Baseball, beaches and beers (Day 8)

I woke up ready to check out some scenery other than the ballpark.

Amidst the previous night's events, Carl had mentioned that he had to head to the Gold Coast in the morning for a meeting at head office. He was going to be there for website training, so not only could I participate in that, but he also promised to show me a beach. How could I say no to website training? Oh no wait, I mean the beach.

Obviously Carl, being from NYC, has no concept of rush hour traffic, because he was pretty late coming to get me. We were definitely on pace to be late for the meeting, so the morning didn't start well. During the ride he asked about what was going on with my living situation but I really had no answers to give him. Even better.

I learned more about Carl's time spent working for Miss Universe, travelling to and from Las Vegas and the Bahamas and other awesome places with a busload of hot girls. Good for him. I learned about his family and his 11-year-old sister that he misses seemingly more than anything or anyone else. And most importantly I learned that his love of baseball brought him here too. I mean, it's pretty hard to imagine that anyone would come here and work for the team without loving the game, but reassurance is always good.

He saved himself from becoming my enemy right away by admitting to being a Mets fan. The other day we had been discussing football and my love for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and affinity for the Detroit Lions because they were the closest team to home, and obviously that brought up the topic of lengthy losing streaks. But if you want to feel better about your team's losing streak, talk to a Mets fan. So that was nice. Carl mentioned that his favourite player is Mike Piazza and I told him that he'd been at the Florida Marlins final game at Sun Life Stadium. Piazza, who played all of eight games for the Marlins. What a guy.

Maybe Maestri can hook Carl up, or at least tell him some good stories, since Piazza was one of the coaches for the Italian national team. I'll try to remember to make that suggestion at a later date.

Just as we were heading off the highway, no more than a few minutes away from our final destination, we got pulled over. Carl had apparently been speeding when we made our exit. And the ticket was for a whopping $333! What kind of place is this? Remind me never to drive. Ever.

I don't think I've actually mentioned the driving yet now that I think about it. Having things happen on the wrong side of the road (it will forever and always be wrong) is extremely confusing. Not only do I not ever have the desire to get behind the wheel of a car here, I get nervous just being in one. I can barely walk across the street without dying, which is why I will mention that in the picture pocket of my wallet is my travel insurance information. I look the wrong way, I step into the street without knowing where cars are coming from and I constantly need to be pulled back onto the sidewalk, away from my imminent death.

So we got a speeding ticket, making us more tardy than we already were. The day just kept getting better and better. And Carl was worried not only about the fine but that the ticket might in some way affect Whitey, because the car was his. I tried to reassure him that it shouldn't, but really I don't know the laws of this land. Who am I to make assumptions?

But we made it to the meeting and had a run-through on how to set things up on the website and how it works. It's actually a lot more complicated than it sounds, but not particularly interesting so I think I am going to skip over that.

Post-meeting we were headed to the promised land. The beach. The whole way there and then for several long minutes on the final ride home I had to hear about Carl's undying affection for some woman who works at the head office. He was really kicking himself for not talking to her and was super impressed that she remembered his name. I didn't see her but I have to think she must be a pretty attractive woman if she can melt a man's heart by knowing his first name. I eventually stopped listening to him though, so I'm not sure how long he carried on about it.

We made it to the beach and realized we had no towels. But I did have two baseball gloves and a ball so we had a catch on the beach. I was happy to throw the ball around (in November!) and Carl was happy to throw me short tosses and laugh when I would dive into the sand to catch them. It was a great time though and I quickly went into the water when we were finished to get the sand off of me. My plan was just to wade in, but almost immediately a giant tidal wave (a little baby splash) took me completely under. So I swam for like five more seconds and then we left. Couldn't have too much fun at the beach on a work day.

We walked around Gold Coast for a little while just to check out what was there. My sample-sized beach adventure definitely made me want to find a way back there soon though. Can't wait.

Our ride home was pretty much the longest drive ever. Except for last week when I rode the bus to and from NYC. But we were once again stuck in rush-hour traffic, forced to talk to each other more. I kind of feel bad for Carl having to put up with me, but since we're pretty much BFFs now I guess it's all good. Haha. We talked more about baseball and our lives at home and all the things I should do here and more. I don't think we made it back for a couple hours, but it wasn't so bad.

When we made it back to Brisbane the first stop was to pick up Whitey. I think he and Carl and Carl's roommates, formerly known as Whitey's roommates, had plans to hang out. And I guess I kind of just tagged along. No one made an attempt to drop me off at home so they must have been okay with it. Look at me, just inviting myself to hang out with the only people who haven't had a chance to get away from me since I've been here. I'm a prize.

After a pitstop at the ballpark we were at Carl's place cracking beers. I first had to add a couple of lines to the Xavier Paul story from Baseball America about the Bandits so we could post it on the Brisbane website. So I did that and after all our training from the morning, Carl and I figured we could handle putting it on the website later.

A good time was had by all I think, though Whitey had to leave early. But not before we had a heated conversation about the levels of national baseball competition in Australia and Canada. Or at least I think that's what I was arguing about. I'd had too many beers and not enough food at that point in the day. But Carl's roommates are awesome and it kind of felt like home a little bit. Just hanging out with my buddies, shootin' the shit (not an expression that is used here...don't ask me why I know that) and having a few drinks.

During this time I also received good news. Erin called to tell me that I could stay with her and that I could start unpacking. I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the other guys because I was no longer going to be their problem if I couldn't find a place to go. So that was great and we continued our drinking, now as a matter of celebrating for me.

In the end, I had a few too many. I definitely passed out on Carl's floor and when I woke up I'd lost one of my flip flops. How does that happen? But it could have been worse I'm sure. I'm sure this story is one that every mother is longing to hear from their daughter, but really, after spending every hour of every day with these people I have kind of come to trust them. They're not strangers, I promise. They're good guys. Or at least decent ones. And I'm safe. That's just a sidebar to anyone who might get the wrong idea.

So I went to sleep on the floor with a pillow, dreaming most likely of Xavier Paul. And by dreaming, I mean that his name is pretty much haunting me.