Jason's Untimely Thoughts

The kids and I are back to normal now after the travel gauntlet of Christmas.  We had a total of six family celebrations in four days, which is fairly typical holiday style.  Their big gifts were a remote controlled dinosaur for Jack (remote controlled seemed to be a theme for him) and an American Girl doll for Adelaide.  Her “twirling skirt” and HS Musical dance pad were also big hits, as was lots of the other stuff of course.

Except for moments here and there, Christmas was OK for me.  I had expected Christmas morning to be relatively awful (not because of relatives), but perhaps all that build up prepared me as things went well.  We had a quiet morning/day at home with plenty of time to play with all the newly acquired stuff.  There were times scattered throughout Christmas that were hard, but until New Year’s came (to be explored in another post probably), it was very smooth for all of us.

On Sunday I travelled to San Antonio via Memphis to attend the Mizzou football game versus Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl.  The trip  had a sense of dread attached to it also, because of our time in San Antonio. (Sarah & I lived there in 1996 & 1997, have made many trips back.)

I arrived Sunday evening and stumbled around the Riverwalk and Southtown for a while, running into some old and new friends along the way, including some on the plane from Memphis.  It was a very nice welcome back to San Antonio for me, a blending of the old familiar with the new familiar that eased my way into the vacation.  I appreciate all who I chatted with along the way.

A couple of friends with nicknames came to town on Monday, with a beaker brother-in-law in tow, and we all hit the game Monday night.  A friend helped me with the tickets, so we happened to be sitting in the coach/staff family section for the game.  If you think the average fan watches those games anxiously, I’ll point out it’s absolutely nothing compared to the families of those who are involved in the action.  As the game went down to the wire, I found myself watching those around me as much as the game, making sure everyone was OK.

Again, it was a blending of old familiar and new familiar as Sarah would have been equally nervous near the end of that game.  If you’ve ever tried to find a shot of hers from the end of a nail-biter game, you’ll notice that the pictures posted are always just after the final play is over.  She turned into a complete fan in those circumstances, putting the camera down and cheering, making sure everyone was OK, then picked it up and started shooting once we won.

The game turned out well, yay, with an overtime victory for the Tigers.  All teams feel like they deserve to win, no doubt, but especially true for these guys.  Congrats to all.  (And please go recruit some more bootheel kids.)

On Tuesday, then, I was again alone walking around our old neighborhood and eating with our San Antonio friends.  Fun and hard, familiar and uncomfortable, all describe that day.  Only thing certain to come out of it was we should have spent more time at LaTuna and should open a similar joint in Columbia when time and circumstances allow.

2009 is here, like it or not.  Down with the mythical shoe-wearing birds.