you can go home again… with GPS

What a weekend!  Alex played ball down in my old stomping grounds in Maryland.  Well, about 30 minutes west of the grounds I stomped, but close enough.

I got to catch up with some fabu people.  Amy, Jack and Quinn (or some variation of the 3) came to visit for most of the games.  I got to tell Jack and Quinn how their mother dragged me away from college softball and into college keggers.  (I love that Jack believed me and asked Amy why she did it…).

Randy and Carroll came for a game – I’ve known them most of my life.  Carroll and Pop played some ball of their own back in the day.  If memory serves, I do believe I had my first sip of beer during one of those ball games (at the ripe old age of 5 I hated it… I think I’ve turned that around nicely).  I wish I could put into words the fondness I have for so many of my parents’ friends.  Now that I’m older and can enjoy those friends as my own…  I don’t know how to explain it but there’s a feeling, a deeper connection or maybe just an entirely different level of emotion I feel for this group of people; maybe it’s the connection to my mom, people who loved her and understand my loss…  it was wonderful seeing these 2 lovely people.

The last visitors were Holly, Wilson, Declan and Eghan.  Holly was part of that crew who drug me from the diamond to the red solo cup.  Being less than 12 hours home from a 2-week vacation, I was touched that she and the boys would make the trip to see us.

So, now with all of the thanks outta the way…  I gotta tell ya about my trip.

Day #1 was a pain in the ass.  Well, it was only a pain in the ass for about an hour or so…  Google maps got us to our destination — or so I thought.  The place wasn’t well marked so when that Google bitch told me I had arrived – and there was nothing but forest all around me – well, let’s just say there was yelling (although I do love it when she says, “You have arrived” – I feel incomparably successful).

so we passed the park, turned around

once in the park, turn into a meaningless parking lot, turned around

looking for the not-well-marked field, missed the “bump” sign – we got air

pulled toward the field, no parking, no room to turn around, backed back out

dropped Alex at the field with her team and left to check into our hotel

forgot the well disguised “bump” –  got air…. again

the Google bitch made me miss my turn into the hotel so I had to turn around, then she made me go the wrong way from that turn around, so I turned around again

pulled into the parking lot, chose to ignore the big ass blue sign indicating the hotel was to the right, and turned left on Google’s suggestion, turned around

got to the hotel desk simultaneously with another (different team) softball mom, let her go first (believing in karma) and waited 10 minutes for her to be checked in

as I stepped up to the counter – the phone rang, waited a few minutes

impatiently waited through my 10-minute check in, picked up our 4 bags and headed to the elevator

walked alllllllllllllllll the way to the end of the hall only to find our key didn’t work

schlepped back down the hall, elevator down, then watched a man get to the counter a heartbeat before me, waited 10 minutes for him to be checked in

keys reactivated, picked up 4 bags, back up elevator, allllllll the way down the hall

as I walked passed the front desk, on my way back to the fields,  I said, “ok, if you see me before 9pm shoot me and put me out of my misery” the girl, being in the know of my recent adversities, chuckled

the smile left her face 90 seconds later when I came back in and said, “my car keys are in the room……”

Day #2 was fun – Pop showed up completely unexpectedly.  Drove 2 hours to see Al play…  if you can say nothing else about that man, he is a magnificent Poppa.  The girls played 2 more ball games (ended the weekend with a record of 4-0-1) and then off to my childhood home (pop headed back home).

As we drew nearer and nearer I pointed out memories to Alex; most of which started with, “that wasn’t there….” or “that used to be….”.  I drove down the neighbor’s driveway and was dumbfounded….  the blue ranch-style home of my childhood was now a tan 2-story.  I sat there in awe, staring, taking a few pictures – trying to imagine the story of this massive transformation.  Then I noticed the guy on the front porch looking at me like, “uhhhhhhh surely you know I have to ask you what the hell you’re doing, right?”  So, Alex and I got out and spoke to the young lady walking toward us.  I explained that I had grown up in that very house; she smiled and said, “You’re Dan and Eileen’s daughter.”

Her mom came out, arms open wide, “Karen…..  I’ve always wondered if you’d stop by and hoped you would.”  We hugged and she told me how very sorry she was to hear of mom’s passing.  Wow…  overwhelming. Holding back the emotion was actually, physically painful.  Kim welcomed us into her home – and it was completely her home; the changes were remarkable.  Ironically, all that remained the same were 2 bedrooms – my parents’ and mine.

I’m still not sure if that made it easier or more difficult…

We talked for a few moments, she told me how profoundly my mother’s death had affected her and we hugged more than a few times.  Alex and I walked away from this home, that little resembled that of my memories, with an open invitation to come back often.

I called dad as we were leaving and said, “You aren’t going to believe this!  It has a second story now…”

hmmmm, yes… it does, indeed have a second story………