The big downside to a fun weekend away from home is always coming back to all the things you didn't do all weekend. There's the mental letdown, for sure, where you have this high from a big adventure and have to come back to reality, and then reality is that there's cleaning, laundry, cooking, and whatever else waiting to be done. All of it should have been spread across a two-day weekend, but instead, none of it gets done and now you have the decision to try to cram it into evenings all week or wait for the next weekend. As much as I'd like to go the evening route, usually there's enough kid activities, late dinners, and trips to Wegmans to fill the time sufficiently, and by the time those things are done, I'm lucky if I can cram in a much-needed workout before collapsing in my chair. That's especially true now that baseball season has started, although I guess we got "lucky" with last week because we had rainouts for Carter's first three practices. Sad for him, of course, but it made the week easier for sure. I suppose I'd prefer lovely weather over our current garbage, even if it comes with baseball commitments, but last week especially, I'll take the breaks when I can get them.
My to do list for the weekend had a dozen things on it, ranging from taking out the garbage and recycling, doing a couple loads of laundry, changing out my car CDs, and changing our sheets, to taking down the Easter decorations (finally), switching a few seasonal things around in my closet, unclogging a slow sink, and mixing up my "custom" cereal (since everyone keeps discontinuing the ones I like, I'm creating a combo of my own). I also needed to run a couple errands and do an overdue cleaning of my whole house. It was intimidating, but I like writing out the list on my phone and checking things off as I go. It keeps me on track and feels pretty satisfying.
Craig had a two-game weekend to wrap up the season--one away, one home. He left for Atlanta on Thursday, so it was just me and the boys for a couple days. It wasn't bad other than running Jacob to his training session and his Saturday tournament, but I managed to hit up three stores during his training session to buy him some food and knock a couple errands off my to do list. As for the Knighthawks, they only had a 3.13% chance of making the playoffs going into the weekend, but then they won their first game on Friday. Craig was back in town by early Saturday afternoon, but had to work for most of the day to get ready for Sunday's game. Also on Saturday, Jacob had to play in a local tournament with his school team. Once again he wasn't thrilled about it, but he did better than he did early in the last one. I thought he had 11 points in the first game, but he insists he had more. He also had 11 in the second game. They lost the first one but won the second.
I pretty much came home and slept for the rest of the afternoon. I woke up oddly tired and feeling like I might be coming down with something. Luckily I had gotten a couple things checked off my to-do list the night before, but resting for that long put me in quite the hole for the rest of the weekend. I was still pretty tired later, but I managed to make dinner and work through a couple more things. Craig finally got home later that night and was keeping his eyes on other NLL games because there were a couple things that had to happen in order to give the Knighthawks a chance to make the playoffs. Sure enough, against all odds, those things happened and the Knighthawks just had to win Sunday to clinch the last spot. On paper it shouldn't have been too hard, but it was to a team the reincarnated Knighthawks had never beaten.
On Sunday Jacob's first game was at 12:30. If they won, they'd play again at 2:50. That was a bit of a bummer because the Knighthawks game was at 3pm and I had wanted to go to it. That became even more important when we found out that morning that Craig was getting honored in some way during the pregame season-ending awards ceremony. But I just wasn't sure it was possible. Jacob's team ended up going out to a huge lead in the first game, so I figured it was a done deal, but the other team came back and made it close--even took the lead for a bit. That gave me a tiny bit of hope I might make the game, but I still wasn't sure timing would work, and losing a game like that would have been awful. Fortunately, they saved face and came back and won. As much as I wanted to go to the game, that was a bit of a relief since this was essentially his school team and we didn't need a loss like that haunting them next season. We had to make a quick transition to the next venue closer to home. I decided that I was going to drop him off, run to the arena, stay for just the ceremony, and then go back to Jacob's game. That meant I went from the city to Greece and then immediately back to the city. I felt bad that neither kid could be there. Carter didn't want to go to the Sunday games so he was at home, and I knew I wouldn't have time to get him without risking missing the ceremony. Jacob wanted to see it too, but obviously playing in the championship was important. I decided that it was better for me to get there and take a video so we all could see it, and at least the boys were "even" and neither got to be there. It was a little bit of a risk, but I decided it was worth it.
I got to the arena using my backroads method to avoid parking lot traffic, and luckily had a parking pass for the arena lot since the lot was otherwise full. They parked me in a weird spot and assured me I wouldn't get stuck there--because obviously I couldn't get trapped as that would ruin my plan to get back to Jacob. I ran into the arena, got through security and ticketing (thank goodness the e-ticket worked this time), and sat in my assigned seat for a bit waiting for things to start.
I sat there thinking about this team, how things have changed since I worked there, how team intros used to be one of the most exciting things ever, and wondered about all of the rumors that have been surrounding the team (and really all the Pegula-owned teams) near the end of the season. Knighthawks games aren't what they once were, but it would be a shame if all this ever went away. I guess on the heels of the last game, it just sort of hit me that if it (sort of) happened to Toronto, it could happen almost anywhere. And technically it already did in Rochester, but the league made it work for us to stay, even if all the history did go to Halifax. And you know, Craig may not be famous but he's pretty much officially a legend in this league 20-some years after becoming the Knighthawks broadcaster. It's pretty nuts.
Once they started the ceremony, I realized I needed to go to a different spot, so I walked to about midfield and captured this video:
And with that, I had accomplished my mission. I stopped recording and immediately ran into a former sports co-worker of ours right at that moment, which was fun, because she could appreciate that moment for both Craig and me. I hung out for the opening faceoff and hoped to see the first goal, but gave up after a minute or two and walked to the car. The crossing guard was confused that I was leaving so soon, and the parking attendant was amused as well, but took the time to make sure I was not blocked in and was able to leave, which was nice of him. I listened to Craig's broadcast on my way back to Greece, and got to Jacob's game at halftime. Apparently they jumped out to a giant early lead but gradually lost it, and they were down by maybe 10 or 12. I asked the other parents how Jacob was doing and no one really gave me any indication either way. He hit a couple threes while I was there, and the team made a heck of a comeback. But a couple botched plays, missed free throws, and the inability to stop the big guys on the other team doomed them and they lost by 4. When I asked him after the game how many he had, he said 31! I wasn't (and still am not) sure how that's possible, since I only saw six points and no one indicated he was shooting the lights out before I got there. But his coach said the book said 31, so I have no idea! So I guess it was more of a bummer they lost because he definitely would have gotten the MVP again.
I did a reasonable job of getting through the rest of my to-do list items other than cleaning. I tried to get to more this week, but only got so far. Evenings are hard for me--it's such a battle between getting through dinner, deciding when to cram in a grocery run or a workout, and still getting some downtime before I'm nodding off in my chair, which happens way too much lately. I was happy to get my decor straightened out over the weekend. I always have an interesting spring transition once the Easter stuff comes down. I never like to put away my Polish eggs because they're so pretty, so I came up with this little setup:
I decided they'd go nicely with my new green Aldi vase and some daffodils, and then figured if I was going that route I'd bring the St. Patty's gnomes back out because they're actually just green with the colored pom-poms, so it could all be springy again together. I think it works and all the color makes me happy. Did I mention I moved the stair-step cube shelf that was in Carter's room down to the living room? It actually fit nicely in the corner with the IKEA chair I brought up from the basement and provides some extra toy storage and decor display areas. I put a glass bowl of the rest of the eggs there along with another Aldi vase (they were like $6 and so pretty!). I went for the blue vase and fell in love with the green, too. So the green's on the mantel and the blue has white flowers and blue hydrangeas in it in the white cube shelf and looks so adorable there. Funny how those little things can make you happy!
The boys handled the first baseball practice on Monday and I got quite a bit done while they were gone, like vacuuming most of the house and doing a lot of other cleanup. Carter enjoyed his first practice and it seems that he fits in pretty well skill-wise, but Jacob suspects it's going to be a long season. They lost another practice to cold, gross weather on Wednesday and now he's missing one this weekend while we're gone, but he's practicing plenty at home. They're really doing everything they can to get Carter ready, so I'm hopeful he'll enjoy it.
The weather has continued to be a problem, though finally Friday the temperature broke, even if rain continues to mess things up a bit. We actually had two nights of frost this week and I forgot to cover my hydrangea the first night so now it has some damage after all the hard work protecting it a couple weeks ago. Not a total loss but we'll see how it recovers. It's just been so cold and breezy. Our flowering tree lasted only about two weeks. It's been such a strange spring, very up and down, but hopefully the tide is turning.
Otherwise, I have my busiest week of the year at work right now, and I'm battling some random aches and pains. I swear it's early menopause stuff (either that or I'm dying, or my body has just plain lost its mind). I think I have a hip flexor issue (hurts most in the first 30 seconds when I get up from a chair, but a long walk is fine) and possibly shoulder impingement that makes my upper arm burn for about 15 seconds after I reach the wrong way (usually behind me). All that on top of having really tight, sore shoulders, which isn't new but has been bothering me more lately. I also can't sleep that well at the end of the night, in part because I wake up around 4:30-5:30 and struggle to find a position where my hip, arm, and shoulders aren't bothering me. It's tiring to deal with, but I suppose it could still be worse. I can function, but it's frustrating. After sleeping in a different bed for a couple nights and having the hip hurt less, now I'm suspecting our mattress, which is way overdue to be replaced. Not to mention not sitting at a desk all day probably helps. Oh, the fun of getting older.
Anyway, we had another fun weekend to look forward to this weekend, so that was enough to keep pushing through a tiring week. More on that soon...
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