Summer Bucket List

Are we really already 7 days into June and I haven’t even introduced this month’s challenge? Slap on the wrist, bad blogger! I’ll spare you my lame excuses though and get right to it—this June, and probably July too, I’ll be making my way through a list of fun summer activities that make up my very own summer bucket list.

Everyone knows what a bucket list is, right? A list of things you want to do in your life before you “kick the bucket” (it’s also a really terrible movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, boy was that a letdown). While I’ve definitely drafted a few versions of the more traditional bucket list in my time, I thought It’d be fun to make one specifically for summer, because let’s face it—it’s always gone before you know it (especially if your summer is like mine and you have 5 weddings to attend).

So, let the fun begin! Here’s my list thus far, and definitely me know if you think I forgot something awesome:

1. BBQ
2. Make homemade popsicles
3. Ride my bike
4. Sleep outside
5. Blow the seeds off a dandelion (I promise I won’t do this in your yard)
6. Plant an herb garden
7. Make homemade lemonade
8. Go to the beach
9. Make a summer play list (believe me, I’d do a mixed tape if I still had a cassette player)
10. Get a pedicure
11. Catch a fish (or at least try)
12. Sew my own sundress
13. Go for a canoe ride (14T comes equipped with a canoe, one of its many perks…)
14. Light some sparklers
15. Go to a Red Sox game
16. Go night swimming
17. Pack a picnic
18. Eat dinner on the front porch
19. Pick berries and make homemade jam
20. Play a game of Badminton
21. Wash my car
22. Try a new vegetable from the farmers market
23. Buy an ice cream from the ice cream man
24. Do yoga outside
25. Fly a kite
26. Take a roll of film (yes, the old fashioned way)
27. Go to the Fair
28. Go to the Wellfleet drive-in movie theater
29. Run through a sprinkler
30. Make a new sun tea flavor
31. Go for a boat ride
32. Make a sandcastle
33. Have a bonfire

Big Shoes For Little Souls

Well, we did it! Through thick, salty air and early morning ocean fog, Amy, Jenny and I successfully completed our first 5K this past Sunday as part of the Cape Cod Child Development running team. I'm happy to report that collectively, our team was able to raise over $10,000 to support the children and families of CCCD, yay!

I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who helped me to meet my fundraising goal. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST, THANK YOU x 10,000!

My Dad Knows Everything About Baseball

I’ve always known that my dad is a huge baseball fan (he mainly just watches the Sox games, but he’ll always cheer for anyone who beats the Yankees), but this month he really proved it to me. I probably called home a dozen times over the past 31 days with a whole slew of baseball questions that most people my age should know the answers to:

“Dad, how do they determine how many games are in a series?”
“Hi Dad, me again, do the announcers travel with the team?”
“Yep hi, another question: What the hell does over 500 mean?”

And so on…

What shocked me every time was how immediate his answers were—I couldn’t stump him! After a month of very thorough answers to my incessant stream of questions, I really am convinced that my dad knows everything about baseball.

When I was home this past weekend, my brother and I went down to the basement and shot some of his baseball collection. These are a few of my favs:



My dad is also a huge Carl Yastrzemski fan. I mean, can you blame him? What's not to love about a Polish Red Sox player?



Carl, or "Yaz", in all his glory



More glory...



I can't read this so let's just pretend that there's a "ski" at the end



This illustration of Fenway Park was a Father's Day gift from my mom and I one year



A replica of the paper from when the Red Sox won the World Series in 1918



Moxie and the Red Sox? Now you're speaking John Dzenawagis' language...

And yes, I’m well aware that it’s June 1st now. The holiday weekend threw me off a bit so I'm going to take a few extra days to wrap up Soxing before I introduce June's challenge. Stay tuned!

My MFP (Most Favorite Player)

Even though he’s apparently in a bit of a slump right now (at least that’s what they’ve been saying, like I’d know the difference), there’s still something pretty lovable about Dustin Pedroia, my official MFP (most favorite player) of the 2011 Boston Red Sox team. Like you inadvertently gravitate towards one band member or TV show character over another, it also seems to happen in the sports world.

Unlike a serious sports fan would, I don’t base my favorite player status on merit, but rather on things like, “cool we were born in the same year!”, “hey, he just got a hit!”, and most importantly: general adorability. A week or so into this month I realized that I was getting a little more excited when Pedroia would come up to bat and since the feeling has persisted, he has officially been granted my MFP (quite an honor).

It may come as a surprise that he took the cake, especially over a shoe in like Jacoby Ellsbury (admittedly, he’s definitely a hottie and it’s pretty cool that he’s the first person of Navajo descent to make it to the major leagues), but I don’t know what it is, there’s just something about that Dustin Pedroia, sigh…

Before I turn into too much of a teenager though, here are last week’s highlights from week 3 as a baseball fan:

1. Watching a game with lil’ Eleanor as my baseball buddy. Seriously though, how cute is this baby and how serious of a sports fan is she already? She wouldn't even take her eyes off the game for photo. Justin must be so proud...

2. Eating the delicious spread of baseball snacks prepared by Amanda Morgan: Cheese, bread, & jam, pigs in blankets, deviled eggs, and chips & guac? Yes, please.

3. Listening to the game on the radio last Thursday night when we won it in the bottom on the 9th. I had an “I am my fathers daughter” moment when I slow clapped in the car by myself haha.

4. Being in New York City last weekend and genuinely feeling a little out of place among the many people who were donning Yankees gear. The rivalry must run pretty deep if I even feel it...

Just one week to go though and not enough home games to fit it all in. I will get to Fenway before June 1st though, fingers crossed for good weather!



She gets cuter every time I see her, omg...



Ever wondered what my last meal on earth would be? Add a glass of Pinot Grigio and it's complete

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

A lot of people say they can’t get into baseball because it’s too “slow”, or “boring”, or because there “isn’t enough action”. Um, are you kidding me? That’s why baseball is so awesome in the first place. Yeah, you’re not guaranteed a bloody brawl or a game that’ll score in the double digits, but I’m not watching sports because I’m looking for something to get stressed (or grossed) out about—I’m watching to relax. Sure there’s a few tense moments in your average game, but for the most part it moves so slow that it’s practically meditative—or at least a little more so than a pig pile of 300 lb. men is (sorry football).

And for a compulsive multitasker like myself, baseball is a godsend. A sport that I can keep up with without devoting my complete attention to? Win! I can switch back and forth between stations, give myself a pedicure, make a dent in my mounting pile of clothing that needs mending (thanks fast fashion), and catch up on emails—all without missing a play.

Dear Baseball,

Don’t listen to all those haters, you’ve had it right all along. Slow and steady wins the race.

Love,
Danne, your new fan

p.s. On another note, good luck with tomorrow’s impending rapture everyone. This someecard pretty much sums up how I feel about the matter:

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Sorry to be redundant and complain about the weather like everyone else in the Northeast is doing, but seriously? Did I really just take the space heater back out of the closet? Am I really rockin' the fleece socks? Isn't it supposed to be Spring? Didn't we suffer enough this winter Mother Nature? And now this—a rained out Red Sox game.I think I'm just about as bummed as little Brooks Fletcher here...

5K Fundraising

It’s that time of year again friends—I’m fundraising! This time last year I was trying to raise $2,000 to participate in Project M, which thanks to all of you, I was able to do (seriously, thank you, that was amazing). This year I’m looking for financial support in another one of my endeavors: I’m running the 5K in The Great Hyannis Road Races as part of a charity team to raise money for Cape Cod Child Development. CCCD is a great organization that provides childcare, educational and developmental intervention, and family support services that are affordable and accessible to families all over Cape Cod & the Islands. As with any non-profit, donations are an integral component to their funding, so I’m happy to do what I can to help out.

Not only am I excited to run in support of such a great cause, but I’m extra excited because it’s my first race (yay!), it’s in my hometown (yay again!), and I’ll be running with 2 of my besties, Amy and Jenny (another yay!).

As part of the team, they ask that I raise at least $100 for the cause, so if anyone can spare even a few bucks it would be greatly appreciated. No donation is too small!

Thank you all so much, and hey, if you’re on Cape that weekend, come cheer us on!
Danne

Baseball on the Radio

Call me crazy (I'd prefer old fashioned), but I feel like there’s definitely something magical about listening to a baseball game on the radio. Kind of like how the crackle from a record player can give music an instant sense of nostalgia, the same is true for anything that’s heard through fading radio reception. I’m willing to bet that even if you didn’t grow up spending summer nights listening to the crack of the bat through the airwaves, you probably still find yourself susceptible to the warm sense of sentimentality that it evokes.

What inspired this month’s challenge in the first place was a book that I read over vacation called Slow Love, by Dominique Browning. In brief, it’s a memoir about a woman who loses her job, and in essence, her identity, and is forced to confront a number of realities in her life and embark on the journey of regaining her balance (hmm sound familiar?). There’s a particular passage where she describes listening to baseball games on the radio so romantically that it had me longing to do the same.

An excerpt:

“…Listening to games on the radio at home was a different matter. Not having the visuals when you’re a novice is a challenge. Instead of following the action, I became entranced by the symphonic quality of the sounds of a game coming over the radio: the crescendos of the crowd roaring when something exciting happened, the dissonant chords when the umpire was a blockhead, the thematic quality of most of the calls, the digressions at quieter intervals. Best of all was the counterpoint of Stroller’s [the author’s former love interest] rapid-fire commentary with that of the announcer; it was like a baseball concerto, and it washed over me in a bath of shared pleasure”.

After reading this, I realized that it was sort of a tragedy not to own a radio, so I bought one (which I had to do online because apparently they’re so antiquated that Target doesn’t even sell them anymore). When I Googled “handheld radio” a bunch of super high-tech options came up: No I don’t need GPS, no I don’t need an LED screen, I just need a radio, plain and simple. That’s when I found this little gem that I received in the mail yesterday. It weighs about 3 ounces, has a sweet hand strap, and is about as analog as it gets. I love it.

My new little friend came just in the knick of time too, because tonight begins a 3 game series against our arch rivals, the New York Yankees. You'd better believe that I'll be out on the front porch, radio in hand, listening to the play-by-play the good ol' fashioned way.

Question: Where can I stream live MLB games online for free?

Can an actual sports fan confirm this for me: Is it true that there are restrictions from MLB that don’t allow live games to be streamed online for free? I wanted to listen to the game while I was at work yesterday but couldn’t figure out how to get it to work without buying a yearly subscription from MLB.com. It’s only $19.99 so I might just go for it, but I wanted to check first to see if someone has a free solution for me. Anyone know?

And in Red Sox news this week, we won the first 2 games against the Angels and then lost the second 2 (we really lost the last one, ouch). A 4 game series with the Minnesota Twins starts tonight at 7:10pm.

And in Danne news related to becoming a Red Sox fan, I think it’s actually working! I find myself caring a little more each game and actually looking forward to watching. Who knew it would be this easy?

From Sixing to Soxing

Last night I did something that your average New Englander does on a regular basis: I watched the Red Sox game. It might not sound like a big deal, but it marked the first time in my 27 years that I’ve intentionally sat down and watched the entire game from start to finish. So why last night? Well, because I’ve declared May “Soxing” (the name came to me in a dream haha) and I’m on a mission to finally become the Red Sox fan that I was predestined to become (destiny based on proximity to Boston and my Dad’s fervor for the team).

Whether you’re a fan or not, there’s no denying that Massachusetts has some of the best sports teams in the country. Between the Patriots, the Celtics, the Bruins, and the Red Sox, we’ve won dozens of championships—unfortunately I’ve just never really cared about any of them. I think it’s cool when your home team takes the title; just not cool enough for me to actually sit down and watch a whole season’s worth of games. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl or because I’ve always preferred art and music to sports, but I’ve just never really got the hang of being a sports fan.

Just because I’m not currently a citizen of Red Sox Nation doesn’t mean that I don’t think it looks like a lot of fun. Part of me has always wanted to share in the excitement that comes with being a diehard fan, but I’ve just never put in the effort: Enter May.

My original intention was to commit to watching every Sox game for the entire month of May, but when my dad showed me the schedule (30 games in 31 days), I thought that maybe I should make some adjustments.

It might shift a little as the month wears on, but as of right now, here’s my assignment for the month:

1. Watch every home game that isn’t on while I’m at work.

2. Venture out to a bar (or other public place) to watch the game at least once a week. I plan on making special appearances at Bleacher Bar and Cardullo’s in Harvard Square (I've always wanted to sit out front with all the old guys in lawn chairs haha).

3. Make it to Fenway at least once to watch a game live and in person.

Like I invited people over in March for dinner parties, I’d also like to open the doors of 14T to drink Allagash and watch Sox games with me. Come on over and Go Sox!