So, the NaBloPoMo theme for March is Self. And technically, my self has learned that yet again, I’ve signed up for something and haven’t followed through on it. Since it’s after midnight, it’s officially March 2, which means I will not officially blog every day in March. Add one more item to the list of unfinished business.
Whatever.
One reason I didn’t post was the unexpected treat delivered to me today by my alma mater’s basketball team, the University of Virginia. When we drove up to the Grounds (campus to the uninformed) that first time, I knew in my soul that I was in the right place. From that day on, I bled orange and navy. And most UVA sports fans can tell you that the blood has flowed freely for our team. When it comes to men’s basketball, we’ve won the ACC Tournament once (1976) and had only won the season standings outright once (1980-81 season). It seems almost blasphemous to say that during that ’80-’81 season, I wasn’t yelling WAHOOWA, I was wondering why Ralph Sampson was getting so much hype when Michael Jordan was a far superior player and was 10 inches shorter than Ralph.
When I got to UVA, I found out that Ralph Sampson was considered the second saint of UVA. I could never bring myself to drink from that Kool-Aid. I do refer to Mr. Jefferson as if he were in the next room, since that’s what we were taught about our patron saint. That’s why so many ‘Hoos call him TJ – that’s not rude or disrespectful. I also learned that you point with your elbow, not with your finger, by watching quite a few drinking games. Yeah, watching. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But I digress…
Well, my guys decided to send a message to the newly expanded Atlantic Coast Conference, and it wasn’t a friendly message. Today we made it 16-1 in the conference and clinching the outright season title by destroying Syracuse. The 4th ranked team in the country lost by 19. I was in tears at the end, and I hadn’t even realized that one of the best moments of the game came at the very end, when a former walk-on hit a 3-pointer at the end to score his very first points in ACC play…in his final home game (WTG Thomas Rogers!).
So I let myself be distracted by sports euphoria. Then I was distracted by a cute guy who doesn’t want to go to sleep. No, not the fun kind of distraction by a cute guy. This distraction is courtesy of an 8-year-old who can’t sleep. Tried the bedtime story. Tried cuddling together on the couch. So now he’s curled up in a comfy chair with a book and a flashlight. Sigh.
One thing I’ve learned from MS – planning only gets you so far. You can have the most productive day ever planned, but if that ugly MS fatigue kicks in, say buh-bye to those plans. Way too often, the plan and the reality don’t match up for me. Sometimes I’ll beat myself up. Sometimes I’ll take it as a personal failure. Sometimes I’ll just have to resign myself to the fact that the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.
I’m working on getting out of the “failure” thinking and to reshape the situation as an experiment that didn’t provide the desired response. Even when it looks like all of the variables lined up, some unexpected factor will muck up the equation. Sometimes I let it piss me off, sometimes I let it get to me, sometimes I wallow in excuses and blame.
And sometimes, I just curl up on the couch, play some computer games, and look at a cute little boy reading a book by flashlight.
