The top stories of the day for me are
likely obvious to you as you’re reading this someday in my future.
Yes, it’s not a surprise that Rowen and I
are on the cheerleading squad again this year when we didn’t have any Grade Ten
competition; but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re very happy to be on
the team – and that we’ll get to be at all of the games for Michael and
Tim. Also as expected; the only changes
to our squad is the addition of the two Grade Nine picks. Anna-Marie kept Erica, Jenny, and Tammy; and
chose Shannon Wilde and Diana Connor as our Grade Nine additions. They were my top choices too; so I’m happy
with the team we have this season.
The team picks were made first thing this
morning because we started the day with thunderstorms; and needed to be indoors
anyway. Before I move on, let’s mention
the weather here; since I haven’t done that this week. We’ve lucked out so far; and the weather has
actually been perfect for tryouts – except for the rain and bit of storminess
this morning – which ended about an hour after we got to the school. It’s been cooler in the mornings, warms up
nicely; and we haven’t had any of the extreme heat that would have made the
physical training difficult. The rain
today probably helped our football team even more than it helped our
cheerleading squad because Coach Robinson opted to make his team decisions this
morning too; so they had the rest of the day to start training as a team and
get ready for the game tomorrow night.
Michael, Tim and Lucas were easy picks for
the team; since they were by far the best on the field – even if most of the
seniors didn’t seem to realize that.
There were no additions or eliminations from the senior and Grade Eleven
guys on the team; Michael and Tim now have four more of our classmates playing
with hem this year; and there was just one successful Grade Nine player this
year. Kris Robinson, Marc Johnson,
Elliott Roberts, and Joshua Parker are all very happy Grade Ten campers; and
Reid Spencer is apparently both thrilled and a bit shocked to have made the team
too. He’s by far the smallest guy on the
team; but Tim advised us that Reid has some running and throwing skills that
the Coach obviously wants to develop this year instead of waiting until he’s
bigger.
While I’m writing about the team additions;
I’ll also mention that we have some very happy girlfriends today too. Nora is particularly happy to join the
football players’ girlfriend club along with her best friend, Vanessa; so
Elliott is fairly happy about that too.
I’m basing that deduction entirely on the post-practice,
meet-the-girlfriends moments from this afternoon; and Paul Sparks seemed just
as happy with Vanessa’s enthusiastic congratulations for him. Sally couldn’t be here for the tryouts
because she was busy on her family farm; but I’m sure that she’s happy about
Joshua making the team too; since he’s worked so hard and wanted it so much
this summer. Marc and Kris don’t
currently have serious girlfriends, but Reid and Lily looked adorable when they
met up after practice. She still gets
teased a bit about dating a younger man, and he’s barely taller than she is;
but they really are perfect for each other.
I’m making a point of mentioning Nora and
Vanessa in this report because Elliott’s success today is something that’s
going to really help my relationship with both girls. I’m not suggesting that there won’t always be
history issues with them because Rowen and I messed up their little-girl dreams
for a happily-ever-after with Michael and Tim, and got in the way of their
football cheerleading plans too; but Vanessa and Nora are happy now; and they’re
finding out that what they do have instead of the dreams is really great too.
Moving along, once the team picks were made
and the rain stopped; it was time to get outdoors again and to work. For the football team, that meant a long
workout followed by an afternoon of practicing plays on both sides of the
ball. Tim was not happy about how most
of that went today; and is even more worried about the game tomorrow
night. Michael, by the way, is not
worried. That doesn’t mean that he’s
over-confident the way the seniors are – it’s just that he knows that it’s just
a game; and that worrying about what he can’t control anyway hurts his own
game. In Tim’s case, he seems to work
harder when stressed; though it probably isn’t good for him either. With the game tomorrow night, they won’t be
doing a full workout tomorrow, so Tim’s looking for a miracle; since they’re
out of time for any major improvement between now and game time.
I’m happy to report that our cheerleading
squad is at least as good as last year; and maybe a bit better. We’re doing more tricks in our routines for
sure; Anna-Marie is probably going to let Rowen and I pick the music and make
up most of the half-time routines; and we have two of them ready for tomorrow
night – including a re-working of our singing in the rain – umbrella routine
from last year; since we might have rain tomorrow night. We didn’t dust that one off because we’re
already running out of new ideas.
Anna-Marie and Erica specifically requested that we all work on a few of
the most popular half-time routines we did last year. We’ll do the ‘snowman’ routine later this
season too; and maybe one or two others if we can work them in without doing
any repeats with opponent teams or fans.
Michael needed to get to the Inn after
football, but we went for a swim and chat time with Rowen and Tim first before
he went home to get changed and ready for work.
Rowen and Tim left then too; I helped Mom around the house for a while;
and then we made dinner so that I could eat before needing to get to my
baseball practice. Dinner with Mom, Dad,
and the twins was a nice break in the action; but then I was on the go again
right after helping with the clean-up.
Rowen met me at the school because she’d been at Tim’s place for dinner;
and we worked hard tonight to get ready for our last game of the season on
Saturday. That was tough enough to do
after another full day of cheerleader workouts, but we managed to survive; and
then Rowen went to meet up with Tim again while I came home. Ethan, Ehlana, and I went for a swim; and
then I helped out with bath time for them while waiting for Michael to come
over once he was finished at the Inn for the night.
Ethan and Ehlana were ready for bed by the
time he joined us in the office; where we were doing the bedtime snack and
story with Mom and Dad. Michael and I
took care of getting my brother and sister tucked in for the night with some
boys and girls—only time; and then it was time for Michael and I to hang out in
the lounge until he needed to head home at eleven. We had a short music practice for the teen
praise team music; I helped Michael out with a minor healing so that he’ll be
as ready as possible for the game tomorrow night; and then we enjoyed a
time-phased make-out session that had us both smiling when he did head for home
on time. I saw him out; and then came
back up here to get started on my work and nightly computing. That was time-phased too, so between the
power drain and all of the physical activity today; I’m once again out of steam
and ready for some quality napping.
The big game tomorrow night will be the top
story in town, and I’ll be busy with cheerleading again for most of the day;
but this is going to be a very busy weekend too. It’s the last regular-season weekend for
baseball; Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and the kids will be moving into their new
home; and we’re now a week away from the holiday weekend – which means we have
lots of work to get done to be ready for that.
I wonder if anyone would notice if I just
slept through until Monday? ;^)
That’d be a no for the three-day sleep, so
I’m going to get what rest I can tonight; starting right now.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
