“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Today was the day. I had been watching the weather for a few days ahead of time to make sure that it wasn’t going to rain. I had a legitimate excuse as well, as one of my coworkers had been kind enough to share his head cold with me. I even knew who I was going to rope into coming with me.

Today was one of the three weekday, early afternoon games the Orioles have. Its a situation that I would only be able to take advantage of by playing hookie. Taking a day off is the kind of thing that you always assume that you can do as an adult, but never seems to be the right time for. This time, though, it was time for a day off.

First, I had to convince my wife that I was sick enough to stay home from work.

Wife: What’s the matter, Brian? Brian: Don’t make a fuss. I’m fine. I’ll get up. Brian starts to get up. Wife gently pushes him back down. Brian: I have a project I have to work on today. I have to finish it. I have to get a promotion so we can have a fruitful life. Wife: You’re not going to work like this. Maybe I should call the office and tell them I won’t be in. Brian: I’m okay. I feel perfectly… Oh God! Brian rushes to the bathroom.

In this reenactment, I am played by Matthew Broderick

Needless to say, I sold it perfectly. She went to work and told me to call her if I started feeling worse, and to get plenty of sleep. Once she was on her way to work, I texted Todd.

Brian: I’m taking the day off for the Orioles game. Get dressed and come over. Todd: I can’t. I have to work. Brian: Skip out and lets go to the game. Todd: I’m dying. Brian: You’re not dying. You just can’t think of anything good to do.

After a bit of convincing, he decided to come to the game. We had a bit of time before the 12:35 game started, so I decided to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful day outside. One of the gems of the city is Patterson Park, which was fully in all of its spring glory. Dogs walking with their owners, and people biking around. It was an amazing 70 degree day.

Basically exactly how it looked

Then it was go time. Todd met up with me at the northwest corner of Patterson Park. And there it was. The brand new, 2017 bike share docking station with 4 sparkling new bikes attached. It had just been installed over the weekend, so it still had the new bike smell.

We popped open the Baltimore Bike Share app and put in the bike numbers. Todd’s bike made the clicking noise that indicated that it unlocked. But mind had an error. I tried the next one, and the last one. All had errors.

Just like a new car that has problems right off the lot, apparently this new dock was having issues. Unfortunately, the bike share network hasn’t grown enough where there was another dock close by yet, and we didn’t have time to walk to Canton or Fell’s Point. Time for Plan B.

Originally, since this blog is about trying different ethnic food in the city, we were going to swing by Eikban in Upper Fells Point for some take out. Earlier in the week, I learned that you are allowed to bring outside food into the ballpark, and decided that Asian fusion takeout combined with an American past-time was the perfect mix. But at this point, we were running low on time and that was going to need to be scrapped. Ballpark food will have to do.

I popped open my Uber app to look for a ride. And for the first time since the massive snowstorm of the Winter of 2016, I saw no cars. I waited a minute and then refreshed. A ride to Camden Yards was going to cost $70. Lyft was sightly less at $35.

I quickly looked at Google Maps to see what traffic looked like downtown to see if a bus was a reasonable option. You know how traffic is measured in colors of green, yellow, red, and dark red? Well, downtown was dark red.

To make this game, we would have to use Lyft and the tunnel. Time to suck it up and get down there.

I don’t own a car, so I used Lyft and Uber pretty frequently. I basically give out five star ratings like someone hands out Halloween candy when you just want to turn off the light (you get five stars, and you get five stars!). But the two things I hate are when someone stops a block or two away (yeah… I am exactly where I dropped the pin), or when someone immediately calls after I hail a ride (if I wanted to have to call someone for a ride, I would travel back to the ’90s and use a yellow taxi). This guy did both… he pulled over a block too early, and then called me while we were walking over to him.

We found the problem very quickly, when he told us about his disdain for GPS systems. He was a full time limo and taxi driver at night, who did Lyft on the side. I found out about his disdain for the GPS because he started going directly into downtown.

GPS: Ding; make U turn. Ding; make a U turn. Ding; hello? Driver: (in an accent that can only be descibed as New Yorker mixed with maybe greek) These GPS’s never tell the truth. I am a limo driver at night. I will get you there faster. You have to pay the toll to go through the tunnel. I know this city. I will get you there in no time. Trust me. Brian: Google Maps says that downtown is pretty jammed up. We can do the tunnel. Driver: No no no, you pay extra to go that way. I know this city. I drive all the time. This GPS is trying to take us the wrong way.

At this point, I share a glance with Todd. We are zooming down a side street going probably 50 mph. The look we share is some mix of “are we going to die here now” and “I have heard people say they know more than GPS’s before”.

We continue on going as fast as we can through Butchers Hill, Washington Hill, and toward downtown. When he gets to President Street and Baltimore and sees traffic ahead, he diverts.

Driver: Ahh, see, most people just go straight into downtown and get stuck. But I will get around this. I will get you there on time. Don’t you worry.

After discussing how his water bill was too damn high after the switch from monthly billing to quarterly billing, we hit Fayette Street and stopped. The light was green, but no one was moving. No one was moving as far as we could see up Fayette St or down any of the side streets. And it was five minutes before the game. He muttered a bit about how unusual this was, and how it might take a bit longer.

It was time to take a risk and try bike share again. We were only a few blocks from the Inner Harbor dock, and decided to give up our Lyft and head down there. Fortunately, those bikes worked and we got to the stadium.

Bases loaded… two outs… Adam Jones up to bat… all of the setup for the O’s to tie it up… and he struck out swinging.

While the plan for takeout food at the ballpark was dashed, plan B for beer and chicken wings worked in a pinch. We got there with the O’s down 3–0. They had a few opportunities to get into it, including a bases loaded situation, but they were squandered. While they hit three home runs, they ended up losing 4–3. Fortunately, you can’t cry too hard when you are enjoying a beautiful day at the ball park.

We still wanted our international food, so we headed up to Brown Rice Korean Grill in Downtown for some Korean food. Its an almost Chipotle-like take on Korean, where you basically are able to build your own bowl. You pick a rice, a meat, veggies and sauce. Considering I was in my ballgame gear, it was just about perfect.

This blog was a play on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but there was a line in there that really summed up the day. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Sometimes, we really do need to just take a moment. Take a day off. Go to the ball park. Take a kayak out on the bay. Take a bike ride out of town. Take a half day, go to a bar and watch a game. Whatever it is.

Enjoy life.