Peanuts, Crackerjacks, and garlic fries?

So apparently one of the traditions here is a staff baseball game. It is a little different here, Seattle is actually proud of their baseball team, as opposed to Dallas, which mostly sighs in resignation when baseball season (also known as the season of shame) rolls around every year. In Texas, we all got free baseball tickets for one game. Not so much here. So, I was invited to the game, but initially didn't want to go, because I HATE baseball. It is so mind-numbingly boring. But, I got peer-pressured into buying a ticket from someone who couldn't go, so since it was only $11, I thought, why not! On my way down to the office to buy the ticket, I ran into the vice-principal, who asked me to cover Friday school from 2:30-5:30. Then Friday rolled around. First of all, it has been an unusually cold winter, with the usual Seattle grayness, but Friday it started warming up. It went from 40 degrees on Wednesday to 80 on Friday, so of course, the kids were going crazy. Added to that, my classroom is on the third floor, and the building does not have air conditioning (it's Seattle, you usually only need it about 5 days a year). I have windows, but they neither open or look outside, so it just gets hotter. And then, I had to lecture, so the projector was on all day....so let's add another 10 degrees to the room temperature. When I finally left at 5:30, my classroom was 80 degrees and humid. I rode with some friends for drinks (I didn't drink, but I had a lot of fun anyway), and then we went to the game an hour late. For those of you unfamiliar with Seattle, the ballpark is in the middle of downtown, and the train tracks run under the stadium. Oh yeah, and parking is TERRIBLE. Since we were so late, it was really hard to find parking, and we ended up having to pay $20. Argh. Anyway, we finally make it in to the stadium, and our seats were on row 324. Guess how many rows there are in the stadium....that's right - 325. We were sitting in the row in front of the very top row behind the home to 1st base baseline. So we climbed up a couple of hundred steps, getting hit on by some drunk guys on the way up, and made it to the top. The game was fine, I guess, as boring as I was expecting. Basically, baseball consists of fat guys wandering arouund swinging sticks. But the company was awesome, and it was really fun to hang out with my friends outside of school. Since we ordered as a school, we got our names up on the scoreboard and stuff. It did suck that I hadn't had a chance to eat dinner, so I got a hot dog (props to Colleen) for $4. And speaking of food, I don't know if this is a Seattle thing, or a baseball thing, but they serve these garlic fries here. It is a dish consisting of equal parts french fries and garlic. It sounds gross, and smells horrible, but actually doesn't taste bad (at least the three fries I tried weren't bad). Anyway, all in all, it was a fun experience I wouldn't mind repeating, and I KNOW the weather was better here than it would have been in Texas. Drunk teachers? Memorable.