Breakfast and Baseball filled Mothers Day

Hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day.  It is a bittersweet day for me. More sweet this year because I was busy from dawn til dusk.  We started the day hosting a breakfast for 14 at our house. My mom, two sisters, a brother, their spouses and available kids came over. It was Plan B. We were going to head up to the wine country for a picnic, but I backed out when I learned that Eddie was coming home for Mother's Day and my gift from him was tickets to the Giants games.

 I told my siblings I would host the breakfast, but they had to be gone by noon so we could go to the game and they were not allowed to put me in the position of throwing my mother out on the streets on Mothers Day.  That's just bad karma all the way around. They took care of me.

We really had fun on our adventure to the game. We took the train and ran into a few delays, so we didn't sit down until the bottom of the first. No problem. Plenty of baseball left.

When Steve and I go to the game, we watch intently, we clap, we cheer, we groan all at the right times. But we really blend in. We are average fans who don't stand out.

It's different with my boys. They are superfans who never blend in. Tim kept the entire section entertained (or annoyed, but mostly entertained) with his constant banter. He took aim at the opposing pitchers warming up in the bullpen and it was really quite hilarious. It's definitely rated PG; he does not swear or say anything mean, but he razzes them unmercifully at the top of his lungs.  Eddie joined in and we spent a couple of hours laughing pretty hard. When the relief pitchers gave the game away to the Giants, we had to give the boys credit for rattling them. Fans were giving them high fives them on the way out, so I guess/hope it was funny to others as well.

                  

We stopped for a beer after the game to let the crowds on the train die down. As we sat on the deck at the Hi Dive, we could hear the music inside. I swear every single song was on the Maggie Mix from 2012, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Call me Maybe and more.  I finally commented on it, and each of the boys had already noticed.  Another of Maggie's songs would start and we would just look at each other with a wan smile. It was good, though. It was like a message that Maggie was right there with us. Oh man she would have really laughed at Tim and Eddie's antics.


Keeping so busy was great. I was a bit melancholy here and there during the day, but generally busy and laughing. By the time we got home I was too tired to care about anything and ate some Pizza and went to bed.

And if you are wondering, Tim's shirt declares I'm proud to be an Air Force Mom. That's his mother's day shirt. The people behind were deferentially asking me if I was an Air Force mom and I had to say no.  The deference disappeared rather quickly. 

Always October

Always October.

That's the theme for the Major League Baseball playoffs and World Series. It's pretty good, too. The level of play is definitely higher in October as teams are fighting off elimination and hoping for the World Series. And this year my Giants are there, so that's cool. I know the rest of the country is rooting for Kansas City because the Giants have won twice in the last five years. If I wasn't a Giants fan I would be doing the same thing. But I went from 1962 until 1989 between World Series, and they lost BOTH of those, as they did again in 2002. So even if the rest of the country is tired of the Giants winning, I figure they are just making up for a 27 year drought which included my entire childhood.

Besides, it feels good to feel good about something, even - or especially - baseball.

I think this month has been particularly tough. It's October. It's Halloween time. This time last year, and every year for the past decade Maggie had elaborate Halloween costumes. Maggie and I were the idea people and Steve made it happen. She would delight in whatever scheme we came up with and loved the trial and error of making the costume and wheelchair design work. It had to work in such a way that she could still use her talker, the wheelchair would fit through doorways and the bus driver could attach the straps to keep her safe. It was not an easy task, but Dad always came through. He would grumble and stay up late and make something so great it always surpassed our expectations.
Last year's covered wagon was probably the most elaborate.

 We would be heavily into that by now, but instead we try to ignore the upcoming holiday. Oh we will dole out candy and play nice; by the time the trick or treating started Maggie was done. Her fun was preparing, and then getting to unveil her great costume on the bus and at school. She was so excited by the time she came home, she was generally asleep before the first candy seeker arrived.  

Adding to our Halloween heartache is the loss of Tyre, Maggie's friend that I wrote about last week. Knowing I will be spending a day next week at his funeral service makes a tough week even tougher. There is a crowd funding site set up to help his family deal with the expenses involved. If anyone is inclined to donate, here's the link. http://www.youcaring.com/memorial-fundraiser/tyre-duffin-a-celebration-of-life/248753#.VEKC9Oxuxq4.facebook   I already shared it on facebook, but I don't think you have to be on facebook to contribute.

So with all that, I am going to hope the Giants win the world series and let me focus on the good parts of October. Maggie loved baseball. Well that's not true. She loved watching us love baseball. She loved hanging out with Tim while he watched and gave her the play by play in the big green chair She loved our occasional outings to the ball park with either family or her group of friends. Tha girl had fun.

Perhaps the Giants will win and keep me distracted for another week. Perhaps not. Either way, November will come. And I will be glad when its not Always October anymore.

Worlds collide

I live in many worlds. This week we get to focus on the baseball world, which is one of my favorite things. Last night baseball joined up with raising awareness about health issues and specifically targeted UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, another world we inhabit. Worlds collided in a great way.

'I know Maggie has a couple of fans in Michigan, but I have to tell you  something. We LOVED Game  1.  I post of picture of Maggie in her panda hat and the Panda hits not 1, not 2, but THREE home runs! She is officially a lucky charm now.

I thought one of the most moving parts of the game was everyone hold up signs for Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)  Everyone in the stadium, the umpires, players, coaches and fans were invited to stand up and hold up a card bearing the name of someone with cancer.

It was a great moment and demonstrated how many people are touched by cancer. The cards had the names of different people or words like "my dad", which was touching. As they panned through the crowd I saw one guy holding up a sign that honored "all my friends at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital." That made me smile because I see those kids all the time and they definitely deserve recognition and honor.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is really behind this cause. The banner waving was great and drew a lot of attention, but they do more than that. According to the clip below, MLB has donated millions of dollars to fight cancer and I know for a fact that the Giants players are very involved with the kids at UCSF. I have seen them in the hallways and see the GIANT smiles on the kids after the visits.

The current Giants player have been a little tied up the past few weeks, so the Giants sent some of their former stars up to the hospital yesterday to visit the kids. Vida Blue and Bill Laskey, and of course the Giants mascot Lou Seal were a big hit with the kids. As Kim Scurr says in the video , these visits and other things that help normalize the world for a child in the hospital are as important as the medical treatments the hospital provides.

check it out. this short video. You can see some of the smiles for yourself. http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25445763

It's good when worlds collide.

Lucky Lady

Today we leave post about bad manners, international incidents, broken wheelchairs, and strange comments from strangers behind. Those will undoubtedly be back, But today there is something bigger.

The Giants are in the World Series and today is Game 1!! 

The world stands still for the next week or so. Everything revolves around game time. All focus in this house is on baseball. Especially for Maggie, who left for school this morning decked out and ready.

(For the uninitiated, the Panda hat is for Pablo Sandoval, the Giants 3rd baseman, known as The Panda)

Maggie  loves that we are all excited and focused and cheers right along with us during the games. It is the only time she doesn't complain about the TV being on. She doesn't really watch it, per se, but she watches us watch it, and that's good enough for her. She waits for the high fives or for the occasional expletive. Those really make her laugh. 

Baseball is famous for the superstitions that players and fans practice. Some players won't shave or wash their socks or whatever if they think it's lucky. Fans will sit in the same seat, eat the same food and hang with the same friends for the same reason. Maggie is now part of it. During the 2010 playoffs and series, I started posting this picture of Maggie on facebook. 

My cousin Dennis was the first to note the Giants successful days correlated with the days the picture was posted. He insisted I post it every day, so I did and the Giants won the World Series in 2010. I did it off and on during the playoffs this year when the Giants had their backs against the wall in the Divisional series stopped when the championship series started. Then the Giants went down 3 games to 1 in the Pennant. and  couple of different friends/fans asked me to post Maggie's picture with the orange hair. So I did for the next three games and the Giants won three straight and now head to the World Series. 

I assure you the picture will be posted on my facebook page about an hour or so before game time for every single world series game. Hopefully that won't be too often. 

My prediction, giants in 5 games. 

Christmas in April

                                                                          Palm trees in front of AT&T park


On Friday evening, we used our Christmas present from Eddie. He gave the rest of the family tickets to the Giants-Padres game. It was a great gift and he took care to make sure the tickets were in a wheelchair accessible place and  included a parking pass so that Maggie could be part of the fun.  Quite generous and very thoughtful.

There was a slight hitch in the planning when I realized a couple of weeks ago that I  lost the tickets he sent, but with all these new fangled computers and bar scanning, the tickets were easily replaced. Of course I had to come clean with Eddie that I lost his generous gift before I could get the information I needed to get them replaced. That was embarrassing, and I was on the receiving end of a lecture I have delivered many times about being careless with my things. Turning my words back on me was a little bonus for Eddie.  When the new tickets arrived I carefully placed them in a very safe place - this time one I could remember.

Friday was a PERFECT day in San Francisco which was great because the nights can be very cold at the Giants games and I was concerned about Maggie. She was fine, though, and we were off.  Maggie was excited to be in all her Giants gear and hanging with Tim as we prepared to go.

This is how gorgeous things were when we arrived, beautiful views and big smiles.

Maggie did get a bit cold in the 5th and we added the stocking cap to complete her look

Our seats were on the club level which has an indoor area where the food vendors are. She and I went inside for a bit and she had a meltdown. I think it was just sensory overload, the crowds, the cold night air (which was very mild by SF standards), the constant noise punctuated by the cheering, etc. We also had an obnoxious drunk in front of us who ended arguing with the usher for an inning or so before getting ejected from the stadium. That was distracting for us and I'm sure Maggie picked up on that. (We had good laughs at his expense later, though.)  After she recovered from her meltdown, we went back to where our seats were but stayed inside so she could get used to the idea of going back out.

When she saw Steve and Tim sitting there she wanted to join them. (you can see the space for her wheelchair there)

Maggie made it until the 8th inning, which is far longer than I expected. She and I slowly made our way to the car and Steve and Tim watched the end of the game. By the time I got her out of the stadium, fed and loaded into the van we probably only waited 10 minutes.

The Giants lost the game, but it didn't matter, we had a great time. While driving home we decided we have to do an annual family trek to the park. We all go to several games a year, but we don't all go together and we almost never bring Maggie. It's a lot for her, but she had a great time.

Now I just have to get Eddie to pony up a gift like that every year. Better yet, we have to do it when he and Grace can join us.

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Wild weekend whirlwind

It is the calm before the storm. My weekend plans, which were already full, just became ridiculously so.

Today I am headed to an all year high school reunion. I went to St. Rose Academy, a girls Catholic school that closed following the 1989 earthquake because the building was damaged beyond repair. They finished out that school year with girls scattered here and there but closed forever in June 1990. That means the youngest St. Rose girl graduated 22 years ago.

Incidentally, I was not in that class.

They had one of these once before and over 900 women showed up. I hear today it's more like 500 - but who knows if there was another late rally. Either way it will be a ton of laughs.

My son Eddie, who lives in southern California,  is in Monterey this weekend at the Sea Otter Classic. Steve and Tim were going to drive down to see him and take him out to dinner. Eddie's birthday is Tuesday and he will be en route to Colorado for another big Bike event, so this was to be his birthday fandango.  The nurse would be here during the day while I went to the reunion and then in the evening, Maggie and I were going to head to another Birthday party. Our friend Michael Aicardi just opened the San Francisco Baseball Academy and he is celebrating his birthday there tonight. But now I have to cancel that appearance.

All plans are out the window because we found out at 9:30 last night that Tim could not get off work. Steve really does not want to drive to Monterey and back all alone and I would like to see Eddie. It was time to reshuffle.  The same nurse was here last evening and I asked if we could switch things around today. She is always very accommodating.

Now Steve is going to watch Maggie while I'm at the reunion until the nurse arrives at  2:00PM. They are heading to the park together. He will then pick me up at the reunion around 3 and the two of us will head to Monterey. It's a 2 hour drive. We will have dinner and drive back. The night nurse is coming at 10PM tonight so Maggie will be covered.  It will be a very long and tiring day, but I'm glad to get to wish Eddie a Happy Birthday in person.

Of course the downside of the nurse arriving at 10PM means that she will leave at 6:00AM and I have to be ready to rock and roll bright and early tomorrow. Then I will finally get to meet Elizabeth, author of one of my favorite blogs a moon, worn as if it were a shell.. I hope she understands why I'm so tired.

And just because that's how things work, Maggie is off school on Monday. Looking forward to Tuesday for a nice long nap.

Update - And now the nurse cancelled for tonight and I won't get any sleep. FABULOUS!

Memories of the Bay Bridge Series

Twenty two years ago today  I was sitting at Candlestick park waiting for Game 3 of the World Series to start. The Giants were playing the Oakland A's in the "Bay Bridge Series" The Giants were down 2 games to none but this was the first home game and we were sure things were gong to turn around. The crowd was excited and anticipation was building for the game to start.

It was the first (and only) World Series game I ever attended. We had gone in on a "strip" of tickets with some guys I worked with and we were able to go to one of the playoff games and one World Series Game. If it went to 6 games we would get to go to two. The Giants had to win so we could come back again. We actually had great seats, which was funny because we were not season ticket holders. We just sort of lucked out. Section 10 under the overhang just behind third base. We met the couple next to us at the playoff game and of course they were back for the World Series. They were entertaining and hilarious and this was going to be great.

At 5:04PM I felt the place starting to shake. I grinned thinking it was the people above me stamping their feet but realized immediately that only happened in bleachers, not in concrete stadiums. What was this? My eye went to a television cameraman who was standing in a "cage" handing off the mezzanine level. It was there just for the World Series. I watched him lose his balance and hold onto that side of that cage with all his might.He looked frightened but for a split second I didn't know why.  At that very moment the ground under me felt like it was undulating. I looked at Steve and we just rode that earthquake out. It was easily the biggest one I've ever felt before or since. We were experiencing the Loma Prieta earthquake which was 7.1 on the Richter scale.

Immediately after it stopped there was dead silence and then a ROAR arose from the crowd, It was really almost a cheer. I learned later that Atlee Hammaker, a pitcher for the giants said, "That was the tide turning." Everyone was still focused on the World Series. The Giants were going to turn it around for sure now. The immediate shout of relief, fear, exuberance, whatever, quickly gave way to concern. The television the guy in front of us had been watching lost its picture.

I was about 8 weeks pregnant with Tim and perhaps a teeny bit more emotional than most people there. I told Steve I wanted to go home. Eddie was 18 months old and my friend Anna was watching him. I just wanted out. Steve said we just have to wait. I begged him to move out from under the overhang. Steve said "that's reinforced steel and concrete, it's not going anywhere."  Just then the picture can back on the man's tv and we were looking at pictures of the collapsed Bay Bridge. I looked at Steve and said, Oh, really? Whats THAT made out of?" We moved.

It wasn't necessary. Candlestick park was not collapsing. The game was called off, of course and we made our way back to the car. It took three hours to get home  - in fact it was 1.5 hours just to get out of the parking lot. I was frantic, but outwardly calm. Everyone was. it was a beautiful day. Spectacularly clear. We could see the smoke in the Marina from  the fires. We were listening to disaster reporting. That was strange. They were talking about US, but we were fine.

Power was out everywhere. It was a long slow trip home.We kept hearing the same reports over and over. There was no discussion about our neighborhood at all. I said that's probably good news - or the entire place is gone and there's no one to report it. (Still not quite as calm as I could have been.) As we drove through the Richmond District, I saw lots of damage especially at the corner houses. As we neared Anna's house I saw a crowd of people at an Irish Bar on Geary. It was powered by candles, but the place was packed. I considered this a good sign. We retrieved Eddie who told us about BIG SHAKES. (He was also mad that Anna had stolen the batteries out of his toy to use in a flashlight).

When we arrived at home my brother in law Jim was sitting on our front steps, his finger stitched up from glass falling on him. He couldn't make it across the Bay to Oakland where his wife (my sister Kate) and her (then) three kids were waiting. Somehow they had connected by phone, so each knew the other was ok. Jim said he walked to our house from downtown (probably 4 miles) because he knew it would be standing. Steve had bolted the house to the foundation a few months before. He and Steve started eating the melting ice cream and drinking the beer that was getting warm. Eddie needed to go to bed so I laid down with him and listened to my Sony Walkman for updated reports. There weren't any. It was too early.

In the light of day we learned more about he Bridge collapse and the people killed there and on the freeway in Oakland. We learned about the extent of the fire in the Marina and learned of more victims there. In our house we saw that a few things had broken - but just a few. The fish tank had sloshed over and damaged the wood floor, but that was it. We felt very very lucky.

The World Series continues a few weeks later, but nobody really cared anymore. There were bigger tings to worry about. The Giants lost the series 4-0 and didn't return until 2002 and didn't win it until 2010. I didn't even make an attempt to go to the series in 2002 or 2010. I think my one experience at a World Series game was enough

Pennant!

The Giants just won the pennant. There was a lot of shouting and carrying on here. Maggie was laughing her head off at ever cuss word coming out of the front room; and she had plenty to laugh about. (I'm going to blame my son Eddie to protect my reputation.)

Ever since the last few days of the regular season, I have been posting this picture of Maggie at a Giants game this summer decked out in her Giants' gear on facebook.

For the past few games a few folks have been requesting it. (baseball fans are very superstitious)  Maggie is now a lucky charm.

Today I posted this one of Maggie and her brothers at a Giants game in 1997 (or 98). This will likely be posted throughout the word series. Not sure how happy her brothers will be to see that - especially Tim in his eye black and missing teeth.

Hopefully the Giants will keep winning and Maggie won't learn any more words from the front room.