Sunday, September 22 2019

Dear Journal,

Good morning everyone! We woke up this morning to pretty steady rain outside. The dogs were pretty thrown off. At first they didn't want to go outside, but I herded them into the lawn like a couple of sheep. Zig zig did her business under the porch, like a squirrel on the run. She would leave the other half of her business on the carpet just five minutes later.

Yesterday, Marissa took Ziggy to an agility trial in Milwaukee, so I had a whole day with Rodney. We had some breakfast, then spent about an hour furthering the potty training effort while I cleaned up the kitchen. Things are starting to look promising on that front - we would later have three successful potty sessions in total. Rod and I walked to the community center to play some basketball. Even though the regulation height hoops were way too tall for him, he seemed to have a good time just hanging out on the court and rolling the ball around. I enjoyed myself quite a bit too. It's been a while since I took a few minutes to shoot hoops. My long & mid range game are pretty terrible, but I still have a pretty consistent lay up.

As I played basketball with Rodney, I thought about how I used to play with my friends in grade school during lunch. I was a terrible shooter, so I tried to make a name for myself on the school court just stuffing people's shots. My friends used to tease me that I could only dribble in one direction, and my jump shot had a ridiculously high arc that would go well above the backboard some times. The teasing was well-placed - like I said, I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to swat other people's shots away, and half the time I'd end up just swatting their arm or head, and since there were no fouls in recess pick-up basketball, people just had to deal with me. I imagine I was pretty frustrating to play with.

At one point I joined the basketball team for school. It was sixth grade, and I was still looking for a sport to plug into after track & field didn't really pan out. I was on the team for about three weeks, and to my surprise the coach made us spend half of each practice just running laps around the gym. I ran more during my three weeks of basketball practice then I ever did in my full school year of track. I remember in practice our coach was teaching us about how to shoot the ball. "It's a formula, like in math," he said. "You may happen to get it right some times, but if you're guessing, then there's no point. You have to be able to shoot the same way every time."

I guess I never learned the formula. I feel like I missed every shot I took at the community center, but Rodney didn't really care. He just wanted me to pick him up and hold him close to the hoop. You have to wonder if that's a legal basketball move.

When we were done shooting hoops, Rodney and I walked over to glass nickel for some lunch. I felt like a beer, and Rodney and I were sweaty from playing basketball in the muggy weather. We sat down in our usual table in the back, and Rodney quietly colored. Taking a toddler out to lunch is a funny experience. Rodney just unapologetically does his own thing, and you can try to interject with some simple questions and small talk, but before long you're just having lunch by yourself. "Oh, taking him out to lunch sucks," Marissa joked later that night. "I try to talk to him, but he just does his own thing and before you know it you're just on your phone." And I did bide the time with my phone. While Rodney colored, I caught up on the Chicago Bears gossip in preparation for Monday's game. At least when the pizza arrived we had something to talk about. "Tasty pizza!" said Rodney, twirling a long strand of mozzarella at the end of his fork.

After lunch, we picked up some groceries from the market. Rodney was pretty upset that I didn't let him pick out a small pumpkin. Jenny Street market has them lined up all around the store, and the last two times I let Rod grab a pumpkin to put decoratively in our living room. And apparently, two times is enough to throw a small fit when it doesn't happen. But he got over it, probably because he was tired.

When we got home, Rodney took a long nap and I got dinner going. I was making beef braised in red wine again, and that recipe is always a great excuse to drink Red wine in the middle of the day. I poured a glass and caught up on YouTube videos.

The rest of the evening was nice. Marissa got home before dinner, we ate, put Rodney to bed, then I edited together a time lapse for Marissa's instagram while she worked in the resin lab. I sat in the resin tent with her, which was nice and toasty since she set up a small space heater to help the paintings cure.

We ended the night with a movie. Marissa's pick was Dan in Real Life, which was a real breathe of fresh air after sitting through Hitch for three days. I was beginning to wonder if every movie made ten years ago sucked, and I was too young to realize it. Not the case. The simpler explanation is usually the better explanation, and the simplest explanation is that Hitch sucks.

In a few moments, I'll shower, then we'll get ready for church. We have some errands to run, but other than that I'm not sure what I'm going to do all day. I'm equally interested in focusing on something productive, or just putzing around all day in the kitchen.

Hope you have a wonderful day today, and thanks for reading.