Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Cole took us out to the ballgame,
Took me and the Clone and Red out to the crowd,
Bought peanuts and hot dogs and baseball caps,
We didn't care if we ever came back,
And we screamed, shouted, yelled for the Astros,
And they played one hell of a game,
It was one, two, three strikes and the Rockies were out
At last night's ball game!!!!

Oh yeah. We had a fantastic time. Coca-Cola and the Astros have this promotion, a special deal on 4 tickets to the game, 4 sodas, 4 hot dogs, 2 baseball caps... They call it Family Night... And if we're not quite a family, well... they let us in anyway. LOL Little Bit had other plans on her social calendar, so she elected not to come. The Clone did her usual Greta Garbo routine at first, only coming to humor us, but by the time the game was over, she had screamed herself hoarse. The girls played musical chairs so that everyone got a turn to sit next to Mom at least part of the time, and next to Mr. Cole at least part of the time - or in Red's case, on Mr. Cole's lap. And it was a perfect game for the girls' first real ball game - a three-run homer that put us ahead of the other team, and it just kept going from there... The Wave... clapping the beats of "We Will Rock You" and "Centerfield"...Shouts of "Go 'Stros!!!" High fives all around.. The ladies behind us who tugged on Red's ponytail for luck... Friday Night Fireworks after the game... I could get used to this.

He knows who he is...

Yeah, I'm a sap... and he knows, it's part of my charm...

Everybody needs someone
Someone to rely on
To talk to, to turn to,
When life gets too blue
Everybody needs someone
To smile at, to laugh with,
To share all their joys with
My someone is you
You’re there for my hard times
My bad times, my sad times
Riding in on your white horse
To lift my sinking heart
You cheer each small triumph,
Victory and success
And for all my bright moments
You’ve been there from the start
No one can know what the future will bring
And for every beginning, fate demands an end
Yet the time that I’ve known you is precious and timeless,
Forever you’ll live in my heart, my true friend.

Faulty Intelligence

Before I tell the brief story, I have to preface it with a reassurance to my dear stepdad Spike... you see, I'm sure that what happened, was that somehow when I signed off my Yahoo messenger last night, it didn't "take" or something, and showed that I was online. It's the only possible explanation for this morning, since he's not what you'd call a mental lightweight in any sense of the word - the man is retired military intelligence, after all, of the genuine "I-could-tell-you-but-then-I'd-have-to-kill-you" variety. So yes, Yahoo must have been falsely showing me as online.

At 7:45 this morning, which for me is an ungodly hour on a weekend (and a barely tolerable hour on a weekday as I'm driving to the office), my cell phone rang. Not even able to open my eyes enough to read the display, I flipped it open and croaked out a hello... Now, this is the one place where his normally sharp instincts failed, because in an entirely too cheerful voice, he began to tell me how he was e mailing me the recipe for flan that I'd requested, because "you're online right now, aren't you?" I'm not quite sure what I managed to growl out, but at that point I guess he remembered the one major difference between my mother and I... namely, that she is a morning person, while I most certainly am not.

Now, I adore my stepdad, really I do... but when that brief "hello" when answering the phone, sounds eerily similar to Joe Cocker after a hard night of partying... yeah... I think you're the victim of faulty intelligence information.

But man, that flan is goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood...

Oasis

In the midst of chaos and struggle and the emotional roller coaster that is admitting failure... there was a bright spot, a brief period of total peace, that kept me going this weekend.

Every year, Houston holds "iFest," or the International Festival. All sorts of fun stuff from various countries, each year spotlighting one. This year, they focused on Jamaica. And this year is the first year I've gone. Of course, it was once again Cole who brought me to a new experience. We weren't there super-long, and I really didn't look around much. He was still fatigued from being sick earlier in the week, and I was fatigued both physically and emotionally from the weekend I'd had. So as people milled about, we simply laid on a grassy hill leading down to one of the city's many bayous, several yards to the side of the main stage. We listened to a jazzy-type band for a while, then to silence, and finally to the Robert Cray Band, the main reason we came. Or, in retrospect, the main thing he had told me when he was inviting me. And the concert was great, too... good music, good performer. But the best part was really being there with him, calm, relaxed... alternately sitting up and lying down on the green grass... watching the people walk by... watching a pretty little girl we later learned was named Tatiana, who had hair almost bigger than she was, and who toddled with abandon all over the park under the watchful eyes of what must have been a huge extended family. Cole was by far not the only person lying in the grass who suddenly opened his eyes to her smiling face and enthusiastic "hello" looming over him. Young couples snuggled and stole kisses in the grass, older couples and groups of friends sat in companionable silence or quiet chit-chat. For a few golden hours, all was right with the world.