Josh Towers, 2002 Studio #65

This is probably a silly question, but does anyone else watch Mad Men? I was behind the curve with it, as I am with many pop culture phenomena. Thanks to Netflix, I've taken a crash course on the first four seasons of the show. I just now watched the last one, in the nick of time for tonight's season premiere. I picked up this card a few weeks back, and it occurred to me that Josh Towers bears a passing resemblance to Aaron Staton, the actor who portrays Ken Cosgrove in the series. I wonder if there are any other Mad Men lookalikes in Orioles lore?

Josh Towers, 2002 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia #20

It's a hit-and-run piece tonight because I spent the day at my good friend Mike's wedding. They had beautiful weather and a classy ceremony and reception, and I had a blast seeing all of my college friends again. At the same time, I am thrilled to know that there are no other weddings on my radar for the foreseeable future. This was the third set of nuptials that I've attended in the past five weeks, and I'm pretty sure there are laws against that kind of thing. I'm ready to put away my fancy clothes for a while.

Oh, why Josh Towers? He shares a birthday - February 26 - with Mike. Good for them.

Josh Towers, 2002 Upper Deck Victory #114

I just learned that Josh Towers is pitching in the major leagues, in 2009, for the A.L. East-leading Yankees. I can't even think of anything snarky to say about that, since the Orioles lost 10-0 to the Red Sox and I'm running on three hours of sleep. That Monday night power nap had to fuel me through my first day of work at the Social Security Administration, which was actually several hours worth of tutorials from various folks about all of the stuff that we as federal government employees absolutely cannot do. Think of the Simpsons episode where Bart Simpson tries to get his pocket knife certification from the Junior Campers: "'Don't Do What Donny Don't Does'. They could have made this clearer." So, we must live to fight another day.

(On the plus side, the commute to work is much more favorable, even with Beltway traffic. Also, most of the litany of speakers were at least skilled and witty enough at their jobs to make the presentations more palatable.)

Josh Towers, 2002 Upper Deck #141

For some reason, I've been in a reflective mood for the past few days, and I've been thinking about high school. While I was sitting at my desk at work today, I unearthed some memories of a girl named Dawn, someone I hadn't thought about in years. We knew each other through youth group, and though we were never much more than acquaintances, she was always very friendly towards me. Dawn was a petite brunette with a big smile and a bubbly personality, and she was very affectionate. She just knew how to perk up your mood.

I, on the other hand, was just as awkward as I am today, if not more so. I probably looked a lot like Josh Towers, all skin and bones and long, gangly limbs and quirky fashion sense. Yet for some reason, Dawn started calling me "Hercules", or even "my Hercules". I honestly couldn't tell whether she was teasing me or if it was a genuine term of endearment. Not only did I take a lot of teasing in high school (though I endured much of it with good humor), but my intuition for those sort of things was still undeveloped. I've honed my radar in the subsequent decade (oh God, it really has been ten years), but at the time I was often willfully oblivious. Sure, I allowed my mind to wander when she sat in my lap at a friend's birthday party, but I figured that she was just being flirtatious, as she'd been before with mutual friends. She even tried to set me up with her younger sister once. Talk about mixed signals!

A year or two after I last saw Dawn, I heard that she had a child of her own; she was still a teenager at that time. I don't really know anything else about her whereabouts, but I'm grateful that I knew her. After all, today was another monotonous Monday in a cubicle in a windowless office, a day of paper cuts and the whining drone of the fax machine. But then I suddenly remembered a time when a goofy, skinny kid was someone's Hercules for no adequately explained reason, and I smiled to myself.