Weekend Wrap-Up

The Moore Family had a great Memorial Day weekend - especially Gary. He loves watching the old war movies that inevitably are on TV every year.

Yesterday, we went to "Freedom Weekend Aloft," a carnival/festival in Greenville which has a nightly hot air balloon launch. The balloons are amazing, and I actually got some video of the launch with my new video camera -- will try to post the footage, although when I tried to get a "vertical" shot of the balloons, the camera did not adjust properly: you have to tilt your head to see the pics. Alas... Freedom Weekend was always one of my mom's favorite events, but this was my first trip. The kids loved it.

Tonight, we went to see the Greenville Drive, minor league baseball team, at the lovely West End Field, in equally lovely downtown Greenville. It is an absolute delight -- a mini-replica of Braves Stadium in Atlanta. It even has the open seating area, where you can eat dinner, just like at the Braves. They were handing out free samples of new Mayfield ice cream flavors - I got white chocolate raspberry. Who could ask for more than that?

Being at the ball game tonight really made me think of a time long gone by, when I dated the trainer for the Asheville Tourists, also a minor league team. (I guess 18 years ago this summer...) There is a funny scene in the movie "Bull Durham" that shows the players' girlfriends, actually sitting in a signed, designated area in the stadium! Yep - that was me, every night that summer. Dad always said that I was "Annie (The Susan Sarandon character)," but I quickly informed him that I was dating management, not a player, thank you very much. Ha! Later in my life, after watching the fabulous movie "Stepmom," also with Susan Sarandon, I told Dad that I thought I was ready to become a mom, like Susan. He said that I had lived out all of her parts - first Annie in "Bull Durham," then Sister Helen Prejan in "Dead Man Walking (wanting to save all the death row inmates)," and then her character in "Stepmom," the quintessential matron. Leave it to Dad to add a touch of humor to a heavy moment.