Go Cards!

On Tuesday we went to a Cardinal Baseball Game against the Houston Astros.  Only Meredith and Madison were with us.  (Matt was leading On-Goal soccer camps and Michaela was at church camp.)  It's amazing how much quieter our jeep is when we only have those two.

Anyhow as we beelined through the crowd to find our seats, we exhaled as we discovered that just as Bobby had planned, our seats were in the shade.  Woo Hoo!  That in itself was enough to make me want to do 2 front handsprings, 1 cartwheel and 2 roundoffs.  Since I can't do any of those, I simply sat down, smiled at my man and said "Great seats!"

I must admit as I looked around, I thought nine innings.  That's alot of time to watch baseball.  No offense baseball players, but as one who has watched more soccer than any other sport, I'm used to watching continuous play.  (I mean, baseball's like watching as much commercial time as show time.)

Anyhow inning one began.  No one was in front of me so I propped my feet up on the seat ahead of me.  It was perfect. As Madison and I decided, although we weren't particularly hot, the back of our legs kept sweating because (we reasoned) those red plastic seats must draw out sweat.  So once my feet were up on the seat ahead of me, air could circulate, and those nasty seats wouldn't affect me.

Just as John Jay was getting ready to bat, a couple appeared in front of us.  They smiled at the girls in their row and said "We'll just sit in these two end seats if you don't mind.  Then we won't have to go through your row."

"That's fine," the girl nearest the end replied.

I looked at Madison as I quickly pulled my feet off the seat ahead of me and placed my legs back on the sweaty red seat. 

"Too bad they didn't ask us..." Madison whispered.

I nodded.

As John Jay hit a great single into a hole in left field, the man turned around.

"Hey, this is our first time.  We've been wanting to come to Busch Stadium for a while.  It's nice here."

"Where are you from?" Bobby asked.

"Arlington, Texas," he said.

"Ew...are you rooting for the Astro's?" I asked, being the die-hard Card fan that I am. :)

"Not really," he said.  "We're big Texas Ranger fans."

At this point his adorable wife turned around.  Looking at my girls she asked, "So are you big baseball fans?"

Bobby and I smiled.  Just before they sat down, he caught Meredith looking out into the field instead of at the batter getting ready to hit.

"Over there, Meredith," Bobby had said, leaning down to catch her gaze and directing her where to look.

"Uh, not really," Meredith said.

I glanced back up at the sign.  Top of the 2nd?  Wow...the game was actually moving along.

As the wife continued talking to my girls, I noticed the man was talking to Bobby about his profession.

"Yah, we make and market fasteners," he was saying.

"Fasteners?" Bobby questioned.

"Yep, any type," he replied.  "Fasteners are on everything, whether its a screw and bolt...why look at these chairs they have a hinge-like fastener."

As I looked at my plastic red chair, the sweat seemed to ooze out even more, sealing my legs to them like the man's hard hat to the wooden beam on the old super-glue commercial.

I looked back at the man, who was now explaining that their main customers where commercial.  That was a little boring, so I tuned back into his wife...

"So if you could have Christmas in July, what would you wish for?" she was asking Madison.

"Well, actually my birthday's in a week.  So I'm already kinda plannin' on getting this, but it's to redo my bedroom."

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"Well, I want to paint it....probably like a peach color.  I'm not sure about my trim, maybe I'll go with a shade of green."

I glanced back to Bobby and his new friend.  Bobby was now talking about being a pastor, soccer coach, auto racer, etc.

I marvelled.  Who was this couple?  I glanced back to the scoreboard.  In only two and a half innings they had become friends of the family. 

Inning four, I watched the wife strike up a conversation with the young 20 somethings sitting to her right.  Inning five, they were coaxing the 3-year-old in front of them to do the wave with the rest of the stadium.  Inning six, they were talking to the fifteen-year-old boy in front of them, about his favorite sports.

I quickly decided....I liked them! 

I discovered that the fastener business must be in their blood.  They sell fasteners.  They are fasteners.  They have a way of taking whereever they are and whoever they're with and connecting to them.

I liked them even more when we finally exchanged names,as they were leaving.  I glanced up at the scoreboard, Already the top of the 9th?

Yes, "We're Becky and Tom", they said as they reached over the back of their seats and shook each of our hands. 

How cute is that?  Our friends, the fasteners!  The Card game wouldn't have been the same without them!