A frustrating day (Day 55)

I should probably take some time to try and rebuild whatever parts of my reputation I have tarnished with my actions over the last couple of days.

First of all, I will point out that my behaviour was out of the ordinary. I rarely drink at home, and the amount of alcohol I have ingested during my time in Australia is probably equal to that of what I’ve ingested in the last three years or more in total at home. I’m not a changed person or anything, and I will likely resort back to my old ways once I return to Canada. It just seems to be the baseball life as I am living it right now. I have learned one thing if nothing else though, that being that I cannot keep up with the big boys. Nor should I try.

But for those people reading that don’t know me very well, or for my mom’s friends or extended family, who may or may not be worried about me, I’m fine. I have assured my mother that I haven’t changed my ways in general, I’ve just found that when the opportunity arises here to let loose, I’ve taken it. And it’s been a pretty good time, despite losing half of my worldly possessions and getting the feeling that I should be more embarrassed than I am.

I woke up early today, likely due to the fact that I pretty much went to sleep in the afternoon yesterday and remained in bed until this morning. I didn’t really know what to do with my time, and didn’t feel motivated to get out of bed right away, so I finally finished the book I started reading on the plane ride here. I’ve gotten through one book in like two months. I’m not doing so well. I know my mom and my friend Nicole are very disappointed. Sorry dudes.

Erin was up relatively early for a holiday morning and was headed for the Gold Coast. She left me the keys, since I don’t have any of my own and she figured I might need to leave during the day and I would probably be back before she would.

I texted Carl in the morning a couple times about when we were going to clean the park, or if he was going to help and received no answer. He finally got back to me to tell me that he was going to watch the Giants game so he wouldn’t be doing anything during the morning. I watched the end of the last game of the season for my Buccaneers, their 10th loss in a row, capping off a subpar year after a 2010 season that gave me false hope.

I also got my room cleaned up and did some laundry, in an attempt at feeling like I might be getting my life back together after the weekend. When that was finished, I went out to buy a new phone card, since I had also lost my other one in the mess of New Year’s Eve. Apparently I thought I might call someone as a part of my celebrations, but that did not happen, which is probably better for everyone. One random phone call was enough.

After getting the card and returning back to the apartment, I called one of my London best friends, Amanda, speaking to her over the phone for the first time since I’ve been in Australia. We talked about our respective Christmases, neither of which were overly exciting, and our New Year’s Eves, with mine having the edge in excitement on that one. I asked about volleyball, because Amanda plays for the teams that I used to play for and I miss it a lot. I talked about baseball, though my experiences here aren’t as exciting for all of my friends at home as they are for me. Amanda told me how school has been going for her, as she finishes up a degree in Environmental Sciences.

At some point during the conversation we both realized that I come home relatively soon. I’ve been here longer than the amount of time I have remaining, which is a little sad. While there are times that I get a little homesick, I’m not sure that I will be ready to leave in just five short weeks. The comfort of having Spring Training just around the corner is helpful and when baseball is done in Brisbane I will probably have more desire to leave, but right now it doesn’t seem possible that it will all be over before I know it.

I watched some House on DVD, still trying to catch up on journal-writing, while waiting for the Giants game to end. When it was over, I tried calling and texting Carl and heard nothing in response. I waited awhile and called again, and then waited even longer and called again. And again. I wasn’t having any luck in my attempt to get the keys to the RNA and it was becoming frustrating. I called Whitey for the second time of the day, since he had informed me the first time that Carl had his car, and in the car were the keys to the park. I didn’t know how Whitey could help me, but I at least got one of my phone calls answered. I explained the situation to Whitey and he said he would try Carl and then get back to me.

I didn’t figure that was going to do anything, since I thought Carl must have left his phone somewhere or something like that. It didn’t occur to me that he might actually just be ignoring my calls, which it appears he was, because he answered Whitey right away. That made the whole day slightly more frustrating.  It also caused me to wonder what I ever did to BFC to deserve such treatment but I didn’t have a chance to ask, since he clearly didn’t want to talk to me. Carl informed me (only five or six hours after I originally asked) that he did not have the keys that I needed to get into the ballpark and that he had no plans of helping me clean. That was fine, but it certainly would have been nice to know before I spent my entire day waiting around for those answers.

As it turned out, Whitey had the keys the entire time and hadn’t realized because he just thought they were in his car and no one had told him otherwise. He brought them over to my place and I headed straight to the Showgrounds, because afternoon had begun to turn into night and I was soon going to run out of daylight.

I cleaned up the garbage in the stands which was more a tedious job than a difficult one, and kind of boring on my own. Then I decided to help the players out (not that they would even know) and clean up the locker room. I started getting rid of the garbage in the clubhouse, not realizing how big a task that was, but once I started I couldn’t stop without finishing. The worst part was the food garbage, including pizza boxes and cans of various drinks, because they were collecting bugs and other disgusting creatures. Relief came in the form of remembering that there is only one more homestand left, so the guys can’t really mess the place up too much in that time, right?

When that was finished I headed back home to an apartment that smelled like deliciousness. Erin had made brownies and I could only say yes when she offered some to me. My plans to go for a run turned into brownie-eating on the couch, which is probably a good second-best thing to do.

I decided at some point during the night to write a story about the Bandits making a push for playoffs, since after winning three games over the weekend, they are in a three-way tie for fourth place. Four teams make it into playoffs in the Australian Baseball League, so should they be able to hang onto the fourth spot, they would be in. I wrote my story about the team and the positives from the weekend against the Canberra Cavalry and got it up online in record time (a record for me, which doesn’t say much). It can be found here.

While I was posting the story, I got an email from my mom, indicating to me that she was awake over in the wee hours of the Canadian morning, so I decided to call her. We talked about my New Year’s Eve extravaganza mostly, and my earlier conversation with Amanda. I filled her in on the latest Brisbane Bandits news and my hopes for the team to get into playoffs. We talked about what baseball trips we might take this upcoming year and our plans to head to Cooperstown to see my favourite Canadian baseball writer, Bob Elliott, inducted. I’ve never been to Cooperstown and I feel like my first trip couldn’t be at a better time for a better inductee.

The phone call put me past my bedtime and when it ended, so too did my night.

The second day of the year was far less eventful than the first. Thankfully.