A day in the life of me

And oh! What a crazy day it was. It all began when I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:54am. ONE freaking minute before my alarm was set to ring. I hate when this happens. I don't know why. I know it's only one minute but I feel cheated out of that one minute of sleep. Anyway, I got up, got my butt downstairs and proceeded to walk two miles with my friends on the old VCR while listening to a creative screenwriting podcast Q & A with Michael Moore on his Oscar-nominated film Sicko. Can I just say, "I love Michael Moore!" I loved Sicko and could listen to him talk for hours. And then I went to school.

Things went pretty well. We read and analyzed an Amy Tan essay entitled Fish Cheeks that I really like and I'm not sure the kids really get. But we plodded along. I got to deal with some snotty kids and some funny kids and all in all it pretty good day. We came home, changed into our golf duds (I wore my Tigers hat dad! even if it does have a gang-related D on it!) and headed out to practice.

Practice went well, we had 18 kids show which is great considering we're now meeting on Mondays and we lost our three 8th grade football players. The two pros who worked with the kids today went over etiquette and rules then helped them with grip and hitting. They seemed to love it which was cool to see. And as an added bonus Ang and I got to hang out and talk with another coach and a few parents. It was nice just being the chaperones today. That'll change soon enough.

And then our day got interesting. We left the course at 6:10 and headed toward downtown Yuma. A few weeks ago I got a letter to appear for jury duty and when I called to confirm today they said I did indeed have a trial scheduled so I have to appear at the courthouse tomorrow. Ang said she'd do a dry run with me tonight so I'd know where to park. On the way we decided we were very thirsty (it was 102 degrees this afternoon and our water bottles were empty 20 minutes into the 2 hour practice) so I pulled into the Circle K gas station just down the road from the course, the one next to my dentist office and across from the high school. We went in, got our diet root beers and went up to pay. The guy behind the corner looked at us and just started talking.

He said we should have been there a few hours ago, there'd been a shooting. From what he'd heard a drug deal in the alley gone bad and the guy who'd been shot had made it up to the front of the store. He kept telling us he had to clean up the blood, there'd been no one else to do it apparently. Ang and I didn't know what to say so we just listened, wished him a much better, and safer, night and beat the heck out of there. We jumped in my car and I squealed (yes, there were squeals!) out of there. We did note that the nearby dumpsters had been tagged to let us know which gang's territory we were in, not that it'll help us, but it felt somewhat comforting to know who's backyard we were squealing out of.

So anyway, I found the courthouse and parking lot and then we came home and frosted 60 cupcakes. Our kids are done with the AIMS testing tomorrow and we decided to give them a little good job treat. My sub will get all the glory for the cupcakes since I will be stuck in a courtroom but I am sure they'll still taste as sweet.

So now I am going to bed. I am exhausted, a little sunburned, and sore. I think the minuscule amount of jogging I did yesterday combined with my very bad habit of not stretching enough after working out has caused my legs to stage a protest. Let's just say walking up the stairs tonight was not a pleasant experience.

Oh - and to everyone who's sent encouraging words after my last blog, rest assured. I'm not giving up, it's simply not in me. I'll keep writing, I'll figure something out, I'll try not to make my grandmother cry again (I love you Grandma Cows - Happy Birthday tomorrow!), and I will succeed. That's all there is to it.