Soccer Days and Nights

4-25-16

If I sound incoherent it may be due to the horrible cold/allergies I am dealing with right now. I am guessing between being in sun all weekend, cheering at multiple soccer games (about 6 games worth) and dealing with the crazy wind and other weather factors I am all honked up. My throat is currently on fire, which I suppose isn’t too bad being that I haven’t had to deal with this in some time. I used to deal with sore throats all the dang time, so I am trying to stay positive. I didn’t end up doing my workout this morning due to how crappy I feel. I most likely will take off tomorrow as well, which although sucks, I don’t need to get worse.

It was a full soccer weekend for sure. Dax ended up playing a total of 4 games, two on each day. The first game was truly the best, and not just because they won. They had a come from behind win, with Dax rockin a hat trick. The team lost the other 3 games, which was a bummer, but I could see so much improvement in their play. Sadly, on Saturday it was just a tough break. Sunday, well, that was a different story.

Our first game Sunday morning looked to be a good match. Both teams were fairly even, which is excellent. Stressful, but I prefer a close match compared to either team winning by blow out. And truly, it started like a good game. There were some questionable calls, but you kind of expect this. Sadly, it would get worse.

By mid second quarter, our ref had crossed the line of professional referee into horrible, bad man-bun flaunting jackass. A call was made, which was questioned by our assistant coach, Pepe. Coaches question calls all the time, and for the most part, it is almost part of the game. As long as they are respectful of it and don’t go stupid, referees tend to be fine with answering a question. Man-Bun was not one of these referees. At one point, when Pepe questioned the call, he dismissed Pepe and then turned to the A/R and twirled his finger around his ear in a, “this dude is a wack job” motion. So because of this, at the end of the first quarter, our coach, JJ, asked to approach the ref indicating this was very disrespectful. Once again, our coach was dismissed and he didn’t even entertain his complaint.

Second quarter starts and another call happens that Pepe questions. Without warning, Man-Bun simply waves his hand over at him and says, “Bye Bye” and says nothing else. This is in front of the entire game. The standard way a center ref should handle a send off is not by doing this. Pepe leaves in disgust when they were setting up for this free kick due to the bad call. JJ indicates that the foul took place closer to the other side, when Man-Bun then does the same thing to JJ. Mind you, Pepe can be hot headed, but not JJ. If anything, he was being incredibly polite and nice about the whole thing, even trying to calm Pepe down. The dismissive nature of how the ref handled this was horrible. Plus, he effectively frazzled our team by kicking out our main coaches.

At the time, I thought the other team seemed to be handling all of this respectfully. Sadly, I found out after that the coach had actually ran up to Ken who was doing field monitoring by the field and got up in his face and started yelling and saying that our team needed to now forfeit because we had no coaches. Mind you, we had not only Ken as a certified coach on our team, we had Dan and myself, all of whom stepped up, who could handle this. It was so incredibly tacky.

Our team was upset. Not only were there 3 super bad calls, all of those particular calls resulted in the other team scoring. At one point, there was a handling situation on the other team that the A/R called and Man-Bun called it off. After this, the A/R mentioned it to Man-Bun, who then said that he saw it but oh well. He actively didn’t give us a call simply because he decided our team was evil.

This ref ruined Man-Bun for me

Man-Bun’s actions didn’t go unnoticed by our boys. Many were confused, some angry. It was truly the downfall of the game for us. Sure, if perhaps they were older they could just let this bullshit roll off of them, but these are 9 year olds. They don’t have that ability to just let things go like that. It was truly heartbreaking.

At the end of the game, I found out later that when our team went to go say good game to the players (who were never an issue) and the coach along with the two A/R’s, many of them opted to avoid thanking Man-Bun, including Dax. I was torn at first on this, but ultimately I am ok with this. It is a silent protest that these boys opted to do on their own in solidarity with their coaches. I understand this is probably not a popular opinion, but these boys know how they played. They know how their coaches are. They understand that there were injustices done and by allowing them that small amount of control, I think it is better in the grand scheme of things.

I was shocked at how outraged Bobby was on the team’s behalf. He was livid with Man-Bun, practically calling for his head on a stick. Later in the day while he, JJ, Dan and myself were manning the volunteer food tent, Man-Bun came up to get his sandwich. I opted to walk away, not trusting myself to be cordial to this man. Dan, was super nice, which was probably a better way to handle it. After Man-Bun left, Bobby tells us all we should have told him we don’t serve his kind here. JJ almost dropped his sandwich from laughing so much. It was awesome.

Said kind would be A-Hole Man-Bun guy

Sadly, the last game, although incredibly hard fought was lost in overtime. Dax scored a total of 7 goals in 4 games, which was the bulk of the 10 goals we scored as a team. He played all 4 games without being pulled once, which was surprising. I know that JJ relies on him a great deal, and perhaps he is making up for the fact that Dax had to sit on the sideline for 6 weeks. I can appreciate that, and really, this tournament was incredible to see how much more aggressive he has become as a player. He uses his body like a battering ram, and still plays the ball therefore doing legal plays with force. He even seems to have gotten back his speed as he ran down this one player several times, which was quite an accomplishment. This particular player was quite good, and the two of them sparred quite a bit during the match, and this was the last game for both kids. The other kid had more breaks, but Dax didn’t and still frustrated the hell out of him. During a quarter break, Dax mentioned he felt bad for having kicked a ball square in the kid’s stomach super hard (it was blocked by the other kid, so it wasn’t on purpose or anything). I told him next time kick it hard enough to knock the kid’s glasses off, which resulted in a rare laugh during a game from him. He smiles a lot after a goal, but it was nice to get him laughing at something like that.

The weekend should have been a little less hectic, however, the tournament wasn’t quite staffed the way it needed to be. Mind you, all of said staff is just volunteers. Unfortunately, the field we were at was being run by our region. And ultimately, the handful of people who tend to help out, were located at different fields because their kid/team were playing elsewhere. I didn’t know until Friday night that Ken was handling the referee check in tent. Next thing I know, I started being volun-told to do more and more things. I wasn’t happy about this in the least. It meant I kept disappointing my own boys, the people I help out the region for. I don’t like it when I have to do region stuff over the comfort of my boys. On Sunday, when I had planned on taking Bobby home he got stuck at the field with me handing out those sandwiches to the likes of Man-Bun. He was miserable, I felt horrible, and it was one of those days that frustrated the hell out of me. Our team was asked to help even more (Yes, a $200 refund was being offered) but I didn’t hear of the other two Region 15 teams being asked to help out. That angered me even more. I felt taken advantage of on so many levels. When I had to go get the food, that truly was the last straw. Once again, I am looking to figure out how to no longer be a part of the board.

This week looks to be interesting. I have a day off on Thursday in order to attend Bobby’s play at school. It will also allow me to clean the house for Saturday’s party. Ken’s birthday is that day and we are doing game night after a full day of registration. On the plus side, my boys are able to stay home for the day, which will be good downtime. They also get to go to Harry Potter land with my folks on Friday since they don’t have school. I had planned on going to see Keanu with Ken, but I am unsure when my parents will be dropping them off so it might not happen, which is a bummer.

Dax has practice twice this week along with track tryouts. We have a soccer game Sunday. Thursday comes with a play, watching track tryouts, cleaning house, waiting for a pool delivery, going to a 5th grade fun day planning meeting and then making sure the boys have overnight bags to go to Gramma’s. I may need a week off soon.

Free weekend means productive weekend

4-18-16

When you have spare time, you can get a lot done!

That isn’t saying I had gobs of it, but with the time I did, I made the most of it. We jam pack our days, starting with Friday. Not long after the boys got home, we headed up to the school carnival. In some ways we almost left late, despite us being early! Parking was atrocious and had we not needed to leave at 6:30, I would have totally just walked up to the school.

The carnival was pretty standard. With us not staying the whole time, I feel like we didn’t get the same experience as we normally do. We did get to watch the 5th graders do their little dance, although I almost missed it altogether. We had been told there would be performances at 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30. Yet, 4:30 came and went with nothing. Bobby checked in with the powers that be and he said they would make announcements. So because of this, I let the boys run around and Ken and I went over to put in raffle tickets for the boys. We finished and looked over to the stage area, where the 5th graders were finishing up. I was all kinds of upset, especially since Bobby said he would only do one performance. Luckily, there was another one and I was able to see it. It was cute, and ultimately it didn’t matter I missed the first one.

The boys mostly set up camp doing the soccer kick, which of course meant the $35 dollars we spent on each of their wrist bands for unlimited game play ended up going towards the thing they do most of the week anyway. Bobby actually made several shots and “scored” before Dax, which resulted in quite the mission for my soccer boy. Luckily, he made some shots and they were both pleased with the whole thing.

Bobby had one moment of bad. Kids were dancing while we stood on the outskirts of the crazy. I was waiting for their performance which was scheduled soon, and we tried to encourage the boys to go dance with their friends. Ken joked around with Bobby, pushing him into the dancing, which even though was meant to be playful, freaked Bobby out and resulted in him crying. This made his friend Izzy, who noted this, look very concerned. Thankfully, once he calmed down, she was able to come chat with him again, so that was nice. I really hope they stay close as friends. She is really sweet.

Bobby stayed behind with my parents and we took Dax to the Blue Pythons team party. They played futsol for an hour, which is basically running for an hour non stop. It was clear the kids had a blast. I loved watching the Pythons back together. I had missed some of these players so much. Aiden in particular has always been a favorite of mine and he was just as adorable as I remembered.

After they played, they went in and ate pizza. Plus, there were trophies handed out to the kids along with the cut out of the banner with their name. The food and award distribution took maybe 30 minutes. With it being a Friday evening, there were not nearly as many people at the Galaxy Center, which meant there were empty fields. This meant the kids ended up running back out to the field. Bobby had arrived by then so he joined them. It looked like it was Pythons vs siblings and Ken.  They played for a solid hour and a half. We closed the place down! My family was exhausted. I was not surprised that after having played that long and hard that they slept in. Dax would have gone to winter league, but he was still tired when Ken headed out.

Of course, my plan was to use the boys as my own personal slave labor. I wanted to take advantage of not needing to be anywhere that morning so I could get the house in order. Well, then I get a text that Saimon was at the winter fields and wanted to know where Dax was. So the boys rode up to Hull and Dax ended up sticking around and even played on a team with Saimon which was great. Bobby came home. With there only being one kid, I couldn’t very well have only one do chores, which meant I was stuck cleaning the whole house. I scrubbed bathrooms, did the kitchen floor Cinderelly style, and got laundry done. I kicked some major housework ass. By the time I finished my stuff, Ken and Dax arrived home. It was at this point that we worked on clearing out part of the catio. That didn’t take nearly as long as I had feared it would, and the result from only about an hour of labor was very happy making to me.

Once all the cleaning was done, we did in fact just sit around for a while. It was glorious. We continued getting caught up with New Girl. The boys played for a bit. Bobby ended up watching Goblet of Fire. I made enchilada casserole. In some ways I wished that someone else would make dinner. I was pooped!

Sunday morning I was able to sleep in with Dax’s game not until 11:30. We didn’t have to leave until 10:30, which is practically half way into our normal days. It was a hot day, which wasn’t ideal, but I was impressed I convinced Dax to not use his under armor shirt.

It wasn’t a great game. We started strong, but got frustrated too easily. There were incredibly bad calls from this ref that we had before that I didn’t care for. He seems nice, but he is clueless. Sadly, he messed with Dax’s head. He actually gave Dax a verbal warning saying he was being too rough out there. It seemed crazy, what with me watching the other team clearly pull shirts and arms. Dax came off the field at half time, all upset that he was going to get a yellow card. Mind you, it wouldn’t have been a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but this kid isn’t a dirty player, so a yellow card is like a slap in the face (which by the way, he got smacked in the face by the other team at one point and there was no call against the other team). The game ended up being a blow out with the ref making silly calls against us despite the other team being up by 7 points. It was ridiculous. It was hard to deal with as I don’t want to openly criticize the reffing since that will just encourage Dax to think of all refs as bad and therefore he doesn’t have to take responsibility for true calls and he will get upset when there are bad calls. Ultimately he needs to just let them go and not worry about the call. The call is in the past and if the call is truly bad, the coach with handle it with the ref. Not the player. And now that I write that, I may need to explain that to Dax. He doesn’t need to fight those battles. His coach does, and his coach is good about that. That may help. I also was able to explain to Dax about the one and only yellow card I got. I pointed out it was a bad call from a ref who lost control of a game. I told him it didn’t do anything to me overall, and yes, I was super upset (as were other parents, I remember, as I wasn’t exactly a rough player). I am hoping he holds onto that and that when his card does possibly come, he will handle it ok.

After the game, we decided to stop at this donut shop we pass on PCH. It advertises in its windows that it has donuts, sandwiches, and cajun food. It has become an ongoing joke that they must have a little over everything. They have ice cream, too! Sadly, our adventure meal wasn’t great. We only ended up getting iced drinks, which neither kid liked. They weren’t real milk shakes, more like ice milk shakes. I liked mine fine enough, but with both boys tired and hungry, the outing wasn’t great. The customer service also was horrid. We got 4 of these shakes, and it took her like 25 minutes. She even paused with us to help someone else. Mind you, she asked us if she could, but what the hell? She didn’t even look stressed or rushed. She just didn’t seem to care. Now we need a new adventure location.

Now I am at the hells of work. Maryann opted to take the day off, so yet again I am covering someone else’s desk all day. It isn’t a huge deal, and I kind of knew she was considering it, but the fact that she still doesn’t bother to send me notes on her orders irks the crap out of me.

Thankfully my afternoon is mostly clear. I need to run do an AYSO deposit, but other than that, it should be mellow. My hopes are to keep the house mostly clean over the next two weeks since Ken’s birthday game night is on the 30th. This upcoming weekend is Founders Cup, which means 3 games, Ken reffing and we will try to watch our other region teams, specifically Rachel’s team since they are at the same fields. I don’t anticipate the same kind of downtime that I had this past weekend. I am starting to see why people hire maids.

I can hear them scream

4-11-16

I hate how on edge I am.

Ever since Dax broke his arm, my ability to let things go has diminished greatly. I was getting better about things like not worrying about them getting hit by a car or slamming their finger in a door. I know, most normal parents will worry to some degree, and I know that I have always set up camp just outside of crazy momville. That being said, I really feel like I have kept it in check.

The scream that changed all that took place on February 6th.

Of course I recognize that watching your child break his arm is not something for the faint of heart. I also understand that in time my head will not re-play that afternoon over and over. Sadly, that time has not come.

I hoped it would improve once the cast was off. If anything, I think I got worse. His first games back on the field were brutal for me to watch. Sure, there are the highs; he scored 5 goals on that first day back. The lows tend to really suck. He also got kicked in the head, he went down more times than I can count and truly I was in a wonky place unsure if I was more happy or nervous.

This past weekend wasn’t any better. It didn’t help that Thursday, the kid tried to give me a heart attack.

Dax and Bobby were playing downstairs as they do. It was a rousing game of soccer (what a shock, right?) that had them both laughing and screaming. It wasn’t easy to listen to since each time Dax omits any kind of sound, I feel my body tense up and I worry that he is dying. I have been trying to not panic in general. I was exhausted this day from lack of sleep along with fielding multiple issues with friends. Jimmy was at the house going over some soccer stuff during all of the crazy loud taking place downstairs. I had tried to let it all go.

Sadly, my progress would be derailed because Bobby yelled enough to finally get my attention. Dax had slipped wrong and was now on the ground writhing in pain.

It turned out it was nothing. He bumped his knee, and was in a similar style panic I have been feeling because he was afraid he had hindered his ability to play. When a kid like Dax is unable to play for that long, it takes a toll on being able to just shake an injury off. It also has exacerbated his ability to cope with any kind of discomfort. And really, if you know Dax, that is truly saying something. He has never been able to deal well with discomfort. Dude, this kid had to go to urgent care for a splinter to be removed. So sadly, it has meant that every minor bump or scrape is going to result in a lot of screaming.

Taking that into account, let’s paint a picture of Sunday. Two games for the Strikers that morning, and both pretty tough matches. In the first game, Dax got hit in the face with the ball, went down with a knee having been kicked, and near the end of the match, in an epic battle between him and another player, accidently got hit in the teeth by the other player’s shoulder which resulted in him coming out of the game. Now add to this cracking his toenail warming up for the second game and just general injuries across the board. All of these times he went down take a year off of my life. At this rate, I may only have another year or two left. I am grateful that the coach and my fellow parents all understand my concern. They know how much it scares me when he is out there, but they also know Dax is strong. They have been fantastic, checking in on me as much as they do on him.

We get home and he is still kind of limpy from the game and even a little from the games he played Saturday (you know, because the kid isn’t content with only 2 games in a weekend. He went down to do a couple of winter league games on Saturday). He is mostly fine, though, with no real issues. Sure, his toenail hurts but it isn’t a big deal.

Until of course he must have caught it on something and it ripped back enough to hurt like hell and to continue to stay attached so it could continue to dig into the wound.

The proper treatment at this point is to cut off the offending nail sliver and then it will feel oh so much better. The problem is, the patient is screaming as if a 4 inch metal beam is sticking out of his stomach. Yeah, it isn’t pretty. He kicks, he yells, he can’t hold still and he won’t let us do anything. It is the most exhausting 40 minutes ever.

The one shining part of this ordeal is Bobby. Holy crap, that kid amazes the hell out of me. On the field, he is one of the first ones to check on me if Dax goes down. He knows the look of ill on my face when I worry about the both of them. He will gently tease me about it, but he takes it all very seriously. During Dax’s cries of pain, he ran to retrieve both Bolt and Messi, knowing that those tend to be the best comfort items Dax owns. He didn’t stop there. He ran and got Dax water. He also got him a pillow and tried to crack jokes with him to help calm him down (Dax was practically inconsolable). And when the nail was finally cut (which took all of 2 seconds once we were able to find a window where he was holding still long enough), Bobby told Dax he didn’t need to go get his dinner from the kitchen and he took it down to him. This was all without anyone asking him to help. He did this all because he is filled with a good heart.

Sadly, the screams did not help me with my issues. I swear, I can be brushing my teeth while Dax is in the other bathroom taking a shower and I feel like I hear him yelling for help at least 6 times. I hear noises in the night and I am sure one of the boys is choking or crying or maybe Bobby fell out of bed from the top bunk. I am a mess.

This had most likely been why I have had panic attacks the past few days. I had not had a really bad one in some time, so this stress (coupled with other stress) has most likely manifested into these periods. I even took a Xanax, something I have not needed to use since before escrow on Steve. It isn’t fun, but I am starting to understand how much I really need a release.

It also probably does not help that this looks to be another busy week. It will be the first week of my new schedule with the boys at school. I don’t know what kind of time I will have now when I get home and the chores I need to handle may cause some additional stress on my part. I also am taking Dax to his follow up arm appointment today, soccer practice is tomorrow and Thursday along with our board meeting tomorrow night. Oh, and the carnival is Friday along with the Pythons team party. I am really going to need to breathe.

Ultimately I will be fine. It isn’t that much, but I think my heightened crazy has just added to my inability to let some of it go. Hopefully that will improve since no one needs me to be a basket case.

Chillin with Charlie

4-7-16

It has been some tiring last couple days!

I am still struggling a bit with this new schedule. My mind and body still gravitate towards an early wake up time. I was waking up at 3, excited that I had another 45 minutes ahead of me. The problem is, when you add another 45 minutes to that total, my mind is confused. I have dreams of waking up too late or I just can’t seem to settle despite the gobs of time I have. I end up finally falling asleep 10 minutes before the alarm, which then makes me groggy. Not ideal over all.

I have been good, though. Every morning this week, including yesterday, I managed to rock the Wii. I start with a couple yoga moves to stretch out and wake up. Then the basic step program seems to work well since it has a 20 minute option which is a perfect amount of easy in terms of thinking and yet still I am able to raise my heart rate and really feel like I am doing something. Plus, it is a full body work out what with steps and me swinging my arms a lot. My whole body is sore, which I take as a victory. Yesterday I changed it up a bit and did some boxing along with some hula hooping. I still did steps, but only 10 minutes since I did the other things. My target is doing about 20 to 25 minutes each morning, which is a good amount for starting off. My hopes for next week is to do a little bit while the boys do their homework, too. Even if it is just little things, like yoga stretches, I think it will be good for me.

Tuesday evening I went out with Alyssa and Sarah. It has been 9 months since we did this, which is really sad when you think about it. We went over to the Olive Garden by the Carson Mall. It was a fantastic evening. I didn’t mind staying later than normal knowing that I didn’t have to get up quite as early. Alyssa also had a lot to talk about what with her mom having passed away a couple months ago. Plus, her daughter was getting a foot cast on the same day Dax got his cast off. I felt bad as there was a fair amount of kid talk and Sarah didn’t seem as interested, but we also ahd time to talk about other things, so that was nice. We really need to figure out how to do this more often, but life gets busy.

Wednesday took us to the LA Zoo. The sloth exhibit was one of the first things you see when you go in since it is near the nursery and they call it the children’s section. Charlie the sloth was actually awake and moving a bit. He yawned and looked around a fair amount, which delighted Bobby to no end. We hung out at the enclosure for about 10 minutes, with Charlie active that whole time. He then curled up to take a nap, which is how he was still like a couple hours later when we said goodbye to him as we left. Spike said it was the greatest thing ever. He now wants to see a three toed sloth (Charlie is only a 2 toed) so I need to look up to see if the San Diego Zoo has one.

The rest of the zoo was a lot of fun. It was quite warm there, so I was thankful for the amount of trees that had grown in providing lots of shade. The highlight (aside from Charlie) was the chimpanzees who were having some kind of crazy dispute with one of the males in the enclosure. The chimps tend to have pretty large crowds as they run around and are incredibly active. Yesterday was no exception, especially when they were scaling the palm trees in the enclosure and screaming at each other. It was like watching some bad reality show. They yelled, they chased, they were dramatic. And of course, the topper was when one pooped off of the rocks which resulted in not only my own boys laughing hysterically, but the entire crowd which consisted of several field trip groups. It was fantastic! It was also as if the chimps were only paid to be on for like 15 minutes at a time since the “show” seemed to only last a bit before they all shuffled over to the area that wasn’t by the seats for watching. I gotta say, too, I wasn’t feeling real confident about the glass since one was boarded up with wood and you could see why; the glass had been cracked all over most likely from chimps pounding on the glass. Yeah, not a warm and fuzzy moment.

When we got home, we ended up watching the Force Awakens (Dax actually played FIFA on the PS4) which was nice. I was pretty spent from all day in the sun along with the workout sore. I even was able to go to bed pretty early since Ken and Dax went to Ken’s soccer and Bobby said he just wanted to go to bed. He had a headache, which I know was because he didn’t seem to want to eat much of the day and he was most likely dehydrated and tired. I think he was fine, but it was probably good for both of us to be able to call it a night so early. I was also impressed that he turned out playing his games to take care of himself, which is an amazing sign of maturity.

Now I am in the midst of dealing with the drama that is work. Trusty is just such an idiot and he doesn’t understand how to use Excel, SAP or even proper English at times. Unfortunately, this trickles down to members of the department who then want my help in some creative accounting to show that goals were actually met if you pull out certain figures that were beyond a rep’s scope of control. I feel good when I can help them, but I hate it even more when I then have to explain my numbers to him since he doesn’t understand. It is not a fun situation. At least I have practice to look forward to tonight since that tends to be fun. And it’s Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday and hopefully it will all speed by.

5 goals and a lot of jokes

4-4-16

As much as I am trying to put on a brave face, I really do not like my new hours.

I know, it hasn’t even been a full day yet, but I am sitting here at 1 pm, very aware that I would be packing up my stuff to head home. Instead, I am stuck in this hell hole for another 90 minutes. I have opted to try and pass the time by catching up on bloggy goodness.

My weekend turned out to be pretty dang good. It wasn’t nearly as jam packed with crazy, and I know for a fact that I didn’t get everything done, but I was pleased to have some fun times overall, which was needed.

Saturday morning I ended up getting up when Ken left for the AYSO Expo. I know, what a dummy I am being that I had nowhere I needed to be and he left at 6. But I got up to pee and then I wanted to make sure my phone was in the bedroom, which meant I had to get it out of the kitchen. I then found myself dinking around on said phone and next thing I knew it, it was 7 and I hadn’t gone back to sleep.

I should have probably worked on housework or laundry, or hell, even some kind of project. Instead, I mostly sat around. I did manage to get the boys packed up for their outing, and really, I knew that this week my house would be cleaned by my roommates as all three of them get this week off for Spring Break. It meant that instead of worrying, I was able to, wait for it, relax!

The boys and I headed to Gramma’s around noon. The dance party she had planned was filled with I am pretty sure at least 4 kinds of Oreos along with other snacks. Music was going when we arrived and there was in fact some dancing, albeit mostly by Gramma and some myself.

The boys did request some water balloons. It was warmer out than I had expected, so it seemed a reasonable thing to bust out. They ended up playing some version of hot potato with Poppy and Uncle Matt which resulted in Poppy catching the balloon multiple times with it popping all over him. Bobby laughed so hard he actually fell over. That was fantastic!

I didn’t stay super long as I needed to still fuel up the car and get ready to go to the April Foolishness show. Ken got home around 6 and the nice thing about the tickets we got was that we had premium parking included. We went into the VIP party in the beginning. I kind of wished I hadn’t eaten not long before as they had complimentary snacks that included philly cheesesteaks and mini corn dogs. There were a fair amount of people there. We opted to take our picture with Kevin and Bean when we got there as we did have to wait in line. It was nice seeing them in person again. We also got to see many of the other morning show people, including Alley McKay, who was just as delightful as I had hoped. We even go to meet Dr. Drew! Dude!

We were let into the actual venue at 7:30. Turned out not only did we get the parking and the party, but we ended up with front row, center seats! Bob Saget actually spoke to Ken since we were so close. I made eye contact with every comedian, and I know they saw me. It was pretty amazing, really.

The people around us, however, certainly pointed out how stupid some folks are. The people behind us were incredibly wasted, and two of them (husband and wife) were in some epic fight. They talked over one of the acts (luckily, the worst one of the night) and they left several times. I was fortunate the people to the right of me were very pleasant with no issues. There was one guy down the way, though, who was smashed. He even got called up on stage by Bob Saget and was ridiculed, which was funny as hell. It was done “nicely” I suppose, but really, when we left we were concerned about him and his lady friend as both were in no condition to drive.

The whole show was great. I think Fluffy did the best job, getting what I think was the only standing ovation. I am so glad we have been fortunate enough to get tickets each year.

We got home around midnight, which sucked only because we had an early morning ahead of us. A great morning, though.

Dax’s triumphant return to the soccer field! YAY! It was a double header day, which really, if you are gonna be out for 6 weeks, this is the way to return. Their first game was played well. The passing was so much better than previous weeks and you could really see them all clicking. We were up 1 to zero and then Dax put one in the goal. It made me happy since it didn’t matter then if we won or lost since I knew the goal would make him happy. But the kid wasn’t done. He managed a hat trick and we won 4 to 3.

Our second game was harder. It was a tougher team,  and with us having played already (and much of the team kept on playing in between games, too) you could see we were tired. We lost 4 to 2, but Dax did score the 2, including one of them from the half line.

He was clearly exhausted. His stamina isn’t quite what it used to be. That being said, he still did amazing. His ball skills are still there, even with him favoring his arm a bit. He will need to work on his speed again, but all of that will come back in no time based on how active he is.

What did almost make me throw up was watching him get kicked in the forehead.

Yeah, as predicted, someone got kicked in the head because of the no heading rule. Both Dax and this other boy would have totally headed the ball, but because of this ridiculous rule, the other boy kicked high to get the ball and managed to hit him in the forehead. It wasn’t horrid, and Dax was fine, but it was his first injury of the day (yeah, kid went down like 3 other times, once right in front of me. It is good I had not eaten much or else vomit was a real possibility) and it was terrifying. Luckily he was ok, and didn’t even stay down too long. I am shocked I wasn’t on the field when it happened simply because I wanted to run to him. I didn’t, though, which I suppose is good, but in some ways I almost wish I had.

The afternoon was lazy. I took the car to get it washed, which apparently all of Torrance decided to do, too. I ended up doing the express wash, not wanting to wait for an hour by myself. I was upset that the vacuums didn’t work, so I still would like to do that before tomorrow evening, but I don’t see it happening. At least the crud on the car is gone.

I did my workout this morning, as planned. I got up at 4:30, which is when I got out of bed. I had nightmares much of the early morning that I was late to work. I guess old wake habits die hard. Either way, I managed to make the Wii work with only one restart. I did a little bit of yoga to stretch. Then I did the basic step routine. I had forgotten all of the fancy crap in it. I then found the super basic step and did 900 steps. It may not seem like much, but it was 10 minutes of aerobic exercise that raised my heart rate. I also ended up doing more yoga after along with the body test. I now was able to put in my goals and now I will work towards it.

I was thinking I would need to tweak my mornings still because I left the house at like 5:15 when I planned to leave at 5:30. However, I think I will leave at 5:15ish each morning. People (as predicted) are in the building at 5. It means I can come in, make my breakfast and then dink around online if need be before I can clock in. Ultimately, I may end up getting some OT. I will not be able to leave earlier than 2:30 at first. Instead, I will feel out my options and go from there.

This afternoon looks to be another lazy one. I plan on messing around with the Wii a bit more, just to get the hang of some things. I am betting, also, that Ken and the boys picked up Star Wars today so we will be able to watch that. Of course, that may not be the case, but either way, I don’t see big plans for the day.

Tomorrow evening I go to dinner with Alyssa and Sarah. I took Wednesday off to go to the zoo with the family. I determined there is in fact a sloth there, which pleased Bobby greatly. I am wondering how much of a bribe it would be to let him hold it. Do zoo employees make a lot of money?

I have managed to waste 30 minutes, which just isn’t enough. I finished my reports (unless I forgot any, but I would venture a guess it isn’t a critical one if I did). I considered starting one of the books I found, but I think instead I will go through some accounts. I calculated my quarterly and annual goals this morning and determined I met all 7. It means I get like $500 for the quarter goal and something like $1500 for the annual. Not too shabby!

Perhaps if I see results quickly in terms of working out I will feel better about this last 90 minutes. Ha!