Not just any other guy...

"Life is like a baseball game.  When you think a fastball is coming, you gotta be ready to hit the curve."~Jaja Q

My life is crazy.  Work, school, soccer, karate, cub scouts, church and an countless birthday parties and school activities that come up.  That being said, my family is crazier.  Really.  I love them to death and I am soooo happy to be back near them.  But they are crazy nonetheless.

Knowing they are crazy (I mean that in the most loving of ways...) what would possess me to bring a super-nice, awesome, incredible guy to meet them?   Must be the touch of insanity that is passed through our bloodlines.  Hey - we had two completely amazing dates.  How could a seemingly innocent baseball game hurt?  (Flashback to numerous dates: alien guy, emergency call guy, facebook breakup guy...OK, back to the present.)

The girls' choir was singing the National Anthem at the Lake County Captains game.  We originally had our first date planned for last night.  It was Friday the 13th, but what the heck!  It's not like Jason was going to show up....  Luckily we had our first date early.  If we hadn't - and it was any other guy - this would have been not only the first date but our last as well.  But it wasn't our first date and he's not even close to just any other guy.

A daunting prospect - meeting all three of my kids and my mom too.  We get to the game and turns out my youngest brother, sis-in-law and their two kids are there too.  That's about 20 percent of my family now.  This guy is in for a ride.  Medical Research Scientist would have called for help before we got to the gate, Facebook Guy would have unfriended all of us at once, and Alien Guy would have called the Mother Ship for backup.  And yet I turn to my right and he's still standing there.  With a smile on his face at that.  Well - maybe not a "this is the best time I've ever had in my life" smile but more of a "I think I can, I think I can..." smile.  But he's there.  By my side.

Gift shop first so Jacob can spend some of his birthday money.  We leave with our arms loaded with foam fingers and swords and smiles on the kids faces.  The girls take off to sing and mom goes for something to quench her thirst.  That leaves us and Jacob, who is bouncing like a Mexican jumping bean.  We get the typical ballpark fare and head to our seats.  Of course, there are people in our seats, so we sit in some open ones so we can catch the singing.  The kids were great of course.  The people who had the seats we were sitting in now show up.  So we have to move the very large family that decided to sit in ours.  Fifteen minutes and a few dirty looks later we finally sit down.

Game starts and all the choir kids swarm back to their seats.  We have the very unfortunate situation that our new venue sits us right in front of the sopranos.  Every time the signboard says "Noise" they let out blood curdling screams that must have broken the windows on the Space Shuttle.  And somehow in all of this, my date is planted between myself and my mom.  I don't have to worry about the kids jumping all over him, right?  I didn't think I'd have to watch out for mom though lol....  Actually, Mom kept him occupied with numerous stories the rest of us have heard a million times.  It's hard for her to pass up a new audience.  He even almost caught a fly ball headed for my mom's head (I had nothing to do with that - I promise), but the choir teacher gave him the look of death as he went for it so I'm sure he had no choice but to let it go.

He finally gives in to the temptation to quench his thirst as well.  This guy is so great that he doesn't want to drink in front of the kids, so we head to third base.  We joke about what an insane night it is and the thought crosses my mind that maybe I should start taking car keys at the beginning of the night - kind of a designated driver thing.  Ya know - if I have their keys it will be a lot harder to run lol.... As we are sitting there, another fly ball is headed directly for us.  I stand up to catch it, turn to the right, and proceed to knock his beer over with my camera case.  Thank God it just went on the ground and not all over him.  I'm almost to the point of tears by now because really - could this possibly get any more Murphy's Law?  I just really wanted to get the game ball for him.  I buy him another beer and we steal a few more minutes of relative peace and quiet.

On our way back we get ensnared by Kiara wanting money for a glow stick for her and her friend.  She tells my date "Mom said you were going to spoil us."  Yeah, that's Kiara.  Being the gentleman that he is, he looks to me making sure it is OK and grants her wish.  Before we even sat down, Brianna coyly asks for some ice cream.  This prince takes her for a double scoop chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone.   Luckily Jacob was preoccupied with other things or my date would have had to take out a loan.

The rest of the game is fairly uneventful all things considered (except for the crimson tinge on my suitor's cheeks brought about by my mother's serenade).  We won the game.  Ended with a great fireworks show.  Mom took the kids home for a sleepover so we could finish our date in a bit of normalcy (Thank you Mom!).

So, there I was: bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, down by two runs.  And yet somehow the bat found the sweet spot.  I managed to find a small hole in the universe and hit one out of the park.  No, that's not right.  The universe hit one for me.  God sent me a truly amazing man that could survive a night with my family.  Any other guy would have passed on a night like this.  Or left at the ticket booth.  Or gone to the bathroom and never came back.  But he stayed.  I didn't even have to take his keys.  And if I look to my right, he's still standing there.  With a smile on his face.