Torn Quad

And The Verdict Is...

So I recently took up soccer...which I have never played before. I am not very good at it - but loved it anyway. The first week I played I pulled a muscle in my quad. The second week I played anyway and hurt my knee or leg - I really couldn't tell what was hurting because the whole leg hurt. I am right now sitting in the doctor's office waiting on an XRay and MRI for a ligament injury. Good going, Charlise.

Sports

Things have settled down around the house. Brittany is in school and seems to like it. To be more accurate, she doesn’t seem to hate it with the fire of a thousand suns. Progress anyway.

Work – role still very undefined. I just don’t even know what to say about work anymore. I don’t hate it…but I just feel like it is a necessary part of my day. I don’t get much out of it. I am just not sure that I care right now. It is not the worst job I have ever had…and that might be enough. There is some travel coming up, which I am not thrilled about, but I do like LA – the jogging is great…so I have that going for me. We won’t talk about the trip to Charlotte…I hate that place.

I “played soccer” last night on a recreational team. Mostly I ran around trying not to get killed. I have a whole new appreciation for soccer – the sport I easily made fun of before. I was TIRED last night, and I really didn’t even play well. Hopefully I will gain some confidence and begin to get more out of it. Otherwise the rest of the team is going to take me out in a dark alley for not pulling my weight. That would just be sad.

The boys are in full swing with swimming and soccer. They finished up a basketball clinic recently and head into T Ball in a month. Todd is going to play softball or baseball, and we are starting marathon training, which should round out our extra-curricular insanity nicely.

Question of the day: You have a full day to yourself – what do you do?

And Then There Was One

I was reminded what it is like to be a teenager today. And I have to say that I don't miss it a bit. It is so full of raw, uncontrolled emotion, and there are not yet any real experiences to guide you. Everything feels too real, too final, too hard to manage.

My daughter broke up with her boyfriend of 6 months, and while that isn't my story to tell, I can tell you it was horrible to watch her struggle with the decision to end it.

We drove home together, talking through her decision - me, trying not to sound all-knowing - her, trying not to sound wounded. And I wanted to fix it - to somehow let her know that everything would be all right. But I couldn't fix anything. Nothing was broken. It was just life...happening.

So Glad I Grew Up

Isn't it a strange feeling when your present and past collide? I think Facebook is an experiment in continued self-embarrassment. Apparently there wasn't enough of it in high school, so I now find it necessary to relive those awkward days again and again. Why is there such a strong pull toward those people of the past? If those friendships were so important, why didn't we stay friends? So very, very strange...

And the really strange thing is that I cannot remember many of the people I was so close to. Sure, I remember a first name here and there (Hi Jody, Laura, You - that kid who's locker was next to mine and kept shutting it just to piss me off!) but really - that was so long ago, and high school was such a short period of time in my life that it really doesn't occupy many of my memories. Sorry High School - you just don't really rank anymore. This - is a good thing I think. I was pretty quiet...very very geeky...torn between being a good girl and wanting to have fun. I guess I was like most of the other kids around me, but wow, I was self-absorbed. And scared. And also, homely.

Thinking about my friends then though...well, it makes me smile. We had some fun.