The Weirdest Night of the Summer

Perhaps I should have put on deoderant, after all.

The night started innocuously. A couple of beers at home. Then I put on my headphones and walked for half an hour to Hadlock Field, home to our local Class AA baseball team, the Portland Sea Dogs. What is a Sea Dog? I'm really not quite sure. Allegedly, Maine has seals. I have yet to see a seal here, but I'm not exactly looking for them.

I was feeling anti-social and sat out in the bleachers, figuring I had a decent shot at snagging a foul ball. Sidenote: In fact, I caught a ball from the left fielder, who threw his first warmup toss over the bullpen catcher and over the fence, into the first row of the stands. Also, I could drink a beer in relative seclusion and listen to "This American Life" on my iPod. I'm not, in fact, 102 years old.

A few innings into the game, a couple moved into the stands. My stands. But the guy had a Minnesota Twins hat on, so I was cool with it. In fact, on my way to get a beverage, I stopped and talked to the couple. He was from Andover, MN — farm country, and right next to T-Dubs' hometown. They were in town on the last night of a vacation to Maine.

I decided to show Travis and Christa, my new friends, the semi-secret beer room at Hadlock, where they keep the good beer. They were pleased by this fact.

Later, I made mention of The Bacon Fries at Nosh. They instantly wanted to go there for snacks because they wanted to see a place where locals hang out. So, as the game came to a conclusion, we walked over to Nosh. The Bacon Fries were a hit (duh), as was the Nutella-covered bacon. You read that right. Nutella. Bacon. Together.

It was somewhere during our conversations at Nosh that Christa said to me, "You should be a tour guide."

Holy mother of God. That. Is a great idea. More on that some other time.

We finished our drinks and said goodnight. I was a solid 2.25 miles (maybe 2.5) from home and it was midnight. That's a pretty hefty walk home. No worries. I just cranked U2's Achtung Baby album and sang the entire way home. Still, it's a kind of bizarre night.

As a coda, we agreed to meet at The Great Lost Bear today for lunch. They seemed to like it, since we spent three hours there. Meeting people at the ballgame is fun. If only I didn't work nights. Hmm, maybe there's something else I can do for a living ...