her mother's bangs were in a doubled-over ponytail. I also felt bad for the girl in the charteuse plastic pants, mostly because they didn't fit well and because her top was something a six year old should never wear. I saw all sorts of characters. I'm just glad Derby ended when it did so we missed the naked bike parade that P-town experiences every year.

It took me one "bout" to figure out what in the heck was going on and how it was scored. Both teams saw wild comebacks. There were some mean girls! I am telling you, I would not want to be a jammer for love or money. Some of the names were slightly risque, but I was actually rather impressed at the cleverness of some...especially the ones that looked one way on paper, but when you said them out loud, you "got" it. There were a lot of animals featured...Scald Eagle and Blast Unicorn were just two.

Readers Digest Roller Derby 101: (skip if you are not interested)
There are two teams of girls wearing roller skates and protective gear. Each team fields five players...1 "jammer" (basically like a running back in a run-only offense), one "pivot" (the relay anchor), and three blockers.

The jammers have stars upon thars -- that is, they have little shower cap looking things on their heads with big stars on them -- so the blockers know who to block. All the blockers start together in a "pack." The jammers start about ten feet behind. Whichever jammer bullies her way through the pack and passes all players first is the "lead jammer."

The whole time, everybody is skating forward. The jammers skate around the rink and catch up to the pack again (since they're a pack, they move more slowly) and they score 1 point for each person they legally pass after they make it through the pack the second time. (Going outside the lines isn't legal. Shoving someone down and stepping over her isn't legal. A host of other things, including use of elbows and kicking legs out from under bodies, are not legal.)

Each Jammer has her own ref who skates around and around in the innermost circle, counting the points the jammer racks up. Every jam session is 2 minutes or until the lead jammer calls it off by putting her hands on her waist. (Strategy tip: If you make three points and someone else is about to make five, you call it off first.) Then you line up and do it all again. "Bouts" consist of two thirty-minute halves. There are 30 seconds between each jam (mandatory) while the players line up. There are also time-outs and "official reviews" and lots of other nonsense.

One minute minors are served in the penalty box for each illegal block. Yes, jammers can get put in the box, too. When jammers are put in the box, it's a power jam, since the other team doesn't have any way to score any points. But both jammers can't be in the box at the same time (or else the blockers are out blocking nobody) so if both jammers get minors, the penalty is over for the jammer who is already in the box. Even if you only have two blockers skating in the rink, every time the jammer passes you, they get five points.

After, I had a pulled pork sandwich with cherry cole slaw on it and a fresh strawberry shake. Yum. And then we had a discussion about possessives and "'s," and the significance of "ye olde" and j and i and other linguistic historical factoids. Basically, it was a crazy evening! But at the end, when I actually had figured it out, and there was a major upset about to happen, it was really actually fun to watch. Not sure I'd do it again, but it was definitely a Cultural Experience.

Of Sheep and Taxes

This is what a sheepish girl's hair looks like when it's shorn.

If this were England in the 1500s there would probably be a tax on it.

Baa.