Another day as not planned

Yesterday started off with the realization that our Netanya trip would have to wait, as the league called a noon meeting for all players to talk about issues and concerns with league officials. We welcomed this change of schedule, as a few areas of our daily lives remain in limbo. Our laundry service is up in the air - a company has been doing our baseball items for us, but as of now, we don't have any dependable way to clean our personal clothes. Some of us have used sneak skills to get personals in with the baseball items, and that has worked out so far, but a more regular and less covert method would be appreciated. We also lack workout facilities, and are hoping that the league will bite the bullet and get gym memberships for us players. Finally, our home field (Sportek) is still under construction, but we are told that it will be ready in time for the 2008 Summer Olympic training.

After the meeting we hung out in the library for a bit, then set out for Yarkon Field to practice and watch the game between Tel Aviv and Ra'anana. Instead of simply taking a taxi, as most sensible guys would have done, the six of us decided to try our hand at the local public transit. We boarded the 49 Bus after getting some recommendations from a friendly girl that appeared somewhere between 14 and 23 years of age (we are still struggling with age determination here).

After traveling in the correct direction for a few miles, we exited the freeway and started off in a direction perpendicular to that which we needed. After questioning some of the young English-speaking military women on the bus, we found that we were headed for the center of Petach Tikva, instead of the outskirts where our destination lay. Some unrest in the ranks followed, but after calming the more volatile ones in the group, we decided to hang out in the city for a bit and grab a bite to eat. We succeeded in getting a couple of phone numbers from local young ladies, filled our stomachs, and caught a cab to the field. The game was fun; played catch, checked emails, and even got in a few cuts in the batting cage.

Today we are going to visit Dan Rootenberg's new place in Herzaliya and hang out on the beach. We have a noon game tomorrow, so the bus leaves at 9am - dictating an early night tonight.

One more item of note - today at lunch I received a check denominated in US Dollars to compensate me for playing baseball.

I want to now bask in that fact for a bit...


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Ok done.

-MK