Phone trouble, VegasWe went to Vegas for a few days to celebrate all of our birthdays and K's end of the Basketball season. For a few months we don't see much of him, so it was nice to have some down time.
Honestly, some of the things we do there we could do at home, but I feel more relaxed getting away. At home if I read I'm often thinking of other things I should be doing instead.
We stayed at the Flamingo again, in one of their redone "Go" rooms. It was really nice - retro white plastic furniture and a frosted glass bathroom. The bathroom had a TV with its own remote, and K would say "I'm going to the bathroom to watch the game!" It was fun. There was even a Bose speaker in the ceiling of the bathroom.
We've been having all kinds of family telephone and other technical difficulties. K dropped his phone in the street one night, and it's never been the same. On the trip, however, it decided not to hang up anymore, so he spent 30 minutes trying to end a call! We have lots of minutes, but not unlimited.
K was so frustrated and angry that he cracked his phone in half. When that happened, the battery popped off the back, and I felt like saying, "Duh! We could have just taken the battery out!" But it was quite a problem for a little while. Later my battery died while we were trying to find each other, and it nearly led to a complete meltdown.
Why, oh why are we having so many technical difficulties?
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Getting some credit
The Boy was home for K's birthday, and had reached a crisis point in his college career. The school raised the GPA requirement for the Film School, probably just because they have SO many applicants, but the Boy's GPA is just under 3.0.
So funny enough, he's thinking of majoring in something where he can be a sports coach, which is what I suggested he do in the first place. But instead of trying to get onto the boy's basketball team, he took a basketball class where his skills were noticed and he was invited to practice against the girl's team. So he still will end up with a Coach's recommendation.
He's going to try to bring up his grades and see if he can get into the Film school later, but he's now working on a Plan B too.
Anyway, we decided that instead of getting a summer job, he should try to get an internship to get experience and contacts. Which is how people really seem to get jobs in Film, anyway. So he asked me to help him with a Resume, which is one thing I happen to be really good at. So it was easy for me to help him, and within an hour we'd banged out a pretty good sounding resume.
He sent it out on some web site and got 2 replies! But he still has to finish his semester, so he can't intern quite yet.
So it made me happy that I could help him and hopefully I got some credit with him, which is a good thing. Plus I cooked bacon for breakfast, and my kids are always appreciative of that.
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Soccer in springtime
The Girl's soccer team is playing in a Pasadena league that's really flexible - like sometimes we play boys teams or mixed teams or sometimes the kids seem a bit older than our kids. So I think of this league as not being that important, but good practice for them.
Eighty percent of the time the Girl is one of the best girls on the team, fastest, fiercest, great kicks, and I am so proud to be her mother. The other 20% of the time, if she gets hurt or even too, too tired, she gets mad and wants out.
And the coach resists taking her out, as she is so important to the team's defense. So lately she has taken to just stopping playing. People just run by her and she hunches over and lets them. In the last game she sat down! In the middle of the field, in the middle of the last quarter, because she'd been stung by a bee in the first quarter.
That was so embarrassing. I feel her pain; she says since there's no subbing except at certain times, she has to go down to come out. OK then, take a knee, but sitting down? I have to be careful how I respond to her, mostly I can't say anything. If I even ask how she is, she tends to snap at me because she knows everyone wants her to stay in the game. So I try to be supportive and yet not say much of anything.
K wants me to have a talk with her and tell her she has to stay in the game for the sake of her team, but I don't want to have that fight with her. I try to pick my battles, and I think telling her that will just make her more negative, and she'll accuse us of not caring about her. And of course, I do care about her and don't want her to be hurt.
He can tell her that if he wants to, and see how far that gets him.
