weekend recap, veteran's day

1. cotton fields | 2. big love | 3. big love | 4. last game | 5. winter fruit | 6. twilight time | 7. afternoon opera | 8. big love | 9. night falls 

We had some low moments this weekend, really low, but when I look back on the whole span of days, I can only feel grateful for how much love I was able to witness. On Friday, I traveled to Maryland with my friends Jackie and Terri to be part of their wedding ceremony. I can't even begin to tell you how much it meant to me to be included in this amazing day. I have so many fun and wonderful stories to tell you, and I will, hopefully later this week. But it was exhausting! Jackie and I were texting Saturday morning, and I asked about her evening. She said that her mom had taken them out for Chinese food and they dozed on the sofa. It was nice.

That was exactly like my evening! Add the beagle curled up in the crook of my legs. 

Cal had a great final game on Saturday. It was a make-up game for a rain out earlier in the season, and our kids played up against the junior varsity teams of two local public schools. They turned the scoreboard off and just played. It was good for our kids to play a much better team, and my boy got some good feedback, which still has him floating.

Ahhh...Opera again on Sunday. We love doing this. We saw The Magic Flute, which is Neel's favorite, and I sprung for box seats. For me the best part was watching the couple in front of us. Connected by word and touch throughout the show. Big love. More of that, please.  

weekend recap, november 4

1. new projects, or the start of them at least | 2. low tide | 3. November | 4. Ice Man | 5. November in Tidewater | 6. Happy Man | 7. this week's food shot | 8. celebration dinner | 9. Neel learns about "the instagram" | 10. patterns | 11. civil disobedience? ;) | 12. cozy Sunday evening 

Parents will know that mid-day events are practically weekend killers. Most of Cal's baseball games have been at noon, so we have to be to the ball park by 11:15, which means leave the house by 10:45, which means start getting ready by 10:15, which means there's not time for much else in the morning. We don't usually get home until 4 (after our traditional stop for fried chicken - Cal loves tradition and he LOVES fried chicken)  and by then it's practically evening. The day is gone.

We had another event at one on Sunday, so I'm left feeling yet again like this was a weekend where I needed another day. Everything was fun though. We have a friend who's running for what's called a Constitutional Office in our city, and he and our local sheriff had a Get Out the Vote rally. My friend Evans has been locked in a bitter and unnecessary battle, and his opponent has been using the most unscrupulous tactics. Making it look like she has the endorsements of political leaders that she doesn't. Accusing Evans of things that simply aren't true (what else is new, right?). Her most recent ploy is the best though. Our city's democratic committee (full disclosure: I'm a member) created a voter guide for the election this year listing the candidates for all the races from governor right down to Evans office. His opponent created a flier that looks exactly the same (It even says "Our Democratic Candidates.") and replaced Evans picture with HERS! How crazytown is that? It's been all over the news and has actually generated some good publicity for Evans, but still. Shady. Evans texted me last week and asked me to write a letter to the editor of our paper. I had about a half an hour window to get it done, so I never dreamed it would get published. Glad to do my part. Now to go and vote (and work the polls) on Tuesday.

Also, I hesitate to say this out loud, but I actually like the time change. We switched our clocks back here in the US, and I prefer it this way at this time of year. The sun was coming up when I got Cal out of bed and it won't be dark when he heads out to carpool. This is good.  

Oh, and I also wanted to say that Miss Violet is feeling much better! I think it was all of you holding her in the light! Her appetite never fled, especially after we made her miss a meal, and she's back to full spirits!