Have I mentioned that we golf?  I mean, it’s a pretty loose interpretation of the word for me, but Joel plays well.  A few years into our marriage I began to see that I was going to need to either be ok with getting left behind for hours on end while Joel went golfing or pony up and learn myself.  I’d taken lessons as a kid but hadn’t played since, so I was quite rusty, but I slowly but surely got better to the point I am at now, which is passable.  I can make it through 18 without having to do a scramble (most days) and I contribute to a scramble format.  And I don’t play enough to be anything more than that, so I’ve accepted my place in the golfing world!

Joel, on the other hand, is much more committed.  He plays almost every day in the summer, and it shows in his game.  His commitment to the sport does not end on the course, though.  Joel also loves watching golf on TV.  Obviously the majors are always on, especially during the Sunday round, but Joel even has other tournaments playing frequently and keeps tabs on who’s who in the golfing world.  While I appreciate a good competitive last round, I’ve never been much for watching golf on TV, but I would soon learn, thanks to the QuickenLoans National at the TPC Potomac, that I’m an absolute sucker for watching golf live.  And so began our sports trip to the DMV!

I mentioned in the last post that the trip we took to Seattle in 2018 might have set off a butterfly effect for me moving there.  Let me explain.

When I was planning the trip, there were two people that I wanted to try and see if we could make it work.  One was a coworker who I’d met at a training who I really admired and worked in the area, and the other was a former customer who I’d gotten close with before he had taken a job in Washington at a site where my company didn’t have any business.  I decided that it might be cool to kill 3 birds with one stone- see both of them and build a business connection for them to use in the future (#networking).  It ended up working out to go to the last game of the series together, and we all had a great time before, during, and after the game that day.

Flash forward to the end of 2018, and I’m not super jazzed about parts of my job, feel like I’m ready for the next step, and I hear that the site my former customer friend is working at is going through a bid and my company needs a proposed site lead (the next step for me, career-wise).  I throw my hat in the ring, and after several months of hard work, stress, and tough decisions, we won the business and I was on my way to Washington!
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Now Safeco is T-Mobile field, and I get to go to games basically whenever I feel like it, and it’s easy to believe that game #3 of the series it what set that all in motion!  Now, onto the game.

Shall I address the elephant in the room?  Not that any of you out there actually got super invested in my posts, but it’s been a minute, huh?  Well, I have an excuse.  I moved for a promotion in 2019 and left the comfort of our home in Montana for the state of Washington.  Promotion meant more responsibilities and more hours each day spent working, plus I’ve been super busy exploring my new home.  Plus covid-19.  But it’s time.  It’s time to return.  Ironically enough, where I left off was a trip to the state that is now my new home.  I have a lot to catch up on! 

Now let’s talk about regrets.  Maybe it’s because I’m young(-ish.  At what age do you stop being a naïve fool? Asking for a friend), but I genuinely don’t believe people when they say they have no regrets.  I get the sentiment that your previous choices lead you to where you are now and by saying you have regrets you’re essentially admitting that you wish you were somewhere else.  However, I believe there are inconsequential decisions in everyone’s life that don’t have some crazy butterfly effect on your life path, and there’s no doubt you wish you’d made some of those decisions differently.  Like that time when teenage angst was at an all time high and you were super rude to your parents.  Or a time when you let a friend drift away.  Or when you took that extra shot at the bar when you certainly didn’t need an extra shot at the bar.  Or even that guy you dated for a minute because, well, why again?  None of these theoretical poor choices (that I definitely have never made…) would have changed where I am today and I fully believe that.  Still, though, I wish I would have changed my actions in those examples because in the moment I was an idiot.  Theoretically.  But all the regrettable decisions in my life pale in comparison to one- the fact that I didn’t sit in a club level seat until the 44th game Joel and I saw together.
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I’m pleading ignorance on this.  When I would go to buy tickets for a game, I would always try to be as close to the field or court as possible while still staying within my budget.  I never understood why second or third level tickets would be more expensive than tickets right near the playing surface.  And perhaps Seattle has a bit better club level than others, but to say it changed my whole outlook on buying tickets is not a hyperbole.  Granted, I still love sitting down a baseline close to the field and without a doubt will continue to do so, but when I’m going for a three-game series, you can bet at least one of the games I’ll be sitting club level. 
Game 2 in Seattle was a game of realization and contradictions after another day of tourist-y exploring.  As was par for the course on this trip, Seattle showed us a great time!