A Tourist in My Own Backyard

I am a perennial tourist. It probably comes from not travelling much as a kid (though to be fair we made a few trips which I have photographic evidence but no memories of since I was too young at the time to recall them later). As an adult, I have done very little travelling compared to most folks who live in my geographic area, much more than most of the folks I still know back home, and not even a third as much travel as I hope to squeeze in before I die.

So almost always, even just outside my doorstep, I am "on tour" to make up for all those far away locales I've never visited. I get unusually happy when learning random facts about a person or place's history, "ooh" and "ahh" at little things most residents of the area couldn't care less about, openly remark about all the "firsts" experienced recently, and pick up cheesy souvenirs all over the place.

Today's touristy bounty from local jaunts? Two smooshed pennies from Pac Bell Park and a baby blue balloon animal from the train ride home after the game. The pennies have the words "San Francisco Giants vs. Boston Red Sox" pressed into them. The balloon cat has this squished up face like a pug's face, or the face of those dolls that are made of pillow filling wrapped in nylon stockings with sections cordonned off by string to delimit the hands from the arms, etc. It's strangely cute!

Today's firsts? Slid down the metal tube inside the Coke Bottle at the ballpark, saw a major league grand slam live (unfortunately, it was the Giants who scored that one), learned at least one obscure baseball rule from my brother (an encyclopedia of all things baseball), and ran into one person I know from out-of-state while hosting another person from out-of-state.

Granted, none of this is very interesting to anyone but me, but I think finding delight in little things (esp. when close to home) helps keep me happy. And that's not a bad thing, is it? :)

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P.S. That obscure baseball rule I mentioned:
When there are already 2 strikes, then a batter tries but fails to bunt, he is not automatically out if the ball hits the bat on that attempt. Instead, it's considered a foul ball unless the batter is tagged out. When this happened today, the players from the defense didn't realize this and turned their backs long enough for the batter to make it to first base! They didn't score, but what a funny moment!

Less obscure, but probably not well known either:
When there are fewer than two outs and a ball gets popped into the infield with two men on base, it's an automatic out to prevent a double play.