It was a busy day. Robin had her fifth grade graduation in the morning, then had her first cheerleading practice at the new gym, and then I met some chorus friends for wine, cheese, and a river sunset. All very nice. Robin loves her new gym. She said she learned more today than she learned in the entirety of last season. She came home with bruises on her thighs from snapping her arms to her side and she was thoroughly proud of them. She worked hard and loved it. Two other people from her old team are on her new team, so that’s nice too. Her old coach is also at the new gym, though not coaching her team, so on the whole it looks like this will be a good arrangement. And then Christina got her invitation to join next year’s dance team… It’s going to be a busy, expensive year, but I feel confident that both girls are doing things they love, and that makes it worth it. Now if only I could find something like that for myself.
Category: May 2023
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May 30
We (I) nearly forgot that Christina had a tech rehearsal at the dance studio last night. Thank goodness for phone reminders! We got there about five minutes late, but of course they were running behind. We ended up being there for almost an hour and a half, missing out on a dinner of bacon-wrapped scallops, just sitting in the parking lot waiting around for Christina’s dances. I knew we were in for a wait when I saw a whole bunch of parents tailgating in the parking lot. At least we made it.
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May 29
It was a busy day of deep cleaning, clothes shopping for Christina, since she had grown out of nearly everything she owned, going to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and dinner out at Al’s Pizza. Nice way to wrap up a long weekend.
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May 28
We had Billy’s family over to celebrate Memorial Day. The dinner spread was pretty impressive. Burgers with three kinds of cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, and avocado, hot dogs, homemade coleslaw, fruit salad, beer, soda… And the weather was absolutely perfect. It was 79 degrees and sunny. Put some 70s classics on the speaker and you could not have asked for a better barbecue.
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May 27
Christina went to a friend’s birthday party at Main Event and they were so generous to extend an invitation to Robin, too. It was a fun party other than the fact that I go into sensory overload the instant I walk in that place and also that the party went on for almost 3 1/2 hours. Robin and I kind of went off on our own at the end and played this one game where you have to hit the lights as they light up. We cheated a little and ended up getting the day’s high score. Yay for the cheaters.
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May 26
I’m working on the last cheer team photo, which has stymied me for days and required a lot of creativity and finesse for a novice like me. There is a metal fence to remove, and a large woman, and a truck, and a house. Basically 15% of the original photo is usable. But… I have learned an awful lot in the last two weeks.
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May 25
Robin made the elite cheer team at her new gym. So proud of her! I think this season is going to be VERY different from the last couple of years. Not necessarily better or worse, but definitely different. The whole approach is different. I’m kind of excited to see how it goes.
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May 24
I apprenticed a NAMI family support group tonight, preparing for facilitating at some point. After like 15 hours of training, I learned tonight that the group is not run anywhere near the way I was trained to do it. I brought all the scripts with me and we never even came close to anything even resembling them. It wasn’t ineffective, just nothing like what I expected. I took the long way home and detoured to my favorite park to watch the sunset. I only spent 15 minutes there – couldn’t spare any more than that – but it was 15 minutes of beauty.
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May 23
Still feeling disgusting, still obsessed with photo editing, still burned out, getting more sarcastic by the minute. So, more of same.
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May 22
This is called obsession, people. I have literally done nothing else except work, sleep, and edit photos. I did clean the kitchen today. And I watched Superman. I probably should at least try to sleep.
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May 21
Today was stressful, but I didn’t have the crazy overwhelming anxiety I’ve had the last three weeks, which was nice. I went to church for the first time in weeks with the idea that I’d go to the park for a little while afterwards, but realized quickly that I’d come back on the day of our annual meeting. So instead of a short hike, I voted on office positions, the budget, and bylaw amendments. I left after an hour to go pick up food for a picnic I decided to throw for the cheer team and their families. I ended up buying about four times as much food as we needed, but the cake I got was absolutely perfect. Publix is amazing.
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May 20
Had to do some parenting today. I’m not sure I’ve been terribly effective with it. It’s so hard to know what to say or what to do when you don’t know what’s going on in someone else’s head. For now I’m giving space and hoping it helps.
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May 19
I took the day off from work to edit photos, and I did so for almost seven hours before my laptop battery died. I am not great with Photoshop. I’m sort of making it up as I go and hoping it doesn’t look too obvious that I tampered with the photos when people print them. Removing people from photos is tedious and difficult, especially when they are standing in front of bushes, fences, and palm trees. Why were they even there in the first place? How dare they go to the beach and invade my photo shoot? But, at least when I’m editing, I’m too focused on that to feel anxious and nauseated. That’s something.
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May 18
Surely not two days in a row… Today it took over and hour to go less than three miles from school to dance class. Apparently the holdup has been a water main break that shut the whole road down for almost two days. They opened up one lane today, so I could see the huge gaping hole in the road where they were digging to repair the pipe. Christina made it to the last ten minutes of her class, at least. And if that wasn’t enough, it took Billy 50 minutes to drive two miles to Publix to buy dessert for dinner tonight. Because they’ve also shut down a main road that requires a detour through one of what is already one of the busiest stretches of road in Mandarin. Longest mile ever.
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May 17
This is the only photo I took yesterday and it is terrible. I was on my way to a meeting that is actually being held NEXT Wednesday. They had shut down an entire exit just before the bridge and it caused unbelievable rush hour traffic. I realized my mistake just after getting off the bridge and turned right around back onto the highway. A 12-mile drive ended up taking one hour and forty-five minutes. For a meeting that is next week. I just turned the music up and sang.
Year in Photos 