Yesterday was opening day here in Oklahoma City. I could have been there, but I had much better plans (don't seem so shocked, there are a couple of things better than baseball). Tonight was a different story, however, though it certainly seemed, for a time, not meant to be.
The day started out with work. I had to make servers less buggy thanks to the recent release of critical patches by our dear Mr. Gates. Because of my plans yesterday, I didn't go to the gym, so I took care of that today, with a 10:29 mile. And then I got myself a nap. At Sonic. Unintentionally. I swung by Sonic on the way home to get some lunch and, after I ate, I kicked back "for just a minute" to digest and catch some tunes, but instead fell asleep for about thirty minutes.
On the way to pick up the girls from their mother's, I stopped by the store and picked up beginner fishing poles for the girls. They've been bugging me for quite some time to go fishing (it's been since summer '02 that they last fished), and I think we're going to get to do some fishing tomorrow.
The original plan once I had the girls was to head straight for downtown so we could catch a ballgame. However, I learned that Darby was grounded for her behavior at her mother's, so I didn't want to take her to the game, lest she not feel I would enforce her mother's disciplinary actions. I arranged, instead, for my father to watch Darby while Shelby and I went to the game. But that took us quite out of the way in both time and distance. By the time we got to the vicinity of the ball park, I knew we had troubles ahead...
What do you get when you put these things together in a half-mile strip of road?
- Saturday night in Bricktown
- At least two clubs in close proximity with live bands performing (on a Saturday night in Bricktown)
- Westmoore High Senior Prom at the Bricktown Events Center (ergo LOTS of limos)
- Oklahoma Redhawks opening weekend (9,000+ in attendance on Saturday)
- An exceedingly popular and therefore expanding (i.e. construction/buildings in place of one-time parking lots) part of major metro area (aka Bricktown)
I tell you what you don't get... a place to park. For the first time that I can recall (excluding July 4th of any year), the 6-story parking garage next to the Bricktown Ballpark was FULL. One parking lot south of the Brick is partially not there anymore because the new Sonic headquarters building, but what was left of it was full. Another parking lot was reduced in size to make room for the new Bass Pro Shops store, but what was left of it was full as well. I truly could not find a legitimate place to park in reasonable (meaning doable by Shelby without me carrying her) walking distance to the ball park, and by this time we were already late, the game was under way.
We ended up posing as Bass Pro customers and parking in their very large (but also almost full) parking lot. I don't believe that was technically the correct way to go, but any further and I'd be carrying Shelby a quarter-mile.
It was into the second inning by the time we got to our "seats". Shelby wanted to run around in the grass play area by the outfield, so I just got general admission tickets and laid back on the grass to enjoy the game while Shelby played with the other Shelbys (there were two other Shelbys playing in the grass). But it was a chaotic way to watch a game, with literally a couple dozen kids running around a grass field, some of them nearly knocking over my drink every few minutes.
Well, I think Shelby had a good time, though not by watching the game. I had a good time all things considered. The RedHawks won. It's good to be in baseball season again.
BUT, I tell you, they have GOT to do something about that parking, because it's only going to get worse. A 20+ screen movie theater is being built next to the Sonic building, which won't help the congestion or parking issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment