How Twitter Led Me to a Day of Fun at the Phillies Game

I have said this before: I love Twitter. To me, Twitter is like E Harmony for friendships. People follow those with like interests and some form great bonds while others find, with the help of one of the Twitter Tracker programs, that they have been eliminated from someone's feed to make room for a celebrity like Ashton Kutcher or Justin Beiber. However for me, Twitter has been a great place to meet those who share my many passions including my love for the Philadelphia Phillies.

At the beginning of the season, I was watching a game, and I started to chat with a truly nice woman who now lives in California. She still loves her Phillies, and we talked about the team during those nine innings. As this chat was going on, I noticed other Phillies' fans tweeting as well. One thing led to another and before I knew it, we had formed a virtual Phillies meet-up group on Twitter for all the games.

I have to say that of all the people who chat during the Phillies' games, I am the most calm. I mean these fans yell about everything, but me, I am the voice of reason. I am a master at hiding my emotions. (Wow, I heard those jaws drop!) For the record, I am being sarcastic. Anyway, there are several regulars that I tweet with all the time, and once we got into chit chatting, we started to talk about other things such as families and work and as a result, true friendships did form.

Well, this was the case especially with CS. I won't give her full name as she is in the education writing biz and likes to keep a low profile, but as we chatted about baseball and her other love - the New York Jets - we connected. As we talked further, we realized we had so much in common, and we decided it was time that we met in person. CS came up with the idea that we should go to see a Phillies' game together. Finally, after months of planning, she got tickets to one of the final Mets-Phillies games at Citizen's Bank Park.

We were so excited for this game, and we even tried to get one of our other Phillies' fans, Mark, who resides in North Carolina to come to the game with us, However, the eight-hour trip was too much for him for that one day. We forgave him under the condition that we would all take a road trip next season and meet in Washington, D.C. to watch the Phils take on the Nationals. Not only is Washington a doable distance for all of us, but those tickets are easy to get because no one goes to the Nationals' games except for Phillies' fans. Anyway, CS and I confirmed through email that we would meet at a shopping center that was halfway between our two houses.

I felt as if I was going on a blind date -- without the sex. Well, in truth, it was not a blind date for CS as she had seen my Twitter photo. Her avatar is a butterfly or dragonfly or something like that, so unless she was sporting wings and antennae that day in the parking lot, I was going to have a tough time recognizing her.

I am going to admit this now, and, CS, do not get offended. My daughter and her boyfriend could not get over that I was meeting someone who I knew nothing about in a parking lot. They wanted to follow me to the meeting place to make sure I was safe. They lectured me about online safety and being too naïve. I finally convinced my daughter and her boyfriend that I would be okay, but they insisted that I use the code phrase, "the Phillies are wearing their day uniforms". I was to speak the code phrase if CS turned out to be man or someone with deadly intentions. Those two watch way too much Law & Order SVU. I told them that if I was in trouble, and I had time to call, I would just scream "HELP!" into my cell. They thought that might work too.

As it turned out, CS and I never met at the original meeting place. She got off at the wrong exit, and that was fortunate because she had to call my cell to set up a new meeting place and with that phone call, I was able to confirm that indeed CS was a legitimate woman. So, as I made my way to our new meeting location, I called my worried offspring and told her that CS was who she said she was, and that the code phrase sequence was no longer necessary. Another twist in this parking lot meeting snafu was that I got the code phrase plan all wrong. I got mixed up and thought I was supposed to say the phrase if CS turned out to be who I thought she would be. If we had met at the original spot, I would have said the magic phrase and that would have sent up the "DANGER" flares which might have resulted in the FBI surrounding us, CS and I missing the Phillies' game, and me having a lot of explaining to do.

Once I found my way to our meeting destination, CS hopped in my car and we flew down the Schuylkill Expressway to the game. Allow me to say that from the first moments we started to talk in person, we did not experience one awkward silence. We literally felt as if we had known each other for years. That was such a great relief, and we laughed about it too. It was so much fun to root for our team in our outrageous way without feeling even a modicum of embarrassment. We stood behind right field so that she could have Jayson Werth in her field of vision as often as possible. We talked non-stop for hours, and she is the wonderful person I thought she would be.

I don't mean to gush or embarrass her but may I tell you what made me truly cherish this woman? Not once, during the entire ride down to Citizens Bank Park, did she make that hissing sound while I was driving or changing lanes or braking. In fact, one time I did stop short, and she didn't even grab the passenger side door or use the imaginary brake on the floor of the passenger seat. She might have thought about it, but she didn't do it! I loved her for that.

Anyway, my day with CS taught me that friendships can be formed via Twitter, and in fact next June, I am going with another Twitter friend, a psychic who resides in the Pacific Northwest, to Gettysburg. She wants me to help her investigate the spirits that linger there. My daughter and her boyfriend already have new safety code words in place. I just laugh at them. Who is going to get me there? General Lee.