5/15/11

The wind could destroy your marriage...

It has been an extremely windy and busy weekend, here is a blow by blow starting with Saturday morning...

7:15 am, Micah picked up for his morning soccer game. He had 2 games, one at 9 am, and a second game at 4pm. I couldn't go to the morning game so he went with Curly. As he left I walked the dogs around the hood.

8:40 am. Howie and I leave for town and Daniel's 9:30 bar mitzvah service at the synagogue in Bozeman. We arrive seconds before it begins, it's a full house, but we still get seats in the front. It's a beautiful service with lots of friends there, the singing is great and the love of Daniel's family is quite touching, over 20 members flying in from Australia and London. During the service at random times I found myself tearing up, memories of Micah's bar mitzvah already almost a year ago, plus spiritual thoughts of how lucky I am, or from the love I find myself surrounded by, or just because I cry a lot.

Noon. The Kiddush lunch. Lots of chatting. Then off for the afternoon, we picked up chocolate at La Chatelaine for the store and then coffee at Rockford for the store. Then we went over to visit my buddy Josh and his son Ethan. Josh made a pot of coffee, Howie and Ethan played x-box.

1:50 pm. Took Howie over to little league baseball practice, 5 minutes from Josh's house.

2:15 pm. Josh and I took a solid bike ride on bike trails all over the east side of Bozeman, around the railroad tracks, under the interstate, up Pete's Hill Trail, the wind was howling, pushing us back, knocking me over at one point going up a slow steep hill towards the top of Pete's Hill.

3:25 pm. Phone rings. Just pulling into Josh's driveway on the bike. Howie's baseball coach. I thought I was late, but no Howie got hit in the face with a throw, cut his lip pretty bad, letting me know he's in the bathroom. I apologize for being late, tell him I will be right there. I grab an ice pack from Josh and head to the field. Howie is still in the bathroom cleaning up. It had been bleeding pretty badly. It's those damn braces, he's got quite the fat lip, but he's doing O.K., I can tell he's trying super hard not to cry. Later in the car when he tells me how it happened he starts to cry, but holds most of it in. He's trying to be brave. I give him a tylenol and tell him to keep icing it as we drive over to Micah's soccer game in Belgrade.

4:05 pm. Micah's soccer game. Game has just started. We sit with friends. Howie taking it easy, and icing his lip. The swelling goes down quite a bit. Good soccer game, Micah's team dominating and then Micah scores a goal! A nice shot, from a good distance away. Micah's team, the Belgrade Rage, is up 1 - 0 at the half. They go on to win 2 - 0. Howie spends most of the game playing tag with other kids.

5:00 pm. Phone call from Boston from Stan. He's calling to check in on me. He sounds great. He saw my niece Emma play in her basketball tournament and she scored 13 points. He was raving about her and how much she loves basketball. He is surrounded by family, his sister Joan is there as are her 2 daughters, plus my brother Lou is there with his kids and of course Ben and his family - that's where he's staying. Sounds like he is doing just great!

5:40 pm. Game over. We head to our car where we all change into our bar mitzvah party clothes. Drive over to the Riverside Country Club, where we go to Daniel's Bar Mitzvah dinner party. Wine, lemonade, good food, and dancing! Micah seems to have all these younger girls coming back and forth with messages from some older girls. Howie is dancing and having lots of fun. I'm hanging out with good friends, everyone asking for Jackie... Micah tells me yes he actually did get a new phone number...

7:30 pm Text from Andrew, he's going to a dance party and staying in town, unless the party sucks, then he's coming home.

9:30 pm. We head home. Both Micah and Howie sleep most of the ride home. Micah's big 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. leaves from the school at 3:40am.

10:30 pm. Arrive at home, Howie goes straight to bed. Micah takes shower, makes sure all his bags are ready, sets alarm, goes to sleep.

3:20 am. Micah is up and ready to go, we drive over to the school and drop him off for the ride to the airport.

3:40 am. Back to bed for me.

9:30 am. Up and about. Take shower, walk the dogs.

11:00 am Neighborhood clean up, tennis court wind screen set up, barbecue. Howie and I walk down to the neighborhood park. I spend most of the afternoon, picking up trash, hanging out and helping set up the wind screens.

3:00 pm As I walk up the driveway, Andrew pulls in from Bozeman. Back home I watch the last 2 innings of the Mets game. They win 7 - 4!!!

3:30 pm Talk to Jackie on phone. She is at Grand Central Station in NYC. Sounds like she is having a great time visiting with her Boston College girlfriends, now in the city to see other girlfriends...

4:00 pm Head down to store to drop off coffee and chocolate and do a little shopping. Store looks good, not that busy, but busy enough.

5:00 pm. Back home, make a smoothie for Howie and Andrew, and a quesadilla for Howie.

5:30 pm The wind is still howling, need to take dogs for a walk, thought of taking bike ride, but it just sounds so so windy!