Put on your GAME FACE

Practice on Thursday and Friday was rough on my baby.  This morning, he really did not want to get up to be there at 8:00 a.m.  I got him up anyway.  Today's conditioning looked to be the most intensive yet.  He came through smiling and excited about doing it again.  He's getting the drills down and he understands the importance of practice, even if he hates mornings as much as I do.  After practice we went around thrift stores looking for gear.  We didn't find anything that fit that wasn't broken and we went to five different thrift stores. 

Fortunately, about the time I was considering donating plasma, I found out our equipment purchases were being subsidized by my generous family and I could actually afford to get everything he needed and still afford food.  We spent hours at The Academy finding everything he needed.  The pants were an adventure.  We tried every brand with builti-in pads and the ones that had to be purchased seperately and they were either too small or too big.  I looked at the clearance rack of baseball pants and like a miracle, I found 2 pairs of football pants that ended up fitting perfectly for $2.08 a pair. 

Now that he's outfitted, he's even more excited about playing.  Last year the team were city champs.  I'm glad he'll be on a winning team.  Once uniforms come in, I'll put up pictures.  And if you're interested, I still have plenty of raffle tickets left.

You're my boy, Blue!

As you may know, while at dinner yesterday, this guy came up to us and asked how old Alex is and if he plays football.  Alex was very excited at the idea of wearing a uniform and playing on a team.  He plays indoors at the gym, but never outside in the Texas heat.  I was concerned and I had questions.  I thought about signing Alex up before, but the sign up fee was $85, plus you have to buy all the equipment, which is a lot of money for my broke butt.  But this guy assured me that all I have to buy is practice pants, pads and a pair of cleats.  With my baby all hopeful and no huge fee, I said yes.  The boy is built like a lineman so I'm interested to see how he does.

Tonight was the first practice and it rained the entire time.  Wow.  It was like watching professional training camp on tv.  The coach had them working.  He's not psycho, he let them take water breaks, but he's serious.  He's not obnoxiously loud or rude, but he is authoratative.  He's probably around 60 and pretty much what you'd expect a football coach to look and sound like in Texas. 

Alex was worn out.  He asked if he could quit, but one of the moms said it's only like that the first few times to get them conditioned and decide who'll play what position.  I'm gonna make him stick it out.  I think it will toughen him up a bit because I know I baby him too much.  I also think I'm gonna walk around the park instead of watching practice because all I want to do is tell the coach to lighten up.  I know it's for his own good, but that's my baby and he's not used to that.  Maybe we'll both thin out a little.  Practice is M, T, R, F from 6:30-8:30 until school starts and then it ends at 8:00.  I seem to have signed off my Friday nights for the next few months.  Just when I was finally getting used to having them to myself and doing stuff.  Ah well...

It turns out that Michael Huff sponsored our team.  He cut a check for the boys' fees, uniforms, helmets and practice jerseys.  Pretty cool, huh?  He started training camp today so he couldn't come say hi to the kids, but he may at some point.  I understand he owns a condo in the area.  

I have to see if I can find a Play it Again Sports around here.  Yes, I'm cheap, but if you saw how fast this boy is growing, you wouldn't blame me.  Plus I need to have the stuff by Monday and payday isn't until Tuesday.  Games will be on Saturdays if anyone wants to come.  Oh.  Does anybody want to buy a $2 raffle ticket?

Smile like you mean it

Gosh I'm tired.  Scott's on vacation this week and I was drafted to pull orders.   I'm used to sitting at my desk for most of the day.  I usually get up for coffee and potty breaks and to check product availability for the occassional impatient, but important customer.  The past two days, I've walked more than I've walked in the past two weeks.  And there's squatting and reaching; I'm surprised my back isn't acting up.  I suppose I should be happy, or least thankful, for the workout.  I'm not exactly excited about the rest of the week.  I've still been doing my own job as I go.  Thankfully, I don't have any big projects right now.  I can't help but hope for a bonus on my paycheck although I know it won't happen.  I may hint at it tomorrow.  Pfft.  I can't hint.  I'm gonna come out and say it and try to have a smile in my voice. 

I've discovered that smiling helps me get what I want.  I know that sounds kind of sociopathic, but it's true.  I wasn't a smiler by nature.  It took years of teachers bitching and my friends telling me I looked pissed off.  I had to start smiling just so people would leave me alone because I felt fine.  Although I did get annoyed being asked a hundred times a day if I was okay.  Now I smile more.  Too much some say, but can't please all the people yadda blah.  Once I started smiling, I found that people warmed up to me and became far more cooperative.  I also found that I now have wrinkles around my eyes. 

I have more wrinkles than my mom.  It's to be expected though, as my dad is full of wrinkles...and thick, flowing white hair.  I hope one day I have hair just like that.  Sadly, I think that day is coming all too soon.  I pulled out about fifteen to twenty white hairs yesterday from an area of my head smaller than my palm.  It's the strangest thing.  I look like the old woman, but my body acts more like the old man. 

I'm tired and stressed.  I need to de-stress.  I took a nap and it helped some.  I think I may call the massage school by work and see if they can sneak me in during my lunch hour.  Can you eat a cheeseburger while being massaged?  That sounds good.  A roll rub and beer-battered onion rings would make me smile genuinely.  Who's in?

Mixed Bag Blog

I touched up Alex's hair today.  The color is only semi-permanent and he's been to the pool and a waterpark so it was faded to a pale blue.  I did a top-notch job this time.  I used a new toothbrush to do the sides of his head.  It gave even coverage, gave me control over the edges and didn't leave splotches on his scalp like my fingers did the first time.

Generically speaking, I like change, but not transition.  I'm experiencing quite a bit though - work, friends, habits, whatnot. blah.  This too shall pass...

I bought a new dress *and* matching shoes.  I rarely buy myself new stuff.  I'm mostly ok with it cuz A) I love funky retro stuff  B) The dress was on clearance for $7.00 -and- C) I was darn cute in it.

I made a new friend.  Not a dating thing, just someone to hang with at lunch.  He's very easy to talk to and we've both disclosed quite a bit about ourselves. ""Strangers with this kind of honesty make me grow a big, rubbery one.""  I think I make him nervous.  We've had lunch twice though so he's either getting comfortable or he's scared of what I'll do.

I love public television.  I'm watching a Dashboard Confessional concert for free.  (seems thier fans are all chicks)  Between stuff like that and Sesame Street, who needs cable?

I just noticed that I have exactly100 kudos.  Thanks.  Back at ya!

My baby is COLORFFUL

I told Alex before he left that he could have blue hair when he came back from Mama's house.  He's held me to it.  We just got done rinsing the bleach out.  I currently have a blonde-haired, green-eyed child.  I never would have imagined that it was possible 

White as he is, he can pull off the blonde if he really wanted to.  Despite my encouragment, he really wants to go blue.  Perhaps it was the Eminem comment, I would have said David Bowie, but he wouldn't have gotten the reference. 

As soon as his hair is completely dry, we'll be putting the blue in.  Stay tuned for before, middle and after pics.

B4 - no bingo

Kris and I went to a pool party this afternoon.  I need to make friends with more people who have their own pool.  I also need to learn how to swim still.  We left kinda early because I had to pick up Alex at the airport. 

Had I checked my messages, I would have known his flight was delayed 2 hours.  I went to the airport and they switched gates three times.  The third time, I had not checked the board because I didn't think they'd do it again.  Alex called me to let me know he was at B5.  I was all over B5 before I spotted him waving to me from B4.  As I ran over to him, my phone rang and they asked for Maria Reyes.  I said, ""I don't know who the hell that is"" and was about to hang up when he asked for me.  I hugged my baby and asked who the guy on the phone was.  He said he was calling from American Airlines and he had my son.  I told him I had my son and he looked up at me and hung up. 

So, my baby's home!  Yay!  I won't be able to go out as much and be as social, but I'm still available from 7:15-10:30ish on Fridays.  And of course, I've got an hour for lunch during the week.  If that doesn't work for you, you'll have to be satisfied with emails, phone calls and blog postings.

Comparable?

I used to be quite the comparison shopper.  Size, price, ounces per container, pennies per ounce... While I'm still a bargain-shopping penny-pincher, I don't do it as much anymore.  I've found the things I like the best and get them.  I splurge on Miracle Whip because Kroger brand salad dressing and sandwich spread is just not as tasty.  Yes, it's twenty cents more, but it's worth it.  I don't do comparisons on peanut butter or laundery detergent because no matter what, I'm getting what I want...Jiff and Tide.  Now that I'm getting old and settling into lifelong habits, I didn't think I'd start a whole new comparison process, but I caught myself doing just that tonight. 

I was out tonight with NewBoy and as we walk inside he kinda pushed the door so I could catch it as I walked in behind him.  J always held the door for me.  (Side note: It occurs to me that all the men I really cared about names' start with J) I admonished myself for making a comparison between past and present persons, but I kept thinking it.  Then as we were having dinner, NewBoy took food off my plate without asking.  Three times.  J never would have done that...though J did all the damn time.  As we wandered through the arcade, I reached for his hand and he put it in his pocket.  I actually mis-stepped.  I couldn't believe it.  I dated the most societally aware person on the planet and he had no problem holding my hand.  -Get a grip, Cindy.-  And he was way better looking than you, buddy. Yeah, I thought that one really loud.   I told myself to stop doing that.  It's a bad habit to start and I don't know why I'm doing it now. This is the kind of crap that dooms relationships before they can even start and yet I did it all night.  I don't know how much of this is about him and how much is about me.  I've been rather introspective.  I don't make a lot of sense in a lot of ways.  Mostly I'm ok with that, but tonight I wonder if that's not why I'm alone.

I'm not as young as I used to be

I haven't gone out on a Monday night in quite some time.  As I sit here trying to get enough coffee in my system to make sense, I remember why. 

I got online last night and Lori sent me a message asking what I was doing.  I was doing what I do every Monday, thinking about doing laundery and not doing it.  Her friend, Jason was playing at Adair's, which is a hole in the wall country bar in Deep Ellum.  We went, had a beer, shot the shit and listened to some music.  I'm not a big country fan, but the guys performing were very good so I enjoyed it.  I also met Jason's friend, Jason.  No problem remembering names there.  I had lots of fun, but since I had to be here at 8 a.m.(ish), I got up to go around midnight.

As I went to leave, I realized that I didn't know where my keys were.  I double and triple checked my purse, all the while knowing that I must have locked them in the truck.  And I remembered locking the door, which I do 90% of the time. AND I remembered rollin up the windows, which I rarely ever did, but I have for the past 2 weeks with all the rain every damn day.  I walk out and sure enough, they're dangling from the ignition.  I consider waking up Kris, but I can hear her snoring in my head.  So I get a hanger from the back of my truck and try to squeeze my hand into the less than 2"" crack I left open.  I managed, but I couldn't reach the lock and then I dropped the hanger.  Fortunately, I have a small yard sale in the back of my truck so I got another.  I look around and wonder where the police are and if they'll believe my Mexican ass is breaking into my own vehicle.  I unwound the hanger and lengthened the hook.  I took a deep breath, channeled Eric's crane machine skills and went after the keys.  After 4 or 5 tries, I finally hooked them.  I prayed not to drop them as I pulled them out through the window.  I got them out, did a little dance and took myself home. 

It's been a rough morning, but I think my caffeine is kicking in so I can actually get some work done now. 

FYI:  I'm off Wednesday if anyone wants to go out tonight.