Monday night I suddenly got the idea that I wanted to visit my friend Matt at the University of Maryland. I was working Wednesday until 5 and then again Saturday afternoon. I first looked at nationals.com to see if the team would be in town. Sure enough, they were hosting the Braves. I had recently heard about Bolt Bus so I checked their schedule and fares. Everything was lining up. All I had to do was ask Matt if he could spare two days and nights of his last full week of classes. He said yes and I bought my Bolt Bus and Nationals tickets right away.
I was anxious all day Wednesday for the trip. I get nervous about traveling, especially when doing something different, just because I want everything to go as smoothly as possible. And obviously I was very excited about my last-minute getaway. I left work a little after 5 and found my Bolt Bus pick-up location on 33rd by 7th in front of a Sbarro (after briefly getting upset about misplacing my jacket and then thinking I didn't leave enough time to walk so I subwayed it instead). Bus came, we left a little after 6:15, made one quick rest stop along the way, let people off in Baltimore, and arrived in Greenbelt just before 11. I hopped on the Metro, took it one stop to College Park, and was happy to see Matt waiting for me.
Matt pointed out a bunch of things on our walk to his apartment. I dropped my bags off there, then we went to Yogi Berry, a frozen yogurt place that everyone seems to be obsessed with down there. Unfortunately it closed at 11 but we walked by the bars and saw tons of college kids there (it was Cinco de Mayo).
Thursday was the big day. We went to Potbelly for lunch and then Matt showed me around the campus, which looked pretty cool. Then we took the bus to the Metro and took that to D.C. to meet up with Matt's friend Foster and go to the Newseum.
I had been to the Newseum when I was 11 but it moved to a new location a few years ago and is basically a brand new museum. And now I could appreciate it even more having studied journalism and communications in school and having worked in the business. It's a pretty cool museum but $20 seems a bit pricey and it seems to lose its focus a little bit. I know journalism has an important role over the course of history but sometimes the Newseum thinks it's a general history museum instead of a museum that's supposed to be centered around the news coverage of history. One of their prized exhibits has a section from the Berlin Wall and they even let you touch a piece. Cool stuff but I think it overshadows the stuff about the coverage of its fall. Also, there seems to be a bit too much attention given to Stephen Colbert and John Stewart (though those clips did seem to be among the more popular parts -- I will admit to being glued to the screens myself). The "4-D" movie was interesting but a bit on the cheesy side. Their 9/11 exhibit is very good, including a piece from tangled up TV transmitter from atop the WTC. They also have a very big (wide and tall) wall dedicated to the front pages of newspapers from 9/12. You can definitely sense a different mood in there from the crowd as people silently reflect on that day and softly point things out to others. My other favorite exhibit was the recreation of Tim Russert's office. I'm curious to know how much was authentic and if any creative liberties were taken with it but I enjoyed looking at his desk and the books behind it. I noticed pictures of his son Luke from when he was much younger and a copy of "Big Russ and Me" among the books on the shelves. (It brought back memories of me breaking down the weekend after his sudden Friday death in the summer of 2008 -- I was upstate with my Uncle Eric and was suddenly overcome with emotion during a board game... Somehow thoughts of Russert combined with some others and just overwhelmed me.)
After the Newseum, we split up from Foster and Matt took me to "the mall" to get some shots of the Capitol and Washington Monument. Then we took the Metro to the Chinatown area, got dinner at Ruby Tuesday, and then back on the Metro (on which some drugged out fool actually kicked Matt in the leg to get to get him to move away despite the train being very packed) to Nationals Park. My parents took me to a Nationals game in the summer of '07 but it was their third and final year in the old RFK Stadium, which was (and I believe still is) a big dump and I've been wanting to see the new ballpark. I was impressed right away. I guess most new parks are similar but the entrance is inviting and the concourses are very open. We walked around the whole stadium, checking out the concessions and I even bought a Nationals shirt (I liked the design and it was only $14, a sure steal compared to the $30 ones that I wasn't going to buy anyway). I was surprised at the number of Braves fans there but I guess it makes sense because people in that area who aren't Orioles fans likely picked the Braves before the Expos moved to DC and became the Nats in 2005. We made it to our front row seats in Section 142 (in right-center field) in time for the first pitch. The guy sitting next to us, a Braves fan, was from the Richmond area and said he had seen Larry Jones (the Mets fan in me won't call him "Chipper") play in the early/mid '90s back when the Braves had a minor league affiliate there. The game itself went by pretty quickly but didn't seem all that exciting until around the fifth inning when someone in our section said "no-no" out loud. The usual runs/hits/errors count was not visible from where we were sitting (the big screen was above us and partially obscured -- it was probably on the bottom of that) but sure enough Scott Olsen had not yet surrendered a hit to the Braves (which actually surprised me because the Braves had had some baserunners but those were al walks). Suddenly a game where I was loosly rooting for the home team but wouldn't care if the fifth place Braves won turned into a game where I was intently rooting to see something historic (because we all know the Mets are cursed and will never have a no hitter). I think my stomach even had some knots in it and I felt them whenever the Braves made contact and especially when they put the ball in play. The crowd, which seemed to be roughly 50/50 in terms of Nationals and Braves fans but where the Nats fans had been much quieter soon loudly cheered every out made against the Braves. It felt really special. The game was also made more fun with solo home runs from Pudge Rodriguez and Adam Dunn, though neither came close to ending up in Section 142. And some of the Braves fans in our section took to tormenting Nats center fielder Nyjer Morgan, who would eventually turn around and smile at them/us. Seven innings down and still no hits for the visitors. Unfortunately it did not last because David Ross broke it up with one out in the eighth. There was a nice standing ovation from the crowd for Olsen and that was pretty awesome. Even the Braves fans were cheering -- OK, for a different reason. I'm not sure if Olsen was rattled or if he was just out of gas but he quickly walked the bases loaded. Tyler Clippard was brought in to face the pinch hitter Jason Heyward. I was actually pretty disappointed that Heyward wasn't in the starting lineup (I think he was day-to-day because of a little injury) because I had been looking forward to seeing the rookie phenom in person so I was really excited to hear them announce him as a PH (though also nervous for "my" Nats). Sure enough, he singled in two runs to tie it, robbing Olsen of the W and putting him in danger of getting an L. They ended up getting out of the inning still tied. Anyway, bottom of the ninth, Peter Moylan intentionally walked pinch hitter Cristian Guzman to load the bases with nobody out for the pitcher's spot, which ended up being Willie Harris (didn't we hate him when the Nats came to Citi Field in April? -- that amazing game-ending catch, I think a first inning grand slam against Johan Santana and a benches-clearing confrontation with Frankie Rodriguez?) On a 1-0 count, Harris singled and the Nationals walked off with the 3-2 victory, putting them at 15-13 (tied with the Mets for second two games behind the Phillies) and the Braves at 12-16 (keeping them in fifth).
We took the Metro back to UMD, hung out in the apartment for a bit with the roommates and some of their friends, and then walked over to Cornerstone at around 12. It was senior bar crawl night and we were catching the end of it. It was insanely crowded but Matt did a good job of making sure I didn't get lost as we somehow navigated around for me to meet some of his friends. Loud and packed bars aren't usually my scene but I actually really enjoyed it. Then we went back to the apartment and hung out in the den with the roommates again, somehow ending up watching the end of Family Feud and a 2 a.m. episode of $100,000 Pyramid from the '80s. We all got really into it (but especially me, who probably ended up looking like a giant dork but it reminded me of my "childhood" back when GSN was Game Show Network and they showed the classics). It was just a fun way to wrap up an exciting day.
Then this morning, I walked with Matt over to his 11 a.m. Italian class and hung out at "the mall" (attention Maryland and D.C.: grassy fields are not malls) while he was being studious for the next 50 minutes. I even got to see Testudo, a statue of a turtle in front of McKeldin Library, whose nose Matt says gets rubbed by students for good luck. He even supposedly gets gifts during finals. I got to see more of the campus as we did some errands before having to say goodbye to Matt and my fun weekend.
I'm not generally known as a very spontaneous person but this was definitely on the spontaneous side for me and it was a pretty awesome time.
Oh yeah, and I took a few pictures.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
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