My 28th Birthday (last part)

I thought that my birthday was over on Sunday (which was the 8^th), and that there wouldn’t have any celebrations on the next day like I had for the past couple years when the guys took me out the 9^th. Turns out I was wrong: when I got to the Sharpmans, Dr. Peterson told me that I should go see Sandy before I took Jacob outside to work.

When I got to Sandy’s office, I found a mini-surprise party had been set up with Maya, Robert, Ethan, the crew…everyone except Jean-François, who still remains a phantom as far as I’m concerned lol. There was a pretty big cake with 28 candles (I didn’t count; Sandy told me that they’d looked up how old I was in my personnel file), so I got to make another wish. There were some presents too… well, really just 1 present, since the others were for the show.

Not only is the weather cold, but it turned cold super fast: last Friday it was hot and I had both Jacob and Matteo in the pool (separately), but the then the temperature dropped and it’s stayed fuckin cold since then. Cold like I’m gonna need those flannel shirts and warm socks Joyce got me lol. That creates a problem as to what I’m going to wear when I have to work with the boys outside when it’s cold.

Turns out that Maya, Ethan and Sandy got together and decided what I was going to wear for the cameras when it was too cold for shorts: baseball pants. Yeah, they look better with a jersey over them rather than a tshirt, but a tshirt’s not a terrible look if you don’t tuck it in. As a result, they had a box from Amazon with six pair of Nike baseball pants, three white, three gray…and there was a woman there who turned out to be the tailor who took care of all of Maya’s clothes. She was there to fit the pants to me so that, well, so that they’d be a little more form-fitting than they are when the come out of the box. Y’all may have noticed that MLB players have all kinds of different fitting pants, from Kiké Hernández’ super tight ones to Pedro Báez’ baggy look. What Sandy said they decided on was something that would be form-fitting but not too gayass and tight. “Mostly we want them to be able to see your legs and juicy butt,” Sandy said. She got me blushing with the butt comment; I’m still not used to it. I don’t think I ever will be.

“We just want you to look good,” Maya said. She was wearing that perfume again, and, once again, it confused the fuck outta me. I would probably have said yes to Kiké Hernández tight pants if she’d asked me lol.

So I tried on a pair of the pants and the tailor lady pinned them so they’d be closer fitting in the legs, and, yeah, across the back. I have to confess that I always wished I could have my baseball pants tailored so they’d look just right, but that ain’t something they do for you in A-ball. So this was actually kinda cool. I had on a Dodgers tshirt and everyone said that it looked good untucked…so that’s gonna be my look for the show for the winter.

There was also a box from mlbshop.com that contained two Dodgers hoodies, pretty much like the ones they wear in the dugout. Sandy said they didn’t want the kind the zipped up the front so it wouldn’t look like a warm-up jacket and I’d look like a gym teacher, so they went for the pullover kind. They also ordered a World Series Champions one, Sandy said, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

The Dodgers hoodies were kinda like presents, but the real present came in an envelope. It was a bonus. A super generous one. So now, if I budget right, I should have enough for my December rent and some decent food. That’s one huge relief…so thanks y’all.

Then I had Sandy call Dr. Peterson to send Jacob downstairs…and we came close to freezing our asses off outside. We were both in shorts and probably shouldn’t have been. There were no cameras out, so I figured the best thing was for us to stay moving. That meant a lot of running and throwing the football I asked Sandy to order for us. I really want to take Jacob over to Chuy’s one of these days, but, according to Sandy, Maya won’t hear of it. She’s pretty much not letting the boys off the property as long as the virus is with us, and, while it’s a great big place and it’s not like they’re gonna go stir crazy, I think they still need to get out some and maybe hang out with some other kids.

After me and Jacob were done he said I should come upstairs, since he had something he wanted to show me. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be…and it turned out to be another surprise party. I thought that maybe the adults didn’t want the boys in on the party in Sandy’s office because there was cake and Matteo couldn’t have any, sure enough, there wasn’t any cake at the boys’ mini-party. They did have a homemade “Happy Birthday Hunter” banner set up in their schoolroom, though…and they’d gotten me a present.

It was a Dodgers hat with a World Series Champions patch on it.

“That Dodger hat you wear all the time is kinda ratty,” Matteo said (what is it with people in that house and the word ‘ratty’ lol??), “so we figured you needed a new one.”

“And the World Series patch means you don’t have one like it,” added Jacob.

I reckon the Dodger hat I wear when I’m teaching is getting a little ratty, but it’s my Dodger hat to get sweaty in. I’ve got another one that I wear around town, but Jacob was right, I don’t have one with a World Series patch, and I actually did want one …but I couldn’t afford it.

I tried it on and it fit just right. You want a ball cap to be comfortable but you don’t want it blowing off too easily in the wind.

“How did you guys know my size?” I took the hat off and saw it was a 7½.

“I snuck into the pool house to check while you were swimming with Jacob,” Matteo said.

Then it was time to take Matteo outside and freeze my ass off some more. The difference between Matteo and Jacob (well, one of the differences…) is that he wasn’t having the cold and insisted we go inside. He said he could do his cardio in the gym, although I was hoping to work on baseball skills with Matteo since I am, after all, his baseball tutor. No such luck today, but I give him a wide berth on the days we don’t have to be in the gym. I know how structured his program is on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, so I try to encourage him to have some fun on Mondays and Fridays. That doesn’t always work, since being outside and running around and getting sweaty aren’t Matteo’s idea of fun, but I’m trying. And every once in a while I get the feeling he may be starting to enjoy it.

Then it was time to head home, shower…and sit down to a cup of grossass ramen noodles. Then I remembered my Wingstop gift card and I used some of it to get a decent dinner. True, I had a dang good birthday dinner the night before, but working with the boys always makes me hungry. And hungry for something better than pre-cooked noodles, a couple corn kernels and a couple pieces of dehydrated carrot.

I had a pretty awesome 2 day birthday. I didn’t want to ruin it with grossass ramen lol.