27monthswithoutbaseball

News flash - thanks to my "tech support" friend Brett, I can finally listen to baseball games on mlb.com! I can listen to any archived game (and think I will find Buerhle's no-hitter) but for now I think I will listen to the dulcet tones of Bob Uecker and Milwaukee at Colorado (1:05 Mountain Time start, 7:05 here - i.e a few minutes from now).

Now it's a little later, and while I listen and wait for my dinner to cook (rice today) I can add the note that today is a good day for my baseball audio to work - it's the anniversary of what was to be the first night game at Wrigley Field, 8/8/88. I already had tickets for 8/9/88, which was to be the second night game at Wrigley Field, and I was kind of hoping for rain (my father's favorite word was schadenfreude - pleasure in the misfortune of others) so I could go to the first official night game at Wrigley Field. There was all sorts of pageantry on 8/8/88 - Harry Caray and Steve Stone wore tuxes, for example. I was sailing on Lake Michigan that night prior to going home to watch history (this is while I could still listen to Harry Caray). Lightning flashed all around us and our sail was cut short. The game started but was ultimately rained out. I don't think my wishing made it so (but maybe if I wish hard enough my boxes will come?).

Now it's a little later and that didn't last very long! The rice was still cooking when I heard the horns and drums of a wedding procession coming up the street. When I went out to buy my vegetables earlier today, I noticed a tent going up on the street in front of the building next door. Amanda's wedding was on the roof and when I told my tutor about the tent today he asked if it was on the roof - based on that sample size of two I was about to say that weddings are usually on the roof, but I realize that I don't really know that. Thought about taking a nap this afternoon because I suspect there will be loud music from the wedding all night long (literally - until after sunrise; a typical Moroccan wedding can be three days long), but instead I decided to visit my host family. My landlord just came upstairs to invite me to go to the wedding with his wife....I guess that's all part of community integration but it'll just be getting started around my bedtime - plus I have Josh and Sabrina coming over for dinner! Not that I won't end up going to the wedding - but I am so tired!

Ah, Coors Field - I left the computer for a few minutes to talk to the landlord and to watch the wedding procession and it's 8-0 (not sure who has the 8 and who has the 0 but maybe this wasn't a good first choice of game - I prefer pitchers' duels to slugfests - I would have thought I'd be happy with anything after trying off and on since Opening Day to get this software to work...at least I'll be able to turn it off without regret when my dinner guests arrive!).

When I went to Maroc Telecom yesterday (I should mention that when I get my bill I cannot just go and pay it, for reasons I can't understand - they always tell me to come back in a couple of weeks. Can I pay early? Apparently not. And the woman who I give my money to always asks me to come over to her house - I think - but since I can't understand her I don't know why she keeps inviting me. I got the idea yesterday that she wants to show me a house that I might want to live in, not that she was inviting me over for tea. Whatever she's saying to me, she's not all that friendly about it, so maybe that's why I don't understand her) one of the environment volunteers was there trying to get her cell phone number - her phone has been taken from her bag at souk. I haven't been to souk in months (it was too cold, then too rainy, now too hot) but I know that I have lost some vigilance when I walk around Azrou (though I am careful in crowds and in tourist spots - and even in Azrou I have a good grip on my always-zipped-up bags) so this was a good reminder to stay aware.

Now it's much later (close to 11 pm Morocco time) and the party is not yet in full swing - some live music and (men only) dancing was just now followed by the James Bond theme and the Looney Tunes theme. Dinner has not been served yet, and after that the real party will begin. I do think I will go for a little while - good community integration - but maybe I will shower and nap first. Meanwhile, I posted a picture of the wedding procession. The truck bed in front contains all of the cookies and I think the other ceremonial things - the milk, dates and sugar that the couple will share, to represent the hope for a sweet life together. The small cart in the picture contains the sheep - i.e. the dinner that I think I would just as soon skip. In the back of the procession (left side of the picture) is the band - drums and tambourine-things and horns. It should be noted that I have no idea who is getting married - nor have I seen anyone (from my balcony) who is dressed in wedding garb.

My reading of Real Simple yesterday was timely - it had some tips for hot weather. I already knew about some of them (such as putting a bowl of water in front of the fan - not that I have done that yet) but there was one that was new to me that I found very intriguing. Take a sock and put some uncooked rice in it - put that in the freezer for a couple of hours and then put it between the sheets for the hot-weather equivalent of a hot-water bottle. I haven't tried it (I had enough rice to make the Spanish rice but not enough for that and the sock - plus the height of my freezer shelf is just a little higher than an ice cube tray - or a Magnum bar - so I don't know how much, if any, rice would fit into a sock in the freezer - maybe using the refrigerator coolness would be good enough? - but if nothing else, maybe I can submit these tips (with proper referencing, of course) to the next issue of Peace Works...

How might having baseball audio change my routine? Well, with baseball as background, I might write more letters...or get back to work on my Arabic dictionary and get that up-to-date...or drown out the barking dogs (the white noise generator actually did a good job of that, but Jong took her voltage converter with her so I'm awaiting the arrival of one from my sister)...or edit previous blog posts (adding spaces between paragraphs, for example - I have a lot of pictures in iphoto to edit and label too; I really could never leave the house and stay very busy!)...or have somewhere to turn when I feel those moments of being too sensitive or too sad or too aimless...or maybe I will find that I don't listen all that often since I have managed so far without it (though I expect to tune in for the post-season, the next morning if not live).

Now it's a little later (I don't usually blog "live") and I have showered and my head hurts swiya and I think I am tired enough to sleep through the music (especially knowing that the construction will start at 7:15). But if it turns out that I can't sleep, I may just go down and join the party!

And now it's the next morning. My swiya headache turned into a bzef headache - aspirin and sleep helped, but when I woke up after sleeping a little bit, I realized that I needed more sleep. The music was loud, but not unpleasant; I must have fallen asleep during a band break, because when the music was live, there was no way to sleep. It was kind of like staying in the dorm for Reunions - really loud music right outside the window, and then it stops in the wee hours (the wedding ended at four a.m. - before sunrise but after the call to prayer) and you finally sleep a little, and then all too early there is more noise - here it is the construction (there are partially-built buildings all over Azrou and the one across the street from me seems to be the only one which is consistently (daily!) worked on; at Reunions the noise begins around six a.m. when the crews come to set up breakfast tables and food - as loudly as possible. For a while I thought this would seem like two years of camping, but now I feel at home in my home. It's not like two years in the dorm, either - my bed is more comfortable (now that I have the featherbed and duvet), my bathroom isn't shared and doesn't require a walk down a hallway or a staircase. The hanging out of my recent guests (especially one day where Jong and I played cards, Gavin napped and Dominique used my computer) does remind me a bit of college life, but maybe that's because so many of my cohort is just a few years out of college. All right, time to get moving - have breakfast, rinse the laundry I have soaking, work on my Arabic homework and on the tourist questionnaires, read up on this weekend's destination...

P.S. Just got an email from Arlene saying that the game I was listening to was one off the Rockies' record for hits in a game and that there's an afternoon Mets game today. Thanks, Arlene!