Well, as I write this from one of the local cybers here in coastal Ecuador, the Nats are playing the Phillies on South Capitol Street in Washington DC. What would normally be a very mundane early-June baseball game in the course of the six-month 162-game marathon that is the MLB regular season, has particular impact for me. One of the first ballplayers I ever really truly tracked the career of is marking the beginning of a new chapter, which makes me feel somewhat old. I mean I was the biggest Cal Ripken Jr. fan ever as a boy; seriously, I worshiped the Iron idol as the boys from the Sandlot did Baby Ruth. Let us be honest, though, by the time I made my debut into this world in August of 1985, Cal already had several seasons under his belt and a World Series ring. Ryan Zimmerman, however, is different. He was the local kid. A Virginian, a Wahoo, and even a peer as far as age is concerned. My fanhood of Zim never approached Ripkenesque worship. I mean I cannot even stand a grown man wearing another grown man´s jersey, much less bowing down and kissing his Mizunos. No. I respected Zim. He was a professional. Despite playing on a crap team in rickety RFK Stadium (it may be a dump, but it is our dump), he always said the right thing, always gave 110%, and always trotted out all over the DC Metro area to promote one of the worst disasters of a club MLB has ever seen. Well, tonight he makes his first start in left field. The product of injury-motivated errors, and an infield crowded with young talent, this Gold Glover is playing a defensive position that has been patrolled in the District by Wily Mo Pena, Elijah Dukes, Willie Harris, Adam Dunn, and Josh Willingham...not exactly the all-leather squad. So having followed him from his days in Charlottesville, to his rookie call-up wearing #25, to playing catch every pregame with Alfonso Soriano along the 3rd base line in 2006, to his walk-off vs the Yankees in RFK and the Braves in Nats Park, it is an interesting moment. This is when I truly feel as if I am getting older. It was natural for me to see Ripken in the twilight, or Chipper, and even Jeter; however, this guy is my age and is making the turn to the back nine of what has already been a great baseball career. Godspeed, Zim!
In other news, though, my host mom (Snra. Mari) was on-point with dinner tonight! She unintentionally stumbled upon the closest thing to jambalaya that I could think of. Seriously, the seafood was out-of-this-world. She had fish, crab, skrimps, mussles, scallops, and calimari. Of course there was also rice. We are having a family workshop on chopsticks next week. Stay tuned...
After dinner, an Ecuadorian television show in the background was playing the "Staying Alive", which prompted my obligatory attempt to explain disco to my host fam. That did not go so well. I even demonstrated the dance! They get mixed-up with the wording because ´disco´ down here refers to any nightclub with dancing, rather than a time period. They say a picture is worth a thousand words; well, I need to find a way to get internet to my house because ten seconds of John Travolta on YouTube would have saved me about two-thousand shotty-articulated Spanish words.
Finally, a plea for help. There is a young man down here, a high school student, who is trying to be the first person in his family to attend university. To help accomplish this, his incredibly poor family (full disclosure: it is my host family and my host brother) sacrifices and pays to send him to a superior school about 20 minutes away. Well, for hours every night he goes to the cyber to do his homework and spends most of his time just waiting for a computer to open up. His assignments suffer because he is unable to access some of the resources on the web with public computers and cannot proofread/edit his work since they are closed before his classes begin. So I am asking, does anybody have a used personal laptop that has recently been traded-out for a newer model that they would be willing to donate or sell heavily-discounted? This kid does not need the new MacBook Pro, the lowest of low netbooks sitting on the Walmart shelf would still be the nicest thing he has ever had. If you know someone who is willing to help, or can yourself, shoot me a message and let us work something out. This kid does all the right things, and it is time we help him catch a break.
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