Fantastic Friday

Pitchers and catchers reported Friday for the opening of MLB spring training. This means that Opening Day is only a few weeks away and the start of another season of baseball along with it. What makes this time of the year so great is the unknown of the outcome of all the preparation. Every team is in contention and could make a run at the World Series. Now I may romanticize baseball a bit, as I have had a long history with the sport, but for me there is no finer game when it comes to the intensity of the play. What appears to be a lazy fly ball to left center that the center fielder catches easily is really the culmination of a chess match that takes place over 60 feet 6 inches of field. The pitcher must go through his mind and recall information on the hundreds of batters that he will face every year and make the right decision on what he should pitch. Four seam fastball, two seam fastball, cut fastball, change up, curve, slider. Low and inside, high and away, down the middle, in the batters face. Once the pitcher has made his decision it is then up to the batter to make his decision on whether or not to swing. He has less than half a second to decide how hard he wants to swing, where he wants to swing, and what angle his bat should make contact as to pull the down the line or push it the other way. All these decisions happen over 300 times on average per baseball game. Every out or hit is a victory that is short lived as the next batter comes up to bat to start the process over again. It is a sport where the best hitters only succeed a third of the time and legends do it four out of ten. It is this rate of failure that makes success that much more impressive.

Now that I'm done waxing poetic about baseball, Friday was also Valentine's Day. This year Betina and I decided to give each other non-physical presents in case we do end up moving across the world. I got Betina a hair cut that she has been wanting and a massage that she definitely deserved. Betina in turn will be paying for my first tattoo that I have been wanting for quite a while. I also decided to try my hand at making risotto for the first time. I now see why what appears to be a lump of gooey rice is expensive at fancy restaurants. For those who don't know, when you cook risotto you have to continuously watch and stir the rice as it cooks so that it doesn't stick and burn. After about half an hour of adding chicken stock a half cup at a time while stirring the risotto was finally done and completely worth it. Betina was super happy as I adding tons of mushrooms to the risotto and I was happy as I cooked up some nice steaks on the grill. All in all a nice, quiet night at home.

As I write this Betina is washing up the dishes after dinner, and the kids are in their rooms getting ready for bed. It feels like any other night that we have had a hundred times before except we, well at least I do, have the feeling of anticipation and excitement, knowing that in a week's time our world could be completely changed. We can only wait and see what happens after this weekend and see where our life takes us. Until then I'm sure I will keep on being nervous and anxious and hope for the best.