What Struck Me

My parents, along with my aunt and uncle, are in Spain for the World Masters Athletics competition. My dad throws the javelin, and has won the gold in his age group (65+) in his last two competions, the Senior Olympics in Pittsburg and… some other world class competition in Canada.

Anyway, today was the competition. I’ll let you read the play by play- from my angle, anyway..

My sister’s email:

From: dzkathi@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 3:26 PM
To: annieb63@xxxxxxxx; filluzzi@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Any news from the guy with the stick??

Hi There..

Has anyone heard how dad has done at the meet? His competition was at noon today and now it’s after 9pm there…

Keep me posted if you hear anything.

Love, Me

My reply:

Ah, thanks for reminding me, I was going to check the website…

Hmm, it’s in Spanish. Ok, Google will translate.

Uh. javelin doesn’t translate.

Loading the site with google translator… aha. list of athletes.

Javelin = launching of wild sow. I kid you not.

Found dad in the list of particpating athletes,. that’s good.

Ah, says here results will be posted “within minutes” on the internet. But where???

http://www.conersys.com/at/Anoeta/ATMG53101.C73S.1.0.pdf

5th! As Dad said “from the distances given, I’ll be lucky to get 5th” So there ya go.

His birthdate is wrong… lol . It’s European style. 09/10 = Oct 9 in Spain.

Congrats Dad, World Class Stick Thrower!

I thought I was doing so well getting ready for the school year. I’ve got a bunch of different projects going on:

• finishing up a site design for a client
• taking over as treasurer for our Cub Scout pack
• also acting as Tiger Cub coordinator and helping with recruitment of new scouts when school starts up
• taking over as treasurer for Project Graduation
• last minute planning for our vacation
• getting supplies, clothes, and paperwork taken care of for school because I won’t have time after we get back
• ordering a tux for Tim to wear to SIL’s wedding on 9/18
• assorted other little things like ortho appointments, haircuts, phone calls, bills…

But I completely missed a meeting I was supposed to get to yesterday morning- I felt like an idiot. Fortunately the woman I was meeting with was understanding and we’ve rescheduled. I’m trying so hard to get organized, and I know I’m making progress, but it’s taking so long! I literally spent 3 hours this morning just getting our family calendar updated with the new school calendar info and fall sports, etc.

I used to be so well organized. But looking back it was easy then- I really only had one life to deal with. Even when the older kids were little, there wasn’t much chaos. But now, all the obligations and all the stuff have accumulated and I’m responsible for at least parts of 5 lives plus a dog (the dog who needed to get to the vet and get her shots so she can go get her bath and haircut so she can go stay with Aunt Kathi & then Grandma & Papa when we go away…) I even have to know what’s going on with Pat because he’s got meetings that conflict with my meetings and usually on a night one of the kids needs to also be somewhere…

Sigh.

Friends invited us to spend the day with them in Seaside Park last week. Surf was big, the kids had fun. Toward late afternoon the lifeguards finally let the boogie boards in and Tim boarded for the first time. (click image to see more)

Seton Hall- no.
Stockton- maybe.
Visits coming up… Rowan and American.

The list is as follows:
NJ Publics:

• TCNJ
• Ramapo
• Stockton
• Rowan

NJ Private:

• Rider

Other possibilities:

• American University (DC)
• West Chester (PA)
• Temple (PA)

Best deal: Stockton, maybe Rider if he gets a good package
Most pricy: American

Stay tuned…

Shortly after we moved here we started getting mail addressed to a guy named Scott L——- (leaving it blank because god forbid anyone decides to google the guy and they hit here!) It was mostly collections letters from traffic fines, etc. I sent every single one back to sender with the notation that the guy didn’t live here.

They let up for awhile, I’d say I might have even gone a couple years with no Scott letters. Then an interesting new twist. I started getting phone calls.

Apparently at least one collection agency has done a backwards search on my phone number and now they’re calling looking for Scott. The numbers are always either blocked or show unknown name & number on my caller ID, so I don’t answer them, but a couple have left messages inadvertantly, thinking they got a person rather than a machine, so I know who they want.

One message a couple days ago- “Hello, is Scott there? … Helllllo? … You pick up the phone and don’t talk?” Then she mumbled something and hung up.

That just ticked me off.

Today the phone rang and the Caller ID said unknown. I answered anyway. A man asked for Scott. I said “There’s no Scott here.” and he responded, “Listen, lady…” WHOA. That wasn’t very nice of him.

So I lit into him, told him they needed to stop calling my number, there’s no Scott here and there never has been. He started to argue back, I don’t even know what he was saying because I was (probably stupidly) trying to explain that this guy Scott used our address but I had no idea who he is and if they didn’t stop calling our number I was going to file a police report (against who, I don’t know, except of course I think maybe I should have a report on file against this Scott guy…) Anyway, the guy looking for Scott hung up, but something tells me that won’t be the last time they call.

I probably shouldn’t have answered the phone, huh?

With the nice weather we’ve been having, finally, after belonging to our pool club for 8 years, we’re getting our money’s worth this year. I’m there with Tim & Nick nearly everyday. Last night was the adult pool party, first time we got there for that. Unfortunately none of our friends were able to make it but there were enough friendly aquaintances that we had a good time. There’s this one major clique- they all live on the same street, mostly young parents who tend to party a lot. They’re fun, mostly nice, but it feels a little high school, at least around some of them. Then there’s the people who’ve been members since before we joined, who have kids Andy’s age or older. I feel like I’m somewhere in the middle, not really belonging on either end. It was kind of funny listening to both groups mocking the other- guess both sides didn’t see me as belonging to the other, so that’s good (?)

I’m sure, as always, something will cause a rift and the clique will disintegrate. Not being catty, just something I’ve observed over the years.

Anyway, I did learn one lesson. While tea lights floating in the baby pool on kickboards may look pretty, don’t expect the kickboards to survive intact- they mostly have holes melted through now, or at least a tea light permanently attached!

So today was the “family fun day” which was thrown together last minute. It was just a few races and a balloon toss, but it was fun. I really love watching the kids, including the lifeguards who I’ve seen grow up. Really good group, and Nick’s been having fun hanging with them- teens I trust him being around for sure.