Paisley

Friday, June 22, 2012

Time Together

Although it is not quite our anniversary yet (June 26th) Michael and I did our celebrating a little early. However, I fully believe that we will celebrate it on its actual day as well. The main reason for the early celebration? Well, Mr. Michael started his first day of residency (well orientation for a few days) on June 20th and I knew he would be busy for...well...errrr.... the rest of his life. So I planned a surprise. I was determined to keep it a surprise too!

About 2 weeks ago Michael had mentioned that he had purchased my anniversary gift. *GASP*, Michael planned ahead AND had beat me to the purchase of the gift. DANG BOY! Well that got me thinking about what I was going to get him. I wanted it to be something fun and something he would be able to use. Then I remembered that he loved the Cleveland Indians as a small child and since we are now conveniently located in Central Ohio the city of Cleveland isn't truly that far away! Then I looked at the schedule, geez, of course we hit the time where the team was basically out of town for forever, except there was one day that I could make work...a monday night. We both had no plans. I would make this happen!

So I purchased 2 tickets to the 7:05 game in Columbus. Lucky us it was the Ohio showdown games -- Indians vs. Reds -- so it would be an exciting game! I went all out -- for me -- in my ticket purchasing and got us tickets in the 5th row. Ok 5th row like in right field, but still, we were sooooo close!

Anywhoooo...after the purchase of the tickets I realized that Cleveland is a little over 2 hours away so that would make for a late night, so I got us a cute little room to stay the night in so we could enjoy our last carefree days together! (I took Tuesday off to spend time with Michael).

So now we are to Monday, June 18th. I leave work at 3:30 and plan to get on the road by 4:30. Michael has no idea what we are doing. Well he actually thinks we are either A) going hiking since I asked about hiking places near columbus on Facebook or B) going hang gliding (michael saw i groupon for it, um hello why would I choose to risk his life before he starts work?!). I tell Michael to put his shoes on while I change and sneakily pack a bag for him with an Indians shirt and overnight stuff. We head out the door.

The slight problem we had was that we have 2 dogs. 2 dogs that do not have thumbs or the ability to pee in toilets that would need to be let out since we were staying the night. OH and did I mention we live in a new city where our super supportive family in Lexington and NKY do not live? Oh and where we have a grand total of maybe 8 friends?! So I schemed a bit. Our awesome and totally helpful next door neighbors that I already love to death had mentioned helping us with our dogs if we need it. the thing is I was at work that day when I determined we were going to be doing an overnight visit. Planning fail. AND I didn't have their phone numbers. Plan devised -- tell michael I MUST talk to the neighbors and send him over for their phone number. Michael was super awkward about it and told our neighbor's recently high school graduated son that "Ashley needed his number" ...too cute! Well i called and called once I received the number but to no avail. This is when I came to my last resort and called some of our newer friends and left voicemails begging that if our neighbors couldn't watch the dogs that maybe they could.

With my fingers crossed for some sort positive reply, we put our dogs in the cage (Michael still doesn't know where we are going or that we are staying overnight somewhere). I secretly hope and pray that we don't have to return to 2 dogs that have massive potty issues or bladder infections and we head out.

Once on the road the sky begins to turn dark, REAL dark. You know, just my luck. Michael continues to say that this is my fault. That I always bring the rain. He is still thinking we are doing the activities I mentioned above, which could be terrifying to do in the weather that we were currently driving through. Although a baseball game can't really occur during this weather either. We ended up driving at least an hour through monsoon style rain and lots of lightning while Michael complains about being starving. Since he told me what he thought we were doing I told him we couldn't stop and eat cause I didn't want him to barf when in reality I just wanted him to save his appetite for a big ol' hot dog and a beer (see i was looking out for him!).

During our drive our neighbor called me back. I had to be super vague and tell him I had to call him back in like an hour. Michael was like um what was that!? I didn't wanted to reveal the secret! So once Michael knew the plans I was able to call the neighbor back and we had a dog watcher! YIPPEE!!

By the way, while it is monsooning I am moderately freaking out. Super depressed that our plans would be ruined. When we are 30 minutes outside of Cleveland we have to make a gas station stop. OH and Michael had to drive his car over the 100,000 mile mark. (Michael is a car guy and was very excited about this).


While we were stopped we were both getting grumpy and complain-y cause we were so hungry so we split a package of poptarts! :) Since Michael was now driving he needed directions and once i informed him to get on I-90 he figured out we were going to the Indians game! He was pretty excited and surprised! I also told him we'd be staying the night! fun fun!

Amazingly, once Michael started driving the skies instantly cleared and the sun came out and it was perfect. I mean really weather?! We parked in and skipped into the game with beach towels in tow (luckily we had them in the car) to wipe off our seats.

Michael has been to this ballpark before but it was my first experience there and it is a pretty nice park if I do say so myself! We walked around a bit then took our seats! We were pretttty close! As we were sitting there, Brandon Phillips from the Reds came out to take pictures and sign autographs. It was pretty cool to see him so close up!

Since we were finally settled in Michael went to grab some food while I was finally able to relax about the whole surprise thing! He returned with a hot dog, brat, fries smothered in nacho cheese in a baseball cap, popcorn, and a beer! hahah it was baseball food heaven! We woofed down our food while enjoying the great game!



Seriously though, I think this was my first professional baseball game that I have watched with full attention for its entirety! The game was so intense and pretty high scoring with hits happening left and right and a good amount of home runs! And the park was basically filled with half Indians and half Reds fans so the noise level was awesome at all times! The Indians had michael worried at some points but they ended up pulling out the win! Super exciting!


Oh and did I mention I almost died at the game? We were sitting along the foul line and a batter hit one, I ducked into a ball and it slammed into the guys shoulder that was about 2 inches from me. It was basically like a line drive, the ball ricocheted off his shoulder and flew back 5-10 rows! He instantly bruised, so glad that wasn't my face! Michael said he was glad he didn't grab for it or he might have broken his hand...not to worry about my poor face! :( haha!

After the game we headed to our hotel which was a pretty sweet random find. I found it on expedia and it was called the Glidden House located on Case's campus. The hotel was a mansion built in 1910 and it was super cute! Breakfast in the morning was delicious too!

My favorite part?! The massive bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries! yum - o !

On our way home we stopped by some outlets -- yes this is super exciting --- I bought some running shorts -- even more exciting --- and Michael bought a polo from the polo store!

And there you have it! Our anniversary celebration! I believe that we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves which is spectacular! Hopefully I didn't bore you to death!

2 comments:

  1. I AM SO GLAD YOU POSTED!!!

    This sounds like a great surprise! Good for you for being able to actually keep it secret!

    Happy Anniversary!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds like a great surprise! Good for you for being able to actually keep it secret!

    ReplyDelete