I'm ready for my close up, Mr. Remy.

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks for the Jenkins!

Last weekend we got home from an incredible, amazing, legendary vacation on Cape Cod.  I’ve only just pulled myself out from underneath the largest pile of laundry I’ve ever returned from vacation with, so I thought I’d start by sharing the story of how our whole vacation kicked off.

Back in the Spring I shared the story of how my sister-in-law Steph came to buy season tickets for the Red Sox in my post His Number Came Up.  We were fortunate enough to book our vacation house for the week after the Red Sox played the Yankees. We planned to fly up a few days early so we could go with Steph to Fenway the night before our cape trip started. 

A couple of weeks ago my mom encouraged me to write to NESN (the television station that plays all the Red Sox games) to be part of their segment during games called “Fan Stories.”  If you were picked as the “Fan of the game” you could be interviewed and Jerry Remy, the beloved Red Sox announcer, would buy you a hot dog.  Well, I love Jerry and I love hot dogs, so how could I resist?

I submitted the following note to the Fan Stories website:

On July 19^th I will attend my first Red Sox-Yankees game where I will be sitting in my late brother’s season ticket seats.  Back in 2005 my brother, Ron Ward, added his name to the waitlist for season tickets.  He knew it might be years before his number came up, but for Ron, an avid Sox fan since he was a child growing up in Western Massachusetts, it would be well worth the wait.  He would often dream of the day he would be invited to purchase the tickets and the happy times it would bring the family.  In fact, Ron had his waitlist number on a post-it note he carried in his wallet so he would be prepared for the day his number came up.   In 2007 Ron was diagnosed with leukemia and over the next 2-1/2 years endured countless rounds of chemotherapy, total body radiation, 2 bone marrow transplants, a stroke, heart attack, septic shock, kidney failure, and spent nearly 400 days at Yale New Haven Hospital.  Finally, on September 29, 2009 he succumbed to his illness a week before his 43^rd birthday.   This past March, Ron’s wife happened to check his old email address one day and lo and behold, there was an email from the Red Sox ticket office inviting him to purchase season tickets.  My sister-in-law, Stephanie, called the office and explained that her husband has passed away 3 years ago but would love to purchase the tickets in his memory.  She knew he would kick our butts if we didn’t get those seats!  They told her all she needed was his number, and fortunately Stephanie had saved Ron’s wallet that contained the tattered old post-it note where Ron scribbled his number all those years ago.  On July 19, my husband and I will be at the game with Stephanie, sitting in Ron’s seats. While it’s tragic that Ron was never able to enjoy these tickets himself, it would bring him such joy to know his Red Sox-obsessed family will be cheering on his beloved team for years to come; having his little sister eat a Fenway Frank with Jerry Remy would just be icing on the cake!

I hadn’t heard back from anyone at NESN, so I figured they get thousands of these submissions and they probably didn’t even read mine.  Game day came, and we had planned to drive out to the Boston area early to visit with my family who live out there.  My mom and Tess would stay with my Uncle Pete, Aunt Beth and cousin Skyler while Andy and I went to Fenway. My mom was encouraging me to make a sign, since the website said we should have a sign asking for our hot dogs.  But I was all pre-occupied and anxious about leaving Tess so I couldn't face the added stress of making a damn sign. Besides, they never got back to me about my story submission and I imagined it would be a futile effort anyway.

Andy and I took what was seemed like the longest ride on the T ever to meet Steph at our favorite bar in Boston, Boston Beer Works, across from Fenway Park.  Steph was also bringing Kurt to fill the 4^th of the season ticket seats.  Kurt was one of my brother’s oldest and closest friends, they had known each other since they were about 5 years old.  It only made sense he would come to this particular game with us.

I had also put a shout out on Facebook to some of my friends who live in Boston that we would be at the bar if anyone wanted to come find us.  I have some pretty awesome friends, it turns out, because a couple people actually took on the crowds around Fenway and stood in line at BBW to see us! 

My friend April and I were fellow Neuroscience majors at Smith, longtime drinking buddies at Packards in Northampton, co-workers in a lab at Boston University and even classmates at Emory for a year (she was in public health).  We haven’t seen each other in years so she and her husband came to have a couple of beers with us.  

April and Matt, the happy newlyweds!

 Also, my Emory neuroscience classmate and Andy’s former PhD student Kate came to hang with us too.

Neurobuddies 4 life.

Professor and student. 

Clearly a very professional relationship.

We had a fantastic time catching up and downing a bunch of delicious BBW brews, and honestly I would have called the night a roaring success if it had ended then and there.  But we still had the main event of the evening ahead of us! 

Fenway Park.

Is there anything more beautiful???

Andy, Steph, Kurt and I packed up our Yankee beating sticks and made our way to the ball park.  The night started off on the right foot with a Jacoby Ellsbury homerun, and we couldn’t believe our luck that our seats had a glorious breeze despite the 96 degree heat.  It just so happened that Massachusetts was going through a delightful heatwave at the time.

Calm and happy.

Around the 3^rd or 4^th inning it was time for me to make a trip to the ladies room to express some breastmilk.  Since I was going to be away from Tess from about 3pm til probably midnight, I packed a hand pump so I could “relieve” myself between innings.  I was sitting on a lovely Fenway park toilet, pumping away, while literally sweating buckets, feeling particularly glamorous.  If it was 90 degrees outside, it was at least 110 in the ladies room. 

Suddenly, my phone rang.  It was Andy. “I’m pumping,” I answered as I was cursing him for interrupting my pumping session, to which he replied “NESN is here at our seats to interview you right now!!!”

Oh. My. God.

Moments later, frantic and panicked.

I took my pump, tossed it into my bag without even dumping out the milk, and ran.  I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror as I scurried by and couldn’t believe the banshee that was staring back at me.  Humidity and curly hair are like Sox fans and Yankee fans. They do not mix. I was literally shiny from sweat and had eye makeup dripping down my cheeks in it. It was a scary sight.

“I hope they have a hair and makeup team...” I thought to myself as I blasted through the door.

I arrived back at our seat and there stands Jenny Dell, the NESN Red Sox field reporter who was interviewing us.  Jenny Dell is quite possibly one of the most beautiful women I have ever met in my life, not to mention petite.  “I can’t be seen next to this woman on television,” I thought, “it’ll be like Gandalf and Frodo!”

Pictured left to right:
Gandalf, Frodo, Jonny.

She explained how the interview would proceed, we would be on in the 5^th inning, Steph would speak first, then me, then back to Steph. 

“When does hair and make up show up, then?” I asked hopefully.

Jenny responded by telling me NESN hair and makeup was her with a lipstick and a flat iron in the NESN bathroom downstairs.

Fantastic.

I asked her for some lipstick.  It was still in the NESN bathroom downstairs, apparently.

Trying to put a positive spin on it all, “Well, maybe this will be the thing to finally inspire me to lose the last of my pregnancy weight???” I thought.

We had a few innings to go before our moment in the spotlight, so we chatted with Jenny about where she was from and what it was like to work for NESN. We told her about Ron, what he was like, his love of the Sox.  She’s also apparently a sports trivia wiz.

As it turns out, she is not just a pretty face but was super nice, funny and smart.  Damn this woman!  You’re not supposed to be gorgeous, have a brain, personality AND work for the Red Sox!  Talk about a dream life! Bitch…

My inner monologue:

"Andy better not be looking up Jenny's skirt..."

It was about time for our interview, and she reports back to us that Jerry and Don (the NESN announcers in the booth) were cracking up about an interview that just ended with someone from NASCAR.  Apparently the NASCAR guy referred to Don as Rick on the air.

Immediately my mind went back to my own big television debut.  “Whatever you do, do NOT call him Rick!”

The interview started with Steph explaining the background of how she came to be a season ticket holder.  She did a fantastic job! Shit, how was I going to follow that?! 

Jenny then turned to me and asked why I wrote in with our story.  I nervously made a stupid joke about red blood cells (REALLY!? Red blood cells?  GEEK!) You can take the girl out of science but not the science out of the girl, I guess.

During my utterly embarrassing red blood cell comment.

Then I was so focused on not calling Jerry RICK, that I called him DON instead! GAH!  I got all flustered and basically blacked out at that point.  I have no idea what I was even saying.  I just rambled on and on about I don’t even know what. 

Stoptalkingstoptalkingstoptalking is all I could think.  My words were like an unstoppable freight train. They just kept coming!  I had so many funny or interesting things I could have said.  I could have told her how my dog is named Fenway and my daughter is named Tessie!  I could have even made a joke about my flub, "at least I didn't call him Rick!"  But nothing.  I couldn't even think.  Nerves seriously decrease your IQ by about 45 points.  

Finally Jenny pulled the microphone out of my face and went back to Steph.  Thank God.  Focus is off of me. 

This is a cell phone video of the TV so the quality isn't fantastic

(and you can hear my Uncle in the background laughing!)

but at least you can get a sense of our 15 minutes (seconds?) of fame.

Not only do I have a face for radio but I can’t even put together a coherent thought!  Writing is clearly my medium.  I have to have a chance to prepare my words before I utter them.

I could only imagine the incessant teasing I would suffer at Ron’s hands had he been there to see us.  Oh, the laughs we would have at my expense!

Jenny ended the interview by handing us a couple of Fenway Franks, compliments of Jerry Remy.  I accepted them with delight but couldn’t help but think, “Like hell am I eating those after feeling like an ogre sitting next to your petite, pretty little ass for the last hour!”  Instead we decided to keep them as a souvenir.

Rem-Dawg's Dogs.

Before Jenny left us, I made sure to let her know that Fenway should open a lactation suite with air conditioning.  The next time I’m at a game I refuse to be forced to pump while sitting in a 200 degree toilet.  She said she’d see what she could do.

Once I came back down to Earth, I realized the Yankees had rallied slightly and the score was 3-2 Red Sox. Yikes!  Time to get serious. They need me. We got our heads back in the game and we ended up getting an insurance run. 

I was beyond cloud 9 at this point, when “Sweet Caroline” started to play.  The four of us got up out of our seats, were dancing and singing along, when suddenly we appeared on the jumbotron!!! 

Are you kidding me?!  First, national television now we are 10 feet high out in center field? Is this real life?!?!?!  I thought I was dreaming.

Shortly after that, the Sox pulled out with the W and people started to leave the park.  We hung around to enjoy the sounds of “Love That Dirty Water” and “Tessie” (obviously, my daughter's song!) before we headed back to the T to go home, hot dogs and all. Somehow the dogs survived the T and are currently residing in my Mom’s freezer. 

Meag, Steph and Kurt.

What an epic, epic night. Good friends, good beer, TV, jumbotron with “Sweet Caroline,” a Red Sox win, and a cool breeze in the midst of a heatwave.  If karma is real, I must have done something amazing in a past life.  It was honestly one of the top 5 most fun moments of my life.

Me and the woman with the tickets! 

OK we were in front of the Yankee dugout 

but it was close to the field at least.

The only way things could have been better was if we had no reason to be interviewed by NESN in the first place, and Ron was sitting there with us to enjoy his own season ticket seats.  He may not have been there in the flesh but he was certainly there in our hearts.  That night had Ron written all over it.

Meag, Jenny, Andy, Steph and Kurt.

As for the rest of our vacation, that will have to come in my next post.  I thought this story deserved to stand on its own!