How can you not be romantic about baseball? (Day 44)

I woke up on my mattress on the floor at Chambers’ house cuddling with a robe. Someone must have thrown the robe on me at some time or another during the night and my arms were wrapped around it like I never wanted to let it go.

This is what my life has become.

As we started gathering up the blankets and sheets to fold them and pile them (by we, I mean me), I noticed an easel and a painting in the corner. I had not been so observant the night before. I asked Chambers who was the painter in the family and he told me it was his mom. He showed me some of her other artwork around the house and it’s fantastic. I wish that a) I could afford to buy a painting and b) I could take one of them home with me. Neither option seems viable though.

After we had gathered up all the stuff upstairs we moved downstairs to continue our cleaning. There were beer bottles, cans and pizza boxes all over the place. We were a mess. We got everything picked up and Chambers offered us breakfast. I wasn’t about to turn down free food so I seized the day and had some toast.

Everyone was finally ready to leave shortly thereafter, though it sounds much simpler than it turned out to be. We were locked out of Whitey’s car, but we had the keys to it. The last person to drive it (SJ) had left a blinker on or something when he came inside and it killed the battery. Luckily one of the windows was open a crack but it didn’t really seem to help us. At first. We could unlock the door from the inside and even grab the handle and use it, but the door still wouldn’t budge. Stupid electronic car.

While all of the guys were trying to figure out a way in, extremely unsuccessfully for awhile, I pulled up some grass and laid my head down on my backpack. I didn’t feel as if I could help at all, so why bother just getting in the way? They deduced that we needed to somehow get the hood (bonnet) open, so we could charge the battery, but there was no easy explanation on how to do that. Someone suggested calling the Australian version of CAA and Whitey immediately nixed that idea, because it would be too expensive. The idea on its own seemed to send Whitey into overdrive on coming up with ways to get into the car though because all of a sudden there was a solution.

SJ took a big, metal crowbar that Chambers had gotten out of his garage and used it to somehow pop the trunk (boot). Whitey got the back seat down with a latch in the trunk and then climbed into the car that way. I was pretty astonished that he made it in. SJ put a picture of it on his blog, so if you're interested in seeing part of the debacle, or reading his take on Australia, the link is here. Whitey got the hood open and we were ready for a jump from Chambers. The only problem after that was that we were also out of gas.

Okay, we weren’t completely out. I believe we had two kilometres remaining until empty or something like that. Excuse my exaggeration. But we had legitimate worry that we might not make it from Chambers’ place to a gas (petrol) station before running out and once again having a car we couldn't use.  

As soon as the car was running again we all hopped in and hoped to cruise to the nearest station. Every time we were forced to stop, Whitey threw the car into neutral in the hope that it would help us. And it must have because we made it to a gas station right on the pit of empty. We all got out to get food there as well. I had to stop myself from eating a brunch consisting of chocolate milk and Doritos, and instead stuck with the chocolate milk and chose a granola bar in place of the chips. I felt good about the choice, until Dave-O got in the car with an even bigger chocolate milk and the bag of Doritos that I had contemplated. I was overrun with jealousy.

It started to rain somewhere along the ride home and I realized that I had hung my sheets out over the balcony railing to dry before we left. I was well aware that they would likely not be dry when I got back to them. I’ll just have to leave them out there once again, getting them back smelling rainwater fresh.

When I got home and went outside to check on them though, I had another surprise waiting for me. The sheets were not wet at all, but one of them had fallen off the balcony onto the floor below me. I didn’t even think of that as an option. I wasn’t too worried about it, but I texted Erin to ask what I should do. She told me that I should just go knock on the door of the people below us and ask them. And then she mentioned that she should have told me before, but it’s against the apartment policy to hang things over the rail. Makes sense.

I had a quick shower and then headed back to the nail place once more because I had broken another nail somewhere along our adventures at the Gold Coast. During my walk there, I called Carl just to tell him about my laundry situation. I thought it was kind of funny, especially after having been so worried that my sheets might just be a little damp. Instead, they’ve been misplaced.

From the nail place I went to the hair place. The woman who happened to be doing my hair was American so we had lots to talk about. She came to Australia from Chicago for a boy, as she described it. She’d visited someone around here a year or so ago and met and fell in love with a local. I guess he swept her off her feet or whatever because she’s back here with him planning on staying for the long haul. I guess my story isn’t as heartwarming as hers, but like Brad Pitt says in Moneyball, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”

She was kind of excited to learn that there is a baseball team in town, though it was disappointing to me that she didn’t already know about it, with the hair place being just a few blocks away from the RNA. She did promise that she and her boyfriend would come to a game or two during the upcoming series though, and that was pretty much the best I could do. She tried to start a conversation about hockey and I didn’t really mind at first, until she mentioned halftime. Really?  So I tried to steer clear of any more hockey talk.

My hair was taking a really long time and at one point I thought I was going to be late to get home for when Whitey was picking me up. He had to pick me up, then we were supposed to go to the Showgrounds to get the bats and balls, then pick SJ up at Windsor or somewhere and then head to Pine Hills, where the practice was taking place. So I asked how much longer it would be and the Chicagoan gave me her best guesstimate. I texted Whitey to let him know I was running late but also that there wasn’t much I could do about it so I hoped I wasn’t putting him out too much. As it turned out, he was running late too, so that gave me some room to work with.

When my hair was finished and paid for I still figured I might leave Whitey waiting for me, so I ran home from the salon. I only had flip flops (thongs) on, so it was a little rough on the calves, but I made it in good time. I packed up my things for Byron, throwing mostly random articles of clothing in a bag, along with anything else I could find, and went outside to wait for Whitey. I was glad he hadn’t been waiting for me, though it made me feel like I’d rushed for nothing.

He came and got me and we were on our way to the RNA to pick up bats and balls. I also grabbed my two gloves that I had managed to leave in the locker room. I wouldn’t want to forget about those. And we were quickly on our way to Pine Hills. I think the reason the team couldn’t practice at the Showgrounds was because they were spraying pesticides or something. Pine Hills didn’t seem very convenient, especially when I wouldn’t have had to go to practice if we weren’t leaving for Byron right afterward. And it tacked on another half hour to our trip too I think.

Whitey and I dropped off the equipment and then stood around probably looking lost, not knowing what we were going to do the whole time. It wasn’t long before we left to find a variety store to get some drinks. When we were there I also found some Shapes, a delicious cracker snack that Whitey had previously introduced me to. I couldn’t get a box without him wanting a box too so we got two different flavours for the purposes of sharing. It worked out well.

We sat around eating them for about as long as that lasted. The box said there were six servings in it, but my stomach said it was just about one. Whitey and I talked about Julie’s family and what they are doing for Christmas (or just for the holidays, since they’re Jewish). I believe he said that every year they get a house in Costa Rica and head there, which sounds pretty amazing. And Julie is super pumped about getting to see her sisters. She’s very family-oriented and the longest she’s gone without seeing her family before coming to Australia was something like six weeks. I think she’s been here nine months. So it’s a big time for her.

I got up to walk around for awhile after our chat, because Pine Hills is home to several other sporting fields, and mostly because I had nothing better to do. On my way back from my short jaunt I started picking up the home run balls outside of the outfield. By the time I had come back around to give them to someone, another one was launched over the fence. And then by the time I got to that one, there were two more. So I just stayed out in the outfield a little longer, collecting home run balls. When I came back, Whitey was watching Youtube videos on his iPad, so I joined him in doing that for a little while.

When practice was finally over, we started our adventure to Byron. Maestri went with Chambers in his car and SJ and I went with Whitey. Chambers had to stop at home to pick up his roommate from Czech and also his buddy Zane, who was making the trek with us. Of course our car's first pitstop was at a McDonald’s. Why wouldn’t it be? And then we had to go to the liquor/beer store. I stayed in the car and ate while Whitey and SJ went in, figuring that whatever they got would be just fine. I was sure there would be Czech moonshine coming on this trip, so whatever they got had to be better than that.

They came back with two cases of beer and a bottle of vodka and a bottle of rum. It wasn’t long before I was pouring rum in my McDonald’s cup. Once I was through that, we stopped at a variety store for pop (soda, for the Americans) and ice to keep it going. It made the ride to Byron go a little faster.

When we got to the motel I think it was probably almost midnight. Oh, and I forgot to mention that earlier in the day a woman from the motel called to ask when we might be checking in. I told her it was probably going to be in the middle of the night and she said she would leave the key outside the door under the mat for us. Really? But that was actually perfect. That way she wouldn’t happen to see seven of us walking into a room for two people.

And it certainly was a room for two. There was only one bed.

It wasn’t of concern to any of us at first though, since our first priority was to drink and go out. It was already late, so we had to do it fast. And SJ and I had gotten a head start, thanks to our travellers, so everyone else had some catching up to do. It wasn’t long before we were out and about in Byron Bay, at some bar called Cucamonga’s, I think. I had a great time at the bar, drinking and dancing up a storm. I’m sure I did too many shots, and chugged too many beers, though I did manage to beat SJ in a chugging contest and then cement my win by chugging another beer in a time trial. It took nine seconds. I think I can do better.

With the amount of drinking I did, I believe there might be some holes in my story of the evening, but I’m sure you get the picture. When we left the bar, three of us took a rickshaw back to the motel. It was playing music and I guess we were all super loud. So that’s probably why we then got kicked out. We must have awoken the woman running the place and she saw how many of us there were and she wouldn’t let us all in the room. I made it to the bed though, so it didn’t really occur to me to have concern for the others. My bad.

I do remember the woman calling to let me know that there was no way we were going to be allowed to stay another night at her motel. I wasn’t too worried about that either though. The alcohol in my system had apparently washed away all of my concerns. And then put me straight to sleep.