There are two schools of thought when it comes to working on the weekends. One is that it sucks and time with your friends and family are utterly destroyed. The other is that you have time during the week to get things done when it is typically less crowded. I tend to side with the latter more often than the former.
Whenever I was actually off during the weekends, no one wanted to do anything anyway. So, I figured why not get paid for it. Besides, the weekend has less people to deal with at work and the weekdays has less people to deal with on errands. It's a win-win situation for avoiding those annoying people who roam the aisles of Wal-Mart aimlessly, getting in your way. It means less things to get angry at and less chances to run into a complete waste of space.
Before my work week started, I was told of a mythical picture of my paternal grandparents with Tony LaRussa. It seems that one of my aunts is in possession of this picture, but my dad hasn't figured out which one yet. We rarely see my dad's side of the family. Unless someone gets married or dies, we don't see them. It's just the way it's always been.
At some point when my grandparents were living in California, they befriended Tony LaRussa and would go drinking together. They were huge baseball fans and went to every game that they could after my grandfather retired. This was slightly before my time, so I don't have the clearest picture of the timeline. Most stories about my grandparents involve drinking of some sort and people on the cusp of fame. There's a famous one (around our household at least) of Peter Cetera stealing my grandmother's Tavern Pale off the back porch. Peter grew up a few blocks from my dad.
I will find that picture one day. When I do, I am sending two copies to Tony LaRussa. One to be signed and one for him to keep. Then I will post it on this blog.
After that excitement, it was off to work for the week. I knew the time would drag because I had big plans for Sunday night. It was a rare date night for me and Tracey. Where did we go? Of all places, a
drive in. The only one, that I know of, left around Chicago. Tracey had never been to one before, so we thought we'd make an evening of it. It was $8.50 for each of us and we got to see a double feature of first run movies. Not bad at all.
The atmosphere was great! There were people tossing squishy baseballs around and other people grilling. I even saw an impromptu volleyball game break out. All of this was going on while commercial free oldies music was pumped through the speakers. If it weren't for the modern cars, I would've thought that I had slipped back in time to the sixties.
The double feature was great. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the first feature. This was preceded by old fashioned refreshment reels and two trailers. The film was fantastic! It's everything I would expect from an Indy film. I'm sure I'll be seeing the refrigerator scene on Mythbusters in the future. If you've seen the movie, then you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then I am not even close to spoiling anything. Although, it needs to be said that John Hurt got a wonderful free check out of this role. I don't claim to be anything close to an actor, but I could have done that on screen. The role does fit though, it just doesn't look like very much work.
The second movie was Iron Man. I had my doubts about this one, but it exceeded my expectations. Robert Downey Jr. has found a wonderful vehicle and a possible franchise. He adds so much weight and depth to the character of Tony Stark that I was constantly amazed. It was a great story and a wonderful superhero movie. I'm glad the drive in was packed. If I would've left before the Samuel L. Jackson cameo after the credits, I would've been upset at myself.
The constant lightning show behind the screen actually enhanced the experience. It had been threatening thunderstorms all night, but all that there was to show for it was streaks of lightning across the sky all night long. Then, as if on cue, as the end credits to Iron Man started so did the downpour. It took us 45 minutes to get there from Tracey's house and almost two hours to get back. The movies didn't start until 9, a full half hour after the listed time. We didn't get back home until after 3 AM. By the time I went to sleep, I had been up over 24 hours. But I had fun and wouldn't change a second of it.
Of course, since I was at the drive in, I missed the White Sox game. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had won that evening. All was right in the world again. It's not always about baseball, but life always finds its way back to baseball.
This is one of the few key Sammy Sosa rookie cards that didn't make him look like a puppet reject from Sesame Street. It shows him playing his game and doing what he did best back then.
