Making Memories

I'm sure I have mentioned somewhere in the 500 posts of this blog that our family is part of Red Sox Nation.  By that I mean we are Red Sox fans.  Well, let me qualify that.  Andy has been a long suffering Red Sox fan since the day he was born, watching them lose throughout his childhood.  When they won the World Series back in 2004, for the first time in 86 years, I was pregnant with Sonya and only a month away from giving birth.  While I wasn't born a Red Sox fan as he was,  I became one in college.  I had never watched much baseball growing up, but if you are living in Boston without a baseball team you better start cheering for the Sox or you better get out of Boston.  So I did. Cheer for the Sox that is.  I loved Boston.  It helped that my best friend, Melissa, and I could see Fenway Park from the roof of our apartment Senior year.  So when they were in the playoffs back in '04 I was just as excited as any long life fan.  Okay, perhaps I didn't get all the suffering for so long, but still.  I was pretty sure I was going to put myself into labor cheering for those games.  Luckily I did not.  Since then we have gotten to watch them win two more World Series.  One when Lana was just a baby and one a couple years ago when all three girls were old enough to watch it  on TV.  Luckily they will not spend their baseball fan years pinning away for a team that seems cursed.  They get to watch and cheer for the Red Sox knowing they have won 3 World Series (so far) in their lifetime.  

Before we had the girls, Andy and I would go to see the Sox play the Angels every summer when they came to Anaheim.  We went a couple years after having the girls, and even took Sonya one year when she was about six.  However, we haven't been in at least four years.  We've taken the girls to a couple Dodgers games, just to see some baseball.  For a long time the tickets for the Red Sox/ Angles games were way to expensive for five of us.  Just Andy and I going meant our tickets plus babysitting so we just forgot about it for a while.  Then this summer, Melissa mentioned to me about going.  She still tries to go every year.  While the Angels have been doing well this season, the Red Sox, not so much, so I thought perhaps I could find some reasonable tickets.  Fortunately, there were plenty.  They were the seats pretty high in the stadium, but they were $18 a piece.  Perfect to take the girls to.  It would give them the baseball experience, while cheering for our favorite team.

For those of you who don't live in California, you have no doubt heard about the drought horrors here.  The stories are all true.  In the 19 years I've lived here, I've never seen it so dry.  We are constantly monitoring how long the water runs in the shower, flushing toilets with water we collect in the shower, not watering our lawn, whatever we can think of.  When we went back east a couple weeks ago, I cringed at all the water waste there and had to remind myself that Florida has plenty of rain.  I don't think we've seen real rain since February?  Maybe there was a storm in March?  I can't remember.  So, when the weather reports were all predicting rain for this past weekend, Andy and I pretty much ignored it.  First of all it is July and even in our wettest years, it did not rain in July.  Second of all- no rain since this past winter.  Tickets for the game were for Sunday evening at 5pm.  They were talking rain Saturday and MAYBE Sunday.  Even if we got it on Saturday that would be it.  It would definitely not rain on Sunday.  When it did end up pouring all day on Saturday, we figured that was it.  We go rain-Yay!  But we would not see it again until November.  

I'm assuming you all can see where this is going....

Here..

That is Angels stadium at start time on Sunday evening.  Good thing I got the high up seats.  We were actually under cover.  We sat there for a while thinking it would eventually stop.  So did everyone else.  People who couldn't sit in their rain filled seats were hanging out on the concourse, consuming hot dogs and beer.  The thing is about rain in SoCal, is that even if is does actually rain, it never lasts long.  Maybe an hour, hour and a half tops.  Well this is what the powers that be thought too, because they moved the start time of the game from 5:05 to 7:15 thinking that they could wait it out, clear off the field and start the game.  We too were hopeful.  

We hung out with the rest of the fans at our seats, ate hot dogs, had a couple beers, chatted with each other, and were entertained by the videos of Angels players trying to "name that tune", and watched it rain.  My favorite part of that was when Sonya named Michael Jackson's "Beat It" well before the player in the video.  You gotta play the classics for your kids!   

At one point I realized my friend BethAnnDoddKoehn was there with her family just a few sections over from us.  So we all took a walk to say hi and chat with them.  It was a party at the stadium in the rain!  And it did continue to rain.  Huh.

Then 7 o'clock came.  The sky started to look lighter and it appeared to be slowing down, but when you looked at the tarp covering the infield you could see it was still coming down.  Still, it was slow enough for them to decide to do this...

They were out there with push brooms, doing their best to get the water off the field, but it was a futile effort.  They worked on it for 20 minutes, but the rain kept coming down.  Then a few of them huddled together and five minutes later we heard what we were dreading.  

"Ladies and Gentleman, today's game is being canceled due to rain."

A huge groan mixed with boos went up from the crowd.  What is this "game being canceled due to rain you speak of??"  That was the thought of  everyone there.  We don't see this kind of thing.  We see sunshine and blue skies and sure, brown grass, but at least our outside activities never get ruined!  Unfortunately this one did.  It was hard to be mad about it though, because damn do we need any rain we can get.  We were informed that we could have come back the next afternoon for the makeup game, but unfortunately the girls were starting an afternoon Girl Scout camp.  I would have been the only one able to go and where was the fun in that?  

The girls were definitely disappointed. I was sad for Lana and Georgia who had been so excited to see their first Red Sox game.  On the other hand, we kinda had a really fun night hanging out in the stadium, having dinner and watching it rain.  It no doubt became a core memory for me as I'm sure it did for my girls.  (For those of you who don't know what I mean by "core memory", go see Inside Out.  The best Pixar movie ever.  Loved it!)  It will go down in our family history as, "remember that one time when we were supposed to see the Red Sox and Angles play...." 

When we got home that night, I said to Georgia, 

"I'm sorry that we didn't get to see the game."

And she answered, "That's okay!  I had fun anyway!"

It's all in how you look at things.  Plus! We a got to become part of baseball, and more specifically Angles history, by being at the first rain out game in over 20 years. And who doesn't love being a part of history?

The mixed "core memory" emotions of the evening. 

Raising Southern California Girls

Thursday evening I was trying to hurry and get dinner ready so I could get the girls and I to a PTA meeting at the school.  It had been a nice Los Angeles fall day with clouds and even a little rain.  We don't get rain often except in January and February.  It's unheard of during the summer months and rare during the fall.  So my girls aren't really used to it.  As I was rushing around Sonya said to me,

"Why are do we have to hurry?"

"Because we have the PTA meeting in 45 minutes, remember?" I told her.  

"Yeah, but it's raining," she said.

"And...?" I asked.

"Well, are they still going to have the meeting or will it get cancelled?" She asked.

I looked at her confused and asked, "Why on earth would they cancel it?"

"Because it's raining!"

Yes, she seriously said that. 

 Maybe we need to travel back east more than once every two years.

Birthday Party Disaster

A few years ago, after Georgia was born, Andy and I made the decision that we were not throwing huge birthday parties every year for the girls.  That would be three big kids parties a year and we just don't have the funds, or the patience, to deal with it.  We figured we would just have parties on the "big" years.  One, five, ten, thirteen, sixteen, eighteen.  They can throw their own drunken all out crazy party for themselves at 21 in college, like the rest of us did.  Besides, it would be so NOT cool to have your parents give you a 21st birthday party.  Well, unless your parents are Angelina and Brad.  This is not to say we don't celebrate the girls' birthdays every year though.  We usually have a family and close friends gathering, with cake and a BBQ, but nothing like what I was planning for Lana this year.  We invited all the kids in her pre-school class, as well as other friends and family we have in our lives.  We were having a bounce house and a pinata, sandwiches and snacks, juice boxes and sangria. (Gotta have SOMETHING for the parents!)  There were about 40 people coming.  And then...then it rained, and then...then Andy's back went out TWO hours before the party.  It's a good thing I've spent the past few years practicing keeping my shit together.

Let's start with the rain.  We knew rain was fore casted.  I had been looking at the weather report all week, but I kept hoping it would change or they were wrong.  It's not like the weather people have that much to predict here in Southern California, so you'd figure when we do get weather they would be dead on, but not so much.  Just the weekend before it was supposed to rain all day Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday it poured, Sunday was sunny and gorgeous.  I was hoping for that kind of mistake.  But no, this time they were right.  Thanks Dallas Raines!  (Gotta love the meteorologist names.)  

It wasn't raining when we woke up on Sunday, but it looked like it might at any moment.  My only prayer was for it to hold off just until the afternoon, but as you might have guessed, prayers and luck were not with us.  As the man from the jumper company pulled up in front of my house at 10:30, the rain started. I debated whether or not to have him put it up anyway, and just hope for a stop in the rain.  As I stood out there talking to him though, I knew it was no good.  The rain was coming down in big, fat, we are here to stay for a while! drops.  Not the sprinkly, misty kind that might let up at some point.  He was very nice about it and didn't make me keep it or pay him anyway.  He totally understood.  Plus we've used them a few times before for other parties we've had, so we're best buds now.  (Burbank Jumpers and Party Rentals, for any of you close by.) 

When I came back inside, after deciding against the bounce house, I found Sonya and Lana on the couch in tears.  Great.  Just what I had time for, consoling crying children.  They wanted the bounce house!  Why couldn't we get it?!  I mentioned the rain, but they didn't seem to care.  I mean, a wet bounce house!  That's even MORE fun!  What was I thinking sending it away?

Eventually, they calmed down when I told them I would call and have it come back if it stopped raining. There was a better chance of Angelina and Brad showing up at Lana's party.  I resigned myself to the fact that it was just going to rain and I set up the party for inside.  I took the rug out of Sonya's room, set up the little picnic table and her face paints.  I put up the art easel, coloring book and crayons.  This would be the designated art area.  Lana and Georgia's room would just be a free for all play area.  I was sure it would be a disaster of mess at the end, but there was nothing else to be done.  Just for the record, we don't live in a huge house.  It's about 1600 square feet and about 500 of that is our bedroom, which I was NOT about to let the kids run around in.  Although, I briefly thought about setting up the bounce house in there.

 Okay good, I figured out how to have the party despite the weather outside.  Now there was the problem of my disabled husband laying on the bed in our room, unable to walk, let alone help get things ready. 

Let me go backwards a minute.  Earlier in the morning, before the unavoidable rain, Andy was putting something away in the attic. When he came back down, he mentioned that he might have tweaked his back.  He has this reoccurring back problem, that came about a couple years ago.  I told him to go take some Motrin and get on the Inversion Table right away, knowing how quickly this can go bad.  He usually hangs upside down on the Inversion Table on a regular basis, which keeps his back problems at by.  However, he's had a cold/sinus infection for a couple weeks and hanging upside down is not so great for his already stuffed up head.  He took the Motrin, but  before hanging upside down he needed to answer nature's call.  Except that sitting after he tweaked his back, was apparently not the best thing for him. I was outside rinsing out a cooler and the next thing I know Lana is calling me, because Daddy hurt his back real bad.  I found him in our bathroom leaning against the counter unable to move.  

"This is bad, this is bad," he kept repeating.  

We managed to get him over to the bed and laying down in a position that wasn't excruciating for him.  It was 10am.  The party started at 12:30.  He was freaking out, and saying how bad the pain was, how he couldn't move and what was he going to do.  I remained calm and collected on the outside saying,

"Let me think, we'll figure this out, don't worry about it.  Just rest."  

Except in my head I was thinking, "FuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!!!"  It's okay, the girls can't hear me say that word in my head.

He couldn't move, I had a ton of things to do at the house still since it was raining, not to mention the food that needed to be picked up!  THE FOOD!!  And the Balloons!!  These were things he was supposed to do.  How the hell was I going to get everything done completely on my own in a little over  two hours, get myself ready and find a way to have Andy upright, in at least a little less pain, and party presentable??  This, my friends, is what being a mother is all about.  Finding a way out of a shitty mess of a day and make sure it's your daughter's best birthday party ever, without saying what I thought in my head out loud.  It wasn't easy, but I managed it.  

You will have to come back for the rest of the story later on this week though.  This one is getting a little long and we have to get to piano lessons.  

To be continued....

Rain, Rain Go Away, I Have To Go To School Today

Over the weekend I was filling out paperwork for Sonya to go back to school.  I was also reading some of the handbook and other  information that came with everything I had to fill out.  While I was reading through it I came across this little tidbit of information.

Did you all know THIS!?  They are supposed to go to school on RAINY DAYS?! 

OK.  Look.  Here's the thing.  I know we live in "sunny" Southern California, and no we don't get a lot of rain, but we do have a season where it does gets rainy here.  It's also known as our winter.  I grew up mostly on the East Coast and not once would I have ever thought I wasn't going to school because of a few raindrops.  Unless, they turned into freezing raindrops or came with high winds, and had a name to them, like Irene or Andrew.  No, I had many a rainy school day and it was just a school day.  We might not have had recess, but we still had to go to class. 

I guess what bothers me most about this little of blurb of information, is that they felt they HAD to inform parents about this policy.  Which means at some point in time, there were parents who thought their kids didn't have school because it was RAINING.  Come on parents!  Can you at least pretend that you're smarter than your first grader.  I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised though.  We are talking about a part of the country where, when it does rain more than an inch, the news people start talking about "Storm Watch 20__(fill in the year here)."  I'm not kidding.  They do this for a simple rain storm.  

Sometimes I do miss the slightly less crazy people on the east coast.