Baseball and...chocolate chip cookies?
There are things that I used to love to do. When I was a kid, and until a few years ago, there were things that I did and I loved them. It's not that these things stopped appealing to me, or became painful reminders of something I'd lost, or anything like that. It's just that these were things I used to do with people, for people, and lately no one has asked me to.
When I was a small child my dad used to take me to baseball games sometimes, often for my birthday. I have a difficult time really getting into it on television, but I love going to games. My senior year in high school, the Mariners (my home town team) made it to the playoffs and I got the chance to take my dad to one of the playoff games.
I was working for Ticketmaster at the time, which you'd think would give me a discount on tickets but it didn't. Ticketmaster was very careful not to give the impression that they gave any kind of preference to their employees, and promoters of events didn't allow them to discount tickets for employees. So, they held back some tickets to every event, for employees, but they were never the best seats, good seats but not the best, and you still had to pay full price for them. If you wanted the best seats you had to call in or wait in line like everyone else.
I had to work the day the playoff tickets went on sale so I got employee tickets, 200 level in the old King dome on the first base line. I was so excited to take my dad to that game. My dad didn't just take me to ball games when I was a kid, he was the one that was always there for me. I'm not always the best at telling people how I feel about them, I'm better at gestures, and gifts. So, taking my dad to that game was my way of telling him how much he meant to me. The Mariners even won that game (though they lost most of the rest of those playoff games). It was one of those perfect nights you get sometimes in life.
Another thing I used to love was cooking. In truth I thought I didn't actually like cooking that much, I just enjoyed the reaction I got when I cooked for people. The first, and for a long time only, thing I could cook was chocolate chip cookies. I've got a much larger culinary repertoire now but the cookies are still a specialty of mine and they're indicative of why I don't cook much anymore unless I have people to cook for. I made a batch of cookies last weekend and realized for the first time in a long time that one batch of cookies is three dozen. What am I supposed to do with three dozen cookies? Eat them all and gain 400lbs?
I made them anyway though because I only recently remembered that there are these things that I used to love to do that I haven't done in years. I've been to a couple baseball games this summer also and I'm starting to realize that I've let some things slip out of my life because the person I used to do them with (or for) isn't in my life anymore. Part of the reason that I was so happy about being on my own (i.e. single) is because it was giving me the opportunity to (or actually forcing me to) finally decide who I really am. I know that sounds remarkably like the cliche "finding myself" but you should be used to my love of cliches by now, if you're a regular reader (and if you're not you should become one). It kind of defeats that ideal, though, if I refrain from doing things I love. I like the things I like and there are actually a lot of people in the world who like cookies, especially free, home baked cookies. I haven't seemed to have any trouble finding people to go to concerts with either. Also, it turns out that there are lots of people who like baseball and I even know some of them already, some of them are even friends of mine, members of my family even.
When I was a small child my dad used to take me to baseball games sometimes, often for my birthday. I have a difficult time really getting into it on television, but I love going to games. My senior year in high school, the Mariners (my home town team) made it to the playoffs and I got the chance to take my dad to one of the playoff games.
I was working for Ticketmaster at the time, which you'd think would give me a discount on tickets but it didn't. Ticketmaster was very careful not to give the impression that they gave any kind of preference to their employees, and promoters of events didn't allow them to discount tickets for employees. So, they held back some tickets to every event, for employees, but they were never the best seats, good seats but not the best, and you still had to pay full price for them. If you wanted the best seats you had to call in or wait in line like everyone else.
I had to work the day the playoff tickets went on sale so I got employee tickets, 200 level in the old King dome on the first base line. I was so excited to take my dad to that game. My dad didn't just take me to ball games when I was a kid, he was the one that was always there for me. I'm not always the best at telling people how I feel about them, I'm better at gestures, and gifts. So, taking my dad to that game was my way of telling him how much he meant to me. The Mariners even won that game (though they lost most of the rest of those playoff games). It was one of those perfect nights you get sometimes in life.
Another thing I used to love was cooking. In truth I thought I didn't actually like cooking that much, I just enjoyed the reaction I got when I cooked for people. The first, and for a long time only, thing I could cook was chocolate chip cookies. I've got a much larger culinary repertoire now but the cookies are still a specialty of mine and they're indicative of why I don't cook much anymore unless I have people to cook for. I made a batch of cookies last weekend and realized for the first time in a long time that one batch of cookies is three dozen. What am I supposed to do with three dozen cookies? Eat them all and gain 400lbs?
I made them anyway though because I only recently remembered that there are these things that I used to love to do that I haven't done in years. I've been to a couple baseball games this summer also and I'm starting to realize that I've let some things slip out of my life because the person I used to do them with (or for) isn't in my life anymore. Part of the reason that I was so happy about being on my own (i.e. single) is because it was giving me the opportunity to (or actually forcing me to) finally decide who I really am. I know that sounds remarkably like the cliche "finding myself" but you should be used to my love of cliches by now, if you're a regular reader (and if you're not you should become one). It kind of defeats that ideal, though, if I refrain from doing things I love. I like the things I like and there are actually a lot of people in the world who like cookies, especially free, home baked cookies. I haven't seemed to have any trouble finding people to go to concerts with either. Also, it turns out that there are lots of people who like baseball and I even know some of them already, some of them are even friends of mine, members of my family even.
posted by Beth at
8:50 PM
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