Batting practice from the field, really?

How does this happen to me? There are so many parallels in my life yet the experiences are miles apart. 1 year ago on day #1 of my vacation, I had a friend in from out of town. He 'pooped' out early & I was determined not to let day #1 of my vacation fizzle out. I called another buddy of mine, who unfortunately has since moved to Chicago. He invited me to a party and day #1 of vacation 1 year ago ruled. I kept thinking 'how in the world will I continue to top the 1st days of my vacation?'

Fast forward to 1 year later, today. The out of this world experiences so new, fresh and different from a year ago, but the sentiment remains: "What is going on and how in the world will I ever top the 'awesomeness' of the start of this vacation?"

On day #1 I traveled to my college alma mater and shared lunch with so many outstanding people I'd not seen in months and even years. Not one second of the experience bad. I love the trek to my alma mater driving the open roads--so close to the city yet far enough away to be considered 'God's country.' A beautiful day with the sun's rays dancing on the roadway. Once I get to a certain point, I'm able to pick up HOT 101 out of Youngstown and jam the entire way to the chosen land! All the memories come streaming back each inch, each landmark, each milemarker I pass. Our meeting place chock full of memories including the world famous Freddy burger, which is a given if ever in G-Ville! I so did not want to leave these peeps. Normally, I'd dance the night away with all of them. Believe it or not, I had to tear myself away from this part of my memory making day to head to yet another unbelieveable once in a lifetime adventure.

When it rains, it pours. Everything stacks up on the same day or weekend.

My peaceful ride back to the city kept my dream weekend flowing along....again jamming to HOT 101 (until my border where it just became a fuzzy static jumble).

Next stop: Cleveland Indians batting practice -- from the field! Are you kidding me?

I was given a wonderful opportunity for myself and 2 friends to watch batting practice from the field --Indians batting practice! I met my 2 pals Meghan and Loren at the media gate where about 20 other folks were given the same opportunity! We waited. The wait seemed so much longer than it really was anticipating what was about to happen. Yes, we were escorted down to the field right behind home plate to watch my boys take their swings and field their positions. Absolutely ridiculous. I had to keep pinching myself.

Now, doing what I do for a living, we all know that you can not go on the grass. That is a no-no. The Cleveland Indians' grounds crew takes great pride in their masterpiece. When the PR women gave us two rules, of course one of them was 'do not step on the grass!' I just busted up laughing and gave my friends the long history of how long we've been told 'not to step on the grass!' The other rule was 'do not distract the ballplayers.' Ha! I think the ballplayers should be given a set of rules as well. Many of them were happy to have fans down there to flex their muscles to --fans who were beaming from cheek to cheek watching their heroes. They'd give us glances, smiles, as we had to keep a heads up for the periodic balls that would come rolling or flying our way from the players.

Honestly, this swirling dream simply too good to be true. We all received batting practice t-shirts, and were able to get our pictures with 2 of my fave players: Cord Phelps and Jack Hannahan and the skipper, Manny Acta. Then my friends and I, of course, got a picture of the three of us as proof to our whereabouts Saturday afternoon! All the heavy hitters were out there with us (except Pronk). My jaw was touching the field (but not the grass) as my eyes wandered from player to player to player and we just took it all in.

Trevor Crowe, currently on the DL, looks like he's coming along. He had family or friends down there. It was kind of funny. The people he was with wanted him to sign their jersey in Silver. It had to be in Silver. So of course, the PR woman being prepared tossed him a Silver pen. While he signed, his family asked my friend to hold their designer purse and they made sure they joked "don't steal anything!" This kind of stuff just doesn't happen in my everyday real life.

I recently made a very nice new friend via social media. While we were there, he texted me asking if I was heading to the game. I texted him, "are you kidding, I am already here just waiting to watch batting practice from the field.' I was beaming! The entire experience from start to finish simply perfect. Batting practice to the game to a post game concert with performances by Donnie Iris and the Cruisers (in honor of the Pittsburgh Pirates) and then Cleveland's hometown favorite Michael Stanley and the Resonators (in honor of my Cleveland Indians).

At the end of the night, it was hard for me to come back down to earth after a magical day.

And again, I asked myself, 'How in the world will I be able to top any other days of my vacation?'