Month: October 2021

I took Maxine to see her friends play their last JV volleyball game of the season this evening. I thought it would be nice to support them and see some friends at the same time. Well, I have to say that I really enjoyed myself.

These girls do not mess around. It is a very fast-paced game, and they can dole out some smackdowns. They play the best out of three sets, and the set ends when one team reaches 25 points. If they need to play a third one, they play to 15. They fought hard but were outplayed by the opposing team, losing the first two games.

The varsity game was next. Since it was the last game of the season, they were also honoring the seniors on the team. The MC read the bios they had each prepared as they were escorted, one at a time, through the balloon arch and onto the court by their parents. One girl was escorted by her entire family: mom, dad, two brothers, and a sister. I recognized two of them from the neighborhood playgroup days when Edwin was a toddler.

After both teams warmed up and one of the senior players sang a beautiful rendition of the national anthem, it was on. While I was impressed by the JV teams, the varsity teams blew my mind. The power of the smackdown! The lunges they made, often in successful attempts to keep the ball alive!

Maxine and I agreed to leave after the first set, but I was torn. Our team won 25-21 and the stands were hopping. I had spotted a few former students and chatted with one who is now on the freshman team. Parents were ringing cowbells and shaking green poms, and students were chanting and stomping their feet.

I will definitely be back next year.

I’m starting to get the itch to see a musical, like Broadway-scale musical. I’ve seen two musicals literally on Broadway: Mean Girls, with a gaggle of (delightful) girls and their moms, and Book of Mormon with Chris.

I’ve seen Book of Mormon (#1 fan right here), Hamilton, Wicked, Billy Elliot, Matilda, Dear Evan Hansen, School of Rock, and An American in Paris at the Kennedy Center and other DC theaters over the last decade. Some utterly thrilled me, and others lefts me…meh.

But, like I always say: “Any musical is better than no musical.” Just kidding- I said that for the first time just now. Seriously, though: I think it’s time to plant myself in a theater again and feel my excitement rise as the lights dim and the orchestra tunes up.

What’s playing??

Sometimes I get tired of telling people what to do.

At home;

Time to get up.

Scoop the little boxes.

Drink your smoothies.

Come, Sasha.

At work:

Open your iPad.

Close your iPad.

Listen to your partner.

Eyes up here.

Slow down.

Back home:

Practice piano.

Empty the recycling.

Eat your dinner.

Scoop the litter boxes.

Walk Sasha.

Clean your room

Put gas in the car (a new one!).

Give me a kiss.

Soaking in the hot tub has become pretty much a nightly ritual for me. It soothes my body and signals my mind that the day is done.

I run the jets for a while and sometimes switch the light on. One setting even changes the color every few seconds. That was fun for about a minute.

When I’ve had just about enough, I turn off the jets and the light and listen. The weather has turned cooler, but not cold, so I still get to hear a chorus of crickets, which holds a trace of summer. I hear the waterfall in our pond, planes flying in and out of National Airport, a neighbor calling his dog back inside, occasional sirens, and now tires crunching on gravel. The kids are home.

My oasis. I’ll be back tomorrow night.

Maxine and her two friends stormed the kitchen this afternoon, and in the blink of an eye, two oranges, a banana, a bag of Pirate Booty, a package of graham crackers, and a bag of goldfish were decimated.

As they headed out the door to youth group to help put food packages together for families at the local high school, they remarked that they hoped there would be snacks.

Now they’re back. They’re probably hungry, and I expect they’ll descend for round 2 any minute.

As the skies began to darken this afternoon, I felt confident Maxine’s soccer game would be called off. By the time we made it to the field, ominous clouds hung close overhead and the wind began to pick up. As soon as the ball was in play, a steady rain had begun to fall.

Our small umbrellas were meager defenses against the slanting rain, and when the halftime whistle blew, we scampered to the car. Chris was still wearing shorts and elected to stay in the car, but I headed back out and found a bit of shelter under a playground canopy, located directly behind the opposing team’s goal.

The girls were all pretty soaked, but kept at it. The game was tied 2-2 with just a couple more minutes to go. All of a sudden, a wide space opened up between Maxine and the goal, and the ball passed right in front of her. She seized the moment and sent that ball right into the net. I jumped to my feet and cheered something fierce. This was a big deal because this was her second goal of her life.

It wasn’t the most comfortable game I’ve been to, but definitely one worth enduring a little wind and rain.

We have two koi, 10 rosy red minnows, and 15 snails. A common question I get when someone sees our pond and fish for the first time is what the kois’ names are.

We haven’t gotten around to naming them yet, and I’d given it almost no thought, but as I peered down at them last night, the black and white one tapped its nose all over the rocks on the bottom, and the orange and white one fluttered between larger rocks. The names Fred and Ginger came to mind.

I’ll have to run the names by the family, and I’m not yet sold on them, but I do think it’s high time they were christened. Sorry, minnows and snails: you are too great in number and appear way too identical to one another to receive a name.

My blogging habit hit some speed bumps, sputtered, stalled, and finally just stopped altogether. I just felt like I was running out of things to say, running out of time in the day…I guess a little of both.

I was just inspired to start again by the book I’m reading. It’s a memoir by Suleika Jaouad called Between Two Kingdoms about her excruciating and harrowing battle with leukemia. I’m about a third of the way in, and she’s just been counseled to find a hobby that is within her physical limitations. She settles on a hundred day project, and she commits to keeping a journal. She promises herself that no matter how sick or exhausted she feels, she’ll jot something down every day, even if nothing more than one sentence.

My goodness. If this woman, in her state of acute physical and emotional suffering can manage at least a sentence a day, surely I can too.