Week 5: Work in Major League Baseball!!!!

I am a HUGE baseball fan, I hope you guys know this by now. I played softball my whole life and have tried to work in baseball as much as possible. Ever since I was little, I wanted to work for my local (aka favorite) team, the Oakland A's. But that was never in the cards for me. Instead, I covered some collegiate softball for the UC Santa Barbara student newspaper as a writer in college. I worked for a semi-professional team as an intern in college. Then when I graduated I worked for MLB.com, covering professional beach volleyball. After that I went back to working collegiate athletics and worked for a Division I school in the Big West Conference traveling with the baseball team, writing articles for the website and broadcasting for a local radio station. Along that time I also had the fortune of working as the official scorer (holy pressure) for the A's minor league Single-A affiliate, the Stockton Ports.

But I never was able to snag a job in Major League Baseball. Until now!!!!!!!

Monday I officially started my "first day" with the D-backs, working a little, attending my new hire orientation, getting ballpark tours and of course, enjoyed a staff lunch. While I've seen the underbelly of minor league and collegiate stadiums, I've never been inside the bottom areas of a professional stadium. Except all the interviews I've racked up through the years. While I still haven't gotten a super official tour yet, it will happen! And I start back up again next week, working from the Diamondbacks' brand new Spring Training facility in Scottsdale.

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I'm stoked out of my mind. Especially when you think that Spring Training kicks off in less than three weeks and the season officially opens in APRIL (Happy Birthday to me, right?!).

J.D. took me out to dinner to celebrate my first day last week at a local Italian restaurant by our house. I've been wanting to try it out for a long time and it surely didn't disappoint :)

Pinot Grigio with roasted red pepper bruschetta

Sea bass poached in Mediterranean butter

The next night we had plans of either seeing a movie or going bowling, but they were foiled by the late-night league going on. Instead, I happened to notice a wine tasting room and cupcake shop nearby!! I would, right?! So we each decided to order a three-glass wine flight, along with baked brie in a raspberry chipotle sauce. I think the choice turned out to be MUCH better than bowling anyways. However, I still want to see Black Swan!

And while the cupcake shop was closed, I definitely made a point to check it out the following day. It's brand new and supposedly once a month they do a wine and cupcake pairing with the wine tasting room next door! Very much like the American Cupcake experience I had in San Francisco before moving to Arizona. That was a super fun outing and I cannot wait to see how the places here in AZ pair cupcakes and wine :) Guess we'll have to wait and see, huh?!

This week has been busy socially and also professionally. In addition to having my first day, I've also subbed at an elementary school, a high school and I've tutored close to eight hours after school this week. Man, working several part-time jobs is really tiring :) But let's not end on work, let's finish on a high note here! I leave you with peanut butter cup and red velvet cupcakes. Such a tease...

And don't forget, you can keep tabs on all my new weekly endeavors here!