The Productive Day

Lola had no horseback riding today due to a charity event at the horse park, so we woke up early to go watch her friend Boris play soccer. His match was at 8:30am. We arrived about 8:45 and it was so cold we brought a very large old king-size comforter to use as a blanket/seating area/windbreaker. It was a good choice. The wind was blowing and I’m guessing the temps were in the 40’s. We even drank coffee at the soccer complex but it didn’t keep us warm for long. We sat with his parents to watch him play and caught up on all the latest news.

Boris has grown a couple inches since the last time we saw him and he now towers over Lola by about 5 inches. The two of them seemed glad to see one another this time, thankfully. The last time we went to his soccer match (sometime last fall) he never even spoke to her or acknowledged her. Her feelings were quite hurt by that and she was not sure she wanted to see him play this time, but as it turned out they were just like the usual old friends.

We all went out for a quick brunch/lunch afterward and continued getting caught up on what had been going on with each of our families since before Christmas. When Boris discovered Lola liked to ice-skate, he asked his parents if he could go sometime too. I am hoping we will see them again soon, perhaps at the rink.

After brunch Lola had her first ice-skating lesson. I had enrolled her in the beginner class for her age group, which appeared to be the only class available through the online registration, and during her lesson I realized her love for skating these last three months has enabled her to progress quickly enough to where the coaches felt she needed to be moved up one or two class levels so she will feel challenged. Next week she will be in a more advanced class, but we won’t know which one until we get there and talk with the coaches.

She did make a new friend at her lessons. Another 11-year-old girl named Jane was a true beginner in every sense of the word. Jane’s father and I spoke briefly and he said this was Jane’s dream - - to learn to ice skate. It was evident just by looking at her, too. She’d take a few steps on her skates, collapse to a heap on the ice, then get up with a smile that lit up the room. No matter how many times she fell, she always got up smiling! Lola helped her out as much as she could and whenever Jane got up from a fall both of them were laughing.

Later in the afternoon I was divinely INSPIRED to clean the garage. I guess to say ‘divinely inspired’ is much better than saying ‘sick of looking at the mess’… I was out there about four hours and lifted, carried, threw things out, designated a pile of stuff for charity, found a tub with my old figure skates, roller blades and roller skates (and they all still fit!!!!!!), found a box with my baby clothes, found some postcards of horses I collected when I was Lola’s age (she was excited I found the postcards and absconded with them to her room), and located a comfy leather-look executive swivel chair of Chris’s he said we could use for the computer desk in the basement. Lola cleaned that up and I carried it to the basement. While I did sorting and tossing Lola had fun with tennis racquets, the mini-trampoline, her bicycle, her scooter, and a basketball. Then she disappeared to her room and announced that she would return in “one hour”.

As I diligently sifted through boxes of things I hadn’t seen in decades, the neighbor’s cats came in to help. We have a new neighbor two doors down where Janine used to live. Her name is Julie and she and her teenage son, two dogs and two cats now live there. Her two cats are solid grey short-haired and both have the same Russian Blue coloring and plush fur like our cat Sebastian. The only difference is that both of her cats are smaller and have sweet little round faces like the Russian Blue. The smallest cat has the most intense eyes and doesn’t miss a thing, but she is the most loving. She followed me all over the garage as if she was either helping or supervising. The larger male cat was much shyer and would stare at me from under my car or from around the edge of the trash can.

When I finally cleaned up the mess I had made in the garage I told Lola we were going to Starbucks as a treat. She was in the car before I finished the sentence!