A Good Friday

Yesterday, Ryan and I took some time in the early afternoon and went to the Texas Rangers home opener game versus the Boston Red Sox. Yes, this is my first baseball reference of 2007.

We had Standing Room Only tickets, so I hoisted Ryan up on my shoulders so he could sit and watch the game. We were all the way in the back against the outfield, crowded by a menagerie of characters which reminded me of the creature cantina from Star Wars. If I described this soup of thugs, perverts, and hooligans, I would have to take away some of the more fun characteristics just so it would be believable.

Okay, I'm just picking one random guy who was in front of us. He was a heavyset Mexican guy who had gone out and bought a size XXXXL Boston Red Sox jersey. Then he got some size XXXXL white letters which spelled out "SUCK!" and pasted them diagonally across the back of the jersy. He drank 17 beers during the game, so he was feeling great. He must have been rich, too, because 17 beers cost him about $150. How do I know he drank so much? He saved each cup and built a tower with them. Beer guy wore a generic ballcap backward on his head and had that generic heavyset posture that looks a little like a bulldog--his arms didn't fit against his sides, so they kind of stuck out like an accessory. He didn't cheer over-enthusastically for the Rangers, but whenever Boston would do something good, he would curse loudly--this got my attention. We were standing over the bullpen where the Red Sox pitchers warm up--during the game, they started warming up and the Rangers fans, frenzied with emotion, started throwing peanut shells, ice, and trash into the bullpen, which drew the attention of about ten security guards who ringed the area around the bullpen, including one who established his post about five feet away from where I was standing. He made eye contact with me and I said "Hello", but I think politeness is a sign of weakness or something, because he looked at me like I was from another planet. Maybe it was because there was a hyper 8-year-old growing out of my head, kinda like Master-Blaster from that Mad Max movie. When the game was over, Beer guy dumped his whole tower of empty beer cups over the rail into the bullpen, where it exploded into a big mess that someone is going to have to clean up. I thought he was saving them up for a hope chest or something, but I guess he didn't want to carry them to the car.

Ryan: "Wow--this is the best seat in the whole park!"

If I try to hoist him up like that next year, I'll probably squish like an accordian. We spent 1/3 of the game actually watching the game, another 1/3 of the game getting hot dogs, cokes, and playing games in the concourse, and then the last 1/3 of the game counting beer cups, admiring the menagerie, and kinda watching the game in the meantime.

When we were finished, we went to the planetarium--this was suggested by Fran since we were across town, right by my old university, and we had a lot of fun seeing the planetarium show a few weeks ago during Spring Break. They have one of those panoramic screens that is a big half-sphere that can make you seasick since it takes up your whole field of vision. All they gotta do is rotate the image slightly and I feel like I need to lay down.

We got to the planetarium two hours too early, so I asked Ryan if he would like a tour of the university. I thought to myself that I hoped that someday he could attend a university, and that maybe he would feel comfortable on a campus. He was very impressed that the library has over 1,000,000 books. There are so many books that they have those shelves that are on rollers--the shelves all pack together until you unpack them to make a walkway so you can go in between them to get the book that you need. Ryan was very excited about the prospect of being squished between the shelves, and asked if that had ever happened. I told him that, indeed, it almost happened one night while I was in the middle of a row and some unobservant girl decided that she should roll the shelves to get a book that she needed--without looking to see if anyone was already getting a book. The book I was retrieving "Lemnaceae of North America". Every time I walk by this library, I get the sinking feeling that I never turned that book back in...

One of the reasons I wanted to show Ryan around wat that personally, I never felt as though I belonged on the campus--It was just something in my head that told me that I didn't deserve to be there--that I wasn't trying hard enough, that someone would find out that I was borrowing the money to pay for my classes and books, that I was not devoting enough time to studying--in fact, sometimes I would have to decide what I was going to study and what I was going to just take a stab at on the test.

Toward the end of my studies in college, I was about 26 or so and I started feeling like the oldest guy on campus--I felt ridiculous.

I know it was mostly in my head, so one of my big goals in life has been not to pass on some of this self-critical thinking to my son. I think I've been successful--the other day I asked him if his teacher liked him, and he said "Yes--I'm actually her favorite student!" Maybe he's right, but at least I'm glad he thinks that way.

Anyway, he was pretty excited about the tour, so I took him to around to some of the different buildings which I knew had kind of cool displays in glass cases in the lobby. The Biology Department had some really neat turtle shells, crocodile skulls, and posters of all the poisonous snakes of Texas. There is also an area called the Free Speech area, which was coined in the '60's and '70's. Essentially, it is a platform near a fountain upon which you can climb and say whatever you feel like saying. Ryan smiled really big and jumped up there and said, "I've got the best Dad in the world!"

One of the big departments is the Engineering Department--there was actually an astronaut who came from this department who died when the space shuttle exploded--her picture was on display in the lobby. Ryan didn't notice this, but he did notice the Aerospace Engineering displays with planes and satellites and things like that. We went down a hallway and saw a crew of guys working inside a laboratory. They were bustling and looked annoyed that some dude and his son were walking down their hall, and that we might possibly get in the way of the bustling. Ryan stood a little back from the door of the lab and watched. I've noticed that there are a few things that Ryan can get wrapped up in for several hours, and building models is one of those things--he can read and interpret the plans and puts together things very well. He also knows how to use tools around the house, which I think is kind of a cool thing for a kid to know. I've bought him a small tool box and toolbelt that he uses sometimes.

While we were standing there, a nicely dressed man came out of a nearby office and started walking toward us down the hall. I saw that he noticed Ryan standing in the doorway, watching the students building the car, and I started getting that funny feeling like we didn't belong. I fought through it, though. As the man walked up, it was clear that he was in charge of the project. He wore glasses and a notebook in his hand. He walked up to Ryan and asked him "What do you think?"

Ryan turned and smiled and said "That looks great!"

I told him, "Ryan is a builder. He loves to make models." What I didn't realize is that the man I was speaking to was the Professor of the Mechanical Engineering Department and that his specialty was mechanical model building and testing.

He smiled broadly and put his hand on Ryan's shoulder, "Come on in to the lab, then!" and he took us on a 20 minute tour of the project, showing Ryan the milling machines, lathes, and assembly stations where they fabricate the parts for the car. Ten students, still bustling, were assembling and fitting the car together. Ryan went over to them excitedly and pointed out to the professor that the cross-tie design was similar to something that he was building for a model roller coaster.

When we were finished and were walking out, Ryan went to the professor and shook hands with him, looked him in the eye, and thanked him for showing him the lab. The professor replied, "Study in school, come here, and join our engineering group!" Ryan nodded and smiled.

Seriously, I couldn't have orchestrated things any better if I had planned it out for a month. As we walked down the hall, Ryan kept saying how cool everything was in the engineering department. I'm just glad I didn't screw it up by getting in the way...