Breaking out the softball glove

I've got a bit of a summer bucket list going - sometimes I get wrapped up in my same-old-day-in-day-out routine and I miss the fun stuff that's happening right in front of my face. We live in a fantastic urban area, with a city that offers a ton of stuff to do. I've lived here for what - forever - and still haven't visited the Portrait Gallery, can't tell you the last time I set foot in one of the Smithsonian Museums, apparently DC has a zoo, etc etc etc. And the summertime has a ton of special stuff going on - there is always some event being set up on the Mall. There are tons of open air movie showings in downtown DC and around Arlington. Those are on my bucket list. A few weeks ago I finally visited Union Market, I can check that off my bucket list (and if IMLP wasn't in 1.5 weeks, I'm pretty sure I'd check it off my bucket list again this Sunday because they are having some ridiculously awesome Best Ice Cream In DC event. Darn you prerace clean diet *shakes fist*). Speaking of ice cream, I did manage to  stop by the Captain Cookie and the Milkman food truck a few weeks ago to get a fabulous ice cream sandwich (delicious chocolate ice cream sandwiched between two homemade chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies - good thing Captain Cookie only comes to Union Station once a week). We were going to have a picnic last Friday at Jazz in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art but it was pouring rain so that was a no go. Will need to postpone that bucket list item.

Anyway, what does this have to do with dusting off my softball glove? I've been working at my company since 2009 and I've been on their softball team listserv since 2010 and haven't attended a single game. Our team - the Ballpark Estimates (creative, yes?) - plays friendly games against other teams in the DC Think Tank league (haha proof that DC is a nerdy city!). Mostly they snag a spot to play along the Mall or in West Potomac Park, but today we were playing in a sketchier neighborhood near the office - at least it was walking distance! I know with Ironman taper maybe playing might've been a little risky, but next to football, baseball has almost the least amount of action so I hoped I'd be able to spend most of my time standing around, avoiding injury, especially if I didn't let my overzealous side jump out and dive for fly balls or pull a muscle swinging the bat too hard. Actually, who am I kidding, there is a reason I gave up softball in 6th grade (with a brief stint trying it again in 2005 which didn't last very long - but I made some good friends through the Fairfax County softball league) - I've got terrible hand-eye coordination and I'm terrified of getting beaned by the ball. If I was simply a designated hitter or relegated to far right field, I figured we'd all be pretty safe from harm.

The game itself was fun - we had a good turnout so we were able to rotate people into the batting lineup as well as field positions so I didn't play the whole seven innings. I was assigned to right field, which I gleefully filled (and not a single ball was hit towards me) but later in the game I was moved over to left center field. Fortunately the players in left field were able to cover pretty well for me and I didn't screw up too badly. Batting was actually fun and I managed to get on base every time I was up. I was SUPER nervous the first time I was up, like beginning of a triathlon nervous, it had been so long since I played, I was basically hoping I remembered what to do and not make a fool out of myself. We ended up winning the game, yaaay, and if we make it to the Think Tank League Playoffs (which are after IMLP) I might dust off the glove again. It was a great way to meet other people in the company who I haven't worked with before and put names to several faces. And everyone was super friendly and laid back, it was a good way to spend a summer evening in the middle of the week. I can check summer softball game off the bucket list.