Hello blog world. We have been langorously, lounging on our favorite beach for the last 5 days. It was everything it should be and that we needed. We go every October and I hope we do for.ev.er. As our kids grow up, get married, have kids of their own. We all need to spend a week in Carpinteria in October every single year. Please don't argue with me on this. It is non-negotiable.
I've always been a nightowl. Very nocturnal. I'm pretty sure I can count the number of sunrises I've seen on one hand. Mostly due to my husband's vacation departure time preferences. Because he is definitely a morning person. Somehow, we manage to compliment each other though. I just read a little article about what your sleep preferences say about you as a person. Owl's tend to be risk takers, wish people would refrain from speaking before they have gulped down that first cup of coffee and tend to be most productive mid-morning and late evening. Yes, yes and yes. When I lived with my fabulous grandparents my first couple of years in college, I remember asking my mom if she could please ask my grandma not to talk to me so much in the morning. Mind you, they travelled about 9 months out of the year, so we aren't talking about that many mornings. Anyhow, I'm sure my mother, in her wisdom, just let it be and figured someday I would grow up and be less self-absorbed. Larks tend to wake prior to their alarms, are raring to go straight out of bed and are at their finest early in the morning. They also tend to be depressed. Very interesting I think. Somehow, the man and I make it work out. Mostly because he happens to be the kindest person on the planet and I am truly scary before my cup o' joe wake up. Smart man is all I'm sayin'. Love him to the moon and back.
They also talked about dreamers. Do you dream vividly? Can you remember them in the morning? If yes, well then your boundaries are blurry. Not fully awake or asleep. No black and white, just shades of gray. Not clearly a Republican or a Democrat. Odd, quirky, creative. Okay, I'll take that. It was the tendency toward schizophrenia that was a bit of a drawback.
So who are you? A dreaming owl like me? A lark? A restless sleeper? It all seemed to line up with the characters in our household. How about you? The article is on msn right now. Take a peek. Let me know.
Love you loads!
~S
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Wildcats, Volleyball and One Smelly Gym
Yesterday I spent the glorious, prime hours of my day in...a really hot, really stagnant, pretty stinky gym. And I didn't want to be anywhere else in the world! That was my girl, her JV Volleyball team, down there on the courts. DOMINATING. UNDEFEATED all morning. Beat every team in their division. Twice. Sometimes they mopped the floor with their competitors, sometimes they had to work a bit harder. Once, we thought we were down for the count, but rallied, and took over the score board. It was glorious. Fun. Teamwork and confident playing.
Some of the parents of our girls thought since we were the only team in both divisions to be undefeated that we should take the 1st place trophy and let everyone else duke it out for 2nd and 3rd. Part of me thought so too. But alas, that is not how tournament volleyball rolls. In fact, it rolls about 50 different ways, and I mostly don't get what's going on yet, but at least I can tell every tournament sponsor has several different ways to do things that must be officially acceptable. But back to my girl and her Wildcat team.
We sat out the first game of bracket play since we won our division. And then...a few games in, and 3 distinctly BAD CALLS...we lost. We were out. That quick. Despite the fact that we still had the best game record for the entire day. Unfair we cried. Bad reffing cost us the 1st place spot. But my devil's advocate said...if we had really been smoking that other team those 3 calls wouldn't have been the game. We sighed. We talked about how unfair it was. Our girls showed their tremendously abundant good sportmanship and did us proud. We took our 3rd place, took a team photo, and got the heck out of that 95 degree gym and into our air conditioned cars for the long ride home.
That's when I started thinking about fairness (and why for everything wonderful could we not find a drive-thru for a coke and fries?!). How life just sometimes isn't F.A.I.R. The good guy doesn't always win. And I began to wonder if this is why we Americans take our sports so seriously. Why our athletes are almost like royalty from the Little League fields, to the high schools and for sure the pros. It is the one place where the rules are clearly defined. Where skill, talent, hard work and determination are most certainly rewarded. That is the American credo after all. Work hard, be diligent, do the absolute best you are capable of, and surely success will come. It's a lofty ideal. A good one. It is why our country ROCKS! Something I try and instill in my children. And yet, it doesn't always play out that way in the field of life.
So we must always dig a little deeper. Know ourselves well enough to know we did all we could and still respect ourselves in the morning! Smile people! Throw a little football on the TV tonight, have a little bean dip and a cold drink and cheer like mad!!!
Some of the parents of our girls thought since we were the only team in both divisions to be undefeated that we should take the 1st place trophy and let everyone else duke it out for 2nd and 3rd. Part of me thought so too. But alas, that is not how tournament volleyball rolls. In fact, it rolls about 50 different ways, and I mostly don't get what's going on yet, but at least I can tell every tournament sponsor has several different ways to do things that must be officially acceptable. But back to my girl and her Wildcat team.
We sat out the first game of bracket play since we won our division. And then...a few games in, and 3 distinctly BAD CALLS...we lost. We were out. That quick. Despite the fact that we still had the best game record for the entire day. Unfair we cried. Bad reffing cost us the 1st place spot. But my devil's advocate said...if we had really been smoking that other team those 3 calls wouldn't have been the game. We sighed. We talked about how unfair it was. Our girls showed their tremendously abundant good sportmanship and did us proud. We took our 3rd place, took a team photo, and got the heck out of that 95 degree gym and into our air conditioned cars for the long ride home.
That's when I started thinking about fairness (and why for everything wonderful could we not find a drive-thru for a coke and fries?!). How life just sometimes isn't F.A.I.R. The good guy doesn't always win. And I began to wonder if this is why we Americans take our sports so seriously. Why our athletes are almost like royalty from the Little League fields, to the high schools and for sure the pros. It is the one place where the rules are clearly defined. Where skill, talent, hard work and determination are most certainly rewarded. That is the American credo after all. Work hard, be diligent, do the absolute best you are capable of, and surely success will come. It's a lofty ideal. A good one. It is why our country ROCKS! Something I try and instill in my children. And yet, it doesn't always play out that way in the field of life.
So we must always dig a little deeper. Know ourselves well enough to know we did all we could and still respect ourselves in the morning! Smile people! Throw a little football on the TV tonight, have a little bean dip and a cold drink and cheer like mad!!!
Friday, October 1, 2010
What size is your straight jacket?
Oh my friends, has it ever been a day. A week really. But sometimes things just all like to really come to a head at once. It's not just that we've been sick all week, culminating in doctor appointments, diagnoses of walking pneumonia and bronchitis, antibiotics and inhalers being prescribed, it's not just that we're preparing for a week away (and yes, all you burglars we do employ house/dog sitters who are here full-time, so don't even bother), it's not just that I had one day in which to do all that I would normally do over the course of a full week and while I still feel like a truck has run over me and squeezed out every ounce of energy, it's that the crazy, weather warning inducing storm, BLEW DOWN THE POOL FENCE. The very one that keeps all the neighborhood children from drowning. And that my friends, is what size my straight jacket is.
But since really, straight jackets are a bit limiting fashion-wise, I have decided to find a bright spot...or a few...first, I woke up on the right side of the dirt. Now when I start there, well, you just know it's been a rough go of things. Second, nobody did drown in the pool and it is almost back up. (Yay to my husband who can fix everything!) Third, well, I'm sort of stumped on a third because I'm so exhausted. So I guess we'll stick with waking up on the right side of the dirt AND no dead guys in my pool. Because either one of those things would REALLY wreak havoc.
Love ya'
~S
But since really, straight jackets are a bit limiting fashion-wise, I have decided to find a bright spot...or a few...first, I woke up on the right side of the dirt. Now when I start there, well, you just know it's been a rough go of things. Second, nobody did drown in the pool and it is almost back up. (Yay to my husband who can fix everything!) Third, well, I'm sort of stumped on a third because I'm so exhausted. So I guess we'll stick with waking up on the right side of the dirt AND no dead guys in my pool. Because either one of those things would REALLY wreak havoc.
Love ya'
~S
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