Every once in a while, I like to remind people that I am not that smart.

About a month ago my mom said she was planning on going to a Washington Nationals game this week, and asked if I wanted to go. I checked the calendar, and for some reason got it in my head that the game was on a Monday.

Given that I don’t start work until 10 p.m., and work in the city, it was actually convenient timing to catch a game.

So I got home from work Monday morning planning on power-napping so I could get up in time for the game. All morning I had listened to weather reports saying we were getting tons of rain, and figured there was little chance they were actually going to play the game. I woke up a few times and checked the radar, each time becoming more and more convinced of a rain-out.

After sleeping a lot longer than I originally intended, I checked the radar one more time. Somehow all of the rain that seemed destined to fall on Washington somehow skirted the city.

I started rushing to leave the house so I could at least catch some of the game; I figured I could get there around the fifth or sixth inning. But in my haste, I left my ticket in the car. I knew where we were sitting, so on the train I figured I would just get a cheap ticket to get into the stadium and make my way down to the original seats.

I got to Nationals Park in the top of the sixth inning, and for some reason the guy at the box office gave me a free ticket. I would like to say it is because of my stellar personality, but given the stack of free tickets on the desk I doubt I was alone.

I didn’t see anyone in our row, so I called my mom to see if they had moved to a potentially drier location:

“Hello?”
“Hey, are you here?”
“Que?”
“Are you at the game?”
“The game is tomorrow.”

(Some portions of the conversation may have been re-created)

A dry view of the game

So there I was, at a baseball game on the wrong day. It’s actually quite fortunate I forgot my original ticket — imagine the confusion trying to use a ticket from the wrong day.

At least I got to see three free innings.