Day 156/365 - Season Tickets

These are the tickets for my 41-game (i.e., half-season) plan for the Washington Nationals. They were delivered yesterday and today I'll take the tickets for the weekday games to work with me to keep in my office. The ticket for Opening Day this year is hard plastic, almost like a credit card, rather than cardboard. That's a first. Also, each ticket has a different photo on it. In the past there would be 8 or so different pictures and they would just be repeated throughout.

It's kind of a silly little thing to get excited about, but those two changes over prior years gave me an extra bit of giddiness on top of my normal excitement about receiving my tickets. It was like the cherry atop my baseball sundae.

Now if the team can just approach something resembling respectability this season...

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 154/365 - Weary Wednesday

Today was my follow-up appointment at the dentist's office. She drilled out and replaced three old fillings and then filled two new cavities. Plus they took a mold of my teeth for a mouthpiece thing I have to wear at night. Apparently I grind my teeth. It took about two and-a-half hours all together. My jaw is sore from being pried open that long and my gums are sore from all the pressure that was placed on my teeth.

My teeth themselves feel fine and they certainly look a lot better. The dentist used tooth-colored filling material and it seems weird now to open my mouth and not see my old silver fillings at the back. Plus she was able to spackle over the tooth toward the front of my mouth that was missing a sizeable chunk off the side, so now I shouldn't have to worry about any more bits of it crumbling away. No more food getting caught in the gap, either.

Evidently I have a good tolerance for pain. The dentist said she could count on one hand the number of male patients she's had who didn't flinch or squint when she shoved the needle into their gums to benumb their mouths (and that was after she'd already deadened the surface of the gums a bit with a topical anesthetic). Women patients hardly ever flinch at that, she said. I didn't react when she jabbed me with the hypo, so she told me I could take a shot like a woman. I did grunt a couple times though when she was using the drill and she got fairly deep in the tooth. She just backed out, gave me a couple more shots, waited a sec for it to kick in, and then went back to work.

The photo above is from the centerfield gate at Nationals Park. I was a bit early for my dental appointment, so I stopped by the ballpark on the way and peered through the gate (there were some men working on the centerfield restaurant) and pressed my face against the glass of the team store (it was completely empty) like a hungry man searching for a morsel of food. Less than a month left now until the home opener! To make things even better, the word is that President Obama has agreed to throw out the first pitch. I'm betting I'll enjoy that much more than the two times I saw his predecessor throw out the first pitch, and astronomically more than the year Vice President Cheney filled in.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 129/365 - You've Gotta Have Heart

Hurray, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training today! Go Nats!

You've gotta have heart
Miles and miles and miles of heart
When the odds are saying you'll never win
That's when the grin should start
You've gotta have heart

Oh yeah, and I think today may also be some sort of holiday for non-single people. Whatever.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 29/365 - New Jersey(s)

Today the Washington Nationals baseball club unveiled their new road jersey, alternate home jersey, and special occasion home jersey at a lunchtime ceremony held at the ESPNZone in Downtown DC. I was there along with about 100 other sad loser fanboys. It was a bigger turnout than I'd expected. Usually the autograph sessions they hold at the ESPNZone during the baseball season only draw about 20-30 people. Today though it was standing room only and the place was packed.

Pictured above are Nats centerfielder Lastings Milledge, Manager Manny Acta, and team radio broadcaster Charlie Slowes. I got Lastings to add his signature to an autographed baseball I keep on my desk at work.

I've been a Nats season ticketholder since they first moved to DC from Montreal in 2005. That first year I had a full season ticket but since then I've opted for the half-season plan instead. Eighty-one games is a lot of games to have to attend, especially during 10 game homestands. All you have time to do then is sleep, work, go to the game, sleep, work, go to the game... No time to do laundry, go to the grocery store, or anything else. The half-season plan is much less demanding.

I've really only been a baseball fan since the Nats came to town. Before that I'd largely ignored baseball. The idea of getting in on the groundfloor as a fan of a franchise was appealing though and going to the games gave me something to do, so as a result I've become a great fan of a less-than-great baseball team. There's just something about sitting outside next to a big green field and eating a hotdog and drinking beer and cheering the good plays and groaning at the bad plays that holds a lot of charm for me.

The Nationals may be a lousy team, but they're my lousy team and that counts for something.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)