Gratitude

This weekend was quite the weekend. So many parts were uplifting, humbling, both.

During one of the games, I remembered with a smile Lucinda telling me, in Green, that she was going to make it her mission to get me into Red that season. (She did.) I was so touched by this. I did work hard, and listen, and was so happy to get into Red. I know that the skills and thought processes she taught me helped me be a better player last weekend as well. Thanks, Lucinda.

And last Fall, Liz asked me to Burninate Los Angeles. I backed out after realizing how bad my tennis elbow was, wanting to heal it completely before restarting hockey. I'm sure part of my reticence was being cowed by having seen the Burninators in action and knowing I'd be more of a dead weight than a help. She asked me again for Las Vegas, holding the spot for Cheddah first (which made sense, my cheesy friend being an original Burninator) and then offering it to me. As we went into the weekend, I was a little surprised at my feelings of lightness, really having internalized that my best is the best I can do. I'm sure the tremendous team spirit helped this, and the warm welcome I got as a player this time (having gone with this team to Vegas last year as a child-watcher). Viv (or someone else!) officially welcomed me by hiding a Love-a-Lot CareBear in my hockey bag during the first game. But as I skated out to receive my Tournament Championship trophy, I knew I'd earned it with hard work on the ice. Thanks for the faith in me, Liz.

And the tournament revved me up so much that I turned into the Endless Talker and Questioner. I know I periodically drove Liz and Andrea batshit with my comments and questions. Thanks for not killing me.

When I picked G up, he triumphantly said he didn't miss me once during the weekend. He was quite happy to have some snuggle time before bed, but he certainly didn't seem worse for wear. I don't think the Aunties nor my friend J read this blog, but if you do, thanks for taking such awesome care of my kid. He also commented that the breakfasts and dinners were "terrific."

And finally, I'm grateful to God/the powers that Be for my good health, good friends, wonderful family, currently healthy work environment. Thanks Be.

Great weekend

I do love birthday celebrations that start early and last.

I got a box at Christmas from my dad and stepmom that said "Happy Birthday!" that I haven't opened yet. (But I won't be able to resist for long.)

My sister already emailed me about a gift that is coming. Well, she already asked me what I wanted and emailed a link to ask if it would work (3-in-1 networkable printer, woo hoo!).

And a friend with whom I was going to do a Girls' Night Out on Saturday said, "I'm going to take you out for your birthday." Her DH watched G and we went to Kincaid's (you are not surprised) and it was perfect. We talked and laughed and ate and ate. It was SO good. I'm having the leftovers today.

Friday night, G and I went to the Social Skills group at the Berkeley Y. It's free and they bring pizza (for a donation). I am usually the only adult who has any (but I always wait till the kids have theirs) and we always donate about $5. G was totally wiggly at the check-in time (we go around the circle)--didn't want to stay in his chair but sat upside-down in it for a while and then crawled under mine. I think it was a combination of feeling uncomfortable in that group and maybe wanting some attention (which he got from some of the kids). I wavered between feeling annoyed that he just. couldn't. sit. in. his. chair and feeling like, Hey, this is how he is, and if anyone here doesn't understand that, we're in the wrong group. We finished our evening with a swim in the shallow Warm Pool, which was way overchlorinated. I played a keep-away game with G that turned out to be pretty fun, and then he threw the diving toys around the pool as I hid my eyes and had me find them. He dressed and showered in the boys' locker room for the first time and did fine. He had come with me to the girls' locker room last time, but the signs do say boys over 5 should be in the other one, and he noticed them this time. I was glad he did find--found a locker OK and washed his body and hair in the shower afterward just fine.

Saturday morning, we grabbed Oakland Zoo passes and walked around to two houses in Alameda. Wow, Gmap Pedometer says we walked almost 3 miles! It took us an hour (including a stop at a garage sale) and G was "so" tired when we got home. We had 15 mins to pack lunches and get out the door again to get to the Zoo on time. We made it, and instead of the 3 families from our church that I'd expected, we had seven! The zoo was very busy. I asked a Zoo worker, and she pointed out that it was the first warm weekend day in a while. We slowly made our way up to the elephants, down to the Meerkats, and back toward the front. Some folks wanted to buy some food at the cafe, and we all ended up there. I looked at all the deep-fried possibilities and went healthy (for once) and got a fruit/juice bar and a fruit salad.

We went to the rides next:




And then had a while till my dinner out... waiting for the Cable Guy. Literally.

He came at about 5 (in his 4-6PM window, Thanks, Comcast, for a reasonable time window!) and got his stuff done by 6, which meant I couldn't really change until then, but I put out my clothes and got started on my makeup while waiting for him to be done. He had to do some work at my modem with his box-that-tested-speed and then was on the phone with a friend, it sounded like (WTF), and then was finally done. I don't know what they did but it all still works, so good.

Sunday, we just could not get out of bed, so we missed church entirely. I was in my pjs until like 2PM, but getting stuff done at the house: got my hockey gear washed and set out in the sun to dry (finished drying in the dryer, first on low, then on Air Dry) and packed to go to the rink. Cleaned out my hockey bag, fixed my garter belt (I keep losing one of the dangly rubber bits), and sewed up like 7 rips in my pants. Retaped both of my sticks, which felt good: and then set them on the floor and they got all dog-hairy, dangit.

Got a call from Andrea asking me to sub in the game before mine, a nice compliment! And woot, my sitter could, after all, show up 1.5 hrs early! I got all my gear loaded in the car, came back up the back stairs to hear G talking to someone. My sitter was there early--and surprised himself. He said he'd missed the first bus. Well, that works anyway.

The games were way fun; I played D line with Andrea for the first time, I think ever. It felt very smooth; nice to play with someone who's so clear and LOUD about changes. Both teams were faster at changes this time; my team was so. slow. at changes last game that it was making me NUTS. Several gals get on the top of the boards and pause. ARGH!

The first game was 3-0 (or 4-0?) and still a tough game. I got to skate up against my team captain, which was really very fun. She's tricky and fast, and got very annoyed with me when I messed up a play she was setting up. Lots of backtalk and taunting, yay! Then, in our game, I looked at their bench and thought, Wow, they have a lot of speed and strength. And yet, we held them, and we were scoreless at the end. In the sudden death, our wing managed to pop it in the goal in the first 15 seconds, which was nice, as it was my second game and I was getting a little pooped. Fun, fun game with good goalies. Great.

I came home and got G in bed on time, just barely, and worked some more on my pajama top. I'm on step 10 of 17, and it's coming along nicely. It seems a little big, but that's better than the alternative. He's at "art camp" today for the day off, and will spend a few hours at my office after camp is over. Maybe we'll wash the dog tonight. Always fun at our house!

Scrimmage against BTDs 2-4; Puck Bunnies vs. Puck Ewes 1-1

We had a scrimmage set up with Burninators vs. Buck-Toothed Dolphins on Saturday at 4. It was add the ever-so-odd Ice Oasis, which is replete with stairs (stairs?!?) from the entrance to the locker rooms. I panicked off the Dumbarton bridge and took the first exit, which was University, rather than the last, which would have been Marsh Road and would have put me there right on time. Since we had an adventure instead, I got there with maybe 10 minutes to change. I did manage to get on the ice before the game started, but just barely.

Before this game, I was very nervous about playing with the Burninators and about playing in Vegas. Afterward, although I definitely felt like I was the least skilled player on the team, I still felt like I would measure up OK. There was a breakaway where I tried to chase the player down and failed miserably, and it made me think of Andrea's saying "I was -1 in the first period," which I hadn't really thought of before. I whacked my stick on the in annoyance and Lucinda skated by and said to shake it off, which was right (although once I'd whacked the stick, I really was past it). I skated as fast as *I* can, and that was it, all I could do. (Although next time, I'm going to make sure I keep skating to do the back-check if I can. I think I did and she just shot fast, but if not, I need to change that.)

It is a fun team of great players; it's going to be a blast!

Tonight's game was at Belmont against a very strong team. I think we could have dominated if we'd rushed the puck more and made better passes; as it was, we did make a lot of panicked passes-to-empty-space and not enough rebounds. Very fun and clean game, though; only one penalty, and it was on their side. They scored first, but we answered pretty quickly, and we held each other till the end. We got through the whole 5 mins of sudden death without any more pucks in the net, but not for lack of trying. I am really liking my team but am also wanting to be a captain and be able to say things like, "Forwards, you need to skate to the puck more and everyone needs to leave her stick on the ice." That would be Bossy Me. Time for that later, I guess.

For now, I need to wash my gear (pew!) and re-tape my stick (it's been like, hm, maybe forever). One more game here, next Sunday, and then it's off to Vegas!

Lightening up my life

I've started decluttering and clearing out unwanted stuff in my life. It's already making a huge difference in my mood.

But since the details of the decluttering and cleaning may not be staggeringly interesting, I'll be posting them over on the decluttering blog my friend Wen started. If you're interested, check there for updates.

Until then, want any Lesbian-themed books? I seem to have an entire box of them. :)

Cleaning house

I've been making a lot of changes at home in a slow effort to emerge from the chaos I've built up over the last few months/years.

I've also made changes online: I'm weaning myself off my mac.com account, which has been hideously undependable, even more so now that Apple is changing it to "MobileMe," a concept that doesn't work for my life in SO many ways. So I've been moving list subscriptions over to otherinbox.com, which is like a junk mail sorter. I love clicking its DeleteAll button and seeing all that stuff go away! It's been great for store mailings to which I never reply but want to see. I've also slowly sent out the "please change my address in your e-mail address book" notes, but I hate the "send the note to everyone you have ever come in contact with" method, so I have shied away from sending too many bulk emails. (If you don't have my current Gmail address, drop me a comment and I'll make sure you get it.)

I've also gone through my office and found things that have been in limbo--in the case of some cowboy boots, in limbo for about 14 months now. I ordered them, they sorta fit, I wore them around the office to see, put 'em on a shelf, wore them on the carpet again... finally decided my calves just don't work for them. Sierra Trading Post's return policy is like Lands End's--any time for a full refund. Yay!

I also returned a Land's End swimsuit I bought last January, with 2 others I ordered recently, to a Sears. Seamless! And it'll be nice to have a fat credit on my credit-card statement, too. Plus, having people stop asking me why there are cowboy boots on my bookshelf in my office? Priceless.

I've started getting together regularly with old friends, too--a group from Cal Band. We've had dinner together 3 out of the past 4 months and it's been so nice to spend time with them again. Another friend and I started having lunch together every few weeks or so, and invited another friend to join us. That hasn't worked out (although she and I have had lunch), but it will soon. It is great to get these people I know and love, but rarely saw, back in my life.

At home, I finally replaced the dog door flap that was hanging on by 1" of rubber. As I replaced it, memories of the last replacement flooded back. Yep, it was just as much of a PITA and there was lots of cussing. But I got it done and now the chilly air isn't flooding into the room like it was.

I also cleared an entire shelf off my bookcase and filled it with board games, which G and I have really been getting into. It's nice to make room for things that give me such pleasure.

I hope to make many more changes of this sort in my life so that I can actually enjoy my space!

Happy New Year!

Well, I didn't do as much yesterday as I had planned, but I'm happy with what I did get done.

I had hoped to make and freeze 2 soups--I did make and freeze one, an Italian country bean soup. The recipe called for a can of tomatoes (pressed through a sieve) but I couldn't find one anywhere. I went with chicken broth, lots of onions, garlic, carrots and celery (the recipe called for 1 of each), and a small pile of Italian spices. Turned out yummy. I used regular chicken broth and it didn't need any more salt.

I had hoped to make my flannel pj's. I'd forgotten how much prep work is involved in sewing. It took plenty of my time to unfold and iron the flannel (preshrunk, so that's good), unfold and iron and then cut out the pattern pieces, find the layout for my size, and start laying out the pattern pieces on the cloth. I pinned out three pieces but didn't cut them out. Yes, that's all. Oh, I also measured my current pj's to get a better idea of which size to make (answer: L on the bottom and M on top). This is a pattern I've made before, for G, so I know once the pieces are cut out, they'll turn out great. I took G's pj's out at Christmas to show my stepmom--she and my dad got me the sewing machine a few years ago. G had picked out a bright Po.kemon fabric and I thought it would be awful, but once sewn into pj's, it was very cute.

I had hoped to do a hike--and we did! I told my mom (in town, staying with her brother) that we were going, and she expressed interest, so she went along. I asked my aunt if she wanted to come and she said, "No thanks," but her eyes said, "Are you out of your MIND?" I picked a pretty easy hike I've done with G a bunch of times. It was brisk, but with walking, we stayed warm. After the hike, G wanted to go to the playground that was near the parking lot. Mom was willing, so we went. As we were getting ready to leave, she started up a conversation with someone about weaving. I know she loves weaving, but this conversation ended up making all of us cold and G go back to the play structure I'd just worked to get him off of. Oy.

We went back to my uncle's house and G and I were invited to stay for a while. I lasted maybe 15 minutes before I realized all the things I'd wanted to do at home (see above) were not getting done and I was massively bored. I gathered up G, the 2 dogs, and the Chex Mix my aunt had bagged up for us and headed home.

I'd also wanted to get some knitting done, so G and I watched Shanghai Noon together while I ripped and reknit the heel of a sock I'm doing for my mom. And once again, I messed it up. sigh One of those learning experiences, I guess.

Well, I have a heel pattern picked out, pattern pieces to cut out, 4 servings of soup frozen, and a hike under our belts. It was a good New Year's Day. I hope yours was good, too!