But I digress...

Saturdays are always a little crazy, but I think today may well have topped all of them in recent memory. (Except Easter Saturday, which was last week … but I digress)
My morning started at 4:30 a.m. with the cat climbing under the covers with me. Usually she does this for two reasons, she’s cold, or she wants me to let her out of the house. As it was warm last night, she was clearly looking to do a little early morning bird hunting, and needed me to unlock the cat door. (She caught a bird sometime earlier this week, because we found it's carcus in our window well by the cat door. Good thing she hasn't yet figured out the cat flap works both ways. But I digress....)
Eventually DS let her out, I went back to sleep and woke up again at a more civilized hour.
My 7-year-old DS had a soccer game so after a few minutes of “where’s my socks?” “I can’t find my pillow knees!” and “Tie my shoes” we loaded up the car with folding chairs and drove to the ball field.
We settled down in a comfortable spot with the sun behind us and the field in front of us. Then the coaches approached and told us we needed to go to the other side of the field. Apparently there is some kind of rule that the parents have to be on one side of the field and the coaches and team on the other side. Don’t ask me why the coaches didn’t end up with the sun-in-your-eyes side. I could tell this was going to get in the way of my photographing the game, but I decided once the game started I would just walk back around the field again.
DS-11, who is a referee, was pressed into service shortly after we arrived to work the game. Of course, he had his whistle with him, just in case. Both teams were wearing green uniforms, which were kind of confusing, but DS-11 told me they were calling them “light” and “dark” to tell them apart.
As the game progressed we noticed something curious. My son didn’t start the game, no biggie, they can’t all be starters. But another child in the starting line-up, let’s call him “air ball” had a tendency to do a lot of kicking without actually coming in contact with the ball. “Air ball’ was new to the team. Many players on the team have been with the coach for three years, including my son.
As the game progressed and my son continued to be overlooked when they put new players into the game.
Finally they put him in with minutes to go in the first half. I picked up my camera and walked around the field to get photos, and the half-time whistle blew before I could get in position.
The second half started and “air ball” was again in the starting lineup and my A was on the sidelines.
I was starting to suspect a problem. You see, the coaches’ wife had taken offense at a comment I had made in a church meeting in the fall. I had heard she was offended and had talked to her about it, telling her I did not mean to upset her and apologized. I did not apologize for my opinion, I do have a right to it.
While we were not best friends, we had remained cordial, although the family moved to a new (very, very nice) home in the winter and were no longer attending church in my congregation.
Not wanting to miss the brief moments my children was in the game, I walked around the field to get into position.
Shortly after I arrived on the coaches’ side, my son was put into the game. I wonder why? He had a great time, played okay, if not spectacularly, and I managed to get some good photos.
After the game when we were all loaded in the car and headed home DH told me the rest of the story. It seems “air ball's” mother was a few chairs down from us and talking freely about her beloved. Every time he missed a ball she thought it was "cute." Okay, he's seven, I guess it could be cute. But not only did he have an eye/foot coordination problem, he also had a tendency to pass the ball to the wrong team. This was due to him being color blind.
Hummm, a color-blind uncoordinated player, who has been on the team all of two weeks gets to start and my son, who has been with the coach for three years doesn’t get to play until the second half. Now I understand this is community soccer, we are there to have fun and every child should have a shot. But this turn of events makes me think it's a good thing I don’t get riled easily.
After the game DH dropped me off at the house and ran to do some garden shopping while I cleaned up so I could go cover a college graduation ceremony. Utah State University (my alma mater but I digress ...) has several satellite campuses throughout Utah, including one in Tooele. With a total of 55 graduates, it was not your typical college commencement, but it still took two and a half hours out of my Saturday afternoon.
The best thing about the graduation, in my view, was listening to a general sing “The Star Spangled Banner.”
I raced home after the graduation to get the kids cleaned up so we could drive two hours to attend the wedding reception of my DH long-lost cousin. There is a long, convoluted story here. I can’t imagine how I can write it so it isn't remarkably complex and deadly dull. I tried and I even confused myself.
The point is, DH, I and our two children ended up representing the family at the wedding.
As this was a Utah Mormon wedding, we didn’t attend the actual ceremony, but we were invited to greet family at a reception, held in the church gymnasium.There we were treated to a cookie and a cup of milk after we greeted the happy couple and their family. Once DH's aunt figured out who we were, she told us her sister, (another of DH aunts) would be showing up shortly and invited us to sit and wait for her. .
So we did.
We sat.
We waited.
And sat.
And waited some more.
Just about the time I had convinced DH it was time to go, the second aunt showed up. Our children, who are generally very well behaved, were starting to get restive at this point, so I sent them outside to play on some swings located on the grounds outside of the church while we talked. As we visited we discovered the second aunt's daughter is getting married next week. But no, we won't be driving six hours to attend that event.
After another hour passed, we finally left and drove the two hours home in the dark.
So that was my Saturday. What did you do today?
This row of chairs on the stage at the graduation caught my eye. I have a thing for patterns, and this appealed to me.