Wheeeeeee

Monday actually not much to say. Work, then errands and laundry and packing.

Tuesday, work and then gym with Megan. My arms still hurt from volleyball on Sunday. Then lastminute packing and then going to the airport, where I ran into thatmathchick and her guy since they were also heading to JFK on the same flight as me. I hadn't seen Deb in forever so it was good to catch up, though the sad part is that part of her trip here is going to David Rochberg's wedding, which I was unaware of, which makes me sad since I used to be such close friends with Dave back in the day, and now here I am not even knowing he's getting married. It made me all sad, like when you get this feeling in the pit of your stomach when you worry you've lost something important like your keys or phone or something.

The flight was fairly uneventful and I finished the Sadaharu Oh autobiography I was reading, and damn if that isn't one of the best books I've ever read. It's so bizarre to hear him talk about baseball and yet be talking about aikido and zen and swordplay and everything interspersed with it, and really entertaining. I slept off and on for the rest of the flight.

It got to JFK late, but Nick came and picked me up anyway. Yay, it's good to see Nick again, even if he sucks for not coming to Seattle. He drove me back here and I met his roomate and stuff, but then they went off to work, so now I am sitting here in his living room updating LJ and stuff and debating what to do during the day. We're gonna try to go to the Mets-Phillies game tonight, and I am psyyyyyyched.

I might just take a nap, or I might wander around here a bit. We're apparently like a block from Columbia, which is pretty cool. I'm in New York so I really ought to get bagels or pizza or something, I think.

Yankee Stadium Tour (holy crap awesome!)

Incase you are wondering what I was doing all afternoon today...



(See all of my Yankees Stadium Tour pictures!)

Well, so I arrived in NYC and didn't feel like sleeping, and couldn't come up with anything in particular to do this afternoon, so I walked over to the 125th street stop and took the D train over to Yankee Stadium. I got there around noon, so too late for the noon tour, but bought a ticket to the 1pm tour. Ate lunch at McDonalds, which has a ton of Yankees stuff in it, including a 3-D mural on the wall and a painting on the ceiling. Infact, the entire neighborhood is entirely taken over by Yankees goods, it seems. All the surrounding blocks near the stadium seem to consist of Yankees memorabilia shops and sports bars, many of which are named after famous Yankee players.

I went on the tour. It was awesome. We started behind home plate in the stands, then walked out to Monument Park, where they have all the retired numbers and the monuments and stuff. The original monuments and flagpole used to actually be in the outfield, when the center field wall was 461 feet out, but now the wall is closer in and the monuments are outside it. There are plaques up on the wall honouring many Yankees players and people, including former owners, managers, announcers, etc, and there's also a 9/11 monument.

After that, we walked to the dugout. We were allowed to walk on the field, but not on the grass, just the warning track. I stopped by the left field wall and got someone to take that picture of me. The wall was so low I bet even I could jump up and get over it if I tried. It gets higher though, and by right field it's at least 5 feet taller than that left field wall is. The walls are also padded, and it's just neat to run into the wall to feel it cushion.

There was a mass photo-shooting spree while everyone had to get pictures of themselves sitting in the dugout. It was way cool. The dugouts are also really impressive -- they have these vents in the steps, so during the summer they can aircondition the dugout, and during the colder times they can heat up the benches and the air as well, if needed. The guide made the joke of "And we have this functionality in the opposing dugout too... we heat 'em up in summer and cool 'em down in winter! har har, just kidding." The view of the field from the dugout is amazing. I tried to spend a minute imagining what it would be like to be an actual baseball player sitting there during a game.

After that, we went into the clubhouse. You weren't allowed to take pictures in there, but I can tell you what I saw. First, the area behind the dugouts is an underground maze. I bet the players never go anywhere but the locker room area, because otherwise they'd get lost forever. Second, the locker room is neat. They pointed out all the things like how Bernie Williams has the biggest and best locker because he's the most senior member of the team, and how Jeter has two lockers, one for his stuff, one for his fan mail. They still have a locker in there for Thurman Munson, the Yankees catcher in the 1970's who was also a pilot and died tragically in a plane crash -- the locker is doored off and "retired" for him. We weren't allowed very far into the locker room, but in addition to the lockers, we could sort of see the shower/spa/etc area off to the left (which had the Yankees logo embossed in the glass of the mirrors), and we could see the "rec room" off in the distance, which the guide said has several big-screen TVs and tons of movies and PS2 games and whatnot and big comfy chairs, and you could also kinda see Joe Torre's office through one door. Very neat.

After that they took us up to the press box. The view from there is awesome. They told us some stories about the stadium, about the facades, and the longest home runs hit there (by Mickey Mantle and Josh Gibson, respectively). The funny thing is, the guide shared a lot of trivia all day and I swear that everything he said is something I knew already -- I guess I've picked up a lot of Yankees history along the way. We got to see where George Steinbrenner's luxury suite is, and we got to go by where the organist plays music during the game (it's a Hammond organ, if you care), and by the Voice of the Yankees's announcing station.

Then we went back down to the team store and they let us go. We did get "Yankee Stadium Tour" keychains, I guess to prove you went on the tour if you don't bring a camera. It was neat.

I took the subway back here, and got lost trying to walk back and ended up climbing Morningside Park, which suuuucked because it was so hot out and I didn't have a water bottle or anything. I was so happy to get back here... and then it started raining. Ugh. I think Nick and I are still going to go to Shea tonight anyway. Phillies! Mets! Phillies! Whee!

So yeah, I basically spent the last few hours working on my tour pictures so I'd just stay awake. I figure I'll go to sleep at a "normal" east coast time and hopefully reset my inner schedule that way, instead of napping today. Also, if you are a Yankees fan and you have not toured the stadium, you should! It's well worth the $14 just to sit in the dugout, in my opinion :) That was just a really cool experience.