The Day of Love

[Please don’t judge me. Everyone’s weird, just ask Hanson-bonus points if you know what that means.]

I thought long and hard about what direction I should take with this post. Nik and I’s relationship story? Our first kiss? Best romantic movies? Most romantic places? I decided to go in a completely different direction, by declaring my love for… Peeta Mellark.

I just finished reading the Hunger Games series, can you tell? If you haven’t read it, trust me: Peeta is the perfect guy*, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that he’s a fictional character.

So, as I started down this train of thought about how dreamy Peeta was and how I’d let you in on my love for him, I decided to do some research. I googled (Google=research) Peeta Mellark fan sites. Actually, I’m so embarrassed of myself that I googled Peeta Mellark and was relieved when one of the choices Google put forth ended in fan sites so I didn’t actually have to type it in and feel like the creep I am.

So I went to the first or second site that popped up. I think it was called Peeta Makes Bread (he’s a baker’s son in the books-cute!). So I’m checking it out seeing what they have when I come to a section where the people that follow the site can tell about themselves.

Oh.My.Heavens.

One of them began “Dragons. Dragons. Dragons. I love dragons!” and I thought what have I done? Am I now officially one of those semi-deranged megafans who troll the fan sites of made-up people? That sounds so judgmental. I mean, are we really so different, “I prefer to be called gothic because it’s much more 18th century than goth” girl and I?

My first instinct is to frantically scream YES! But you know what? It’s the day of love and if you love Peeta Mellark then we’ve already got something pretty special (and slightly strange) in common.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

*Except he’s blond. SO not my thing.

Fit for a Princess

Yesterday Nik’s sister texted to tell him that while she was looking through our wedding pictures with our two-year old niece she pointed to me and asked Bella who it was. Her response? Princess Tiana. Kids are the best :)

I see some resemblance. Eh?

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those afternoons where you look at the clock and it's 3:00 and you think I can do this? So you decide to busy yourself with some interesting endeavor. And you suck all of the fun and interestingness out of said endeavor and, feeling quite pleased with yourself and your time-using ability, you look at the clock only to discover it's 3:06.

My friends, oh has it been one of those days. Loverboy was so right--everybody really is working for the weekend. ((TGIF)).

It’s That Time of Year Again

Nik and I don’t have very many friends. At least not ones that are close enough to hang out with. So, since we’ve been married, it’s been a lot of just the two of us. Will Smith, anyone?

But minicamp started last Wednesday and life won’t be the same for many months. You see, my dear husband has gotten many long, lost friends back and already made some new ones. And you know what that means? A lot more plans sans the wifey and a lot more opportunities to walk into my apartment saying “Hello honey!” only to find myself talking to Matt Richardson.

Confessions

(They’re nothing like Usher’s thank heavens)

It’s time. Nik has been telling me this gently and not so gently. It’s time for me to just come out and say it.

I am a control freak.

It’s not entirely my fault though, I swear. Just look at what I found at typeapersonality.org:

“Individuals with Type A personality tend to get irritated or impatient at the slightest of changes in their plans. They also tend to get upset over the smallest issues. Individuals with type A personality often tend to display excessive aggressiveness under provoked situations which in turn causes a lot of stress and trauma in the individual and his or her well being.”

OH.MY.GOSH. It’s like they know me!

You too? Do you want to stop acting/being this way? Start dating a baseball player. It will be quite the adjustment but I guarantee you will become a more balanced person. It’s better than a stress management class and it comes with real-world experiences like dramatic breakdowns.

I know because I am a type A personality. I live for plans. To do lists, spreadsheets, detailed itineraries. They exhilarate me, they bring me joy—it’s a sickness. In baseball, there are really no such things as plans. You can make them but they rarely work out.

But the love of planning isn’t something that just goes away. So I’ve developed somewhat of a compromise for myself. I make tentative plans for every foreseeable option. Apartments we’ll live in if we’re in Trenton-check. Road trips I’ll go on if we’re in Scranton-decided. Days I’ll take off work if we’re in Tampa-you know those were set ten minutes after the schedule was released. I know there’s a large chance that none or all of these things will matter this season, but I’ve slowly become more flexible and I don’t even get “irritated or impatient at the slightest of changes in [my] plans” anymore usually (I’m a work in progress).

So why keep planning at all? One, it’s a compulsion. I can’t help or stop myself. But two, it makes me feel like I have some semblance of control. I simultaneously believe my plans will be worth something at some point and know that they won’t. It may sound crazy, but it’s the only thing that keeps me sane.

Things You Shouldn’t Say

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…this well-meaning lady at church said something that really irritated me a few weeks ago. I should qualify that by admitting that I often get irate for almost no reason when people say seemingly innocuous things.

So, yeah, it got me thinking on a train of things you shouldn’t say to baseball players or their WAGs. I was sort of forming a post in my head about it, and I kept thinking you are a little mean and kind of petty and possibly make people self-conscious (because clearly everyone bases their self-worth on my blog posts). So I decided to not be ridiculous and just stick to the facts-what she said and why it bothered me.

This lady says to me (with an extremely serious face and tone), “That [baseball] is a really hard life. I mean it is really hard.” She continued to repeat this in different variations about four more times. I nodded politely and thought if you say the word hard or difficult or anything synonymous with those two words again, I am gonna freak out right here in the middle of the Lord’s house.

Did I mention my natural tendency is toward sarcasm? I wanted to respond with “My gosh! It’s hard? Well, these past almost three years we’ve been doing this, it seemed like such a breeze! The solo road trips, the long-distance phone calls, the crappy pay, the ridiculous hours, the paralyzing uncertainty and the copious amounts of fast food and strange roommates felt like a frickin’ Roman Holiday!”

I do you want to know, however, that [I’m not a terrible person] had she inserted the measly word “seems” as in “it seems like a really hard life”, I would’ve thought it was nice, empathetic, compassionate even. But, and trust me when I tell you this, no matter what her intentions were, it came across as if she’d said to me are you sure you wanna do this sweetie because I really don’t think you know what you’re getting into.

So, if I were bolder and, arguably, ruder and a little more hormonal at that place and time, I like to think I would’ve said the following: “Thank you for your concern. It really is hard. I panic sometimes thinking about how our lives are at the mercy of so many factors that are out of our control it’s terrifying. And I worry everyday about having enough money to do all the things we’ve both dreamed of. And I even get sick some days wondering how we can raise the family we want with a life like this. And my eyes water at the thought of ever having to say another long goodbye. And I’m scared about how to make the best decisions when we don’t know what will happen to us in five months, let alone five years. But, you know, I came into this relationship with my eyes wide open. And somewhere along this road filled with the fear and the unknown and the trials, I decided my husband and our relationship was worth all of it. So, as naïve as it may sound, I am positive that as long as we’re together we’ll always be okay. And when you believe that, the hard just doesn’t really matter too much.”

I might even have added “Good day!” at the end. Nice touch or too much? I never quite know.

The Offseason

I know I haven’t written too much lately but, without baseball, our lives are just so boring. I have been a bit crafty as of late—making ornaments and a wreath out of branches we had to cut off Walter so he would fit in the tree stand.

Walter Scrap Wreath

Sidenote: Our Christmas tree has a name because he’s dead. I felt sad urging him to come back to life without him having a proper name. We’ve been turning his lights on more so he’ll feel extra happy and pretty and want to drink his water again. No dice so far. The sorrows of the season I suppose.

Anyway, I have also been conquering domesticity or it has been conquering me as evidenced by the multiple cuts and burns I have all over my arms and hands. I actually sliced my pinkie (this is the first time I’ve ever thought about whether that ends in ie or y…hmmmm) on one of those pop-top cans of green beans. I thought those were designed for safer, easier opening. Clearly, they have not mastered that technology.

But here I am getting off topic. What I really wanted to tell you was what Nik does during the offseason—it’s not the same for every player but most have a similar experience so here goes.

Nik didn’t participate in any winter leagues or formal trainings of which there are many such as the Arizona Fall League, Instructs, the Dominican Winter League, and the Venezuelan League. His non-participation results in a full five months of off-season.

He spent the first few weeks marrying me—yay! And going on our honeymoon—also yay! When we got back he took the rest of October off- translation he watched reruns of 90s shows and played the new Call of Duty. Am I the only one experiencing this?

Getting married...I'm self-conscious about not posting enough pictures

He got back to work in November, going to the complex three times a week. He’s been lifting weights, sometimes running and gossiping like a school girl with the trainer. He started throwing about a month ago.

Another sidenote: For those of you who aren’t familiar with how pitchers work, their preparations for Spring Training/the season are much more gradual than position players. They start doing long toss around November or December usually –moving from 60 ft. to however far back their throwing program takes them. Some end at 120 ft., some go all the way to 200 ft. Then they start pitching on the ground. This has a name that is escaping me right now but what I mean is they are not on a mound so there’s no angle. Then they move to the mound with someone catching, then with a batter just standing there doing nothing (to help them make sure they’re placing the ball correctly) and then they face batters who actually try to hit the ball. At least that’s what Nik’s been doing the past couple of years.

So he’s upped his time to four or five days a week (depending on if he ignores his alarm one day or not) now. He’s still lifting weights, long tossing three times a week and sometimes running. He goes to the field around 9 and then has lunch with me everyday of course. After that, he’s pretty much free the rest of the day to do what else? watch 90s show reruns and play Call of Duty. Oh, the life of a baseball player.