A Birthday Surprise

My niece, Lili, is 15 years old. Her little brother, Austin, has a birthday coming up. The kids have been up here in New York now visiting their Grandparents and I for the summer. Austin has no idea that my brother is taking them all to a Yankees game in August as a surprise for his birthday before they all head back down to Texas.

Lili is in on the surprise, and she wanted to try to make it extra special. Austin's favorite player is Aaron Judge. We watch all of the Yankees games on tv, and as soon as Lili saw that Judge had been injured she knew that probably meant that Austin wouldn't get to see his favorite player in action when they go to the game. Going to the game will still be a great birthday surprise, and Austin will still be thrilled, but it will be a little less magical without getting to see his favorite player in action.

So Lili took it upon herself to email the Yankees to see if there was any way that Austin could get to meet Aaron Judge, even if he is injured and cannot play. She got an email back (probably a generic response) to call customer service. She called, and the very nice woman at customer service explained that meeting players had to be arranged through their management, but they did not have that information to give out.

Lili wasn't ready to give up just yet. I suggested that she post a picture of Austin in his Little League uniform on Instagram, and put her email in the caption. She didn't want to do that because:

1) Austin would see it and it would ruin the surprise of going to the Yankees game
2) She doesn't want him to find out that she tried to get him to meet Aaron Judge if it doesn't work out.

Not knowing what else to do, I told her I would try posting her letter here and posting a link to it on Twitter. Maybe Aaron Judge or someone at the Yankees would see it that way. Worth a shot, right? Maybe the internet can work some birthday magic of it's own for Austin.

Below is the email that Lili sent to the Yankees. I'm just copying and pasting it here.


Hi my name is Lili, I’m 15 I’m from Corpus Christi, Texas. My little brother Austin is a big Yankees fan, but an even bigger Aaron Judge fan. Two years ago my little brother went to his first Yankees game, which also happened to be  Aaron Judge's first game, and he’s been his biggest fan ever since. He was so excited that after the game he passed out before he even got his food.

His little leauge baseball team back in corpus is called “Laguna Little League Yankees” and he begged to get 99. Like I said he REALLY likes Aaron Judge.

We are here visiting family in New York this summer and as a surprise birthday present my dad is  going to take us to the Yankees game on August 9th. Austin will be 11 on August 11th. He got seats in the Judges chamber and tickets to watch batting practice before the game. This a total surprise and Austin has no idea it”s happening.

As you can probably guess Austin was very concerned when Judge got injured and put on the DL. Austin is concerned that his favorite player won’t be playing for a few weeks, I’m upset because he won’t get to see his favorite player get to play at his surprise birthday game. Would it be possible for Austin to meet Aaron Judge at the game on Thursday August 9th? I didn’t tell anyone, I was just hoping to make his birthday surprise a little bit more amazing. 

Thank you for your consideration, I know Yankees are great with they’re fans.

Sincerely, Liliana Myers

Happy Birthday to Me!

So today was my birthday!  I gave myself a present by taking the day off from work.  I refuse to deal with patrons and their problems on my birthday.  Tomorrow will be soon enough.

Instead, I got to go to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles, in case you didn't know.)  Fun!

I had to renew my driver's license, you see.  It expired today.  This was not my first attempt at doing so, oh no.  I had tried three previous times to renew my license, and it failed miserably every.single.time.

At first my plan was to get one of the Enhanced Driver's licenses which, according to the website "can be used instead of a passport to return to the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and some countries in the Caribbean."  Cool!  So I went to the DMV, and they told me it was too soon.  I had to wait until it was closer to my birthday to renew.  Whatever. 

So I waited a few months, and I went back again.  I get there, get my number, and wait about half an hour to be called.  Not a long time, based on past visits.  I get to the counter, and the guy looks over all of my paperwork (you have to bring a bunch of different proofs of identity and address to get an enhanced license), and then he tells me the system is down.  They can't connect to the system in Albany, but he can totally get my address updated.  Okay, fine.  At least it isn't a totally wasted trip.

So while waiting to go back yet again, I read up on the enhanced license.  The website then made it sound super-cool, but when you read the details it only worked for ground travel -- not for travel by plane or boat.  WTF is the point?  Maybe it would be handy if I lived in Buffalo, but I don't drive to Canada often.

Forget about the enhanced license.  It's like $100 more.  Not worth it to me.

The DMV sent me my lovely reminder in the mail a couple weeks ago that I had to renew my license.  Thanks, guys!  Ooh, I can do it online as well!  That would save time.

So I went to do the renewal online.  Start going through the process, la-de-de-de-da.  Then I got to the page for the corrective lenses and was screwed.  Freaking eye exam!  Yes, I need corrective lenses to drive.  I need them to do everything but read, unless I want to walk around playing "try not to bump into any of the blurry things".  To renew online, you have to get an eye exam and have the doctor fill in a special DMV form so that you can fill in all of the information.

I didn't have the form filled in.  I didn't have time to go to the eye doctor for this.  I only go once a year, and that is to get more contacts and have an eye exam.  Now I was doomed to a third trip to the DMV.

Back I went again today.  But today was different.  The entire trip -- including parking and walking to and from the DMV office -- took me less than half an hour.  Can you believe it?  It was like birthday magic!  I was in, took the eye test, got a new picture taken, and out.  Boom!  I still can't get over how quick it was.

If you have to go to the DMV, I suggest going on your birthday.  Maybe the magic will happen for you as well!  (Although it could possibly be that it was because I went in the middle of the day, on a Wednesday, in the middle of the month, and maybe that is just a slow time.  I like the birthday magic theory better.)