4 Obvious Reminders For MLB Opening Day

MLB Opening Day. My favorite day of the year <3

There’s a few different “Opening Day” celebrations happening this year. The first is the officially official Opening Day of 2014 which actually happened a week ago when the DBacks played against the Dodgers in Australia. The second is Opening Night which is this Sunday, March 30th, Padres v. Dodgers at Petco Park…the game I’ll be attending :] The third is Opening Day which is Monday, March 31st. The last "Opening Day" is your respective team’s Home Opener which might happen Opening Night/Day orrrr you might have to wait at least 3 games for their away series to finish up before they head home and have their Home Opener. Regardless of what Opening Day you’ll be attending, baseball season is starting and that’s a wonderful thing. So there’s some things you should know for that first home game of the year…

BUT FIRST! Let’s start with a small font disclaimer. I might not be totally qualified on advising of things to know for Opening Day. Even though my friends and I have been to first home game of the season at Petco Park for the last (at least) 4 years…I wasn’t totally “there” ifyouknowwhatimean. #toodrunktofunction. Also...these suggestions are based on opening day and busy games at Petco Park. Some suggestions might totally apply to your local stadium, others won’t. Sorry ‘bout it.

Tickets. 
Do you have any? If you’re planning on going to the game, I’d suggest getting some. At this point, it might be a little too late for some of you because Opening Day might be sold out. That’s the case with the Padres…Opening Night sold out about a month ago, so anyone looking for face value tickets is kind of SOL. The remaining options are overpriced Stubhub, unknown third party ticket sites, sketchy Craigslist, or scalpers. If you find a sweet deal, awesome! You can totally keep reading. If not, and you don’t have tickets, bookmark this for next year when you plan ahead! If you don't have tickets but still want in on the action, head to a bar near the stadium and watch it on tv! You'll most likely be among others who failed in getting a ticket having just as much fun! 

Parking. 
I haven’t had much trouble with this, but I know how much of a pain in the ass it can be. For starters, consider traffic. Leave with enough time to either totally avoid traffic altogether, or budget enough time to be okay with be moving at a crawl…or slower and maybe miss some of the game. Everyone and their mom goes to Opening Day, and since everyone is headed to the same area, the roads are gonna get backed up. Also, because everyone is going to the same area, everyone is probably going to be parking in the same area too. Don't get stuck without a parking spot! If you can, buy parking passes in advance. That way you know you've got a guaranteed spot no matter how late you leave and how much traffic you sit in. You don't want to spend 40 minutes looking for parking half a mile away and pay $40.  

Transportation. 
How are you getting to the game? And home from the game? Alive? I hope so! The most important point with this is to make sure you've got a sober driver. To and from the game. If everyone wants to party, look into public transportation or hiring a driver! 3 years ago my friends and I took the train and trolley to Opening Day. From what I can remember, it was kind of a blast. We were able to bring booze on the train, party on the way down, and had reliable transportation! If you gave your limo driver the night off, download an app (Uber/Lyft...whatever) and have someone pick you up! Or book a night at a hotel in the area and walk/cab it. The other thing to keep in mind with transportation is to make sure you think about traffic. If you're anything like me, you'd rather be an hour early than 5 minutes late! You don't want to leave home/work too late, get stuck in backed up rush hour and game day traffic, and miss the first pitch!

Pregame. 
Load up a truck with some tailgate necessities: booze, food, bbq, tables, corn hole, etc. Head to the stadium early and party before game time. Why? A) Getting to the area early enough to tailgate means you've most likely avoided backed up traffic and have a better chance at being on time to the game! B) If you're there early, that means parking lots aren't crowded yet and you've got a better shot at getting a spot! C) $15 bottle of Fireball for everyoneeee beats 2 $8 shots of Fireball at the stadium/bars. D) PARTY! Just make sure to drink responsibly. And if you don't, hopefully someone is keeping an eye out for you making sure you're safe! Thanks friends for helping me with that last year!)

Our Plan.
Season Ticket Crew+1 are headed to Opening Night. The game is at 5:00-ish, but we're headed down at 10:00 for some brunch. Followed by some bar hopping for sangria!. Followed by some tailgating. Followed by the game. Followed by...work Monday morning. Hopefully we make it out alive!

Is anyone going to Opening Night/Day or your Home Opener? What are your plans for the day? Let me know!

Also, can I just mention how excited I am to be co-hosting Fan Friday this week? Other than my love for baseball,  I'm kind of obsessed with Sarah over at Venus Trapped In Mars. I kind of love sports a lot. So when I started blogging, and reading blogs, my main search was for other bloggers like me who love sports too...with no luck. Until my friend Kayyyyyy did a guest post for Sarah and the rest is history! Because of her Fan Friday link up, I've been able to find so many other sports loving bloggers like myself! And I love it! 

TL;DR: I love sports. I'm obsessed with Sarah, her blog, and Fan Friday. Thanks for letting me co-host!

If you're sharing anything baseball related today, make sure you link-up!

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<a href="http://martywiththeparty.blogspot.com/" title="Marty With The Party"><img src="http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae274/venustrappedinmars/baseball_linkupcopy.png" alt="Marty With The Party" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Seriously, Don't Be Dumb

In the last few months, my awareness of distracted driving has shot up incredibly and I felt compelled to write a post about it after hearing some horrible news and reading this heartbreaking article. 

I'm from a small country town in Northern San Diego called Valley Center and as significant as every person who lives here is, no one captured the hearts of our community more than the Ackermanns. These two never failed to go on their morning walks, hand in hand, with a trash bag, cleaning up the litter on side of the road along the way. I didn't know the couple personally, but I drove by these two every day on my way to school and admired their love and dedication to each other during their walks and life. Sunday morning, these two people lost their lives at 6:15 am at the hands of a suspected underage drunken driver. The only thing that settles my heart a little is that they are now resting together, and I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Valley Center won't be the same without these two.         

Photo Credit: Kendra Cunningham, pulled from UTSanDiego 

Statistic: Every day in America, 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.

I've never been one to test the odds of drinking and driving, but commercials like the ones below have definitely scared me straight as far as driving distracted:

It can wait. 

Send your "on my way" text right before you leave.

If you MUST text or take a call, save it until the next red light you encounter.

Statistic: In 2011, 9,878 people died in drunk driving crashes - one every 53 minutes.

Belgium texting & driving test.

Don't text and drive. 

Don't Facebook and drive. 

Don't Snapchat and drive. 

Don't Instagram and drive. 

Don't Vine and drive.

Don't Pandora/iTunes/shuffle your music player and drive. 

Don't drink and drive.

Statistic: In 2010, 3,092 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver.

It seems like such trivial and silly advice, but so necessary considering I have plenty of friends who do a combination of 2 or more of the above on the regular.

I've mentioned it before on Facebook, but this time I'm serious. Doing all this social media crap while driving is not worth losing a life. I don't get how so many people don't understand that.  

Statistic: Texting while driving is the equivalent to consuming 4 beers and driving.

People are probably reading through this wondering "what credibility does this chick have?!!" Her blog/nick name is Marty with the PARTY! I'll be the first to say it...I have no credibility. I'm not an expert on any of this, just someone who has had an "aha!" moment. I'm not going to lie, I enjoy a good margarita on the rocks, and Fireball makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but I do my best to watch what I drink and the amount of alcohol I consume so I am okay to drive home safe at the end of the night. Recently, I've been very conscious of driving distracted and think twice before sending out a quick text. I like to think of myself as a responsible driver, and hopefully some of my best friends will vouch on my behalf.

Seriously, don't be dumb. Driving distracted, drunk, under the influence isn't worth a lost life. Learn more at itcanwait.com.

The stats mentioned above were pulled from madd.org, cdc.org, and fcc.org. and textfreedriving.org. I own none of the content or images used from other sources, and were only used on this blog for informational purposes.

Weekend Update: Cornstalks I Tell Ya!

Weeeeeeeeeeekend update :] It was a good one!

Let's start with Thursday. I'm in a theater for wannabe teachers this semester and we spent a majority of the time working on a play that we were supposed to perform for an elementary school. We had to write the play/scripts, master the craft of acting, develop and construct out set, and put on a show for the kiddies. Thursday was performance day. It went really well, I'm pretty sure everyone loved it! It took place at Story Farm, Farmer Jessie was the narrator, Petunia & Penelope pig were BFF's with Sally the sheep and even though Shaggy wanted to play with them super bad, he couldn't get them to notice him. Throw in some costume changes, our interpretation of 1 Dalmatian's performance at the Farmer's Choice Awards, the moral of our story which is "Be Yourself" and viola! you have the best play of our class. At least in my opinion. Keep your eyes peeled for Shaggy the Shy Wolf at a jungle gym near you!

Friday was my friend Caroline's birthday so I went over to her place and had dinner with her and her family. The plan was to go out to downtown SD for a night of dancing and drinking. Unfortunately, my back decided it'd be a fun weekend to hurt. No idea what happened but the muscles are like super tight. This kind of killed my plans to go out because of how much it hurt. I waved goodbye as I headed home and they headed to the club.

Saturday was Caroline's pool party/BBQ so I headed back to her place to hang out. It was a pretty beautiful day but the water was cold :[ butttt that didn't keep me out. Spent most of the time playing with her super adorable 3 year old nephew but I did manage to mingle with the grown-ups. We played some drinking games and corn hole and it eventually turned into a jacuzzi night with all of us haning out. I stayed until 11-ish because it was time to head home and get some sleeeeeep.

[Cool & The Gang with a few missing]

Sunday a group of us headed out to Del Mar for the Brizal Bazaar at the Fairgrounds. One of the CLAMS, Keri, is engaged, so we hit up the madness to do some scouting. Holy moly talk about craziness. There were so many people there, and so many vendors! It was more of picking up fliers and seeing cool stuff rather than actually talking to vendors about details and pricing. After a few hours of that, we all went out to La Jolla for some lunch. Good food, good drinks, and good times had by all :]

Then we all parted ways, but Caroline, Chelsea, and I stayed in the area because we scheduled massages for Lime's birthday at Spa Gregories in Del Mar. Thanks for the hook up Groupon! Oh, btw...my masseusse's name was DRAGON. That was pretty awesome. Hahaha. The massage definitely relieved a majority of the tension that was in my back that carried over from the other day! They've gained a customer in me!

Back to reality. Whomp. 

How was your weekend?  

30 DAY CHALLENGE: DAY 22

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I am thankful for so many things this year, including my amazing family who has gone through so much this year, hilarious friends, great job, a roof over my head in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, food to eat, my education, and an able body. I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Day 22 – A photo of your wedding/future wedding plans.

First of all, I want a vintage looking engagement. Friends, please show my future husband this photo.

And this is pretty much the wedding dress my heart is set on. So simple but beautiful. 

I want to have a country-ish wedding and OBVIOUSLY incorporate some baseball. 

I am so in love with these save the date tickets!

and these super cute wedding cake toppers

and this home plate guest book idea!

I've already come to terms that I will be a bridezilla since I'm usually a -zilla with everything else that I plan. I'm sorry for all of you that will be involved with the planning that will have to deal with me.

I think most of all, I just want it to be fun. 

One thing that absolutely MUST happen is the "Payaso del Rodeo". It's a Mexican line dance, and absolutely my favorite thing to do at parties :]