Tornado Alley

Welcome to Oklahoma City and Tornado Alley!

Check out the hail coming down in the middle of a tornado that came through OKC last night! It was reported to be up to baseball and softball sized in some areas!

The stadium staff even had to put their “shelter-in-place” emergency plan into effect and moved all fans to the service level of the stadium.  In all my years at Camden Yards, we planned for such emergency situations to be prepared but were never actually faced with one so it was actually kind of cool to see it all put into action.  Although I’m sure here in Tornado Alley, it’s not a rare occurrence.

Luckily I was able to get my first baseball game soft pretzel in before the clouds moved in and the bad weather took over the stadium.

Workout

I started the morning off with a workout in the hotel’s fitness center. I mixed strength training with one mile runs to make a full cardio/strength circuit workout.

Circuit #1

• 1 Mile Run
• Chest Press
• Push Ups
• Flies

Circuit #2

• 1 Mile Run
• Shoulder Press
• Anterior Shoulder Raise
• Lateral Shoulder Raise

Circuit #3

• 1 Mile Run
• Bench Dips
• Tricep Kickbacks
• Overhead Tricep Extensions

Each strength exercise was performed for 15 reps and 3 sets.

I haven’t lifted in a little over a week and my arms have been shaking since I finished my workout!

Breakfast

The hotel has complimentary hot breakfast so we hit that up as soon as I was done my workout. The options are abundant; yogurt, cereals, waffles, sausage, french toast, omelets, oatmeal, muffins, pastries, bagels, coffee, etc.

I actually was able to contain my cravings for a little of everything and filled my plate with an English muffin, cheese omelet and maple sausage.

And then made a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich!

I also grabbed a banana and apple with some peanut butter packs for quick snacks later in the day!

Off to find a place to live in our new city!!

Question:

Have you ever been through a tornado before?

Airport Mornings

Another early morning at the airport but I can’t say that I’m complaining.  I got an egg white sandwich and coffee from Dunkin Donuts…

…which apparently now comes with a free banana (score)!

And I was on my way to meet Brian in St. Louis where we both had layovers on our way to Oklahoma City!

Today marks the beginning of our next stop along this baseball life as Brian will report to his first game with the OKC Redhawks, the AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros.

Bring on the new city, the new team and the new chance for a successful 2012 season!

First Trip Back

Friday night I made my first trip back to Camden Yards to watch an Orioles game in person and to catch up with many of my old coworkers that I miss dearly. It was definitely strange to be back and to be on the “fan” side of things. Instead of running around like a crazy woman on game night, I was able to enjoy a few beers and really just take in the atmosphere.

It was so nice to be back in an American baseball stadium with announcers I could understand, names on the back of uniforms that I could actually read and a National Anthem that I could hum along to. Not to mention the familiar faces all around really made the night perfect.

The only thing that I would say is better in a Korean baseball stadium – beer is $2.00 instead of $10.00! 🙂

Workout

I spent much of yesterday sleeping or laying on the couch basically in a sleep like trance so waking up this morning and getting a run in first thing felt amazing.

It wasn’t much (the humidity here is still kicking my butt) but 3 miles are under my belt and I’m ready to start the day now!

Breakfast

During my couch time yesterday, I did my fair share of catching up on blogs that I have been missing lately and came across Julie’s recipe for Banana Vanilla Protein Pancakes. I made a mental note to try them soon and this morning seemed like soon enough for me.

I didn’t have cottage cheese on hand so I subbed fat-free plain Green yogurt for that and used a food processor in place of the immersion blender that I don’t own.

Aside from the two slight changes, the pancake batter was still smooth and creamy and the final product was delicious.

Next time I’ll add my peanut butter protein syrup on top instead of regular maple syrup though! 🙂

I’m off to get some things done around the house before heading to church and a Memorial Day barbecue with family. It will be so good to see some of the extended family that I haven’t seen since before I left for Korea.

Question:

What are your Memorial Day plans?

Turning the Page

From what I understand, my post titled, “One Bad Apple”, was published on a Korean website which brought a ton of publicity to the negative comments that Brian and I were receiving prior to leaving Daejeon. In response, there has been an outpouring of apologies for how we were treated and the things that were said to us and for that we are beyond appreciative.

There was absolutely no way that I could reply individually to each 100+ comments and emails received so I wanted to address everyone here that expressed their sincere apologies, support and well wishes to us. Those individuals will help us to remember the good about our trip to Korea and not the few negative people who had hurtful things to say. So thank you to the good apples! You are the people that we met and valued our encounters with in Korea and we thank you for making us feel welcome and for helping us to experience your country in a positive light.

Lastly, before closing the door on this past chapter of our baseball life, I would like to address those who have expressed concerns that Brian did not care about his job in Korea and believed he was only visiting the country to sight-see and have fun. Just to make it clear, once Brian was sent to the minor leagues, he still went to practice every day just like the other minor league players. He worked out, strength and cardio trained, pitched and watched every big league game on TV to analyze pitchers and try to learn from their pitching techniques, strategies and pitch sequences (if those are comments understandable to non-baseball people). Just because he spent time eating or exploring did not mean that he wasn’t working out and focusing on baseball as well. Each day has 24 hours to it and MY blog does not highlight each and every one of them. Not to mention, MY blog is just that, MY blog – it also doesn’t focus on Brian’s workouts, career, etc. If I would have known the outrage MY blog would have caused some of you Eagle fans, I would have made sure to document Brian’s training schedule for you as well. My apologies. And I will make sure that going to the zoo or playing Jenga is never in our schedule in the future as I wouldn’t want it to interfere with his baseball playing ability as you all have so nicely informed me that it may do.

With that being said, as we move on to the next chapter of our baseball life, we again want to thank the supporters and the nay-sayers alike. Because of all of you and our few months in Korea, we will move on as stronger individuals. Best of luck to the Hanwha Eagles in the remainder of their season. I hope they can pull it together for the loyal, dedicated fans they have.

And finally…we get back to life at home with our family, friends and this guy…

Who is beyond happy to have his Dad home and baseballs around the house again.

He sure does fit in nicely with this family, right?!