Tagged: Stuart
A Great Day At The Library
What could be more fun than talking about baseball and the Yankees? I’ll tell you what: meeting other similarly rabid fans – plus a fellow author. Yesterday was “Baseball @ the Blake,” which was the name of the program at Stuart’s Blake Library.
The author who preceded me, Lew Paper, gave a terrific talk about his book about Don Larsen’s perfect game.
What stories! I thought I knew all there was to know about the game in which Larsen, the unlikeliest of Yankee heroes, shut down the Dodgers in the World Series. But Paper interviewed all the pertinent characters and has created a tale well worth reading. When he was finished it was my turn to speak – but not before I was greeted by Harold, a friend of this blog and the father of Barbara, who comments here frequently. Harold drove all the way up from Boynton Beach to hear me speak; I was very flattered. It’s so gratifying to meet people whose names I’ve come to know so well. Here’s Harold on the She-Fan Cam right before I got up to the stage to speak. I wish I could have spent more time with him.
I spoke for about 30 minutes – about the She-Fan book, the blog, the Yankees – and then took questions. One of the audience members had a funny story about being an eight-year-old she-fan whose father caught a foul ball and had it signed by two prominent Yankees – and what she did with the ball. Here’s Jackie during my book signing in her own words.
Also during my book signing, I got to meet and talk to Nancie, who told me she reads this blog every day as well as my Tweets. She took a somewhat circuitous route to being a Yankee fan. I’ll let her explain.
After the event at the library, I spent the evening with friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. Great food, great company and a great welcome back to Stuart, where Michael and I lived for seven years. And now, today, it’s on to Tampa. Yankees, here we come.
The Travel Day From Hell!
Yes, I arrived safely in Florida. That’s the good news. The bad news is…Well, let me count the ways.
1) Traffic on the dreaded 405 freeway made us late getting to LAX this morning.
2) Every parking lot we tried to enter at the airport was FULL, forcing us to drive around and around until we got into a Southwest lot. (We were flying Delta.)
3) We dumped the car and shlepped our bags to an elevator – only to find the elevator was out of service.
4) We carried bags down three flights of stairs, then 1,000 miles to the Delta terminal – only to find the checkin line was out the door. The clock was ticking.
5) We made it to the security line – only to have them pull me and my purse aside for having a “sharp object” in it. I explained that I didn’t carry knives or even scissors on planes, but a thorough search of me and my purse had to be done – only to find that the culprit was a Marriott ball point pen.
6) We hightailed it to the gate and saw the doors were about to close on the plane. We begged and pleaded and they let us board.
7) Michael’s seatbelt was broken. The flight was full so he was stuck with it.
8) The woman next to me coughed the whole six hours.
9) The “food” available for the cross country flight was pretzels.
10) The stormy weather caused lots and lots of turbulence on the flight – my favorite thing.
11) The brand of wine on the plane was “Black Cat” – not a good omen.
12) We arrived at Orlando, waited at baggage and discovered my suitcase was soaking wet – as were my clothes inside the bag.
13) We took the Hertz shuttle and found our car – it was a Toyota. (They assured us it was safe to drive.)
14) We drove 3 hours in thunder and lightning to Stuart, where I’m speaking at the library tomorrow.
15) We checked in to the hotel where the library booked us – only to be put in a room where someone had slept in one of the beds!!!! I mean, euwww. They apologized and moved us to another room….only the lamp didn’t work.
16) I thought I’d write a blog before passing out – only to find the hotel’s internet service wouldn’t connect me…for, like, an hour.
Tomorrow has to be a better day. It just has to.
I’m Flying to Florida….Why?
Actually, this radar shot of Florida’s “Treasure Coast” doesn’t look that bad. But they had 11 tornado warnings today with plenty of flooding and heavy thunder storms and more predicted for tomorrow in Orlando….where my plane is supposed to land.
As anyone who’s read the She-Fan book knows, I’m a huge coward when it comes to flying, so I’ll be in panic mode if we land in a storm. On the other hand, the people on “Airplane” made it out alive, remember?
Even the Yankees-Braves game in Tampa tonight was rained out, so we were deprived the pleasure of seeing A.J. pitch. And what’s all this about Jeter having the same flu that took down Joba and others? Can’t they use this in the clubhouse and dugout?
Or how about these?
All I know is:
I want to get to Orlando in one piece.
I want the sun to come out on Saturday for my talk at the library in Stuart.
I want the sun to stay out during my week in Tampa.
I don’t want to hear the word “rain out.”
I don’t want to hear the words “Jeter was scratched from the lineup.”
I don’t want to hear the words “A-Rod lied to federal investigators.”
I do want everything to go smoothly on this trip, so I can post happy videos with the She-Fan Cam. Think good thoughts for me, please????
Van..coo..ooo..ver
Oh, sorry. I’m still singing that song from the closing ceremonies tonight. I kept thinking there was probably a less repetitive way to have those white snowboarders salute their host city, but I quibble. The truth is I really enjoyed the evening, starting with NBC’s round up show, which was sort of a Cliffs Notes of the Olympics.
I loved seeing the highlights of Bode, Shaun, Evan, Apolo and Lindsey doing their thing – full-blown cultural icons now. And a big hat tip to Sid the Kid (amazing hockey game), Joannie Rochette and Kim Yu-Na. I still need to be convinced that ice dancing is a sport and I could live without one more commercial for Jerry Seinfeld’s “Marriage Ref,” but all in all it was a great event with so many memorable moments. Just one question about this.
When the athletes walk around holding little cameras, video or otherwise, what do they hope to get? How can their images not be blurry, tiny, not worth the trouble? Oh, and who knew William Shatner was Canadian?
So now that the Super Bowl is over and the Olympics are over and the Oscars will be over a week from tonight (the equivalent of the Super Bowl for me), there will be Yankees baseball. In less than two weeks I’ll be in Florida getting my first look at Grandy and the other newbies, not to mention the returning crew. Girardi hasn’t announced the starting pitchers for the games I’ll be going to but it doesn’t matter. Just being there will be a thrill. Before I get to Tampa, I’m speaking at the Blake Library in Stuart (on the east coast of Florida) on Saturday, March 13th. The event is called Baseball @ the Blake, and I’ll be there to talk about the She-Fan book along with Lew Paper, the author of “Perfect: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen.” Here’s the blurb from the Blake’s online bulletin.
2:30pm Jane Hell er, Confessi ons of a She-Fan
Popular and prolific author Jane Heller
will discuss her first nonfiction book,
Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course
of True Love with the New York
Yankees, a chick-lit look at baseball, love
and marriage. In search of answers and
hoping to inject some excitement into her
marriage, she literally followed the Bronx
Bombers with her husband through the rest of
their challenging 2007 season. Books will be available for
sale and signing following her talk.
If anyone’s in the area on the 13th, I hope you’ll stop by and say hello. I’m supposed to speak for 30 minutes. Any suggested talking points?
After the library gig, it’ll be on to Tampa and spring training. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say farewell (unless nobody picks him up) to Edwar Ramirez, who was DFA-ed to make room for Chan Ho Park. Edwar was….Well, let’s just say he had a good change-up. Best of luck to you, Edwar, and may you put some meat on those bones.
Confessions of a She-Fan 