A few years ago a typical weekend for me consisted of a late and crazy Friday night in downtown Ft. Worth, sleeping til noon and then staying in jammies until time to repeat the whole process on Saturday night and into Sunday. But on Sunday, I usually felt the need to update my wardrobe after seeing other girls out the previous nights so I would drag myself out of bed and head to the mall. Needless to say, my apartment was never very clean and I never accomplished much more than depleting my checking account.
Fast forward to the present tense and read the details of this past weekend.
- Thursday night: Drove to Lamar Middle School to watch Craig coach Division I in the first round of the district tournament.
- Friday night: Worked the scorer's table at my school for the second round of the district tournament. Nearly had a fatal heart attack when Craig's team was down fourteen points at the end of the third quarter, but yet came back to win by eight.
- Saturday: Woke up when Craig left at nine to go to the tourney and I couldn't fall asleep again. I was at the tourney by 1:15 with my and Craig's family to watch the third round of the championship, which he won quite easily. I then had to sit through an intermediary game before the final Division I championship game but luckily I had Beri by me to keep me company. So finally the game starts and within two minutes of the start Craig has received a technical foul. Fantastic. I didn't really see the actual foul given because I had by then buried my head in my hands...I can't stand to see him be a jerk, despite his reasons of protecting his players from crap calls and refs. This game turned out to be another cardiac arrest inducing game with it coming down to a "down by one, two free throws and five seconds left in the game" situation. Good grief. I would love to say that I remember those two free throws vividly, but once again my head was buried in my hands out of sheer terror. Keep in mind, Craig won the district tournament last year and went 6-1 this season with these girls...and I had to go home with him if they lost. So after the majority of the stands cheered twice, I figured it was safe to look up and I did just in time to see the other team inbound the ball, push it down the court, and finally...right at the buzzer...a shot goes up---and in the basket---and then miraculously out again. Our girls had done it - back to back district championships. Now...I know that it's only middle school basketball, but our district alone has 15 middle schools so to be district champs two years in a row is a pretty amazing feat. Upon returning home and receiving my congratulations, Craig just shook his head and said that it wasn't him and he immediately put the kudos on the girls...after all they were the ones on the court. True. And from being a coach I know that you can have all the strategy in the world and have great knowledge of the game...but if the kids can't or won't perform all your efforts are wasted. BUT...I know that Craig is a great coach and knows how to manage his team, the players and the flow of the game well which resulted in allowing his girls to have the tools to win. Anyways. After he rested for about an hour, we went to Outback Steakhouse because, apparently winning makes him crave red meat. I didn't care and we ended up having a pretty good dinner sitting at the bar because we weren't wanting to wait an hour and a half just to sit at a table. On the way home we stopped at Baskin Robbins and had some ice cream. We were both exhausted from the day and sacked out asleep before the hour hand clicked to double digits.
- Sunday: We were both awake before nine, but not really moving so we were lazy and laid around in bed, catching up on the internet and on DVR before heading out to brunch around 11:00. When we got home Craig had to get ready for the second day of his select basketball team tryouts and he left shortly after noon to get the gyms set up at school. I was determined to have him proud of the work I accomplished during the day when he got home in the evening so I set about completing the four loads of laundry sitting in baskets in the closet as well as making a list for grocery shopping later. I'm not sure why (and maybe I'll feel differently in five years) but I absolutely love grocery shopping. I love going through the pantry and the refridgerator throwing stuff out and making a list of things we need. I love getting in the car and having an ancient neolithic feeling rise up in my body. "Must get food. Craig need food." You know, the hunter/gatherer type thing. I'm not spearing a mastodon with a handmade javelin or anything. But wading through the unlimited choices that Tom Thumb provides can be quite the jungle. And without my list I really am lost and will end up buying everything to make a lasagna...except the noodles. By the time Craig returned around 7:30 I had washed, dried, folded and put away four loads of laundry, grocery shopped and put them away and ALSO baked a dozen big, fat chocolate chip cookies as a congratulatory present to Craig.
I don't know if you're seeing a bit of a difference between my life "then" and "now" but there is. I'm more and more beginning to see my future and many of the weekends and nights will revolve around basketball and tournaments. Last week when I was a bit more emotional I had a minor breakdown about becoming just a "coaches wife" and losing my identity along the way of supporting him and raising children. He assured me that I could make myself into anything I wanted (or more importantly DIDN'T want) to be.
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