I take my bad moods out on Carl (Day 31)

I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

When Carl picked me up I believe I might have immediately picked a fight with him. We argued for a little while about pointless things and came to no conclusion and it pretty much put me in a bad mood for the day. Or maybe I already was in a bad mood. Either way, I wasn't a pleasant person to deal with I'm sure. Poor BFC.

We went to pick up Whitey and from there we headed to the cafe/market where Julie works so that the guys could get coffee. I kind of assumed that they were just running in and grabbing stuff so I waited in the car. Just being unpleasant. They took awhile though and must have stopped to chat or sit down, which makes sense since Whitey's girlfriend does work there. So I was a Debbie Downer alone in the car for several minutes. BFC came out at one point to see what I was doing but I rudely told him that I was going to stay in the car and I didn't need them to get me anything. Whitey noticed at one point that I had my cranky pants on for the day, but I don't think he cared why, as long as I wasn't too rude to him.

We went to the field from the coffee shop, where we met Gonzo and Max, his 10-year-old. Carl and I were ready to start our new jobs of collecting trash, but Gonzo told us that there was a slight hitch in the plan. Someone had come by to inspect the field at 8 o'clock in the morning or something and saw that things were still a mess and contracted workers to come in and clean it up. So Carl and I would have to start our job tomorrow. Or would we?

I had to get the script for Coshi to him before 11 a.m. though, so I pulled out my computer in the locker room and got to work on that. Coshi had a holiday party today or something so he wasn't going to be able to print anything from his computer after 11. I sent my version of the script to him on time and hoped he would get a chance to make it his own.

When that was finished Carl wanted to play catch and even though I was mad at him for no good reason, I had no excuse not to throw the baseball around. So we took some gloves from whomever had left their bags in the clubhouse and went out to the field. I wasn't very talkative so we just threw, and Carl was probably a little happier with it that way. I wasn't putting in a very good effort though and I kept blaming it on the glove. BFC even went and got me another glove to use and I was still being awful. This whole journal entry should probably just be an apology to Carl but I still blame him for the fact that we were arguing over nothing in the first place.

After a short game of catch and a failed attempt at trying to get me to play ping pong, we actually did a little work. We had to hang some other stuff around the park and help Whitey get a few things done. During that time, Gonzo had also been so kind as to get us lunch. We had burgers and fries that were pretty delicious, and Gonz had gotten root beer to go with it because he says it's a staple of American cuisine. I think finding normal root beer around here is pretty rare too, so it was a special occasion.

Before we ate, we realized that the stadium actually had not been cleaned at all. Despite the news that they brought someone in to clean up, there was garbage all over. So Carl and I did have to get started on our business of picking up rubbish. We set to work, and after picking the big stuff up off the ground, Carl took the leaf blower to get rid of all the small stuff, while I scrubbed the seats down with a bucket and a sponge. I just had to do the members' stand that way though, because the other seats were all fine. It took longer than I thought it would, but I still got it done. The seats were actually really dirty, and I had to change my bucket of soap and water a couple times to make sure I was actually cleaning and not just pouring dirty water on everything. So efficient.

When I finished that, I had to grab a broom and help Carl sweep the small stuff because the leaf blower had run out of gas. So much for that. And when we were finally finished, I definitely had to get home to shower before the game. I'm sure I smelled like trash and dirty mop water. Awesome.

Gonzo dropped me off at home on his way to shower and change at his place. He offered to come back on his way to the ballpark and get me but I told him I could just walk. I changed my mind a little later when I realized that I wanted to talk to him about Graeme Lloyd. Lloyd is one of the coaches of the Perth Heat, the team that the Bandits are playing this weekend. He's also a major-league veteran, and a former Blue Jay. I'm working on an upcoming story about David Nilsson, and so I wanted to interview Lloyd about his playing time with Nilsson, both in the majors and for Australia. Gonzo said he would introduce me and I could chat with Lloyd. By the time we got back to the park though it was too late. The games weren't far off from starting so we decided to make an attempt after the doubleheader.

Neither game was great. The offense didn't show up for the first one and the second game was another extra-inning one-run loss. The team has now lost six in a row and three have been in that fashion. The worst part was in the ninth inning, when the Bandits gave up two runs to the Heat, one a home run and the other a double with two errors (at least that's how it's scored in my book). Brisbane came back with one run in the bottom of the inning, but couldn't manage to tie it up. If they hadn't given up the second run they could have been right back in it. That would have meant more innings though I suppose. But who doesn't love more free baseball?

So two tough losses to add to the books. Perth just keeps mowing everyone down. And when I went to see if Lloyd would talk to me after the games, we decided that we would be better off chatting before tomorrow's game. I'll have to make sure I shower earlier tomorrow and get back on time to do that.

After the game I think everyone was exhausted. I was. Some of the guys cracked a few beers, but I just wanted to hit the sack, so I walked home when we were done getting everything put away for the night. I totally went out of the stadium in the wrong direction though, making my short walk almost twice as long as it needed to be. Maybe I needed the walk to try and get over my bad mood.

Because Carl hadn't had enough of me throughout the day, and every other day that I've been here, we talked on the phone when we were both at home. We mostly discussed my bad mood and our arguments from earlier about nothing. Once again, we didn't resolve anything at all and the phone call seemed pointless. Not a great way to end the night.

I'm sure I'll wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow and we'll be back to being best friends as per usual.