Labor Day Weekend

    If you had a chance to read last week's blog, I mentioned my going home for Labor Day weekend. The weekend home was absolutely a hot mess. The only time I spent at home was when I went to bed. Three of the days that I was home, I decided to work so I could make some money for school. Immediately when I got back home, I was dropped off at the stadium and started to work. I had only told one of my supervisors I was coming back for the weekend, so when everyone saw me, they were really surprised. I may complain from time to time about work, but I really do love my job. I get paid to watch baseball, play fun games with children and occasionally dress up as a hot dog.  

    Both Friday and Saturday night were pretty relaxed nights and nothing crazy happened. However, Sunday was a whole different story. Typically, Sunday games are played at 1:10 p.m., sometimes slightly earlier. However, this Sunday the game was at 2:40 p.m., meaning the game would end between 5:30 and 6 p.m., still leaving plenty of time to do things in the evening. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us that Sunday. With nothing but cloudy skies and scattered showers, we knew we were in for a long night. When it rains the night before or the day of a game, we have to close two of our main outside activities because they are too wet to operate. So, on the rainy Sunday morning, our wiffleball and batting cages were closed. Luckily for us, it was Kid's Fun Day. During these days, we have artists come in for balloon making, face painting, caricatures and even Jungle Terry! To have enough space for these artists, we close half of our outside activities. They stay for a limited amount of time, but families love the added touch! Sundays are always our busiest day, so I know my supervisors really appreciated having me as an extra set of hands to help. To our surprise, the game actually started on time, even with the light drizzle happening.

    We were just shy of calling the game when the MLB put us in an official rain delay. Once a rain delay is officially called, the Kids Clubhouse starts to become crazy as families flood our concourse waiting to do our activities to pass the time. When these delays happen earlier in the season, it's always easier to manage because we are fully staffed. However, with workers going back to school, our staff was cut down to by more than half. This makes for even more hectic busy days. The rain delay lasted a total of three and a half hours before they were able to resume the game. By this time, a majority of the fans had decided to head home, so I was able to just sit and watch the game. What is normally a 5-hour Sunday game turned into a 10-hour shift. It was a long day, and I was happy all I had to do the next day was sit back and enjoy my car ride back to Ada. After a long weekend at home, I'm happy to be back in Ada!

Until next time XOXO,

Hallie