A Not-So-Rude Awakening

By Joey Merkel

“Shorty got them Apple Bottom jeans, boots with the fur, got the whole club looking at her, she hit the floor, next thing you know, shorty got low low low low low low low.”
As I went to answer my phone at 7:45 a.m. I couldn’t hate that damn song more. I tried to compose myself as much as possible, unaware of who I was talking to because I couldn’t read my caller ID.
I said “Hello,” trying to hold back my big boy words to whoever was waking me up a good two hours before my first class on what was sure to be a rough Monday morning.
It was my best friend Zac on the other end so I couldn’t be that mad at him. He continued to ask me if I remember a picture that had been taken of us at an Orioles game the previous summer. I said that I vaguely remembered it.
Much to our surprise, we were reminded of the picture when another friend of ours opened up the sports section of our hometown newspaper, the “Baltimore Sun” and found himself, Zac and I staring directly back at him.
We were the centerpieces of a Baltimore Orioles season tickets ad.
He got around the horn to Zac who relayed it to me though I didn’t get to see it later that day when Zac sent me a phone picture. It was truly amazing.
And as I drifted back to sleep at 8 a.m., I started humming my ring tone, liking it more and more by the second.
Over the next few weeks we continued to receive phone calls from family and friends saying that they had seen our ad in more and more places.
It has already shown on the “Baltimore Sun” website along with “The Examiner,” another Baltimore publication. The most recent of phone calls came just a few days ago. A friend of mine called Nick, the third person in the picture, that they had seen the ad inside the MTA light rail train.
As the Orioles stampede their way to the top of the American Leauge East, I could never be more proud to be an Orioles fan.