Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

Archives for January 2009

life’s little addictions

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You all can think 21st Century Mom for this little ditty.

RULES: list 5 things you’re “addicted” to, then bestow the honor on five of your favorite bloggers (even though you have a million favorite bloggers).

  1. Facebook would have to top the list.  I can’t keep away, even when I really try.  If I am not allowed to post updates on FB, I move to Twitter.  It’s not that I think that people care what I’m doing.  It is that I need to free my mind from the bottle neck of random thoughts.
  2. Running:  I need my running fix less I start twitching and lashing out at everyone around me.  My Mom used to ground me from running when I was a teenager.  My husband used to send me out running when ever I was getting too bitchy.
  3. Random Photos: I love to take pictures of random things, or of myself (everywhere I go).  They are for the blog and often don’t get used for weeks to months after I take them.  Recently, I started sharing them on FB (see item #1)
  4. Coffee:  must have or else.  It calms me almost as much as it stimulates my mind.
  5. Music: YaYa and I dock myPhone and play songs while we get ready in the morning.  We sing and dance.   We also do this same song and dance where ever we go.

Tag: Irene, Dori, Wes, Terry and Dianne

me, myself and i

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Wow.  THAT was a great run.

I know Julie.  We are so F-A-S-T.

We weren’t going that fast, Juls.

Oh yeah?  Did you see how we blew past that guy?

He was walking.

Well…what about the guy who was running?

He was old.

I don’t care what you say.  We were going FAST.

That’s not what Ms. Garminia said.

She lies.  Plus, she didn’t even want to finish the run.

Yeah.  “Exhausted Battery.”  She’s always using that excuse.

I KNOW.

Hey, what was up with you on the hill?

What do you mean?

When you put your hands up in the air at the top of the hill.

I was doing the Rocky thing. 

OMG.

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Scholastic Award?

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The letter from Pop Warner arrived nearly a month ago.  I had only read the first few lines before drawing conclusions.  This served only to hinder any understanding of the 2 page letter and accompanying order form.  Dinner would be served: $30+ / adult ticket and $18 / child ticket. I chalked it up as just another money making gimmick for football.

“Pop Warner Scholastic Awards Banquet” was clearly noted at the top of the letter, and the letter had said said that YaYa had been selected to receive an award.  I nearly laughed, just like Tom and I laughed when we received the letter from the Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program a few years ago.  It had to be a mistake or some very sick joke.

I thought back to when I 1st registered YaYa for football.  I was extremely upset that the league required each registrant to complete an application for scholastic achievement.  It was to be submitted along with their report card.

I had so desperately wanted to leave that school year behind us.  I’d moved YaYa to a new school where his repeating of 4th grade was to hopefully go unnoticed.  His old school had promoted him to 5th grade as he had made huge strides to catch up after the wasted year following his father’s death. The report card alone failed to show the tremendous progress he had made both academically as well as emotionally.  All that could be gleaned from it were sub-standard grades.

The form was no better.  They didn’t want to know what sports he was in.  They wanted to see how he was contributing to his community via volunteerism, and other accomplishments.  I begged to be spared this humility.  But the form was a requirement so I complied.

It is hard to describe how our whole life’s focus during that time period was dedicated to simply surviving.  It was all we could do to get out of bed each morning and move forward with our lives.  There wasn’t any time for achievements.  We were simply trying to heal from the devastation left behind following my husband’s death.

I don’t recall exactly what I put on the form but I did try to convey the extent that YaYa’s life was impacted.  I probably listed his support group, and perhaps I found a few other things to list.  But for the life of me, I cannot comprehend how they could have picked him out of the 7,300 applications to honor.  And I pray that however they present this award that it is done with sensitivity to all of the pain and suffering that we have tried to put behind us.

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