Offbeat Observations

When at a football game, when there is a play going down the crowd stands to watch. When it is a sticky, humid Michigan late summer day, everyone's pants get stuck in their crack. It's universal, no matter what size or shape, pants are stuck in butt cracks. A girl notices this when she gets so bummed by her teams performance that she doesn't even stand to watch anymore when everyone else does, but sits, and observes 69 rows of booty in front of her.

I love to watch Mario Manningham play football. When he gets the ball and runs, it's pure ballet. Alas, if only he had a cohesive team and coaches who knew their bootys from a hole in the ground...

Bert brings perspective. Yesterday we left the game early to go out to supper. A young girl bussing tables dropped a whole table worth of plates right behind me. They slid under my chair, and got ketchup on my brand new shoes. The manager arrived in short order, and offered to pay for our meal. We replied, "No harm, no foul", and declined. Prior to Bert that would not have been the case, but when you have a kid who gets so stressed out in public that he often pukes in restaurants, you find that paying grace forward is a really good thing.

Schmoozer has my mom wrapped so far around his finger that I am in fear for her well-being.

When I called the Chief bossy yesterday, he replied, "No I'm not, I'm just in charge."

Beaner is incredible. She had to play with Bert in the church gym while I had a meeting in the same room. Watching her watch out for him and redirect him and work with him is enough to get me all choked up.

Rockstar equates failure on any level with being "just like my mom", and is afraid of failure in any way for that reason. She now knows a lot more about my failings in life, and that it's OK to fail as long as you pick yourself up, dust off, ascertain the proper direction in which to head, and work like the dickens in the proper direction.

Oh, and my church now has bars over the nursery windows. It seems that there is no other reliable way to keep Bert from opening the window and trying to push through the screen to the parking lot 15 feet below. Funny how validating I find it that even my church must put up extreme barriers against my son.

Hail to the Victors

Yes, that will be me on the 40 yard line of the University of Michigan's first game of the season. (yeah, so we're up at the 70th row, so we won't be on TV, but you know...) OK, so they're only playing Appalachian State, but the experience of the Big House. The smells and sounds and the energy. I am totally geeked! I am a tried and true U of M football fan, and this will be a day for the Chief and I to spend alone together, relaxing, enjoying each other and a common love.

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