I'm going to a baseball game tonight. My brother is a Nats season ticket holder and was able to get tickets to the game. The stadium has limited capacity for the game (5K people), masks are required, parties are seated in pods, and online ordering for concessions is highly recommended. We're both nervous about going, but also really want to go, so we're going to give it a try. We bought a parking pass, and have agreed that if we feel uncomfortable, we'll leave. If you know my brother, you know this is a bold statement as he rarely leaves a baseball game before the end.
This is the first time either of us will be in public with a large crowd since March 2020. The last time we were out and about was at a DC United game on March 7, 2020. After the Nationals won the World Series in 2019, we decided we needed to make an effort to see all the Washington area professional sports teams we hadn't seen yet (DC United and the Washington Mystics for me; DC United, the Mystics and the Wizards for my brother). The soccer game was his birthday present last year. It was cold, but fun, and we left thinking we'd attend another game at some point in the season. Obviously, 2020 had different plans for us all.
I teach a class on public speaking at work and one of the topics in the class is bookending. Bookending is the practice of using a specific technique, like quotes, storytelling, or an object, at the beginning and end of your speech. Quotes are probably the most common way to a bookend a speech; you can start and end with the same quote, a quote by the same speaker, or associated quotes. I was thinking about this practice this morning over breakfast. I sometimes sketch while I'm having breakfast, and I was trying to think of something I could do for today. I wanted something easy to complete since I have a time constraint today, and the image of the DC United game and tonight's Nats game popped into my head as bookends. I'm not going to pretend that going to a Nats game tonight fixes all the wrongs of the world, but it feels normal-ish. Like getting my first vaccine dose this weekend, it gives me hope. This time last year, I wouldn't have even considered gong to a baseball or any other event with a crowd. Going to the grocery store was enough "being in the world" for me. Do I feel 100% cool with going tonight? No, but I also don't feel 100% nervous either. I miss baseball. I miss hanging out with my brother outside of my house. I miss eating really bad for me food and drinking a beer outside (yes, I can do these things at home, but it's not the same). So, today is a bookend for me. The pandemic isn't over, but today is another step to figuring out whatever comes next in this very weird world we live in right now.
Tiny text is not my jam, but I tried.
Details:
Stitches: back and straight stitches
Thread palette: DMC C310, C823, C381 (2 strands), C666 (2 and 4 strands)
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