Basketball Evals and the Kederian DDS Holiday Party

So the Universe made it so that I could be at Johnnie's basketball evaluations today at Mar Vista Park. It is golf day of course and normally I'd just let Lisa take him at 9 AM, although the early-ish-ness of the event made me wonder if she would actually make it and on time. Turned out that the heavy rain this morning made us cancel golf Sunday (although I held out hope that maybe if it stops raining, i could still go out later when Johnnie gets done with basketball). And so with my day wide open, I went to Lisa's to make sure they make it to basketball. Of course Lisa wouldn't be ready yet. Of course she's giving Johnnie breakfast, not 20 minutes before the activity. But I held my tongue and simply helped facilitate us leaving her house as quickly as possible, even if that meant I had to do the dishes and help Johnnie brush his teeth. As it was we got there late. Not too late, as parents were still lined up trying to get forms in but the kids were already warming up on the court. Fortunately we got there in time for Johnnie to join them for the actual drills. Those drills involved dribbling the length of the court, shooting at a 10-ft hoop and if you missed, you shot at the 8 1/2 foot hoop and then dribbling back through cones. And then after that it was a 2-player passing drill, first regular pass, then a bounce pass. I will say that watching other kids, it was clear the bigger kids had no problem laying the ball up on the 10-ft court. Johnnie had problems reaching the rim, but he was not the only kid who couldn't do it so I was ok with that. I was rather impressed at his speed getting the ball down and with a semblance of control on his dribble. Yes we can work with something here. As for Johnnie, he seemed pretty nonchalant before his turn and was actually goofing with some of the other boys <see pic>. I think he'll do just fine. I would rate him as a tick under average for the rest of the kids right now and with practice, he can definitely be right up there with them, at least with ballhandling. Needless to say I was proud of his effort and I was also glad there were more than a few kids he already knew from school, including his girl classmate RaeRae and his nemesis, Ford. And so with that all done, we headed on home and I noted I was to be back by 5:30 to head to Lisa's party.

And so we go to the 2nd part of today. I had me some nice salmon kabobs from Crimson for lunch, noting that I hadn't had this lunch in months. And then I did some audio lower frequency meditations. I note that I needed to purge myself of old negative triggers and emotions so that I could at least help make Lisa's party tonight a positive experience for all, most of all to myself. Some thoughts kept repeating: FORGIVE THE PAST. BE GRATEFUL FOR THE PRESENT. ACCEPT INTENDED FUTURE. Sounds like a magic formula doesn't it? The only thing was that when I got back to my wake state at 3:45 I was still barely at 1600 steps for the day and only 5 active minutes. Mind you if I didn't do anything more for the rest of the day it would have been ok since I was already 500+ minutes and 70,000+ steps.  I could tank the rest of the day activity wise. But I couldn't and I didn't. I walked in place for a good 2 miles and when I got done I at least got to the point of better acceptability for the numbers LOL. I had to get ready for the party anyway. Lisa even texted me to remind me to dress professionally. See? I could just smile at that and not let it be a trigger right? I mean I did accompany them to basketball this morning as a ringing endorsement of my trust for Lisa right? So I wore my old argyle sweater, the one from JCrew that is probably 15 years old. So old it had a hole already that of course Lisa would spot almost immediately LOL. Johnnie was dressed just fine... except for tight jeans that were way too short by at least 3 inches and he was wearing those blue and white shoes that don't fit anymore. Sigh. I bit my tongue at her choice of attire for him as well. At least he had a tie on. And Johnnie did not seem to care one bit. I was not going to spoil anything, considering this was the first party I'm coming to in 5 years. The place was Kincaid's right on the water near the pier. And it was very nice. Johnnie completely embraced his role as photographer and made sure everyone had a picture. And they had a set menu too. Lisa had me order the prime rib so she could taste it while she had the scampi. Gee how things don't change do they. It was like we were still married. Of course the people who were there that had been with Lisa for a while know the full story of course. And Nikki came too. And Angie told me she was very glad that I came. And I was very glad I was invited. All in all it was a nice party. And Johnnie I think had the best time of all. He could barely contain himself with the ice cream sundae we let him eat for dessert and he was definitely bouncing off the walls. It was 10:30 by the time we got home and I put him to his bed. It had been a long day for him and for Lisa and I as well. But it was most definitely a very good day.