No Skip Button
Posted: August 15, 2014 Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: DUrham Bulls Leave a comment
The invention of the DVR is the best thing to ever happen to me as a reformed fat person. Not having to be subjected to the suggestive and naughty inducing TV commercials for gooey cheesy pizza or fudgy chocolate brownies late in the evening, long past the hour when all eating needs to stop is great. Food marketing late at night is never for broccoli or cherries, if it ever is, but for things that cause guilt if succumbed to. Thanks to the ability to fast forward through commercials I am able to not stress my will power.
Unfortunately not everything has the DVR skip ahead button and boy do I wish it did. Tonight Russ and I went to the Durham Bulls game. It was the perfect night. Not too hot, no humidity, so un-August like for Durham. The only problem with the game it the absolute lack of any healthy food at the ballpark.
Russ is a good egg about the eating and he helps me out by ordering salmon salads from Tyler’s tap room that we eat in his office across the street from the Bulls. It’s a good salad, but since we can’t take food into the park we have to eat before the 7:00 start of the game. Normally eating before 7:00 is not an issue for me, as long as I have some fruit later in the evening.
Tonight as we sat in the dark with the score zero to zero through the fourth inning I could hear the call of “Peanuts” through the night air as the lightening bounced around the cloud above the “Bull.” Flash, “peanuts,” flash, “popcorn,” flash, “peanuts.” I tried to concentrate on the game, but all through my mind flashed, “Peanuts.” Where is the fast forward button that skips the ads for the tempting foods? The call of the vendor’s product is just as tempting as the pictures of Baskin Robbins on TV.
I only had one recourse to the call, well two, but I took the good-for-me path and left the game rather than giving in to peanuts. I drove home thinking of the yummy and healthy grapes I had at home. I got a bowl, stepped on the walking desk and wrote this blog. Perfectly satisfied to type with sticky grape fingers and the feeling of triumph over the voices calling to me in the night.
May The Fourth Be With You
Posted: May 4, 2014 Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: DUrham Bulls Leave a comment
It was Star Wars Day at the Durham Bulls. Not that I knew that when I decided to use Russ’ company seats at the Baseball game. I love to go to the Bulls games in May when the air is cool and the humidity low. After going last Sunday night without a friend Carter decided to make up for it and bring three friends tonight.
So Campbell, Elizabeth and Liza came along for the game. Since we sit in the second and third rows right behind the Bulls dug out I warned the girls to pay attention to the game because sometimes a bat might come flying near our seats. It does not happen often, but you never know. The last thing I wanted to have happen was for us to have to bring a teenager home broken.
Russ and I also brought our friends Dave and Sara so we were all busy talking with out chosen friends when a bat came flying and hit a man five seats down the row from us. We were not sure how badly he was hurt since it appeared the bat had hit him in the leg. Eventually the usher brought a consolation bat to the hurt man as an apology for getting hit. I always thought it was a dangerous thing to give a weapon to someone who might be upset by getting hurt.
The game continued and not two innings later another bat came flying into the stands and hit Campbell in the thigh. She said she was fine, but we will see how bruised up she is in the morning. The usher came by and said he would get her the bat she was due. Campbell was not interested in getting a bat, but Carter insisted she get one. Since she was hit by the Columbus player and not a Durham Bull it took the usher a little longer to coax a bat from the player who had hit her. Eventually he came bearing the apology bat and she shyly took it.
Sorry that Campbell got hit at all, but I am just thankful that no one was hurt more seriously. If the force had been with that player he could have swung that bat much harder and really hurt one of us. The Bulls won the game 6-2, but I am not sure I want to go to Star Wars night next years given that bats were flying around like light sabers this year. I hope Carter’s friends will still want to go to baseball games again after this.
No Fare at the Ballpark
Posted: June 29, 2013 Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: DBAP, DUrham Bulls, Hotdogs 2 Comments
You know the saying, “It’s American as baseball, hotdogs and apple pie.” When I think about that phrase it all just says fat. Americans are fat and the hotdogs and apple pie have not helped, but neither has baseball that is unless you are playing it a very high level, say at least AAA. For most of us, baseball means sitting in the stands and watching.
I’m not a baseball fanatic. I don’t know when the last time I watched a baseball game on TV. If I had to guess it was when my Mima was still alive and even though she was legally blind from Macular Degeneration she would “watch” her beloved Atlanta Braves on TV. That was fourteen years ago. Despite my indifference to TV baseball I have enjoyed going to the Durham Bulls since they moved to the DBAP some thirteen years ago. Russ and his business partner Rich decided early on that they needed season tickets for their company, which I have come to love.
A few times a season we go down to the ballpark and sit right behind the Bulls dugout and cheer on the local team. I am regular enough in Russ’ seats that the promotions team members who do all the fun activities on the field between innings know me. Those things like sumo wrestling or when a kid runs the bases against Wool E. Bull, our mascot, are what make minor league baseball so great. This year they have a new one where 8 tiny little children are dressed up in bull costumes and they chase Wool E. across the field. It is called the running of the bulls and is about the cutest thing I have ever seen.
The only thing that is wrong with going to baseball is the food. The choices at the ball park are, hotdog, peanuts and beer of course, bar-b-que, pizza, burritos, funnel cakes, cotton candy, ice cream, snow cones, lemonade and chips. Food vendors come and go at the DBAP. One year someone tried selling a salad and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. At last something I could eat at the ballpark. But I was much too infrequent a visitor to make an impact on salad sales and that offering did not last.
Years ago I could see how only offering unhealthy foods would appeal to the primarily male audience at games, but now even men worry about their physique. I know I am not the only person who thinks about what I can eat before a game since I know there is nothing for me at the park. If someone comes up with a healthy solution and lets everyone know it was available not only might they sell it, but also more weight watchers might come to the games. I’m not suggesting that “It’s American as baseball, grilled chicken and a fruit salad” is the new slogan, but let’s widen the baseball circle to include the health conscious. They might be fans that will live longer to cheer on the team.
Less Dana, More Good 