^^^ This was me most of this holiday weekend. But you know what, if I’m being completely honest, this is me most weekends. Not gonna lie.
It’s not like we did NOTHING though.
CootieBoy had his first official Black Belt taekwondo class, and while he didn’t go on and on about it when he got home, it sounded like it went well for him. His only lament: the BB class includes sparring, which is his least favorite aspect of doing taekwondo. He’ll do forms, board breaking and self defense. But he is not a fan of the sparring component. He also got the happy news that he made the demo team – which is a small team that performs at special events in town, and (I think) performs in competitions. When he tried out he wasn’t sure he’d make it because there were so many good auditions we saw that day, but make it he did!
I finished the “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” book trilogy this weekend. My son was impressed that I spent almost 5 hours on the sofa reading an actual paper book (since most of my books are devoured via audiobook). I can say that I liked the trilogy a lot although the third book was kind of plot-free other than Lara Jean deciding on what college she’d attend. Somewhere in Book 2 I was really feeling John-Ambrose and kind of rooting for him in some ways, but in the end Peter Kavinsky was a good (albeit flawed) boyfriend for Lara Jean. But movie Kavinsky is still the best and you’ll never be able to tell me otherwise.
CootieGirl and I went out and did some driving over the weekend – we did almost an hour of night driving, which she really needed. She did a great job for the most part but still struggles with some things (her lane changes are so scary it’s a wonder I haven’t had an actual heart attack while in the car). Fortunately, I’m mostly able to keep my cool, although my daughter is waiting for me to shout “KIERAN!” while grabbing the wheel in a panic.
We also met up with my dear friends JHP and LP for lunch on Saturday. They came into town for the Tennessee/West Virginia college football game and we met up with them in Charlotte for food and conversation. They are a wonderful couple and I’ve been friends with LP for almost 25 years – she is the type of friend that even if we haven’t talked in ages, the minute we get going, it’s like we’ve never been apart. And her husband is just wonderful as well and my kids had a blast talking with him a lot during lunch. Hopefully it won’t be years before we get to hang out with them again (we hadn’t spent time all four of us together since they had their baby, who is now a SEVEN YEAR OLD).
On Sunday I got to hold babies at church, which was awesome. During the first service I was with toddlers but the second service I was with older infants. I held one sweet little girl who just did not want to be put down on the floor to explore and eventually fell asleep in my arms while I sat in a rocking chair with her. I admitted to the other woman working in the room with me that this was the entire reason I started volunteering in the nursery again. I not a big fan of babies in general, but I love cuddling them as they sleep. It’s so relaxing and zen.
CG and I hit up the cheap movie theater and saw “The Darkest Minds.” I had just finished the book a month or so ago, and was interested to the see the movie. And WOW was it a severely abridged version of the book. The basic framework was there, but the nuance of the storytelling was entirely missing. Sure, the source material is not exactly Shakespeare, but it was still a lot more detailed than the movie allowed. CG and I both agreed we were glad that our tickets were only $3 to get in to see it. That’s one thing MoviePass was good for – we didn’t mind going to see movies we knew would be more craptastic than fantastic. But now we’ll have to be more selective about what movies we’ll go see at full price, what movies we’ll see at the cheap theater, and what movies we’ll just wait to see on Netflix.
And that was the gist of my long weekend. I hope you had a happy and safe Labor Day weekend as well.
