Red letter day

When I was younger, I was transfixed by Ivy Ruckman's book Night of the Twisters, despite-slash-because of my fascination with weather (and fear of tornadoes). The book opens with a passage about red letter days that I still think of often:

When I was a, little kid, I thought a red-letter day was when you got a red letter in the mailbox. Pretty dumb, huh? It finally dawned on me that a red letter day is when something terrific and wonderful happens to you. Usually something unexpected.

Earlier this week I had a total red letter day, but my definition is a little different than Dan Hatch's (and fortunately didn't include severe weather like that character's narrative did). I think it was one of those days for which you are so pumped that your spot in the universe is simply primed to observe and accept other fun surprises cropping up around you.

The big event, of course, was my third annual trip to Target Field with my grandma. Proper credit for getting this started goes to Josh. My grandma always has lots of interesting questions for him about the Twins and Target Field, and one day a few years back, he asked if she would ever want to go to a Twins game there - and she surprised me by emphatically saying yes!

We went to games in 2010 and 2011. Last year, we learned it worked best to pin down a couple of dates, in case the earlier one turned out to be too hot for Grandma's comfort. (I think it ended up being 97 and humid on what was the first day we chose last year.) Early this week I checked the forecast, and surrounded by a string of days in the 70s and even 60s, Wednesday was looming with a predicted high of 87. Ugh! I called her to ask her what she thought, and she said not to fret, because an August breeze and less humidity than earlier in the summer would likely help the afternoon out. She was totally right!

Actually, Wednesday started out with pouring rain, but it was an isolated line of storms that swept through the Twin Cities and cleared out with plenty of time before the game started. Okay, I can picture you now: I appreciate this extended essay about weather, but can you get to the point? Luckily, Reader, this is where the meteorological commentary ends and when my first little unexpected red letter day moment happened. (Although we could count perfect weather as part of the red letter day, no?) Anyway, I was driving to pick Grandma up and was stuck momentarily in the morning rush hour near downtown Minneapolis. I prepared to change lanes, glanced over to check my blind spot, and noticed a familiar car pass me. It was my brother, on his way to work!  Ha! Hi, Brother!

Grandma and I met Josh at Target Field, got to our section, and settled into our seats. This was our view - tucked under the upper level, creating perfect shade for our seats for the entire game:

My dad had set the table for another red letter day moment the night before, when he texted me that he, too, was thinking of going to that day's game with a couple of his friends. He has been on the road a lot this summer for work, so I was excited that we might get to see him at Target Field.

After we got settled in our seats, I texted him our section and immediately got a message back from him, repeating the number I had sent him. It turned out, of course, out of every section in the entire stadium, his seat was in ours, about 10 rows away from us! Red letter day! He kept popping over to visit with us. (He brought us ice cream in the sixth inning, too: a vanilla cone with sprinkles for me, a helmet sundae for Grandma!) Target Field felt like a fun party!

The game started. Grandma and Josh discussed the action:

Unfortunately, a Twins win wasn't in the cards that day, but we enjoyed our trip to Target Field just the same.

(And we could not have hoped for better weather. I kept that jacket on the whole time, and the breeze blowing in was gentle and delightful. It was a magnificent day for the middle of August.)

I brought her back home and she sent me on my way with a bag full of cookies, her famous raisin bread, and a new pair of wool socks. (Perfect for bringing on my canoe trip next week!)

It is always great to spend a full day with Grandma - and when I dropped her off, we both said it felt like it went by so quickly. Each year now, it's one of my favorite days of the summer - a red letter day, to be sure, even before this year's funny little coincidences.