spent the afternoon at

 the rogers centre

in canada

where the

baseball opened with

the official roof report –

‘the roof is open’

 the game began

and we

watched our detroit tigers

get mowed over

by the toronto blue jays

such a game (15-1)

where

our outfielder even

lost track of

how many outs there were

and forgot to throw the ball back

toronto fans threw out hats

when their player hit 3 home runs

all in the same game

and

hockey and baseball

blurred lines

in the old hockey tradition

of the hat trick

then

every opposing starter

got at least on base

giving us the chance

to see their entire roster

all in one game

but the staff and the local fans

were very friendly

except for the guy

who impounded

our piñata head mascot

kind of a chicken

who was meant to be a tiger

(a chi-ger)

upon entering the stadium

lest i possibly wear it

and conceal my identity

but we decided to shake it all off

and

embrace the huge loss of this game

by enjoying the town

with fans from both sides

and

our pinata

came right along with us

as we met

a rickshaw driver

a man with a chicken hat

( a kindred spirit who grew up in my hometown)

a street singer with a bag on his head

a sweaty spiderman

a bachelorette party

 and a band

playing american and canadian covers

so we danced a lot

and passed the piñata on to the band

but upon returning to our hotel

i couldn’t exactly remember

my hotel room number

except for the last two digits

which caused a bit of a logistical issue

so i visited a few floors

on the elevator that only moved

in response to an electronic key swipe

(who knew?)

saw a lot of our beautiful hotel

made friends with the front desk

who made a few phone calls

to my fellow travelers

who mostly had their phones shut off

in this

faraway and friendly foreign land

and

finally got back into my room

where i soon after

got locked in the glass shower

for a while

then

relaxed and drifted off to sleep

in my pillowy bed

until there was

a 3am fire alarm (false)

but it was one great day

leading into the next

and

there certainly was a lot of laughter

i’d say there were

at least

3 major bouts of laughter

all in the same day.

and

that’s a hat trick.

—

‘that’s the beauty of sport.

sometimes you laugh,

sometimes you cry.’

– joseph gradual