The Royals have been hosting the Yankees all of this week so far. Thinking that it’s always fun to watch the Royals take one from the Yanks, I was able to find a few friends to head out to The K on Tuesday night.  It also happened to be their big promotion on Tuesday — “George Brett Pine Tar Shirt Night” — so the opportunity to increase my Royals shirt collection from one to two was an added incentive.

I don’t remember seeing the Yankees play in Kansas City before so I had absolutely no idea it would end up being so ridiculously crowded.  We parked far away from the stadium because it was so packed, walked up to the ticket booth, and were told that the game was sold out.  We were stunned.  Never in a million years would I have thought a non-opening day Royals game would sell out while the team was still bad enough to be in last place in the AL Central.  Dejected, we had to hop in my car and head back home.  The Royals ended up getting pounded, although A-Rod got his 100th RBI of the season which is absolutely insane.  He could break the single-season RBI record this year (191 is the record). 

I was planning on just taking it easy last night, but my sister called to tell me she was going to the game for a work function and they had an extra ticket.  I jumped at the chance to go, both to have good seats at the game and to somehow feel better about myself for getting denied the night before.  The seats were great, and we were able to see A-Rod hit is 499th homerun.  As much as I wanted to Royals to win, I found myself secretly rooting for A-Rod to hit two out.  Witnessing such a milestone (he’d be the fastest ever to reach 500) would have been really cool.

Towards the end of the game, we were able to go up to the Crown Club (at least I think that’s what it was called) out in left field.  It’s a fancy little indoor bar/restaurant area where all the elite people in KC must sit every game.  My sister’s favorite player is David DeJesus, and she was joking around with us that she was going to bang on the glass a la The Graduate and yell, “DAVID!!!!  DAVID!!!!”  We were all laughing about it for a while as my sister more or less professed her love for the guy.  Soon after, my sister drew my attention to the two women sitting right next to us.  The one closest to us was very attractive and had quite possibly the largest diamond ring I’ve ever seen on her left hand.  I whispered to her that I would bet that the women were wives of the players.  After pretending to watch the game while eavesdropping on their conversation, she turned to me with a face of sheer horror.  She grabbed my arm and said, “That’s Mrs. DeJesus!”  I about fell over laughing.  She had to have watched the whole thing with my sister pretending to bang on the glass for her husband and everything.  Needless to say, she was mortified.  During her eavesdropping she found out the following:

– The other woman was John Buck’s wife.

– John Buck’s wife didn’t know how to change a diaper, but John was able to teach her.

– Mrs. DeJesus and her husband were audited recently.  She was overheard saying, “The audit cost $11,000.  I mean, why even bother?  That’s like nothing!”

Oh, to be rich for no reason than to have a semi-rich ballplayer love you almost solely for your looks.  At least she’s remained humble, though. 

UPDATE (7/26/07): I was just contacted by my sister who informed me it was the wife of David DeJesus who didn’t know how to change a diaper, NOT Buck’s wife.  This make much more sense because, between the two of them, Buck’s wife seems to be much more of a “brains” girl (if you catch my drift).

The White Stripes @ Memorial Hall in KC — $28.50

Wilco @ IMU in Iowa City — $23.00

Tool @ Hilton Coliseum in Ames, IA – $35.00

Arcade Fire @ The Chicago Theatre — $31.00

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with The Black Crowes @ Verizon Wireless in KC — $29.50

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals @ Avalon in Boston — $30.00

What do the above shows have in common?  They are all shows by relatively big acts that I’ve been to in recent years that all have ticket prices at or below the cost of the Travis show tonight.  I like Travis.  In fact, I always believed they’d make it big someday.  I’ve mentioned before on this blog that, when Coldplay and Travis came out with their debut albums back in the day, I really thought Travis was going to be the band to make it big.  Granted, I was wrong, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that they were asking their fans to shell out $35 to see them tonight at Liberty Hall in Lawrence.  That’s over $43 a pop after paying for the ridiculous Ticketmaster charges.  I’m sure they put on a good show, but unless they have started mimicking Kiss’s live shows, I can’t fathom why they’d ask so much.  The price kept both me and a friend from going tonight.  I used to wonder why they hadn’t made it big by now.  After this, I can see why. 

I’m going to Lollapalooza in a week and a half, and I am beyond pumped to go.  By not going to the Travis show tonight, I basically paid for a quarter of my Lolla ticket…and I’ll be seeing roughly 35 bands instead of one.  If anyone who reads this happened to have gone to the show, please post a comment below.  I’d love to hear how they were as well as what the turnout was.

Why on earth is it so hard to find a decent place to get a haircut?  After searching for a while to settle on a regular guy in Kansas City (John at Gillis Barbershop in River Market), I still seem to run into issues when faced with having to get a trim while on the road.  This week as been a perfect example of such a debacle.

My quest began at a mall by where I am staying this week by the University of Maryland campus.  I drove by a mall and was sure there was a place in there somewhere.  Well, it ends up there were two inside the mall – a JC Penny salon and a Regis.  I tried out the JC Penny one because I figured that’d be cheaper.  I sat inside for 20 minutes and not one single person even appeared.  I walked around the entire salon and it was completely deserted.  I gave up and went to Regis where I was informed they were finished with walk-ins.  They were nice about it and told me there was a barbershop just outside the mall as well as one across the street.  Frustrated, I set out to find the other places knowing that time was limited for the evening.

The first barbershop was titled Ebony Barbers.  The place definitely lived up to its title.  Now, I really couldn’t care less what the clientele is like at a barbershop as long as I get a decent cut.  There was a long line, though, and I noticed a guy getting an Anthony Mason-esque cut.  I figured I’d try my luck at the one that was apparently across the street.  Lo and behold, the place was titled Afro Cuts.  No joke.

I finally settled on a barber in downtown Bethesda this evening.  He was a cute little old man who, after I described what I was looking for, replied, “Ahh yes, like a Ricky Martin!”  Yes sir, I am desperately trying to copy the look of the man that wrote “Shake Your Bon Bon”.   That is exactly the look I’m going for.  After a decent cut followed by an intense neck shaving session that left me coughing violently in a cloud of baby powder, I walked away content that my quest was over.

I went on a date with my new haircut (read: by myself) to see the movie Once, an independent film starring Glen Hansard that I’d been wanting to see for quite some time.  Glen Hansard is the lead singer of The Frames, a band I like quite a bit and have seen a couple of times in the past year.  The movie has had excellent reviews, and I found that it did everything to live up to the hype.  Highly recommended.

I had a second run-in with Sam Brownback on my plane today.  I wrote about the first one here, and, like last time, I was flying from Kansas City to DC.  I didn’t have the displeasure pleasure of sitting next to him this time, though.  Instead, I was seated by the exit row and spotted him walk on.  He then proceeded to walk down the aisle while smiling, waving, and saying, “Hey, how are you?” to literally every row on the plane.  I guarantee at least half of the people had no idea who he was.  He sure thought they did, though.  It was such a ridiculous display of arrogance and pandering that I was left just shaking my head.  The person next to me laughed about it, as well.  Even if I was the most famous person on the planet I would still be humble enough to assume not everyone knew me.  Some may say that that’s just how politicians are.  I don’t think this was done just because he’s a politician, though.  I think it’s just what Brownback thinks of himself.  There’s a name for people like that.  And that name rhymes with “mooshrag”.

Today was my birthday, and I turned 27 years young.  As with most birthdays, I usually end up reflecting on the past year.  I have to say that 26 was a pretty darn good year.  Not only was it stable, but I feel like I gained a ton of new memories and experiences.  In fact, if I had to rank each year of my life in order of how much I was able to see and do, I believe 26 could rank at the very top.  Now comes 27, though, and I really don’t know what the year has in store.  Ideally, I’d like to top 26, but at the same time part of me wouldn’t mind slowing my life down a little and not be constantly on the go.  For some strange reason, going from 26 to 27 seems like a big leap for only being one year apart.  You’re in your upper-20’s now and there seems to be some sort of grown-up responsibility that comes with that. 

I didn’t really do a whole lot to celebrate my birthday today aside from go out to lunch with some friends from work.  I still needed to pack and felt like just having a little down time before leaving again tomorrow would be nice for a change.  And it definitely was.  I didn’t get to eat any birthday cake, but I did, however, get to have a cupcake that was purchased for me by a coworker while we were at lunch.  The cupcake reminded me of a interesting cupcake story I’ve been meaning to talk about.

When I was in New York last, I took a friend to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Spotted Pig.  As always, there was about an hour wait to be seated so we decided to walk a couple blocks down the street to the famed Magnolia Bakery.  Every time I go by there, there is a line out the door and around the corner composed of people eager to gobble up their well-known cupcakes.  This time was no exception, but we were not deterred on our quest.  Luckily, the line moved quickly and we were able to walk into the small area inside.  I swear that if I worked there I’d literally go insane.  It’s an absolute madhouse in there and to endure that on a regular basis would be enough to make anyone crazy.  We each picked out our cakes (each equipped with sprinkles which is a weakness of mine) and walked outside to have our “desert appetizer” before dinner.  Here’s a picture of what they looked like:

I was honestly expecting to bite into it and say, “Hmmm…yeah…that tastes like a cupcake alright.”  I was partially convinced that The Magnolia Bakery was all hype and was only famous because it was featured in the “Lazy Sunday” video and in Sex and the City.  To my surprise, my friend Cortney and I found them to be pretty darn delicious.  Definitely well worth the $1.50 a piece.

Fast forward to last week.  I got a text for Cortney telling me some disheartening news.  She informed me that The Magnolia Bakery got shut down temporarily because health inspectors found that they were missing a sink in the place.  Originally, the word was that rats were found inside the place.  The news made my stomach churn a little.  Nevertheless, the place is apparently up and running again.  Rats or no rats, I’d go back again.

I was walking in NYC a few weeks ago when I saw this sign:

It’s a woman laying peacefully while someone is sticking a lit candle in her ear.  It’s apparently some kind of therapy, but it completely freaks me out.  I mean, a candle down your ear?  Seriously? 

 Starting the day after the 4th of July (that would be the 5th, just an FYI), I began moving into my new place where I will be living for at least another year.  As I wrote in a previous post, my roommate and his ladyfriend became Mr. and Mrs. a couple of weeks ago which meant the B-Man, who is still able to fill out “single” on any forms and applications, had to find a new place to call home.  I began my search for a new place about a month ago and was really surprised at how much one-bedroom apartments downtown were running.  Aside from a couple of units, it was hard to find a place downtown for under $800 a month.  I realize many of my friends from bigger cities will be shocked that I would consider that expensive, but Kansas City ain’t exactly New York.  Throw in the fact that I’m out of town more than I’m in town and it only made sense for me to find a place as cheap as possible.  Thank goodness for Craigslist.  I found a lady who is renting out a place at a great location for a great price.  After interviewing several interested people, she called and told me she wanted me to live in her place if I was still interested. 

I was able to find a local moving company to move my bigger, heavier furniture, but still moved pretty much everything else in my car by myself, making trips back and forth over the course of a few days.  It’s been three years since I’ve moved, and I forgot what a huge pain the whole process can be, especially when you’re doing it mostly by yourself.  I’m still not completely settled, but I’m looking forward to having my own place.

As for what I did on the 4th, a friend of mine called the week before to let me know a few people were planning on going to the Royals game for some tailgating, baseball, and fireworks.  Thanks to word of mouth, the “few people” ended up turning into a group of about 30. 

I didn’t know half of the people there, but it was still a lot of fun and the spread of food and drinks was pretty spectacular.  Unfortunately, the majority of the tailgate was spent huddled under the tent or under umbrellas. 

It basically rained steadily from the moment we got there to just before when the game started.  When we were driving up, we saw the fireworks outside the stadium and wondered why they wouldn’t cover them with a tarp or keep them in something other than cardboard boxes.  The game itself was a fun one even though the Royals couldn’t quite come from behind to win it.  Once it was over, they started counting down to begin the fireworks display.  The lights got turned off, the fountains got lit up, and music started blasting.  I didn’t know what to expect from the show, but I had a feeling this was going to be a pretty cool display. 

Sadly, the above pictures ended up being the extent of the show.  Just as we had thought earlier, the rain ruined the fireworks and the show was canceled.  The good news, though, is that they allowed everyone to use their ticket for another free one at a later date.  Not a bad consolation.