24-hour pancakes are not just in America (Day 40)

An early game means early cleaning.

I took Whitey's keys last night so I wouldn't have to do any sitting around waiting for anyone to let me in so I could clean up the garbage. It was super convenient, so I think they should just give me an extra set, not that I want to clean alone, but because I didn't have to spend any time waiting.

It was weird getting to the park and being all by myself though. It was kind of eerily quiet around the RNA Showgrounds. Usually even if I arrive early, Steve or someone else is around doing something. I started cleaning up the trash and got super weirded out when I heard some voices coming from behind the members' stand. I had left the gate open so that other people like Steve and Carl could get in, but I thought that maybe some randoms had snuck by. And I didn't know what I was going to do if they had. What could I do? Fight them? Yell at them? Politely ask them to leave?

I was relieved when I realized it was people who work for RNA, coming to empty out the large garbage bins and probably clean the toilets and whatever else Carl and I don't do. I was even more relieved to have them there when I wandered over to the first-base side of the concourse and discovered that one of the large garbage bins had been somehow overturned throughout the night and garbage was everywhere. At first, I thought I should get to cleaning it up, but then I figured I would wait and see what the RNA people would do. I found another place to clean and watched as they picked up much of the trash that was all over the ground. That made things a little easier for me when I got to the stands in front of that area.

Carl showed up sometime during my effort to pick up the large trash from the ground and helped out. When he got the leaf blower out to clean up the small stuff and get rid of sunflower seed shells and things of that nature, I went up to the members' stand to start to scrub down seats once again. It's getting quite repetitive now, so I think we're almost in a garbage-cleaning routine-mode when we're at the park in the mornings. Unfortunately that routine has so far included me arriving earlier than Carl and getting a head start. I need to work on that. And by that, I mean not doing that.

Whitey must have walked to the field because I got a phone call from him saying that he couldn't get in and he was standing waiting outside. I guess Carl had his car that morning so he could get to the field early. I told Whitey I had already unlocked the gate, but apparently someone had locked it back up again because he was at the gate I'd used to come in, so I had to run around the place to let him in. I think I've said it before, but the longest part of my walk to the Showgrounds is from where I enter behind centre field, to where we do most of our work, behind home plate. And I had to go from B to A to let Whitey in.

But he successfully made it inside and I got to finishing up my cleaning. Carl mentioned that he was going to take Whitey's car home to shower so I hitched a ride on his way and got dropped off at my place to do the same. I didn't end up showering though (sorry to anyone who talked to me today), because I got caught up in conversation with Erin. We talked about the games, the team, Carl's birthday, me picking up garbage, and other such things. It was a good catch-up (ketchup) session, but I had to head back to the field shortly after to help out there. Erin asked if I wanted to head out for dinner with her after the game though and invite Carl, probably to celebrate the end of a weekend of picking up garbage. I thought that would be a nice idea and told her I would ask him. Shortly thereafter I called Carl not only to ask him about dinner but also because I figured he might be on his way back to the park soon and I was correct. I asked him to pick me up on his way and he obliged.

When we made it back to the field and I saw Coshi, it was in that moment that I realized I had forgotten to write him a script. So we decided to just wing it. He had put together some stuff from the website, which has mostly been my writing anyway, and we both figured we would just work it out. Easy like Sunday morning.

The game was not so easy to get through however. It was not a good one, to say the least. Chambers got the start and it certainly wasn't his best outing. In the end, he threw five frames and gave up seven runs, courtesy of a grand slam and a three-run home run. The relief corps couldn't stop the bleeding either and the game ended 10-1. I don't think there's any need to go into any more detail about what happened on the diamond. It just wasn't a good day for Brisbane baseball.

It seemed to be a good day for Carl though, as during the game Erin gave him a gift card for his birthday and invited him out for dinner with us. I had already asked him, but he was hesitant to join us because he didn’t have money to spend on eating out. She somehow convinced him and then we discussed heading to the 24-hour pancake place for dinner. Erin had told me about the place the night we went to see Moneyball, because we happened to walk right by it. And of course it piqued my curiosity. Who doesn’t love a 24-hour pancake house? Ihop happens to be a venue that I frequent when I am in America. Fine dining should be my middle name.

But I had told Carl about the place probably as soon as Erin mentioned it to me and we were both excited for it (or maybe just I was). I have brought it up a few times in passing though, so Carl probably wanted me to go there just to get me to shut up about it.  So our plan was for the three of us to head there for dinner. Pancakes would be had, my curiosity would be satisfied and everyone would be happy.

Post-game I didn’t have a story to write because someone else was doing it for the website. As I was headed to the field to try and help with the setup for the Matinee on the Mound (putting the big screen up in the middle of the infield to play a movie for anyone interested in watching), the Durkets stopped me and I took the opportunity to chat with them before they all headed to Sydney. I got Christmas greetings and holiday hugs from Jon’s family before they took off on their tourist adventure and road trip to Sydney. I’m pretty sure his family is kind of awesome and they've definitely made me feel a little more at home every time I've talked to them. Just imagine how great it would be if my own mom would come here (mom, that’s your cue to come here...please).

When they left and I went back to trying to help with the Matinee on the Mound, things were progressing slowly on the field. The screen was being set up, but not easily by any means. There didn’t really seem to be much I could do to help either. And by the time things were finally good to go, there wasn’t anyone left at the park to watch the movie. Whitey, Gonzo and a couple of other volunteers and I sat in the infield and watched Polar Express for a few minutes just because it was happening. And then we started to take everything back down again. It was pretty sad and I felt bad for Whitey because I think he just really wanted the movie on the mound to work out and it didn’t. There’s always next year I suppose.

Before leaving, Whitey asked Carl to pick up the towels and All-Star uniforms from the other team’s locker room and so I went to help him. Alan was there already doing that when we got to the locker room, but asked us for help with not only that, but throwing out the lunch leftovers that were sitting on the table. Carl and I aren’t exactly in positions to turn down free food, so we asked if we could just take some of it home. In that moment, I felt truly pathetic and almost homeless, taking garbage scraps of food. But if you saw the spread they had, that we were about to throw away, you might have done the same. Carl got a tray of apples, a plate full of sandwich meat, slices of cheese and some buns. I zeroed in on the jar of peanut butter and loaf of bread, obviously. We also both started eating stuff while we were standing there, before remembering to save room for pancakes. But I’m pretty sure there’s always room for pancakes.

We both went home to shower after that before heading out for what I was sure would be a fantastic dinner. I think when Carl had gone home in the morning to shower he, like me, got distracted by something or other and didn’t manage to get that accomplished. So we both needed to get clean before fancy dining time at the 24-hour pancake house (I didn’t discover its real name until we actually showed up at the door...names just seem unnecessary).

When everyone was all ready for dinner, Erin drove to pick up Carl and I thought I would be able to direct her to his house pretty easily. I’ve walked the route a few times and I like to think that I am getting to know my way around Brisbane in general. What I didn’t take into account though were the one-way streets. Those kinds of things don’t occur to pedestrians, or at least not to me. We still made it, but there were probably a few extra twists and turns along the way.

The Pancake Manor is in an old church, which makes it pretty awesome-looking inside. I enjoyed the decor, though as Erin had predicted, the level of service was slightly less than impressive. The food was delicious. I had some sort of chocolate-pancake-dinner-and-dessert all-in-one meal. Erin had the same thing, and I kind of made Carl get something different so I could try his, with the promise that I would share mine with him as well. We couldn’t all get the same thing. What good would that do anyone? Everything was delicious and for some reason eating a plethora of unhealthy food got us talking about my marathoning.

I think it came up because at some point I mentioned my 12-hour bus ride home from New York City the day before I flew a billion hours to Australia. Erin wondered why I was in NYC and it hadn’t occurred to me that we never previously had this conversation. Of course, I was there for the NYC Marathon, with one of the blind runners that I guide. Then we got to talking about me being a guide runner for blind marathoners , and all that goes along with that. It actually got me thinking that I need to sign up for a race for when I get home, to get me motivated to run and train while I’m here. That hasn’t been going all that well, despite the great conditions for it.

After the wonderful pancake experience, we continued our evening at an Irish bar around the corner. I am sure I would remember the name if I thought hard enough about it but that seems unlikely to happen. The bar experience was not quite as lovely as the pancake one had been. When I ordered drinks, some drunk Irish guy started asking me questions. I could not, for the life of me, understand a word that was coming out of his mouth. Finally I just said something like, “Hey, maybe I’ll see you around later,” and walked away. Unfortunately that wasn’t the worst of it though. When Erin, Carl and I were sitting around just having a beer and talking, some even drunker Irish guy decided to try and have a conversation with me. I had to tell him several times that he was invading my personal space, and I didn’t even find success with that. I would tell him, he would back away for a second, and then come right back in and pretty much be breathing right on top of my face as he asked me another question that I couldn't understand through his drunkness and his accent. It got to be so bad that Carl finally felt the need to step in and tell him to back off. I don’t know if he would have, but I took the opportunity during that distraction to go to the bathroom. I just needed to get away from the super drunk guy who wasn’t getting it. So that was a great first experience at that Irish pub for me. Can’t wait to go back.

Since the game had ended, I had also been talking to SJ about perhaps hanging out with him. He asked awhile ago on some other day and I didn’t end up hanging out with him, so I figured we could work it out today. I’m thinking he must be kind of lonely when he’s at home, since none of his roommates are ever there, and none of the other guys live near him or anything. I’m sure he’s found ways to preoccupy himself, but I could definitely use another person to hang out with.

So after Erin dropped Carl off at his place, she dropped me off at SJ’s because it was kind of in the same direction. I felt bad, and almost like Erin was chauffeuring us around, but I said that and she said she didn’t mind. SJ and I tried to watch Puss in Boots (I don’t really know why that was the choice), but it didn’t work. The bootlegged version that was available to us was taken on someone’s handheld camera and wasn’t even focused right on the screen. What a bust. Then we tried to watch Transformers 3 but I talked through most of it (as is part of my charm) and when I finally started to watch it, I fell asleep. I still haven’t seen the end of it since starting it on the plane ride here and falling asleep that time too. Also a bust.

I did learn a little more about SJ and his family and his girlfriend though. Me talking usually includes a bunch of me asking questions and this time was no different. His girlfriend of four years lives in Texas and is a high-school teacher. I'm pretty sure that if SJ doesn't get signed anywhere for the upcoming season he'll be heading back to Texas and getting married. Seems likely.

When I went to take the bus home, SJ figured out which ones I needed and pointed me in the right direction. I felt like I could do it. I knew where to go and what to do, so you would think that was all I needed right? Almost.

I only had one mishap and I still made it home all the same. I needed to transfer buses and I knew where I needed to do so, or at least I thought I did. But before I made it to that stop, there was another stop where every single person on the bus got up to get off. I thought about standing my ground, knowing that it wasn’t the stop I needed. But then I started to wonder why they were getting off. Was this somehow the end of the line? Had I taken the right bus in the first place? Was this driver going to get off and just leave the bus sitting there, with me in it or not?

All of these questions caused me to doubt myself and get off the bus with all of the other passengers. I was very confused. And getting off at the wrong stop didn’t do much to help that. I found the second bus I needed though and everything turned out fine, except for the fact that I am an idiot.

That’s another point for Brisbane transit, while I’m still sitting pretty with a big, fat zero. I will reiterate the fact that I did make it home though. Thank you very much.