It was a weekend of sports for my kids. The Evil Dictator had two baseball games this weekend and my stepdaughter had lacrosse practice.
I had to work last night, but managed to catch my son's first at-bat. Unfortunately I missed his best one. The game went into extra innings, and the other team got ahead by a run. He got up and hit into a fielder's choice that drove in the tying run. Another run was scored and the Red Sox won 6-5. Adam called me to tell me about his great game, and asked if I was going to be at today's game. I was scheduled to work. I gave it some thought and realized that I've got my whole life to make money. My kid won't be a kid forever. I got someone to cover the shift.
And what a game it was. When I got there, my ex mentioned that during the pre-game practice, she'd noticed that the other team was weak in fielding. Our guys, on the other hand, were great-- their fielding, hitting, everything was great. They won the game 11-1. Toward the end, following baseball etiquette, the coach told our guys to take it easy so as not to run up the score. 
One bonus of taking the day off was that I was also able to do something I'd been promising I'd do-- see one of my stepdaughter's lacross practices. It was great watching my stepdaughter enjoying the sport and spending time with her best friend, and kibbutzing with the other parents.
There was one little surprise in store for me during the practice. A woman who was there at the practice with her daughter walked up to me and started talking to me-- she told me she thought she'd recognized me, but realized it was me when she heard my voice. When I heard her voice I realized I knew her too. It was Anne, a woman I'd dated 17 years ago.
I have to admit, I was in shock at first. The first thing was that I was looking at the face of a middle-aged woman. Of course. We'd both been about thirty when we dated. We are both now approaching fifty. It took me a moment to regain my composure, and then I nearly lost it again when I discovered that she knew all my wife's friends and had been the head of the LSC (Local School Council) of my stepdaughter's school. She's got two kids now, and is still a lawyer. She's married to a teacher who took a couple of years off of teaching to stay home with the kids. I had to chuckle at that-- I'd done the same thing. Now here we were, watching our kids play lacrosse.
We caught up on our lives and then were done. I remembered that she'd ended the relationship. I'd been pretty smitten with her. I realized, though, that I was glad that things had happened the way they did-- as nice a person as she was, I was a lot happier with my life now than I would have been with her. I wouldn't have had Adam. I wouldn't have had Kim and Mel in my life. As I left the lacrosse practice to go to Adam's baseball game, I felt like things had happened just the way they should have.
And how about those Senior League Red Sox?!
5 comments:
That's a great thing you did, going to see your son and step daughter play/practice. They'll remember it forever.
You are such a great dad JY! And about seeing the old girl friend, isn't it amazing to see somebody from your past and think how old they look! We, of course, look just like we did in our 20's... ;^)
Yay! Evil Dictator! Yay! Stepdaughter who must be the only non-blogging member of the family! Yay! Best Dad Yen!
You're a cool dad JYen.
Since I had a single mom who worked on Saturdays, and my dad took turns with us three kids on the weekends, I usually didn't have anyone to watch me play little league. It used to make me real sad, so you made a good call.
Monkerstein-
I've mentioned before in this blog the advice my father gave when my son was a baby-- that you get them for such a tiny amount of time in their lives. When he told me that, I was looking ahead at nearly two decades of raising a child, and it seemed like it was going to be forever. As I wind it down-- he's starting high school in the fall-- it seems so short. My father was right. I'm glad I took his advice.
Skyler's Dad-
Coming from the best dad I know, that's high compliment.
Yes, I definitely had crow's feet and this much grey hair in my twenties.
Actually today I got a haircut and was shocked by how much of the hair I saw falling was grey. Oh well-- growing older certainly beats the alternative.
Jess-
Actually, she does-- I just didn't happen to link it on this post. She's in my blogroll-- "The Way I See It."
Kristi-
I'm lucky that I've been able to see most of the games he's had over the last five years. I'm really sorry that they weren't able to attend too often. I really admire that you persevered with it anyway, particularly since you were in an environment not too friendly to girls.
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