There is Too Much Joy To Fit in This Headline. So, Just Read About My Best Day Ever.

I’ve heard of luck. But this much luck?

A slew of great things happened to me today, both work-related and just in general. In no particular order:

>>I’m going to get to do a ride-along with either a Times theater critic or editor (OK, I lied, there is a particular order to this first item). I haven’t exactly been shy about my love of theater, and now I’ll get to attend a show and then edit the critic’s review. This actually made my life for the month (and my editor on the Flex Desk is the real MVP for arranging it).

>>I’m attending the famous Page One news meeting tomorrow, in which the editors in the New York newsroom and around the world decide the lineup for the day’s front page. Hooray!

>>A New York Times reporter who covers culture and sports (who does this sound like?) invited me to get coffee on Thursday (doesn’t this normally happen the other way around?). That would be Sopan Deb, if you were curious.

>>My schedule changed and now I can go to a Red Sox-Yankees game in August (before I was working during all the series dates).

>>I moved off the waitlist and now have a ticket for the “Live with Kelly & Ryan” taping Thursday morning at 10 a.m. This is amazing because I just did a batch request for the whole week at the beginning of June because I didn’t know my schedule yet. Thursday happens to be the only day this week I could go, as the taping arrival time is normally around 7:15 a.m., which I can’t swing after working a late-night shift. But there’s a bonus 10 a.m. taping on Thursdays because they tape Friday’s show in advance. My guests will be Dave Bautista (Drax from The Avengers!) and Caroline Rhea.

>>I got to shadow in The New York Times print hub tonight to learn how the sausage gets made (woot!).

>>Maggie Haberman evidently cares that I have to leave The Times in a month (she liked a reply to my tweet lamenting that very fact).

>>Also, I learned “Ice Cream Wednesdays” are apparently a summer thing at The New York Times.

And in today’s pre-planned fun: A Yankee Stadium tour!

I headed to the Bronx this morning to grab a tour ticket with my NYC Explorer pass, and the first available tour was at noon (they only offer tours for a three-hour period a few days of the week, and they go quickly). So I wandered the neighborhood around Yankee Stadium for a bit, checking out the knockoff souvenir shops and stalls. Look at this antique Johnny Damon pin I found (I have a 3D poster of him on my bedroom wall from his bearded time with the Red Sox)!

My Red Sox fandom was definitely something I didn’t advertise today (my keychain was safely buried in my bag.)

Yankee Stadium reminds me of Victory Field, and unlike Fenway Park, it definitely isn’t smaller than I imagined. This Yankee Stadium is actually the fourth incarnation, and holds 49,000 fans. The Yankees have a tradition of winning the World Series every year the teams builds a new stadium: Build a new stadium in 1923, win the World Series. Build one in 2009, win the World Series. So to cure their lack of a World Series appearance in what is arguably the franchise’s worst decade ever, they just need to build another stadium, right? (They’ve appeared in the World Series in every other decade since the 1920s, excepting the 2010s.)

Some of the tour highlights:

>>Monument Park, which honors Yankees legends (with Jeter’s number retirement, the team is now out of single-digit numbers except for 0, which is being worn by Adam Ottavino this season, the first time a player has worn it for the Yankees in 116 years.

>>The center-field scoreboard, which is 25 percentage points larger than an NBA court.

>>The team’s seven World Series trophies (they’ve won 27 times, but are missing 20 because the first trophy wasn’t manufactured until 1967).

>>Derek Jeter’s bat (he hit home runs with that tiny thing?!)

>>Babe Ruth’s jersey (chills).

>>Balls used in games from all 27 World Series wins.

>>870 baseballs on the “Ball Wall” (my condolences to the tour guide who has to say that every day) signed by current and former Yankees players. The team’s goal is to eventually have balls signed by every player, even those that only stayed with the franchise for a couple of days, and they’re currently at 54 percent of their target.

>>The World Series ring display (the first championship “ring” was actually a pocket watch).

I also got to go up in the press box, where the Yankees beat writers for The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN sit. Who knows, maybe I’ll be back on assignment one day!

All tour-takers all get one of these lovely souvenir magnets, which I will grudgingly display on my fridge (far away from the Red Sox one).

And today in food: Pan-fried chive and pork dumplings from Vanessa’s Dumpling House in the East Village. Why do I keep going here? It’s not especially good, but it’s very cheap (and near my apartment), so win!

Finally, tonight I got to shadow in The New York Times print hub. It was definitely a learning experience, as I have essentially no print training. I learned a bunch of new print-specific terminology, and I got to look over copies of tomorrow’s paper in advance (and copy-edit the pages). It’s interesting to now know what happens when I mark a story “Ready for print review” after editing it at the Flex Desk. In a fun touch, there’s a newsroom bell they ring before the first print deadline of the evening (for the “bulldog,” or first, edition).

Coming up this week: A Page One meeting tomorrow, coffee with Sopan Deb, “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” a free Broadway in Bryant Park concert, and more! Life is good.