So in all my park hopping this summer, I did still manage to make a couple of 'local' games to see our minor league team, the Indianapolis Indians play. I still like to make these games. It's just so easy to go to, especially living downtown the way we do. It seems silly to not make it to some games.
Granted, I waited pretty late in the season to go to any. I think that was partly because of all the other MLB games we were running around to. And other non-sporting travel. My company had our company outing there a few weeks back. Since we're so small, our owner just gets a suite for one of the Wednesday afternoon games. This was the second year he did it and everyone seems to have a good time. We get some food in the suite and both years, we've lucked out with weather, too. It's definitely an easy way to bond with coworkers... it's baseball, after all.
This weekend is the last home stint for the Indians before the season ends, so last night, Eric and I went over for the game. We got tickets online, about an hour before the game - there were still plenty of seats, then, but it did look to be a sellout after we got there. At least pretty close to it. Stands were pretty well packed. We rode the bikeshare, of course... they have a docking station right by the field (smart, huh?). It was a nice way to wind down the week, too. It seemed unusually long. For me, at least. But it was an easy 'date night' to do... very little planning and quite the bargain when you really look at it. Now if only I could keep Eric from checking his emails on his phone...
And now we have football to look forward to. Well, I do, anyway... I love me some Auburn football!
Well, so much for a perfect summer. We hit 90°F today. 
Finally. And it came with a muggy nastiness that could be compared to inland FL, with no breeze. Just straight up mugly!
I'll be honest... I was rooting against this day's coming. I was hoping to set another record, or at least be able to say we never hit 90°F, again... it happened a few years back and it would've been cool to see again. I'm competitive, in nature, and I saw this as a competition. I know... sad. I have my own issues. Something I had no control over was still a competition in my own mind. Oh well... just another quirk I have.
ANYWAY... there's a good chance today will be the only day that hits this milestone. There's a chance tomorrow, but then another front comes through and the temperatures drop again. And then it's September. Which means Fall is right around the corner. We all see Starbucks is pushing that issue with the early arrival of their Pumpkin Spice Latte, which hit stores today. This year has just gone by way too fast!
School started back here in Indiana last week... some, even, two weeks ago. My niece and nephew started back this week. And yet, I'm surprised to hear that there are some schools out there that still don't go back until after Labor Day. To that I say... WTH??
I don't remember EVER going to school AFTER Labor Day. Yet, up here people talk about kids going back to school before Labor Day like it's one of the ten deadly sins! And of course, they gripe, too, when kids are still in school AFTER Memorial Day in May. Where was I when those two holidays became the 'official' beginning and end of summer? I never heard of that until I moved to Indiana. I always went back to school in August, and got out the first week in June. And there were no snow days to blame it on - that's just the was it was.
It irks me even more when they claim that to be the 'official' beginning and end of summer as all the summer related services open and close then, too. Think community pools, ice cream shops, and the like. Again, WTH?? I was SO thankful when the Dairy Queen down the road from my house got new ownership that didn't see it that way. Granted, he still closes in the dead of winter (this is a really old school DQ, with just a walk-up window and no grill to speak of for burgers). But at least he gets that he can still make money well into fall and relatively early in the spring.
Take it for what it's worth, but Indiana is definitely a State that does not like change. I've seen it over and over, again, in all realms, from political stances to social antics... I never thought I'd consider where I grew up as being progressive, but compared to Indiana, it is. I guess it had to be, being 'The Space Coast' and all. But the argument about when school should being and end never ceases to amaze me. With 'balanced calendars' becoming so popular, too, I'm just waiting to start hearing those gripes about when the kids are (or aren't) in school. And we'll see how snow days affect it, too. For now, I just toll my eyes and shake my head. I know I don't have kids, so 'I don't get it' according to some... but I'm looking at it more from an outsiders perspective... as someone who never did it that way. That thought process seems very antiquated to me... bottom line, times change. If you don't change with them, you'll be left behind.
I debating about writing this blog for a day or so... but then realized, that's kind of the whole point of a blog. To share your thoughts with the world (or the half dozen people who read this). So, here goes...
Robin Williams, gone at age 63. By suicide, of all things. Who knew a man that could bring so much laughter to a room was hurting so deeply inside from depression. It truly shows how much depression really is a disease, festering inside some people, so much that unless you're close to them, you'd never know. And sometimes, not even those close know how bad it is.
I can't help but reflect and remember all the times Robin Williams made me laugh... he had such an amazing career, spanning decades. I remember him a bit from Mork and Mindy - I was quite young, but I still remember it. And then his movie career... I was going through the lengthy list of movies and some I forgot about. But it didn't make them any less significant. I don't know that I could pick a favorite... though I will say one of his most memorable was just his voice - Aladdin. They essentially drew the genie to match his voice and persona, and captured it so well. But his own personality shone through just about every character he played, right down to his last season on TV this past spring with The Crazy Ones. I thought that show was just hitting its stride with the cast's chemistry starting to click and was quite bummed they cancelled it. But now this... now he's gone. Who ever would've thought.
I disagree with those out there saying 'he made the choice to end his life.' While that is the definition of suicide, when depression is involved, you thought processes are no longer your own. To be frank, you're messed up in the head and your reality is nothing like the reality around you. Suicide comes in three way... (1) to make a point; (2) to get attention; and (3) because you've lost control. Numbers 1 and 2 usually end up as one reason... but number three... that is sadly a high percentage of them. And depression is usually the cause, whether it be because of the medication they give you (which makes you more depressed??) or because you're not medicated and it finally take control of you. depression is an internal battle that can only be won by the person it has ahold of. Meds don't work - they just sedate the beast. Money won't buy your way out, either. And you can have all the love and adoration of family and friends any one person could handle in a lifetime, but they can't beat depression, either. It's an inner battle and if that person doesn't want to win it, then they won't. I'm not a doctor, and I don't care what doctors say, chemical inbalance or whatever... at the end of the day, the win has to come from within.
That said, Robin Williams will be sorely missed. And as the last few movies he filed come out over the next year, the world will watch them with an aching heart, knowing that there will be no more to come. But may his laughter live on in each of us, as he taught us all that the best laugh often comes when you laugh at yourself.
"O Captain! My Captain!"
You laugh, but I went to another Cubs game this weekend. This time, it was tickets I bout from a friend, that I forgot I requested and never really knew for sure they were mine until right before I won the Red Sox tickets. But what's one more baseball game roadtrip, right??
Instead of boring you with the standard mumbo jumbo about how they lost... again... and how cursed they all to never win another world series, I'm going to tell you about their big celebration going on this year. Wrigley Field turned 100 years old this year. While it's just 2 years younger than Fenway Park, it's showing it's age a little more with the lack of updates. But of course, I still love it.
So this whole season they've been paying tribute to the park, with lots of freebies and throwbacks for each decade it's been around. Here's a little known fact to those outside the Cubs Fans (and even some Cubs fans learned of this for the first time this year)... the Cubs were NOT the first team to play in Wrigley Field... The Chicago Federals were. 
They were part of a THIRD baseball league that was very short lived. It also was not called Wrigley Field until 1926, twelve years after it opened under the name Weeghman Park, after it's original owner.
There's so much more to that park, but if you really want to learn about, I'll let you go explore. After one last face... before it was a ballpark, it was a seminary! Crazy, huh?? And one last tidbit, maybe related, maybe not... even though the Cubs have won a World Series, they've yet to win one since they've call Wrigley Field home... the last world series won by the Cubs was in 1908, when they were still at West Side Park... so 104 years without a World Series win.
After visiting Fenway last month, I've become a supporter of the renovations they're seeking to do - it's needed. And I think it falls nicely after it's 100yr Anniversary. Of course, this support is only intact if they keep things historic and, as I said before, follow the lead of Fenway for how they did things.
So a new page is turning for Wrigley Field. Hopefully a new era with some more luck in the Cubs favor, including a World Series win. Maybe that, alone, is enough of a reason for some renovations. Regardless, I will love my trips to Wrigley Field and will cherish each one I've had, whether in the bleachers or the stands, in May or September, or any time between... and hope for many more to come.
I can honestly say that I never imagined I'd be saying, "My husband just opened up a fashion boutique." But, that's what happened. The official opening (albeit, a soft opening) of The Pattern Store was last night.
Okay... so it wasn't all Eric's doing. But he's pretty proud of this - his first true venture as the director of his own non-profit, Riley Area Development Corporation. Not too long into his new job last year, he came up with the idea of starting an 'incubator' of sorts to help a small retail business get off the ground. Ideally, an entrepreneur or someone that didn't have experience opening a store - something that is not easy to do. Riley Area would help with the financial backing (through grants) and the business end, kind of teaching along the way, and the incubatee (is that a word?) would have a chance to learn how to run a business and, hopefully, be able to run it without assistance in a few years. Pretty cool concept, really.
Well, in his inquiries and talking to other community leaders, he found Pattern Magazine, a local fashion magazine that is created and published locally.
They were looking for a way to promote the local designers they worked with and thought a storefront and an outlet to sell their clothing would be a great way to do that. But as a non-profit, themselves, and no experience with opening a store (they didn't even have a permanent office space), they weren't sure how to go about it. So a partnership was formed. And, quite quickly, a store/studio space for the magazine concept came to be, and just four months later, a store is now open.
Now there was quite a frenzy of a process to get to this point in just four months. I felt like Eric was back at Kite Realty, for awhile, with the late night he had to put in. He had no say in the fashion inventory going into the store (thankfully, they hired a professional for that),
but he was very hands on with the design of the store, done by LUUR Design, if for no other reason than the budget they had to maintain. They jumped right in with design concepts for the store, trying to keep the budget in mind. Then they had to get those concepts to reality... still staying in budget. That's the hard part. But this was where his Kite Realty experience really came into play - he gets how to build out a retail space. Even if it means a bunch of trips to Ikea. And, much to my personal dismay, he also knows how to jump in and do some of the build out himself, if he needs to. Which he always seems to 'need' to help in this way. I think he enjoys playing with electricity more than he lets on.
But the final product is quite cool. He was lucky to have a great team the whole way through and, for the most part, everyone knew their part in making this work. Considering last night was just the soft opening, mostly spread through word of mouth, they had a good turnout and I think it bodes well for their future success. And now Eric can just fall into the silent partner/'big brother' role... maybe. Hopefully. But it's good to see Eric in this mode - and I'm proud of him for this venture. It was definitely out of his comfort zone working with people in the fashion industry - they don't do things like him, and he had to accept that and make it work. And he did. And now I can have people look at me oddly when I say, "My husband opened a fashion store."
Granted, I waited pretty late in the season to go to any. I think that was partly because of all the other MLB games we were running around to. And other non-sporting travel. My company had our company outing there a few weeks back. Since we're so small, our owner just gets a suite for one of the Wednesday afternoon games. This was the second year he did it and everyone seems to have a good time. We get some food in the suite and both years, we've lucked out with weather, too. It's definitely an easy way to bond with coworkers... it's baseball, after all.
This weekend is the last home stint for the Indians before the season ends, so last night, Eric and I went over for the game. We got tickets online, about an hour before the game - there were still plenty of seats, then, but it did look to be a sellout after we got there. At least pretty close to it. Stands were pretty well packed. We rode the bikeshare, of course... they have a docking station right by the field (smart, huh?). It was a nice way to wind down the week, too. It seemed unusually long. For me, at least. But it was an easy 'date night' to do... very little planning and quite the bargain when you really look at it. Now if only I could keep Eric from checking his emails on his phone...
