9/23/03 Clean the Apt.; Mets Game at Shea w/Brian and Aaron; Veniro's w/Erin, Mike, Niko, Et Al:

O.k. The apartment is a disgusting mess. I've been theoretically sick, getting better, taking my steroids, living at home, being a mess about it. It's time to clean up and move on. This is the before photo.

And this is the "after." This is without Richard's help, thank you. It actually didn't take long. Maybe a half hour. When the apartment is so small, there's not many places to make a mess, and it looks very messy very quickly. A few things get put where they belong, and suddenly, the place is clean again. This is why Mansion and Maid both start with the letter M.

Aaron and I were invited to a Mets game with Brian. It's been a long while since I've been to one of these, and so I was delighted to go. I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I enjoy the communal experience. Aaron and I met at the front of the 7 train platform and Grand Central. The 7 train shoots across 42nd street, under the east river, and through Queens to Flushing. Most of the line in Queens is elevated, which affords an opportunity to train-riders that they tend not to get in Manhattan: Use of their cell phone. Aaron got a call on the elevated 7 along the way from a temp agency. He was getting his first temping gig.

Standing on the subway, cell phone in one hand, pen AND paper (newspaper) in the other, pressed against his own chest... this is a true New York subway ride.

A nice sunset was visible from the train.

Aaron's scribblings. I can't read that. He swears he can. The hard part will be remembering not to throw out the newspaper.

The second to last stop on the 7 train is "Willets Point - Shea Stadium." This walkway connects the train station to Shea.

Brian got the tickets for free, because he works for a company that has box seats, and he says that his desk is very close to the desk of the person in charge of giving out the tickets to the employees as a perk. So he was able to jump on these before other workers were able to run down the hallway when the e-mail was sent out. We marveled that the name of the company he works at is on the little plaque in the box. CTE Engineers.

Standing for the national anthem.

Orange seats. Green field. We were a countable number of rows back from third base. It was VERY close to the field.

Here's something I'm not used to. Seat-side service. This lady in red comes around and can order food. In her hands, she's holding some menus, and a wireless device. She can punch in your order, which gets sent, over the airwaves, to the kitchen, who prepares and sends over the food. I thought this was very snazzy for a baseball game!

Me being silly, taking some photos behind myself. Brian and I were laughing about it when I got this one.

This is the ticket I was given when I ordered my sausage from that lady with the wireless gizmo.

The sausage sucked. Yankee stadium has some good ones. This one was almost a joke. Oh well.

I moved on to an old standby. When I was at Shea Stadium about a decade ago with Scott Finkelstein and Matt Benjamin, I was a wacky kid, and I had a hot chocolate and a vanilla soft ice cream at the same time. I went back and forth between these opposites of flavor and temperature, and just loved it. So I did it again today. Memories! Oh, and crackerjacks. What happened to the boxes? What is this plastic potato chip bag garbage?

Six seats for three of us. It was a late-season weekday game for a losing team. The place was pretty empty.

The game in progress.

What are you looking at?

The scoreboard, straight ahead. Overall I had a great time, though we left disappointed at the Mets. They played really crappy baseball. And it's funny, because we felt this way about them even though they won the damned game! But I left with a smile on my face anyway. Good times.

I got this nighttime shot of Shea' exterior from the City-bound 7 train platform.

We met up with Erin and Aaron's Roommate Niko, and Mike and Mike's Roommate at Veniro's for some dessert. Here's Erin, while waiting for a table, showing off her new fashion accessory...

At the game, they were giving out blue ribbon pins, commemorated Prostate Cancer Awareness for some reason. Erin is wearing hers over her prostate.

It was a lovely dessert, not that I needed any more garbage in my gullet. So I just had a drink and called it a night.