catching up with the dodgers

so, i have been really bad about posting.  like, during 2020 i kind of had an excuse - we were home for the majority of it and i honestly didn't have much to talk about.  but 2021 has brought a pretty fair level of normalcy back to our lives, what with the vaccine becoming widely available and things opening back up to near pre-pandemic levels.  and in looking back at my camera roll from the last - oh, eight months or so - i have a good number recaps to get caught up on.  eek.  and so the next handful of posts will be from random things we may have done quite awhile ago.  oops.

like the dodger game that we attended with a bunch of my cousins back in august.  we'd attended filipino heritage night in 2019 and said that we'd try to make it an annual thing.  my cousin had even put a deposit down on a block of tickets for the 2020 game, and we all know what happened to that.  and then he found out that there would indeed be a filipino heritage night for 2021 and so we all put in our requests for seats.  he scored a pretty sweet deal for a bunch of us, way down in a section they call the "home run seats."  they included all-you-can-eat grub and soft drinks, and we were all pretty excited to head down to chavez ravine and have a fun evening of cousin bonding and dodger baseball.

once we parked, we made our way towards the entrance where they checked for vaccination or negative covid test results.  i didn't love how close people were packing together and tried to socially distance as much as possible, and luckily the line moved pretty quickly.

people were obviously excited to get back to watching live games in the stadium.

after collecting our filipino-themed jersey, we made our way to our seats.  and we stocked up on snacks along the way - there were bags of popcorn and peanuts plus a healthy option of "clean snax."  there was also a self-service drink cooler with cans of soda and bottles of water.

our view was pretty awesome, i gotta say.

our section had a dedicated server, who brought us whatever we wanted from this menu:

during a run to the restroom, the old lady and i went over to see if we could catch a glimpse of the filipino dancers who were getting ready to perform down on the field.

back at our seats, the dodgers were out on the field practicing before the game started.

it was a good time for a couple of selfies.

not gonna lie, i was a little bummed that we weren't there for hello kitty night.

but hey - if you wanted to get vaccinated, they could hook you up right there in the stadium.  sweet.

this was the michelada sausage with slaw:

the dodgertown grinder - mortadella, prosciutto, oregano, parmesan, lettuce and oil & vinegar on a baguette.

nachos, of course.

and a simple dodger dog with ketchup, just the way i like it.

and the bean was pretty happy with this cup of chocolate malted ice cream.

jo koy, the comedian who is also filipino (and dating chelsea handler) got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

the bean's cousins and their friend heckled cody bellinger endlessly throughout the game, and it was pretty comical.  but he was a good sport about it, at one point tossing a ball to them.  this was right before i actually caught a piece of it but lost it to one of the kids, which is how it should be anyway.

we had a group of cousins who had opted to buy tickets in a different section, and we coordinated a quick meet-up before the night ended.

the dodgers won the game, of course, and that was that.

it's always a good time when we hang out with my cousins.  i'm so glad that we get to do it face to face again, and not just through zoom like we had to do all last year.  hopefully that will continue, omnicron variant be damned.