Topic: Allie’s Blog III - Opening Day!

[ImAllie]

Wanted to share something from earlier this evening... I posted it and thought maybe it was too personal and took it down, but then I realized it really wasn't. I think it just really hit my heart in such a way that it felt like that.  Luckily I had the sense to copy it before deleting... so I can now restore it.

This is something that happened earlier this evening.

I’m very sorry for being cryptic… but… you know… so I have to navigate this the best that I can.

Our son, as I’ve mentioned, works for a member of congress. He loves his job, writes speeches, speaks on the members behalf, works with all the major shareholders in the district (mayors, town managers, CEO’s) on major infrastructure projects and funding issues, bringing in whatever governmental agencies are needed, or legislative work, etc. It’s a really busy, rewarding job.

He has, in the past few months arranged a few big forums for the member — where he brings in a bunch of people who are experts on a topic, like infrastructure (so he would get Secretary-level folks from DC to come, in mayors, major corporations looking to bring new tech into the district, etc etc).

Well he call us tonight because he’s exhausted/worried his next one. It’s his biggest one yet, but he may have to cancel it at the last minute, because of the hostage-negotiation over the debt ceiling. Membership might all get called back to DC when they’re all supposed to be in their districts per the congressional calendar.

The event? A forum on LGTBQ+ issues. He said he has executive directors of national organizations, CEOs, presidents, etc… and he was talking about how hard he worked. How reluctant some of them were to come, but once he got a few big ones more were coming… and now it’s this huge, diverse event and he’s really proud of it.

And as he was listing some organizations, some of which with I am vary familiar, my wife and I were just looking at each other and smiling.

When the call ended, I turned to my wife and said “Well, at least now I know when we do tell him about me, he’ll be an excellent resource.”

She just laughed and said “I can’t believe you were able to hold you tongue and not blurt out “Oh, I’ve heard of them!”

I know when we do tell him he’s going to struggle because it’s his dad, and everything. And I also have long known that he’s going to be ok with everything.

But tonight just really really made me feel so great.

Love,
Allie

[Oldandcreaky]

You and your wife should be proud that you raised such a mensch and I'm proud of the three of you.

Say, Allie, from your professional background, what do you think of the Heat/Celtics series?

[ImAllie]

You and your wife should be proud that you raised such a mensch and I'm proud of the three of you.

Say, Allie, from your professional background, what do you think of the Heat/Celtics series?

Aww thanks, and we very much are.

In answer to your question? Very little, actually. For whatever reason, as much as I’ve always loved college basketball, the NBA leaves me cold. I barely follow it at all.

Here’s an example of how little.

Having breakfast with a friend (who was a former assistant coach who’d gone into finance) last year when we were just coming out of covid, and he mentioned another friend of ours and about how great he was doing… and I realized IN THAT MOMENT that he was talking about someone who had been working in the NBA for several years. As a head coach.

And I had no idea. NONE. 🤦‍♀️

And now, I realize even saying that? I don’t remember what team…and I have no idea if he’s still doing the job, nor am I that interested in looking it up (although I’m sure I will after I hit send 😉)

[Maid Marion]

You aren't alone in not following the NBA.
I noticed the NBA has been advertising the NBA finals on broadcast television.

These days you can no longer assume that something is on broadcast TV.
Sometimes it is only a a pay channel.

[Oldandcreaky]

Dang it. I was looking forward to hearing your take.

[ImAllie]

Dang it. I was looking forward to hearing your take.

While there are a lot of people in this life who are more than happy to give you their take on something on which they are not fully informed… i try very hard to stay off that list. 😉

In all seriousness, though… from a generic sports standpoint I would just say that something always “has never been done” until someone, or some team, first does it.

[ImAllie]

We started the multi-day process of the initial pool cleaning of the season today. Beautiful morning, and we’d wanted to take a hike, but we really knew we had to get going with the pool.

Anyway… while I was vacuuming, something got stuck in the vacuum head. It happens, especially when you’re doing the first cleaning after the cover comes off. But I didn’t want to pull the vacuum out of the pool and lose prime, so I pulled it just below the surface so my wife could clear it, like the mouse pulling the thorn from the lion’s paw.  Although in this case the vacuum is the lion… my wife is really much more like a lion, and I’m a lot more like a mouse… so not really sure that tracks. 😂

Anyhoo… she pulls it out and shows it to me. “It’s a weird looking stick,” she said.

I took a beat, and very calmly said - “I’m fairly certain that is NOT a stick,”

The look of horror and disgust on her face? I’m guessing it was 50% realizing she was holding some sort of small creature bone and 50% why is my husband laughing so hard.  Maybe 10%/90% actually.   Doesn’t matter. 30 seconds later she was laughing too.

Ah pool ownership - making memories for a lifetime!!

Enjoy Memorial Day weekend everyone!!!

[ImAllie]

Hey all -

Apology in advance for the ramble. I'm not sure where this is going to go, other than I need to work it out... and I often do these things best by writing, so here goes:

Day was fine, but two unrelated events which, as I sit here now share a common link as items on my transition "mise en place" prep list.

(hang on - need to put some music on to trick my head into thinking there's only one noise in the world and keep my headache at bay... going with FOW's Utopia Parkway)

Ok, back - Today was an electrolysis day. Great as always. Affirming, fun, lovely. All that. Not sure how we got into it, but we shared some old embarrassing stories and I told her the time when I was a young kid (I thought I was a senior in HS) and one of the stories I was assigned to write for the major metropolitan newspaper I worked for (yeah, like Clark Kent  ) was about this gold-medal winning Olympian who now was breeding horses. Except what they didn't tell me in advance was it was all done via artificial insemination. So I was this young kid, talking to very beautiful, confident, woman about how they... you know... ugh.. I shudder NOW thinking about that day.  Although it was funny when I got back to office and EVERYONE laughed.

Anyway, stuff like that.

Point is, when I got home I said I'd try to find the clip for her. My dad had saved a bunch of my clips... most/all of them I'd thought and it wasn't there. So I went online, and I had to do a trial subscription to get into the archive and... wow.. I guess I'd forgotten... in the course of the time I was there, starting in HS as a "correspondent" to when I was a staff writer through college and early in law school? I wrote like 250 stories... some crazy stuff too. And I forgot a LOT of it.

I spent all day going through it. All of it. It was fun... and it was ... something else.  More on that in a bit.

On my way to my appointment, probably my closest friend called me.  I'm getting sick of making up these excuses for where I'm going/what I'm doing every Wednesday morning and I can't wait until that ends. But that's neither here nor there.

But anyway, he mentioned that he and his wife were going to see some friends this weekend. And it just hit me the wrong way. We've been trying to make plans with them for a while. I mean, we talk nearly every day... but plans are like pulling teeth it seems. And it seems like we are always initiating. And for whatever reason this morning I just snapped at him and said "you know, I'm really done with all this. You do have other friends you haven't seen in a while you. And it's not an obligation, it's an invitation... so you won't hear me mention it again."

I surprised myself by how ... hmmm... snappy and grumpy I was.  Him too, and he kind of laughed it off a bit, and I just said I had to go and ended the call.  He texted later in the day (he picked up his new car) and I responded with a gif or something normal, but... even so I know that was a dumb thing to do.  Because once you break that seal, you put the other person into an unwinnable situation. No matter what he does... doesn't matter. If they make plans to see us, he gets no credit because I said something. And if he doesn't, it's even worse because I did say something.

Oh yeah, one of the things I said:  "I'm not sure if it's me or (my wife) that your wife has an issue with, but it's obviously one of us. And it's too bad, because you know we love her."  That was just mean.  It's how I feel (hurt)... but it was still mean.

So the connection.

I feel like going through the articles ... was part of taking a long, nostalgic walk through my past before I move on from it. I'm not running from anything. I'm not denying my past. But it still felt like when I used to walk the empty basketball court a few hours before a championship game, you know? Just a last pensive look at the way things were before you know everything is going to change.

And the call? Things are going to change with friends. Yeah maybe not with all of them. Maybe not with these friends... but maybe so. So maybe preemptively taking an action now to push people away makes me less likely to get hurt later? It certainly wasn't what I was actively doing... but after the fact it was one of the explanations to myself as to why I did it.

That's all really.

Love,
Allie

[TXSara]

Allie --

I don't know exactly why I got so emotional reading your post, but I think it is because I remember those exact feelings going back a year or more ago.  It's like that discussion we had about the "last" of something and not always knowing that it will be that way.  You look back on past experiences and relationships, and you know that those will be changing.  You (or at least I did) question whether this unsure future is worth the severing with the past.  It's tough.

You know things are going to change, and you know things will never be able to go back to the way they were.  You don't know what this future really holds, but that potential (and uncertain) bliss and happiness keeps you going forward.  I get it. 

Oh, and BTW, you're TOTALLY acting like a chick with your friend  ... I'm almost surprised that he didn't retort with, "What the <bleep> is wrong with you?  Are you on your period?"   

~Sara

[jennifer7020]

You look back on past experiences and relationships, and you know that those will be changing.  You (or at least I did) question whether this unsure future is worth the severing with the past.  It's tough.

You know things are going to change, and you know things will never be able to go back to the way they were.  You don't know what this future really holds, but that potential (and uncertain) bliss and happiness keeps you going forward.  I get it. 

Hey Sara- thanks for writing that. Meant for Allie; has meaning for me this morning. I'll only add that knowing some moments will come that change long time friendships does not make the moments any easier in the least.

Jenn

[ImAllie]

Allie --

I don't know exactly why I got so emotional reading your post, but I think it is because I remember those exact feelings going back a year or more ago.  It's like that discussion we had about the "last" of something and not always knowing that it will be that way.  You look back on past experiences and relationships, and you know that those will be changing.  You (or at least I did) question whether this unsure future is worth the severing with the past.  It's tough.

You know things are going to change, and you know things will never be able to go back to the way they were.  You don't know what this future really holds, but that potential (and uncertain) bliss and happiness keeps you going forward.  I get it. 

Oh, and BTW, you're TOTALLY acting like a chick with your friend  ... I'm almost surprised that he didn't retort with, "What the <bleep> is wrong with you?  Are you on your period?"   

~Sara

Yup. Yup. & Yup.  😘

And I kinda thought the same thing, about how I was acting…but it seemed a bit stereotypical to say it, so I didn’t. But since you did… I’ll add an additional “Yup” 😉

[Oldandcreaky]

I feel like going through the articles ... was part of taking a long, nostalgic walk through my past before I move on from it. I'm not running from anything. I'm not denying my past. But it still felt like when I used to walk the empty basketball court a few hours before a championship game, you know? Just a last pensive look at the way things were before you know everything is going to change.

And the call? Things are going to change with friends. Yeah maybe not with all of them. Maybe not with these friends... but maybe so. So maybe preemptively taking an action now to push people away makes me less likely to get hurt later? It certainly wasn't what I was actively doing... but after the fact it was one of the explanations to myself as to why I did it.

Whew! Wow. Whoa!