Remember that one time when I used to blog all the time about sports and my life? Yeah, that was awesome. So I guess I have a few things that I should cover eh? Maybe tell ya a little bit about my time in Salem, Virginia? Maybe tell ya about what I'm doing now? Yeah, maybe I'll let ya into my life for a bit if you don't mind. How about them Twins, btw? Prreeettty sweet....
Well, where do I begin with my time in good old Salem...First, I'll say that it was a very good experience, although there are plenty of times during the season where I would say the opposite. By now (if you read this crap) you have a basic idea of what I did all season. I've given you (the reader. you know, I'm just trying to be as personal as possible here at Another Sports Blog)the sugar coated version of what I did with my time which was selling groups and doing birthday parties. Do you really want to know what went on in Salem? Well it really was a whole lot of nothing. A normal day for me would be as follows:
8:30 - Finally wake up after hitting the snooze button on my phone at least three times
8:40 - Get dressed and head out of the door and drive 15ish minutes to work
9:00-9:35 - Discuss the question of the day and look at the voicemail counter on my phone
9:40-10:30 - Look at Barstool and discuss
11:00-11:45 - Check voicemails and reply to emails
12:00-2:00 -Lunch would fall into this time, since we got an hour the other hour would be used for covering for other people and/or checking Barstool
2:00-5:00 (non gameday) - Either deal with clients or bs around the front front office.
2:00-5:30 (gameday) - I'd usually print off my tickets for the day or prepare for a birthday party if I had one. After that was done I would usually sneak up to the City Suite for a little 45 minute nap because we work all the fucking time. Other than that, we (the front front office) would listen to music and get upset when people would come in last minute to buy tickets. After we deemed it was a good time, we would lock the front door and then hide from any straggler that wanted tickets. After coming out of hiding we would blast some music to get ready for that nights game while changing (yeah, we basically got naked in the office, want to fight about it?) into our game attire.
6:00-whenever the damn game ended and we could go home - This depends on the time of the season. During the first part I would normally be busy with birthday parties because we would actually sell those at the beginning of the season. If I wasn't busy with mom's that were a tad crazy, I would wander around the stadium with fellow interns Kyle or Morgan (the rest of this post they will be referred to as Diddy and Mo Mama) or most of the time both of them. During the latter part of the season I was the on-field mc which brought both good and bad with it. The good: I stayed out of trouble and stayed busy for the entire game. The bad: I was busy for the entire game and never got to goof off. After games I was the chosen one (because I worked in group sales?) to help shoo people out of the suites and subsequently clean out their mess that they would leave in it making me usually the last intern to leave. (quite rant: why the fuck to people just think that its ok to leave suites looking like a war zone after they are done with the game? Like honestly? I can't even begin to explain to ya'll (that's southern for "you all") some of the messes that I'd have to clean up. I wish I had counted all of the cups and plates and bottles and shit that I had to throw away after people. It would easily be in the tens of thousands...and I'm not even joking) Anyway that would be a normal day in the life of me as a Salem Red Sox intern. Now, obviously I actually did some work during my time and I felt as if I was a good intern. I made the company money and that's all you can really ask from an intern right?
Coming into this whole baseball thing was exciting for me. I said I wanted to work in minor league baseball years before taking the internship and I felt like I was living out a dream of mine and actually setting a goal and striving to accomplish it (something I'm really good at...(sarcasm)). Leaving this whole baseball thing has left a very bitter taste in my mouth. For starters, if you want to work in minor league baseball for your career you better brush up on your backstabbing and throwing people under the bus skills. You'll use them almost daily. Also you will need your "blame the interns" skill at a high level as we were basically blamed for everything from not getting an event that we've never done before pulled off flawlessly to the coffee not being hot enough. Honestly, everything that we could be blamed for we were blamed for. It was borderline regoddamndiculous. We were called lazy and worthless. We were paid like slaves. We were expected to know things we were never taught. And we were sculpting events and ideas that had no damn framework. Look, I know by my rundown of my typical day you would get the idea that I was in fact a lazy worthless intern but I was being a bit facetious with that timeline. We did work our asses off most of the time but the constant knocking down a peg got to us as it would many people. You can only go unappreciated for so long until you turn on the "Fuck It" light in your head. It didn't help that none of the problems in house were ever discussed or resolved. Instead of nipping problems in the bud (or is it butt? I've never understood that expression) the problems would fester and grow until we were ushered out without as little as a simple thank you for your hard work this season (because, you know, everything was our fault).
And the locals...oh the locals. Where do I start with our fans. I could fill up a 10,000 word post with how dumb these people are or how illogical these people are but I would just be kicking a man while he's down. Let me sum up our fans with a simple phone call that I received late in the season:
Me: Thank you for calling the Salem Red Sox. How may I help you?
Salemite: Yeah, I'm looking at your site and I see that there is a little green box with a T in it.
Me: uh huh...
Salemite: Is that where you buy tickets?
Me: Yeah, you can just click that box and buy tickets.
Salemite: Well, what if you already have tickets?
Me: (with a very very confused look on my face) Well then you don't need to buy tickets...
Salemite: Oh, ok thank you.
....Yes, that is an actual word for word conversation that I had. I got off the phone and had this exchange with myself:
Me: Are you fucking kidding me? I really just wasted two minutes of my life with that phone call?
Fellow intern Matt summed up these fans best by asking if any of these people have ever been to an event in their lives let alone a Salem Red Sox baseball game. These people were the most clueless people I have ever encountered in my life. So that was Salem, Virginia. It wasn't all bad though. I wanna give shout outs to a few people that made all of those terrible times worth it and fun...
Waffle House 77: Thank you for just being you. I had a lot of good times under your roof. From confidence or looks to debating on the sex of your patrons. Stay classy.
JLong: Thank you for being the one that took me under your wing and showed me the ropes. You are an amazing person and I wish you only the best in whatever you do. You don't deserve the shit that has happened to you and you'll come out better because of it.
Steven: You're humor and perfect questions of the day will be sorely missed. You're a good dude and you made working like a slave very enjoyable.
Matt: Oh he kno-hos! Burning down the house son! I'm glad you were the pres of IFF, only for a lil bit anyway. AD doesn't even know. Keep it real and count those coupons right or jeanne will complain only to act like a saint to your face.
Mo Mama: Where do I even start with you? I'm glad you were my roomie. I'm glad you weren't super weird. I'm glad you were you. You gotta melt that ice around your heart though sweetheart. Life is too short to fuck and chuck all of the time. Love life. Allow yourself to love and be loved. And don't get all upset that I'm throwing this out there on my blog, deal with it and heed my advice. Love you!
Diddy: Oh diddy diddy. Frankie Money Buddy Diddy's! Waffle House 77. DT Roanoke. That great weekend in Myrtle. On and on and on my friend. We burned down houses...we burned down some bridges...I'm sure we burned other things but I can't remember. The point. The waterfall. Everything. Oh and thank you for being allergic to Lucy, otherwise Mo Mama would have had to live with Lepler. So thanks buddy! "My heart's breakin, but my soul's building"
Which brings me to the next person that I'm glad I met in good ole VA...That would be you CT. Before I get into her, I want throw out the disclaimer that for the longest time I had the hardest time finding someone that I remotely liked in that way. It had been years...like seriously, years. Chelsea (Taylor, aka CT) worked at our stadium as a diamond girl. Diamond girls are like cheerleaders (kinda?) and help out with all of the on field stuff we do during games. Now obviously you would think that we would have met or at least talked once before we did (August) but for some odd reason we never really crossed paths. There are many theories as to why this happened but we don't really need to get into them now but I'm just glad that we eventually crossed that path.
Fast forward to the aforementioned month of August: there we were one night when I had a couple of innings of dead time (I wasn't the on field mc yet) and we got to chatting. Two innings later she got yelled at for not doing her job (my bad ct) and off she went to diamond girl it up. As she left it hit me that there is a real chance that I have a crush on this girl. Now, I'm a huge sucker for cute girls and if there was a description of cute in he dictionary it would say "See: Chelsea Taylor". This girl was cute from her head to her toes and everything inbetween, inside and outside. Naturally, I thought to myself, "Self, I gotta get to know this girl". Also weighing on my mind was the fact that in my close to nine months in Virginia I had not been on one single date. Since my time was coming to an end in the Souf I made it a point to take this girl out on a date. So I did. And it was amazing. The date was a standard dinner/movie date (classic first date) and it's not like sparks flew and fireworks went off but it was a very good first date. She was funny and witty and had everything I was looking for in a girl. We went back to my place and after hanging outside for a bit I asked her in to hang out longer because I was diggin this chick. We watched some tele and chatted some more until she had to go home. Walking her out to her car all I could think of was how much I wanted to kiss her. Usually, I'll be good on a first date and I'm cool with a hug and a simple goodbye but I knew I liked her more than normal. For those that know Chelsea (and I'm sure many out there do not) she is kind of a talker. And when I say kind of I mean its hard to get a word in during convos (I thought that was super cute). So there we were out by her car, both of us awkwardly wanting to seal the night with a kiss but both of us not really hinting at that. After a few minutes of letting her talk I decided to go for it. I mean why not right? If she rejected me, that's cool. It was the first date and all. Lo and behold I was not rejected. I've kissed a few girls in my day but I can say without a doubt that this was the best first kiss that I've ever had. And they say the rest is history...
The only thing that I regret with my lil visit to Virginia is that I didn't talk to Chelsea sooner. Then we could have enjoyed the whole summer together and who knows what would have happened then. This is the point of the story where usually the writer says "And I will always wonder what would have happened between us if I didn't have to leave" but I'm not like that. We are not like that. A week after that first kiss Chelsea and I decided that it was best that we date. I fell in love with an amazing girl in my last two weeks in Virginia...great timing right? Well the good news is that she is in love with me too. And so we are still together at the time of this post and hopefully will continue to be for many many many more weeks and hopefully the weeks turn into years and blah blah. You get the idea. (Morgan right now would be saying "ew, brah. Enough. Gag me"). Skype has become my new best friend (and at times my worst enemy) and she is one of the best things that has happened to me in my life so far. I could go on and on about Chelsea but maybe I'll save that for another day. I don't want to gag all of ya'll with how in love I am but it's the truth. This is the craziest thing that I've ever been apart of and I love ever second of it. Life is too short to let shit like this pass by and I'm just livin baby.
To all my killa's and my hundred dolla billa's...
