On time, but…

If I thought that I would ever run out of faults to talk about on this blog, I don’t think I have to worry.  I DID get Vi to school on time this morning.  With time to spare to stop at the gas station and get her a doughnut as a reward for getting up and getting dressed without me having to holler for an hour straight. 

 

That’s really kind of funny how that happened.  I spent about 15 minutes telling her, “Get up!  Get up!” until she finally did get up and go into the living room where I had turned on the TV and laid out her clothes for the day.  After I got dressed, and I just realized in the restroom that I put my cotton panties on inside out (and I think she’s silly because she puts her panties on backwards!), I came into the living room to holler at encourage her to get dressed, but she was already dressed.  And giggling!  I told her I was so glad that she went ahead and got dressed and now we had time to get her a doughnut if she wanted one.  Of course!  I did tell her, though, that I was disappointed because I did not get to holler, and I do so enjoy hollering, so I spouted a few “yanh-yanh-yanhs” at her, and then we were off. 

 

So, to recap, to school on time, check.  To work without incident, not-so-check. 

 

I was singing along to Tom Wait’s Closing Time at a stop light and look up and see police lights behind me.  What did I do?  I don’t even know.  I didn’t think I was going any faster than I usually go, and certainly not any faster than anyone else on that road headed to work.  Ok, so it was a few minutes past 8am, and they were probably all rushing because they were late.  So I was going with the flow of traffic for my own safety.  But I was even more ashamed when the motorcycle cop came to the window. 

 

The officer was my daughter’s basketball coach.  The basketball coach of the team we stopped going to several weeks ago because she didn’t like it.  The basketball coach who used to live across the street from my mom and whose family we were really good friends with.  Until I didn’t call and explain why we haven’t been coming to basketball. 

 

Now here I am utterly filled with shame.  We committed to something and quit without any explanation.  All throughout soccer and T-ball, we never missed one practice or game (except for one practice because of a funeral, but it ended up being cancelled for rain anyway).  Even if she did not want to go, I made her go, first, because she really did enjoy it, second, because it was good exercise, and third, because we made the commitment and the others were counting on us to be there.  “Your team needs you,” I would tell her. 

 

But she really did not enjoy basketball.  The only thing she did in practice was hug and kiss the boys on her team, which was highly embarrassing for me and disruptive to the team.  Hey, maybe they are glad she quit coming!  Most of the games started too early for me to get her there, and while I had that trouble with the other sports, I had no problem asking others to help me out.  But this is the third sport of the year since summer, and I hesitated to ask for help again because I thought people might get burned out and start to resent having to go watch her all the time. 

 

So Tboy was right, let’s not sign her up for anything right now.  But I had so many good reasons.  One of her friends who was on her soccer team and also played T-ball was playing basketball.  Her T-ball coach on whom she had a major crush would be coaching an Upward Basketball team, and he wanted her to play.  I wasn’t sure exactly whether she would like basketball, so I put her in the YMCA basketball to see whether she would like it before paying $75 for her to play for three or four months.  Good thing I tried it out first at the YMCA.  But then again, she probably would have loved basketball if she had gotten her favorite coach.  Not that there’s anything wrong with her coach now, he’s great, even greater now because he let me off without a speeding ticket (whoo-hoo!).  She would probably enjoy being the goalie on a college hockey team (as little as she is) as long as Coach J coaches her. 

 

So the reason I did not call is because the coach and his family are such nice people, and I knew that if I said that she didn’t really enjoy it because she wasn’t that good at it and I would have difficulty getting her there on time, blah, blah, blah, they would try to help and offer to pick her up from school and get her there and coach her extra and all number of extra things which is very nice but all I really wanted to do was go home and cook dinner and not have to go anywhere.  And I didn’t want to disappoint them, which I ended up doing worse by not coming anymore, but, hey, at least I didn’t have to see them when I disappointed them.  That is, until I got pulled over by the coach.  Who was nice enough to not even mention basketball, thank goodness, because I probably would have stammered and stuttered and not known what to say and he would have given me a ticket just for being so stupid. 

 

I made a mistake by signing her up for more activities that we could handle, or wanted to handle.  And we both learn to put more thought into something before making a commitment.  Or you may find yourself being pulled over by the coach you disrespected by not coming to the games and not calling, and he may not be so nice to let you off without a ticket. 

 

Now she wants to know when I am going to sign her up for gymnastics (She was in gymnastics in preschool, but I took her out because she said she hated it and begged me to take her out of it.).  And karate.  And piano lessons.  But I WILL put her in girls’ softball next fall.  She enjoys baseball, and on a girls’ team, she won’t be the only girl, so she won’t be distracted by wanting to kiss and hug all the handsome boys.  Now if the coach is cute and nice, that might be a problem.  My little flirt.  I don’t know where she gets that…