Photos: Baseball watching in Maryland

A few weeks ago, I went up to Maryland for my annual “Let’s get drunk in Baltimore and watch baseball” trip.  Although the trip has drastically changed how I feel about traveling to that area in the month of June moving forward, the trip itself was its usual entertaining self.

While up there, I decided to venture out to Frederick to see a ballpark I hadn’t seen before, where the high-A Orioles affiliates play.  And then the day after that was usual drunken shenanigans in Baltimore, except that this year, both the O’s and Nationals are contending teams, leading to a metric fuckton more people being there, much to my annoyance.

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It’s funny how things turn out in time

Last weekend, I was up in NOVA during the trip I couldn’t get back from, and I went to a baseball game with my dad.  During the drive up to Frederick, Maryland, we got stuck in the typical I-270 traffic, due to the fairly abrupt ending of the third lane.  It’s not like my dad and I have a ton of things to talk about in the first place, especially with the language difficulties between us in the first place.

For whatever reason, my dad decided to start a topic which was akin to my mom and aunts always badgering me about how I need to get married and start popping out grandkids.  The fact that it was coming from my dad was a little strange, but I guess deep down, he too wants to have some mighty grandchildren to carry on the Hong family name and bloodline, but truthfully my dad is fantastic with babies really.

It started with him bringing up a girl I went to elementary and high school with and even the same church, who is the same age as I am, and her dad is friends with my dad.  And how about she’s now engaged, and that he was invited to the wedding as guests of the parents I guess.  But then he said that she’s marrying a Vietnamese guy, and I just kind of snort-laugh, you know the sound I’m talking about.  A Korean girl marrying a Vietnamese guy, it’s laughable to me, kinda.

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Photos: Pictures from Animazement

Alrighty, since I know definitively that there are people waiting to see these pictures, I may as well sadistically save them for last.  Or maybe I’m just going in chronological order?  Whichever.

So Saturday was really the only day that I took any pictures at Animazement, and over half of them are after I got drunk and it devolved into typical drunk people antics.  It’s fine, because as I alluded to while brogging from The Flying Saucer, I’m too old for this anime con shit, and there’s very little for me to do there, really.  Nevermind the fact that a miscommunication faux pas led to me actually paying for con admittance; something I haven’t done in like over 12 years, and that I essentially had a free room too, but there’s really nothing for me at anime cons, aside from hanging out with my friends, supporting my friends/acquaintances, and then boozing.

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Photos: Carolyn & Joe’s Wedding

One by one, I watch as my closest friends all get married while I haven’t had a substantial date in over a  year now.  Que sera, sera.

No matter.  It was a joyous occasion that I got to enjoy the dubious honor of being a groomsman to the wedding of two of my closest friends, having known the bride since the seventh grade, and the groom since the eighth.  Unlike the popular notion that weddings are a drag and that they’re all boring and superficial, on the contrary, I happen to like them very much, even more so if those getting married are my own friends.  It’s always fun to see friends and acquaintances dressed to the nines, and the festive atmosphere which leads to people often putting on their best behavior.  A little bit of class doesn’t hurt nobody, on occasion.

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The aftermath, in statistics

One hour, 44 minutes, 25 seconds – my official time in the Atlanta chapter of the zombie run.  Yikes.

That’s 66 minutes and one second longer than it took me to finish the course in Maryland.  Sure, the mud played a gigantic inhibiting factor in the Georgia run, but who am I to kid that I probably couldn’t have done way better than that time, if I had actually tried, instead of dicking around with my friends?  To put it in perspective, literally only 29 people “survived” with slower times than I did.  522 people “survived,” and I ranked 493 out of those times.

The fastest survival time was 39:37:10, which was actually 1:13:80 slower than my Maryland time, to put in perspective just how grueling the mud made the Georgia run.  A 41-year old man bettered that time by five minutes, but had apparently lost all his flags, therefore not really “the winner.”

I don’t regret my course of actions during the run, and I still declare that I had more fun this time, screwing around with the zombies, but this is quite an eye-opener for me.  In contrast to the Maryland run, I was rarely winded, and my muscles often fatigued before my stamina did, and I know I could have easily crossed in under an hour if I actually put forth the effort, state of survival up for debate.

Upon completion of the Atlanta zombie run, a part of me would be content at never participating again.  But a competitive part of me wants a degree of redemption; I don’t have anything to prove, but I still kind of want to end on a really high note.

Somebody call my mama, these legs are registered weapons

That’s right. Two-time! Two-time! Zombie run winnar!

So while I nurse my sore limbs and achy body parts, let me reminisce about the Atlanta chapter of the zombie run. Despite my trepidations going into the event, I can pretty easily say that I had a good of time as I did in Maryland, despite my reluctance up there too. If anything, I would venture to say that it was more fun than the first, for a myriad of reasoning.

Without much argument, the Atlanta zombie run was executed a million times better than the Maryland one. Granted, the Maryland zombie run back in October had the dubious task of being the inaugural event in which the bar was set, and all its failures and successes were what all the other chapters were to build off of, but the parking debacle and the tedious shuttling really, really hurt it badly. Whether it was superior planning or luck of the draw, Georgia’s venue for the event was far superior in the fact that there was plenty of on-site parking and no shuttles were necessary, and the local police appeared to be in cooperation and ready to deal with the traffic jams that never happened, probably because of the tornadoes or threat of them that ripped through the state the night before.

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Photos: Run For Your Lives! – Atlanta 5K Zombie Run

I’m currently pretty sore, my quads ache, my knees sting, and my back and neck even feel kind of stiff right now.  To cut straight to the chase, my friends and I all managed to survive the hometown “Atlanta” chapter of Run For Your Lives!, so for me, that makes two victories, over both Maryland and Georgia.  It was a good bit of fun, and about 5,000 times more muddy and messy than the Maryland debacle was, as evidenced in this image, as well as all the subsequent images.

But I’ll share my thoughts and go into further detail in a dedicated post.  But for the time being, enjoy the sparse images.

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