Jon celebrated his birthday last night at the ballpark. His two favorite teams were playing: the San Diego Padres, who he barely roots for because he says they suck after opening day and the Seattle Mariners because he has family in Seattle and an unhealthy crush on Ichiro.
We got to the ballpark about 10 minutes after the game started and walked up to our seats in section 302. We saw Dex's wife Jess and son Elliott sitting in the section all by themselves. They were the only people on time. Elliott was taking his first Padres game really seriously. His brow was furrowed and he sat perfectly still, taking in all the sights and sounds.
I had contacted Pad Squad Andre to see if he would come sing Happy Birthday to Jon and make his wildest fantasies come true. I wanted him to sing it really breathy like Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK. Also if it wouldn't be too much trouble could he call him "Mr. President"? I'm convinced that was all Jon wanted for his birthday, he just didn't know it.
So about the 3rd inning, I saw an energized PSA walking up the stairs looking for us. He seriously had about twenty equally energized blonde Pad Squad beauties behind him ready to sing to Jon. I signaled to him and met him at the bottom. It seemed that PSA brought the entire Pad Squad and they were all standing below ready to sing to Jon. The only problem was that Jon still hadn't shown up to the game yet. It had been going on for about 45 minutes and Jon was late to his own birthday. I apologized and was embarrassed that Andre went to all this trouble and I couldn't even get Jon there by the third inning. PSA as great as he is said that he'd be back in the 7th inning.
About 4-5 minutes after they leave, Jon came strolling in. "Dude Jon you just missed out on the Pad Squad singing you Happy Birthday." Jon replied "Yeah I saw them, glad I missed that". Jon loves attention but at the same time gets shy. I'm like "Jon, so help me, you'll be here during the 7th inning!"
Kev and his wife rolled in about 15 minutes later and were glad they didn't miss out on the birthday festivities either. It appeared everything was going to work out.
The 7th inning came and I had yet to pay attention to anything that was happening on the field. Once again we saw Andre appear from below. He sprinted up the stairs and signaled for Jon to to come with him. Jon sat in his seat sipping his beer. "Jon get down there!" I yelled at him. Jon gets shy and didn't want to go by himself so he grabbed our friend Steve who's birthday was the next day. It's the buddy system, don't swim alone and don't celebrate a birthday alone, I guess. I followed them with my camera ready.
Andre got the attention of the entire section with his loud leathery voice. "Today is Jon's Birthday! We're all going to sing him Happy Birthday!" Jon looked really embarrassed which was perfect.
After the singing Pad Squad Catherine handed Jon a delicious Ice Cream Birthday Cake. We were blown away by how nice the Pad Squad was to us. Jon seemed humbled by the experience.
We were handed a bunch of spoons. Some girls sitting next to us asked if they could have some birthday cake. I told them "sure" but they didn't come down. We destroyed that cake. Nine different people with their spoons digging into it. Kev's wife dug out a circle in the center so that she didn't get anybody's saliva in her bite of cake. It looked so gross and was probably covered in spit after we were done with it. I took it to throw the carcass away. I walked by the girls again and jokingly said "here you go you can have the rest". They were like "We can?!" and they chowed down on the rest of it. Who does that sort of thing? Who eats leftovers from strangers? They must really have a sweet tooth.
We went down after and thanked PSA and the other members of the Pad Squad and got a picture of Dex's son with PSA to commemorate his first game.
Jon was really happy with the way his birthday turned out, I'm not sure if he knows or cares that the Padres lost. Now he just has to get up at 4am to go help Dex move on the other side of the country. Good guy that Jon.