Summer in Allentown

I landed in Philadelphia, PA last Thursday and Erin Stratmore picked me up from the airport. The drive from Philly to Allentown was a little over an hour and we went straight to ECTB Stadium for practice. It was pretty overwhelming when I first got there, everyone introduced themselves and I was nervous, so I was sweating of course. Matt showed me my locker which had a bat bag, some practice clothes, and a subway sandwich in it cuz I hadn't eaten yet. (were driving to the field and Erin calls and asks Matt to go get me a sandwich...weird) So I sat down in my chair (we have chairs!) and ate my sandwich while Matt gave me the lowdown on laundry and everything. Then Erin's sitting there asking me what kind of glove, cleats, and batting gloves I want. I'm thinking she means sizes, but no, she wanted to know what brand I wanted. Ahhh, this is so cool! So I tried some stuff on, then suited up for practice and headed out to the field. Most of the girls were hitting off of tees when I got out there, except for the pitchers and catchers of course...chillin in the BP. So I headed down there and met Jennifer Teague, Kristina Thorson, Meagan Hennessey, Rocky Spencer, and Ashley Smith. Thor and Hennessey were already pitching so I talked to Teague and John Byrne for a bit while I waited to throw. Once Hennesey was finished I threw to Rocky. Teague said just a typical day before the game workout (so like ten minutes or less for me). After that I joined the hitters for some front toss and that was it, practice over (weird).

After practice I rode back to the dorms with Megan McAllister, Loren Anguiano, and Trena Peel. We stay at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA. Ive been told its an all girls school. Its pretty small and the campus is nice, I like it. Mac and Lo took me to get checked in with housing to get my key and sign some forms. Right now were the only ones living in our building and its very safe (Mom). We have Corbys that let us into our hall as well as keys for each of our rooms. We have a lounge with a tv and a kitchen. A community bathroom, and we live two to a room. Its just an average dorm room...nothing special. Two beds, two desks, two dressers, two closets. And its air conditioned :) Security people randomly come in and walk down our hall... I guess to check things out.

The first night I was here I stayed with Kellie Wilkerson but Clare Burnum, her GF, is coming in a few days... so yesterday I moved to the room next door where Margo Pruis will join me today (Sunday).

I went to get my physical a few days ago and it was interesting...the whole thing took about 20 minutes. Ten minutes filling out paper work, eight minutes waiting in the exam room and a two minute physical. Seriously. The girls on the team say hes kind of a jerk...I don't know.

Ive been told pay day is the 15th, so until then my main food groups will be turkey and peanut butter and jelly with some chips and cookies on the side. But some people do actually cook here, so that's good since we all no I don't. Henney made baked ziti for everyone the other night, it was gooood! Everyone's scraping for cash though, well at least all of us rookies are.

There's a cafe open for us here on campus, its pretty good and cheap. Its only open for breakfast and lunch though, so that's sucky. Miguel's pretty cool too (the cook)... he makes omelets and stuff to order.

On Friday we were supposed to have an exhibition game but it got rained out :( We got to the stadium, started our hitting and then the rain started and came down for quite a while. We don't even have a tarp, weird. And theeen there was lightning so we were on a 30 min delay and it started raining again so they just called it.

During the warm-up my locker got switched because apparently they had given me the drippy locker and all my stuff was soaked! Sooo... now my locker is right next to Wilk - the Nike pro. For real, she has a personal contract with Nike and gets sooooo much stuff!! I'm so jealous and I want to be her friend. Haha. Shes really cool though, she gave out a bunch of stuff -- socks and batting gloves.

Margo got here a few days ago and shes really nice. Were reppin the Valley here in room 321. I made a pretty sign with the Valley logo for our door but fricken Mac kept turning it upside down so I moved it to the inside where its safer. Shes just bitter cuz she went to Georgia and we beat them, hahaha :)

I got a new glove and its preeeetty! Its white and navy blue and I love it! I do feel a little bad though, cheating on poor G-love. He didn't even know it was coming to him. One day hes still my glove, next day - career over. Poor thing.

So I'm still getting used to this whole pro thing. Its just so different. Like the first night I was here we went out and Teague came with us, and its allowed! Sooo weird. It was fun though. We went to a local bar called Rookies and watched the world series.

Saturday morning we went to a diner down the street, I forget what its called. The food was good, but not the point of the story. When we were leaving I gave Spence 50 cents and told her to win me a toy from the drop-claw thingy (yes, I am 12). Anyway, it took her three tries but she was successful and now we have a traveling mascot - Bert the Bee. Hes the ugliest thing Ive ever seen but I love him.

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Saturday was our day off, so after we went to the diner me, Wilk, Mac, Trena, Spence, Teague and Jess decided to go to Atlantic City. It took us awhile to get there with traffic...so we didn't get there til 5pm. The original plan was to go to the beach but it was too late by the time we got there. So we ended up gambling at the Hilton the whole time. Well Teague, Spence and Trena did and the rest of us were their support system. We even got free drinks just for standing there watching the whole time. Atlantic City was pretty cool...its like mini Vegas + the beach! We walked down the board walk and ate dinner at Hooters in another Casino. Teague treated with her winnings from black jack. She bought me an Atlantic City sweatshirt too cuz I'm broke and I was dressed for the beach and it got pretty freakin cold at night.

On Monday morning we had spin class and let me tell you it was the hardest thing I have ever done! And I do not with to ever do it again. Its basically an hour of intense bike riding to music while the 40 year old instructor kicks your ass. It wouldn't have been bad if there wasn't so much standing up and sitting down... my back is still hurting from doing it :( After spin a bunch of us stayed to lift weights on our own. We don't really have a weight lifting program but I guess were allowed to go to the gym any time we want and work out on our own.

We've been practicing at Moravian a lot lately... there's an indoor facility in case it rains (which it has been) and we have full access since Byrne is the head softball coach/AD there. Ive been practicing in the outfield the past few days and they said Ill probably play some left field along with pitching and hitting! Yay!

Tonight we had a cocktail party at a Hotel in downtown Allentown. Other than the players and coaching staff, there were the owners along with sponsors and donors of the team. We all had to dress up and we got free cocktails and finger foods. Margo and I were interviewed on camera since were the newbies.

Tomorrow is our home opener against the Washington Glory at 7:05pm. Thor is starting but they told me I'm gonna go in to pitch in the 4th inning :) I'm not sure if there will be any sort of live stats but you can check the website at http://www.philadelphiaforce.com. I know it's televised locally, but otherwise there isn't any coverage that I know of.

We get a lot of free time so if you reply to this I will definitely get back to you. Talk to you all later!

Love,

Stacy Birk #11 <--------still not ok with that :(