Ticket trouble

Last Sunday, K was driving home from church and he got pulled over by a policeman. The cop asked K if he knew why he'd stopped him, and K guessed, "Did I roll through the stop sign?"

And the policeman asked, "Oh, do you do that?"

K said, "Well I'm trying to get better."

The policeman asked, "Do you know what the speed limit is here?"

K guessed again, "30? 35?"

The policeman said, "It's 35 and you were going 45."

So K pulled out his badge and showed it to the policeman and asked for some "professional courtesy" as he is a probation officer.

The officer agreed and told K that now that he knows him, he'll never pull him over. But he advised him to be more careful in the future.

K told him he would try to get better.

lol, I thought that was funny.

Bottoms Up

The other day the Girl said her friend asked her what "Bottoms up" means, like the song on the radio.

The Girl demonstrated, "You have a bottle of beer, and then 'bottoms up.'" and tilted it upwards.

Her friend said, "Oh, (pause) I thought it meant something else."

lol I don't even want to know what she was thinking!



Oh, and I finally bought another camera! I know you are happy for me.

Picture problems

My picture problems persist. Now I can't find my camera. It was full of pictures from the Girl's last games, plus a picture that K took when he went to see a former "caseload" of his play a game.

It was the same weekend as my SI picture problems, and I haven't seen it since. So I can't take any pictures, plus my cellphone seems to have stopped "mobile uploading" to Facebook. I can send pictures, but they never show up.

I lost my hairbrush around the same time, so I kept saying that the maids must have put them somewhere, and they were probably together.

I finally found my hairbrush in the medicine cabinet, but still no sign of my camera.

Taxing Directions

I was so mad yesterday at my tax employer. They gave me an address for my "training" that just plain doesn't exist. I didn't know that, however. I googlemapped it, and was shown a spot near the 605 fwy, quite a ways from my house. Darn! I'd picked that location because I thought it was close.

I should have done a satellite view, though, as I would have seen that it was an empty lot. But I drove clear out there, got off and would have been right on time if the place had existed. But I looked and looked for it, came back to look again, then followed the road clear past the Santa Anita Racetrack when I had enough.

I pulled over and called the person in charge of training, Tami. No answer. So I 411'd the company and got transferred to a local office where I tried to ask the guy who answered where the heck this office was. He ended up being so helpful by telling me the correct address. Turns out they gave us the office number where the address should be.

So I turned around and went there, wondering why the heck the person in charge (Tami?)didn't send out a message, an email, some kind of "heads up" about the wrong address? There had to be 30 people scheduled to go there.

The funny thing is, once I arrived an hour late, I hadn't missed anything. I think they had just gone around and introduced themselves and gotten the books. They were just milling about in class, so I got to say hi to all my friends and get my books before they settled down and started passing around the sign-in sheet. So I got full (paid) credit for the hour I lost.

It was good to see my friends, but sometimes the company just seems so disorganized that I get frustrated.

Season end

So the last I reported about the Girl's soccer, she had a red card and couldn't play the last game. The team they had to play last had previously beat them 5-0, so we felt like the ref had nailed close the coffin on the team;s future.

But we went to the last game, and the Girl's team persevered and won 3-1! It was great to know the team could perform well without the Girl, as she was planning on leaving the team.

Actually, we called the coach the night before the last game, and told him we were leaving to go to the local club. It would be different if it wasn't the school's club soccer team (affiliated), and they weren't known for trying to get the girls scholarships.

Anyway, he seemed surprised, even though we'd told him she was considering leaving before the season. She basically stayed a season so she wouldn't leave them in the lurch.

But he was really nice at the game, and already had her card and paperwork for me. I hugged him and thanked him, but I hate to say goodbye. She'd been on that team for 6 years! So we said maybe she could still play with them at a few tournaments, etc.

Then a few days later I noticed that we were off the email list. Just like that, communication is cut.

It feels sad, like a breakup or something. A breakup that you initiated because you feel you need to go a different direction in your future, even though you do love that person. Even though you're trying to do what's best, you feel sad and miss that person, and feel badly that they did so much for you. I feel badly causing him any pain.

Almost Famous

One (the only) thing that kept the bad soccer day from being a total loss, is that K got a call from Sports Illustated the week before. The department cleared him to talk to them, and it was just sort of a dream. Who gets to talk to Sports Illustrated?

On Sunday, after the Girl got her red card, we got a call from a fact-checker about pictures. Did we have any pictures of the team?

Anyone who knows me knows I take a LOT of pictures. But I got a little ticked at both sides of my family last year, and thought, "Really? You guys need to mess with me? All I ever do is try to be nice and give people pictures!" So that was it, no more pictures from me.

Because of this, I haven't posted any of my pictures to my usual picture sites (shutterfly) where I can easily find them. They were just all in the computer, where I'd downloaded them from my camera.

But my computer had finally gotten a virus so bad that I none of my usual tricks worked to fix it. How the heck was I going to get to all my pictures? I hadn't backed them up for a long time.

It was a long drive home, but when we got there, I turned on the computer and tried different ways of booting it to try and bypass the virus. I ended up only being able to restore to default, which it said would not delete any DATA files. I could only hope that pictures were considered data files.

We left to scan some photos other people had taken, and ran into trouble at Kinkos. We scanned all the pics, but at the end it wouldn't let us save to CD, so we had to start all over again. Argghhhh! So frustrating. At the end K complained that in one picture we had cut off the top of his head. I was overwhelmed at the thought of figuring out how to fix it, so I told him that it was just his hair, and moved on.

I was bummed out because I was pretty sure I'd deleted all my pictures, and thought it was some sort of poetic justice because I'd been such a snit about pictures and now it was coming around to bite me in the ass!

When I checked my computer, I found my pictures were still there! So we picked the best ones, loaded them into an email or three, and sent them to SI.

Later they said that their favorite pic was mine! I was almost going to get a photo credit in SI!

Well, almost. They ended up not running any pictures.

But at least my computer got somewhat fixed, altho I had to take it offline. And I spent the next week archiving my pictures onto CD's and flash drives.

So I dodged a bullet there, but we did lose all our iTunes. That hurts.

Last Night

Just so you know, falling asleep on the couch can be very dangerous.

Last night, actually this morning, I woke up at 3am on the couch. The TV was on, and I jumped up, confused. I didn't realize that my foot had also fallen asleep, though, and when I jumped up, it declined to support me.

It collapsed under me I didn't really fall or hurt myself, but I twisted my ankle pretty badly.

You don't realize how fully you're trusting one foot to hold you up until you're fully on it. Like when you step off a curb, and your ankle hurts.

So just be careful out there. No more falling asleep on the couch.

Migraine Pills

I have been getting migraines for many years. I was lucky to find a medicine that worked for me, but I have a major complaint against the packaging.

The first med came 3 pills to a little plastic box. I felt it was wrong to throw them out, so I didn't really know what to do with all the leftovers. They were packaged carefully, so I guess it's bad for the pills to get somehow smashed or punctured.

Now, they changed my Rx as my old med is now not covered, and I had to use a new one, that I might even like better than the old pills. But why, why, why is it so hard to get to them?

OK, I already have a headache. Now I have to figure out how to get to the stupid pill?

The new pills come in a regular box, which I like. They are in plastic bubbles, on a sheet of 3 pills. They are perforated, so you can get them apart, but here's where it gets tricky.

There's a triangle at the edge which can bend and snap off (also perforated),with a thin covering of foil on top of a layer of something else. The thing is that when you use the triangle and try to peel the foil back, it doesn't work. It's very hard to get the foil back, but even if you do, you have to get through the layer of paper or whatever below it.

And remember, I have a headache. I usually end up poking my fingernail through the layers I can, and peeling it back to expose the hopefully unharmed pill.

I don't know what they are afraid of happening to that pill that would be worse than my trying to poke it out with my fingernail!

Lost Info

The other day I was in the tax office, and answered the phone. A man was calling with a question - he knew that his ex-wife had filed an extension, but he didn't have a copy of it. He wanted to file his taxes, but he didn't have his ex's SSN nor that of his step-daughter. He'd need those to file as MFJ or MFS.

I asked if he couldn't look at some past returns or papers that might have it, but he said no, his ex took everything. I asked if he couldn't just call her and ask, but he said she wasn't responding to his calls or emails.

For some reason, I brought up how he was going to file for this year, and he said, "Oh, I'll be filing as married. Because I'm married again."

OK, now I understand why he doesn't have any paperwork and why his ex won't return his calls.

Not sure I feel sorry for this guy...

Phantom Bank Account

We all know that there's been quite a turnover in backs in the last year or so. K was at a bank we don't usually use, for the Boy's loan, when they talked him into signing up for a new checking account.

The lady had gone on and on about how there were NO FEEs, and that finally convinced K to put $500 into a new account there. Later, K went to check on his account, but the bank had changed names and for awhile they couldn't find his account! He was somewhat troubled by that, but was happy that in the end they found his money.

Well, he didn't check on the account much, because he didn't use it. Last month he checked it again, and found that the bank had taken $75 out of the account! They had taken nearly 20% of the whole deposit!

Naturally upset, he made them check to see what had happened. It seems that they forgot what kind of account it was, decided it was the kind of account where they subtract $25/month for some reason.

He made them credit the account for what they had needlessly subtracted, but came away rather upset with the whole thing. Banks have a reputation of being so rule-based and having to do the right thing, but the truth is that they'll do whatever they can get away with!

He went back to that bank on Monday for something else, and found that the bank had deducted another $25 (now that it was November.) Frustrated, he made them credit the account again, and he withdrew the whole $500.

He said he could see the woman who had sold him on the account cringing in the background.

Local Politics - Meg & Carly

The commercials for local politics are increasing as we get closer to election day. They are getting longer too, and I wish they would just go away. I'm tempted to DVR everything now, just so I can forward through them all.

Meg Whitman is currently challenging Barbara Boxer here in CA, saying she was head of Ebay and blah, blah, blah. Then her former nanny came forward to say that Meg knew she was an undocumented worker, and kept her on anyway. When the nanny finally went to Meg for help to get citizenship, Meg fired her.

Now the hypocrisy of hiring an undocumented worker and being tough on immigration doesn't really surprise me, as it seems typical of people seeking to be "tough on immigration."

What floored me was that this woman worked for Meg for 9 years, raising her children, and the minute the nanny asked her for help she was out. It seems to me she'd be part of the family by then. How did her children take that? Plus, what does that say about her as a person?

I've since found out that it's nearly impossible for workers like her to get citizenship, and that seems wrong to me too. After all, all these other people came from somewhere else. Shouldn't everyone have the same opportunity?

And then there's Carly Fiorini, looking so, so smug in her cute haircut. She just thinks she's SO cool. She also was head of a company (HP) that laid off thousands of people.

I would love for this to come around and bite them in the ass. I mean really, laying off workers and moving those jobs overseas is not a very creative or innovative idea. Sure it save these companies money, but it would have been so much better if they had come up with an idea that would grow the company instead.

Plus, both these women received huge (millions) bonuses for doing that. Really? I don't understand how that is justified. That should really be a last ditch solution to save a company. How about taking a reasonable bonus instead and putting the rest of the money into the company?

The economy is bad right now, and lots of people are unemployed. I would love for some of the people responsible for that to go down. How can they blame Democrats for unemployment levels when they are the very people that caused much of the current unemployment!

I also hate that ads for various propositions, as they all directly contradict each other. Like "It will save the environment!" vs. "It's sponsored by Oil Companies!"

Because of this I guess I'm going to have to sit down and read the darned Voter's Information Guide to decide for myself what to vote for.

Sigh. (Just kidding)

Dog story

The other day I was going out with my realtor friend Bren, who is married to a lawyer and is more conservative than I am. I drove to her house, and called to tell her I was there. I waited outside her house for her to come out.

Meanwhile, the lady across the street pulled into her driveway, and she and a little girl got out of the car. The lady kept looking at me seeming interested in me for some reason. She was smiling and seemed nice, so I smiled and said hi. She had a dog on a release type leash, where you can let it out or reel it in.

Bren came out and said hi and introduced me to her neighbor. We chatted for a minute, then we walked to Bren"s car so she could drive. We pulled out of the cul du sac and Bren started telling me that the only thing she didn't like about this lady was that she let her dog...

She looked in her rear-view mirror and saw this lady crossing the street to Bren's house. Bren said, "Wait, this will just take a minute." and she pulled a U=turn (screech!) at the main street and drove back into the cul du sac. I never saw her do anything like THAT before!

The other lady had walked across the street to let her dog go into Bren's yard! I think she saw us coming because she started reeling her dog back in. Bren pulled up beside her and opened my window. I started searching for makeup in my purse and really wished I wasn't there.

Bren told her nicely, "Listen, could you please not let your dog go on our lawn? My husband won't even let OUR dog go on the lawn because he says it turns the grass yellow." She said it nicely, but she repeated it about 3 times, trying to make sure it sounded nice.

The other lady immediately picked up the dog and said yes, of course she understood and she wouldn't do it anymore. But she had to listen to Bren say it a few more times.

You see, this lady doesn't let the dog go to the bathroom on her OWN lawn, she takes it to the neighbors lawns. It's not that she takes the dog for a walk, she takes it to other people's yards!

Bren keeps asking me why someone would do that, does she think she's better than everyone else? (they live in an upscale neighborhood) I say not to worry about it - I think she's just selfish. Or inconsiderate?

But it was a little aggressive that right after talking to Bren, this lady takes her dog to HER lawn and lets it go to the bathroom there. Or maybe she thinks people won't mind?Maybe she thought Bren seemed friendly and wouldn't mind.

But now she takes her dog to other neighbors lawns.

What do you think?

New School Year

School has started anew this Fall, and every year is different. At the Girl's middle school, she says there are 200 more students this year! I guess the incoming 7th grade class is much bigger than last year's!

I was wondering what was going on the first week of school. I took the familiar route to drop the Girl off, and couldn't believe the traffic. After 3 years of having kids at this school (2 for the Boy and 1 for the Girl), I know the best place to drop them off, how to avoid traffic jams, etc.

But suddenly the street was full of all these parents that have no idea! They park along both sides of the side streets, so that only one car can fit in to drive, so that you have to take turns with people going the opposite direction. Some people are apparently blind or something, as they couldn't seem to figure out that they needed to take turns, and just went ahead and barged into the lane anyway, going the opposite direction!

So far, by getting too far to the right trying to avoid other drivers, I have knocked back a mirror on the van of a woman I know ("So sorry! I'm sorry!") and knocked over a trash can!

How embarrassing. Now I go a little later to avoid the crunch.

The girl is happier this year, since she has more friends and is no longer the younger class at school. Last summer her best friends never wanted to do anything - not even come swim once a week. But when she went to camp, the Girl made friends with a popular girl, and after that got invited to do a lot of things and made more friends. When school started again, her old friends got jealous. But really, what was she supposed to do?

I got a little worried about the new friend, however. The first day of school the Girl said she was sharing a locker with this new friend, as she doesn't really like where her own locker is (bottom row, downstairs). Later that night, the friend texted her that her parents didn't want her to share a locker.

So I was hoping that this new friend wouldn't turn out to be a problem, but so far it seems OK. You know how girls can be.

She is 13 now and I feel her pushing me away. She's taken to calling me "Monkey" - a term less endearing than I'd like. The other day I got excited when she sat next to me, in front, when I took her to soccer practice. It turned out, tho, that she only wanted to changed the radio station at will.

Last weekend her soccer team won a game on Sat., but the Girl was mad at one of her teammates and basically wanted her kicked off the team. The next day they lost a game, but the Girl scored on a great penalty kick and was very happy. She tries to get cranky with us trying to help her (bringing food and offering it to her), but I try to emphasize that we are only trying to support her.

Meanwhile, the Boy has visited us twice already this semester! Wow. He says he's going to try to visit more, as he now realizes how little he came home last year. Really? What about the year before that?

I think that because he's in an apartment now, he's more on his own than ever before. He called me one day, saying, "Mom, I hate cooking SO much!"

One day he called from Costco, asking what he should buy. I made some suggestions, and he said he'd already picked out rice, salsa, and bologna. OK, whatever. He asked what he could do with bologna, and I said, well, you can try frying it.

Later that week he texted me that he HATES fried bologna! He said he cooked it for dinner and couldn't even eat it! He asked what else he could do with it, and I suggested eating it with a lot of mayo, or trading it to his roommates for an egg or something.

He bought about 2 lbs of it, and wanted to bring it home, but I said don't bother. It's not even good for you. Technically, it's bad for you.

But I told K that now that the Girl is pulling away from us, the Boy seems to be coming back our way.

That would be nice.

Sunday dinners

My sister closest in age to me, M, recently finished a LONG educational experience and finally earned her long-awaited Nursing degree. Yay!

Then, she found there's currently no shortage of nurses, and she was discouraged at not finding a job right away. Then right when we visited, she got a job in a psychiatric hospital. Yay again!

So she was training much of the time we were there, although we did get to see her a few times. As part of her training, she spend two days learning defensive moves and how to "take somebody down" if she had to.

She told a co-worker, "Well, if nothing else, it might come in handy at Sunday dinners with my family."

And the guy laughed. He just doesn't know....

Club Soccer

Part I

The Club Manager of the local Gold team sent a formal invitation to The Girl to practice with the team, and come play a scrimmage with them on Saturday. So I sat down with her and told her about the offer, and she wanted to go. But her ankle was still recovering from a sprain, so we decided to go watch the scrimmage instead.

I talked to her about the fact that this team had moved up to Gold last year and then lost some players, reminding her that she'd been through such a transition before and it was a lot of pressure to step up your game and frustration at losing. And I reminded her how lenient her coach has been with her about her drama, a result of frustration, and not every coach is going to appreciate her like her current coach.

Trying to be honest, I told her coach about it, and that she probably wouldn't want to change teams now, but she's curious. He answered that without her the team would probably fall apart and he'd lose a ton of money, but that he'd never stand in her way. He said they'd promise us the world, but will most likely go back to the club down the street next year. Nothing like a little pressure!

So we got a ride to the Scrimmage (which was an hour away!) with a former teammate of Gracie's (M). My first surprise was that when I was introduced to the Team Administrator, she was polite at best. She greeted us, but didn't look happy to see us at all.

The next surprise was that the coach didn't show up on time. In fact, he was nearly an HOUR late! Which he says isn't really like him. Sure! He did tell me thanks for coming, which I thought was really nice.

The next thing was that I was really curious to see what skills a girl on a Gold team must have, and I didn't see anything that looked outstanding. No moves put on anyone, no slide tackles, One girl was super fast and a few had really big kicks, plus the Goalie was good. Other than that, I think the Girl was at least as good as any of them.

The Girl's former teammate (M) didn't take her into the group or introduce her to anyone, which I also found a little surprising. I'm not sure M wants the Girl on her team at all!!= Maybe it's her Mom that cares. And I'm surprised at how helpful the Mom was being, as she never wanted to help our team when she was on our team in the past!

So nobody promised us the world, they barely noticed we were there (except for M's Mom.) A few people were friendly, but gradually I realized that a few girls were trying out, and everyone was just thinking about their own players on the team. So much for the glories of being recruited by another team! Hah!

Club Soccer Pt. 2

So after our visit to the Gold team's scrimmage, we attended a practice. I think the Girl wanted to show everyone her skills, but that too was the opposite of what I would think should happen.

First, the coach had them do drills that the Girl has never done before, and frankly don't seem that useful in a game. So the Girl was not especially good at bouncing the ball off her head a lot of times in a row, or similar drills. And when it came to racing, she wasn't nearly the fastest, as this team has a girl that is one of the fastest in the nation in track meets.

Plus she hadn't worked out in awhile because of her ankle, and she got tired after all that racing.

But it was such a beautiful day at the local high school, and the Boy, home from college, was playing basketball outside there too. I could pretty much watch both my kids from the right vantage point. So I called K and told him to come down and watch.

It was right after he got there that the Girl wanted to go home. She was tired from the running and afraid she'd throw up, but the team was just starting to hand out pinnies for a scrimmage. So K got there and she told him she wanted to leave early, and he was very confused and disappointed, saying, "What?" and "Why?" a lot.

So it was kindof funny that neither the team nor the Girl put their best foot forward on their first opportunity. But on Wed they had a scrimmage against some older girls, and both the team and the Girl looked very good. The coach gave her a few instructions, and when she could understand him, she said what he told her was really smart.

But since it was right before the season started, we decided that we couldn't abandon her old team right now. But we feel like if the team stays in our community, the Girl would like to go there after this season ends. The Girl told the Gold team's coach (the crazy Hungarian), and he said she could still practice with them if she wanted to, which I thought was very generous.

She had the idea that if she played Club soccer instead of High School soccer, she'd be able to play basketball in High School. I don't know if she'll still want to be that busy when we get there, but right now it seems like a good idea.

Soccer Angst

The Girl's soccer team is at a critical point right now, having lost one of our best players to basketball this summer. Last year we didn't have enough girls, and no one wants to go through that again. So already we're challenged to get more (hopefully good!) girls.

Then a few weeks ago, the team was dealt a blow by the League when her team was demoted to the Bronze division. You may remember that they fought hard to not have to move down to Bronze from Silver last year, and their success was a true achievement, as a few games they even had to play short, with not enough players. That was seriously their main goal last season.

Well, apparently there's this whole bunch of processes that we parents know little about, and someone took his team to another Club, and challenged our place in our division. And they won on points for the season.

I sent a strongly-worded email to the "Commissioner", and she basically said it's a done deal and it's something that happens. That was hard to accept, but our coach said he was fighting it.

Then I heard him talking later about how maybe Bronze was better because we wouldn't have to drive so far. I told K and he said, "No, if they move down, the Girl is leaving the team." We hate to do it, but she's one of the best players on the team and she doesn't deserve to have to go down to Bronze. If anything, we could be trying to get her on a higher-division team (like Gold, which at this age is the best.)

It's hard because the Girl tried out for this team when they were first starting it, when she was 9 years old! We've always been loyal and I'm even sortof the team manager.

So I told K he'd better tell Coach that, as I didn't want him to get any bad surprises later. So K told him at the last practice, a week ago, and K said he looked SO sad and was saying, "No, K, don't leave us! That would just kill us!" So of course we felt even worse. It was maybe the worst thing he ever had to tell somebody.

The way we found our, actually, is that a friend of ours who lives in our neighborhood called, and said that her husband noticed we were moved down to Bronze and did we want to join HER team, which is still in Silver. We started out in soccer together when both our girls were about 5, and she was previously with the local (expensive) Club, VC, but last year moved to an even more expensive Club down the way (LCFC). Actually, this LCFC had been taking players from lots of teams, and were up to 3 teams in this age group.

This friend (Mary J) has a daughter that is also good (if short), and is on the Silver team that moved up from Bronze last year. We told her the Coach was trying to appeal our drop to Bronze, but we'd get back to her if it didn't change.

Then we told the Girl about the team getting moved, and she surprised us by saying, "Maybe I should check out VC." Since it's in our area, some of her friends are on the team, and this summer she's been all about making new friends. But VC's only team in our age group was at the bottom of the Bronze league, so that wasn't really a better option.

So K started looking on the internet, and saw that VC's web site claims that they have just started a Gold team! How the heck did that happen? Where did this Gold team come from?

Out of curiosity, I emailed the person indicated on the web site, and asked him where the girls for this team came from. He never answered that question, but instead was saying my deadline to change teams was this Friday. Finally I convinced him that we haven't signed yet for the year, so there is no need to change by Friday. A few days later I got an email from someone else saying he is the coach of this Gold team, and asked that I call him.

I felt a little guilty about that, as I wasn't really trying to start the ball rolling somewhere else, I was just trying to get some information. I felt like I was cheating on our coach! So I said a prayer that the "Commission" changed their minds and moved us back to Silver.

That night I got a call from our Coach, saying we were moved back up to Silver. Yay!!! He said it took a lot of work, so maybe it was good that we lit a fire under him. He even got us into a better division geographically, so that we don't have to drive as far as we did in Silver North. Now we're in Silver East.

Coach was so happy that he had an impromptu BBQ at his house, and we went to celebrate a little bit. He was joking and thanking K for sending him into a depression last week.

I was talking with a friend who was there, whose daughter is on a Gold team, and she said that the coach for LCFC's Gold team took his team to VC, and you have to take a minimum of 7 players to stay in the same bracket. So THAT's where VC got their Gold team! And the Girl probably won't know most of the girls on THAT team, if any.

Now all the Girl's current team needs is a few more (hopefully good!) girls! Maybe I'll say a prayer for that next.

Dodger Game

We had been planning to do one thing every week while The Girl is on summer vacation. So this week we went to a Dodger game. Dodgers vs. Florida Marlins.

The game started at 7:10 and we were there a little early. We saw some tv announcers getting ready near us, and one of them waved to us.

There were some funny girls sitting behind us, obviously looking for someone in particular. It turned out to be Mike Stanton, who is a local boy who got picked up by the Florida Marlins. They were excited to see him and ran down and waved, and he waved back at them.

This is the very player that hit a home run with 3 men on base, which gave the Marlins all the runs they got in the entire game. Enough to beat the Dodgers.

When we got home the Boy said this player Mike S was now on his fantasy team. Since he came out the same time as Stephen Strasburg. he didn't get any attention, but he's really good!

I heard one girl say, "Remember how good his butt used to look in his football uniform?" and another girl said, "Oh, yeah, I remember!"

Also funny, the Bachelor Ryan somethingorother got to throw the second first pitch. I didn't realize at first who it was, then a lot of booing was going on. The Girl yelled, "get a girlfriend!" and some guy behind me yelled, "You're a media whore!" V. funny.

His pitch didn't make it to the plate, by the way. This resulted in more booing from the crowd, but he just smiled and waved and walked away.


Well, it was cold for a summer night, but we had a good time. This summer has been really cool - I remember 2 years ago when the Boy graduated it was so hot that everyone's AC blew the transformer in the power pole, and we sat and watched as they fixed it.

The Boy is moving into his first apartment. One of his roommates, his best friend from High School, is living with him again. I think it's ironic that this friend of his seemed so judgemental about my having a list of stuff the Boy needed to do, but he didn't understand that without the list the Boy was not doing anything! No chores, nothing. He even told his Mom, who came to a party at our house to meet me because she'd heard about this list.

So now this friend gets to teach the Boy how to do dishes. Ha!

Where is her country?

It turns out the maids accidentally took the Girl's cleats. I didn't call them for awhile, as the timing didn't seem right for them to have taken them, but finally (after looking and looking for them) I called and spoke to the daughter of one of the maids, as she speaks the best English. She asked the other maid, and found that she did see them, but has already sent them to "her country."

They were just in a white plastic drawstring bag, on a certain chair, so they just mixed it up with stuff I'd given them. I'm constantly (it seems) going through my stuff and getting rid of things. The Girl does it even more than I do, so lately I'd been just giving it to them instead of Goodwill. Well, at least we know what happened to them!

The Girl is mad, tho, and imagines that someone in another country is running around in her soccer cleats. She's mad that she now has to wear what she calls "clown shoes."

She's second on a waiting list for a camp that starts in a week, so we'll see what happens with that.

Soccer and Internships

Things have continued to be challenging with the Girl's soccer summer. First, she yelled at me to be quiet ("Shut up" were her exact words!) during the game (when I wasn't even talking to her BTW) and got duly punished by not getting to go to a party that day.

Next, at another game, she shouted at her teammates to "get the fucking ball!" I said "Girl! Watch your language!" The coach asked what she said, and I just said she cursed. He thought about it and said, "It's nothing I wouldn't have said. Just let her play." At home she did get punished, however, because we had an agreement about cursing, that we wouldn't censor her TV or movie watching at this age as long as she doesn't say those words.

I told her I like it that she cares about the game, I don't mind if she has an edge, but she can't go around cursing like a sailor! So she'd made her peace with not seeing R rated movies for awhile, when she discovered that a TV show she liked was rated TV-14. And she's 13. Arghhhhhhhh! She didn't even know there was such a thing.

So the next game, instead of cursing, she took off running after getting scored on and pushed a boy on the other team! I knew as soon as she took off that she was very angry, but it was a long way to run, and I saw her rethinking the whole thing by the time she got there. But she couldn't just stop after running all that way, so all she did was give him a little push. But still. She got a red card and miraculously, the kid on the other team got a yellow card. So I guess the ref knew that the boy had done something to provoke her.

I wasn't going to punish her because I figured she got a red card and had hopefully learned another lesson. When she came over to where I was sitting, she was crying and saying I didn't hear what the boy had been saying to her. I didn't really say anything, but then she demanded to go home. Well, I didn't like that idea at all. It was bad enough she could no longer help her team (and she's the sweeper), but to just leave?

But she was very upset and beseeching me "Mom can't you just try to understand?" when it was halftime. I decided to go ask the coach what he thought.

But when I got to him, he said, "Go ask the ref to change it to a yellow card!"

So I did. He knew me because I was the one who paid him and gave him the cards at the beginning of the game, so I ran over there and asked him if he couldn't please change it to a yellow card because the boys were saying bad things to her and upset her, but she's very sorry and will never do it again. And he said OK.

I didn't know if he meant OK, go away, or OK I'll change it. But he did say OK. Like I said, this league is somewhat casual.

But the coach went to the other side and I couldn't get the girl to go onto the field or to see the coach! She insisted she was out no matter what I said. So I stalked over to the other side and asked the coach if she shouldn't be in since the ref said ok. He said, "The ref said OK?" and I said yes. So he shouted "Girl!" but she didn't come over. He told me to go get her.

So I stalked back and I was SO, so mad at her. If she didn't get her butt into that game I was planning all sorts of punishment and possible torture. But I went and told her that the coach wanted to see her. She said she was too embarrassed to go back, but I told her it was a better way to get out her energy than crying.

So she went over and after some discussion with the ref and a kid on the other team and mutual apologizing, she got back into the game. She played well and there were no other incidents or issues.

The coach didn't get angry with her, because frankly he wishes some of the other girls cared as much as she does. But her brother advised her to just take her anger out by playing harder or better. Her father told her that letting the other team get to her head is letting them take her out of the game - she's taking HERSELF out of the game. I told her that she needs to learn to control her temper or I'm going to send her to a counselor, which I totally mean, because I'm hyper sensitive right now to violence and cursing and people not being able to control their tempers. (ie my sister)

And any time we get everything together and take her to a game, we're staying for the WHOLE game (unless the police are called.)

Thankfully things didn't escalate this last weekend, but she did manage to lose the bag with her cleats and shin guards. It was around 7am and we were a little cranky anyway. K kept asking her where they were and she got frustrated and yelled at him to let her think. So K and I were desperately searching her room, our cars, etc,. and every time we went into the living room she was standing there, thinking.

She never did find them, so we moved on to Plan B - my old cleats from my brief coaching career. A week later we still have no idea where they are.

She claims I probably moved them and don't remember because I'm getting older and that's the kind of thing I do now. Unfortunately, this could be true.

Meanwhile, there's the Boy

During his spring break we put together his resume and he applied for a lot of internships at once. One company in Santa Monica was interested in him, but he wasn't ready to start yet as he had to finish his semester at school. When he finished his term, he emailed her again but this time got no response.

When he got home he started applying for jobs like crazy, but seemed to give up on internships. I looked on Craigslist and found some and emailed them to him, but he didn't follow up on them. It made me sad, because it reminded me of basketball - how he gave up at the first sign of an obstacle.

I hate to see him give up when things get difficult, but I also remember how hard these things were for me at his age. So I offered to help him, because it's very easy for me - being in marketing and sales for all these years. So this time when I searched Craigslist, when I saw something interesting I'd just send an email and his resume from his email account.

I only did this a few times, and miracle of miracles, he got an internship in nearby Burbank! SO much closer than Santa Monica! So he's all happy and thanking me, but honestly it was his resume that got it for him. And being available immediately seems to be somewhat important in getting internships.

I'm hoping once he gets some confidence he'll be less easily discouraged. I tried to show him how putting it out there and just trying can actually get you what you want, so hopefully he will learn to keep trying.

Next, K and I are in a dilemma regarding getting another car. I don't want to keep driving the Boy around and would like to get another car that's good on gas, but I've been meeting a lot of resistance from K. Finally he said that he should be the one to get a new car, and he wanted an El Camino. So I found him one in our neighborhood, and he thought about it, and it just doesn't make any sense gas-wise. So hopefully we've decided to get another small car - now I just need to make it happen.

I have to say that I've been loving life lately - soccer in the daytime and Laker games at night. It's been a lot of fun.

Jury Duty 2010

Today I was excused from Jury Duty. Yay! I was willing to try, but the Prosecutor was right to cut me loose, as I had a low probability of finding for his seemingly preferred punishment.

It was interesting because it was in Lance Ito's courtroom, and he's a familiar face. It was kind of fun getting asked questions by him. I like seeing people from all over and being downtown.

It was bad because it was a murder case, a 5-week trial, and we'd be hearing bad things and seeing bad pictures the whole time. The defendant even looked pretty scary, and kept looking over at us and writing something in his tablet.


I like my drive to jury duty, and I always go the same way. I take the 2 Freeway south to where it runs out, by my old house in Silverlake. It turns into Glendale Ave, which I take south and to Echo Park and the huge Foursquare church built by Aimee Simple McPhereson. I think that was her name. I find her interesting.

I drive by Echo Park and see the big water fountain and the big birds in the water (swans? ducks?) I go left at Temple, and it takes me right downtown. I turn right at Grand and go right past the Music Center and the Disney Somethinghouse, where jurer parking is currently located.

If you walk downhill from there, there is a walkway between the court buildings, where you can buy a Starbucks before court. These don't seem to be a problem at Security, which you have to pass downstairs. Then there are only 4 elevators that go upstairs, of which only 2 are usually working. Today there were 3, but there were SO many people, and I was SO hot. And I was wearing as sleeveless a shirt as you can get!

Anyway, I will miss my pals, Juror #189 and 198, but maybe we will meet again some day.

Later, I went home and voted.



How's that for doing my Civic duty?