This, that, and the other

Sylvia won her soccer game yesterday. Yay!

It was of critical importance that her team win. Because the parents on the other team were .... I'll be nice. They were less than pleasant.

Apparently, they did not like where our team's parents had set up our lawn chairs. So, the first words out of their mouths were that we needed to move, because "this is the way they always did things."

Small stuff, I know. It set the mood for the game.

But our girls won. It all evens out in the end, huh?

*****

My friend Tammy e-mailed me - she was speaking at the retirement of our high school Home Ec teacher and wondered if I had any funny anecdotes.

(Does Home Ec even exist anymore? Alison had FACS - Family and Consumer Science. No idea what other schools call it.)

My first thought was, "None that is appropriate." Then I thought harder and remembered:

- Naming the sewing machines in 8th grade (Bernice the Bernina, LaWanda)
- Marcy Bothwell finishing a dress on dress-up day, and Mrs. Pearl telling her she would get an A if she wore if for the rest of the day. She wore it - I assume she got the A.
- Reading a found copy of The Hite Report (we were totally intrigued).
- Robert Burk pulled out one of those latch-hook rugs when we had a unit where we had to be working on something. Anything. He said his older brother had worked on it, and he was pretty sure both of his younger brothers would work on it as well. It had Snoopy and Woodstock on a light blue background. Wonder if anyone every finished it.
- Making aprons - all the guys bought camouflage fabric.
- Discussing contraception - the look on Skip McCaulley's face ...
- The same Skip McCaulley asking a guest speaker with a small baby - with plenty of hmms and pauses - about whether or not you could have intercourse during pregnancy. A totally legitimate question, and he had trouble getting it out. Her response was yes, "but you can't be bouncing off the ceiling or anything." You can imagine the class's reaction.
- A discussion on why people get married. Several people gave reasons: Finances, want to have children, society expects it, etc. Then Gina Naylor says, with a defiant tone in her voice, "They just might happen to be in love." Cue lots of laughter.

I forgot to mention Coach Mullins supervising our class one day when Mrs. Pearl was gone. He passed the time by breaking into the kitchen's stash of frozen french fries (stored in the Home Ec room's freezers) and eating fries all morning. That was a worthwhile day, for sure.

Wonder if any of that made it into the retirement talk.

*****

Attended a retirement dinner with Gary Friday night, for one of his colleagues. Whom I had met but did not really know. The dinner was casual, at a golf course. The food was marginal (buffet with chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, cookies for dessert). The 35 engineers in the room could not get the power point up and running. People in his office clearly do not moonlight by attending Toastmasters.

My neighbor (he works with Gary) could not get a sitter and didn't go. Didn't miss much.

*****

Yesterday Sylvia and I got to do a little shopping together - the other girls made better plans, so she and I got to spend the afternoon together.

For me, it was about the shoe sale at Macy's. I got three fantastic pair for less than $100, in pink, black (very dressy - event coming soon), and coppery-colored sandals.

For Sylvia, it was about new spring clothes. I asked her where she wanted to shop, and she chose Old Navy. (I would never have gotten off so cheaply with the other girls - we would have had to hit someplace much more high-end.)

Sylvia and I had a wonderful time. She was very patient while I tried on shoes (though she loves trying on all the high heels) and was totally delightful. I loved watching her try on clothes.

Such a nice day. She's a great kid.

*****

And last night, Gary and I got to go out to dinner and to the movies - this is what happens when your kids are old enough to make their own plans every weekend. We went to the Cajun place for dinner (coconut shrimp and sweet potato fries, seafood crepes and jambalaya - mmmm).

Then we drove down to River Oaks to see Snow Angels. I love River Oaks - it is our "art house" theater, and they always, always have the movies I want to see - generally as soon as they come out. It's in a charming little Art Deco-esque shopping mall (part of which was recently demolished, much to the chagrin - no, outrage - of historic preservationists - sigh), an actual movie theatre that has been refashioned into three small cinemas (the balcony is now its own screening area) and a little bar area. We love to go there.

The movie was good - heavy emotional fodder, very reminiscent of films like The Ice Storm. Good performances. We are still anxious to see Under the Same Moon and The Counterfeiters; with our kids' schedules, we likely will.

Rocky Horror was the midnight movie. As we were walking out the crowd was gathering, and I was disappointed to see average looking folks. But once outside the door, the characters were there in full force. Thank goodness - they (meaning my daughter) may call me old and frumpy-ish, but back in my day, no one, and I mean no one, worth his or her salt would have appeared at Rocky Horror in anything less than some sort of get-up. Maybe we weren't all Mageneta, but we dressed up - I, at least, made an effort to look trendy and avant garde.

Take that! youth of today.