Monday--Funeral Blues, the XC Meet, the New Girlfriend

And it is captivating post titles like this which keep you coming back here, right?

It's 4:00a as I write this. I don't know when I have been so glad to see a weekend + Monday come and go, but it's almost over. Thanks for all of your kind thoughts and prayers. I may not have responded, but I have read them all, and they touched me.

Last night on Facebook I came across a status update by Beverly Lewis which I wanted to share with you (I asked permission, but it was 3:50 am, and she didn't respond, go figure, so I just charged on ahead here) which said,

Unity is such a powerful force! Had the wonderful opportunity this weekend to connect both in person and by phone with very special people who I've met "virtually". Nothing virtual about real connections.

The line "Nothing virtual about real connections" jumped out at me because I thought of you who stopped what you were doing long enough to say a quick prayer or shoot off an email or comment here. It meant a lot to me, so thank you!

How was your weekend?

Saturday we had the weekly XC meet which I've been writing about for 5 weeks or so now. This time, though, I was a bad mom and stayed at home to clean my house because apparently, when you are sad, your house grieves, too, and shows it by throwing up all over itself for four days.

It took a whole day to get it in line, and trust me, I do not live in a huge castle.

So, what do you suppose happened while I was sacrificing the next big photo op to mop floors?

Jorge called me on the way home from the meet to say, "Ohhh, you're gonna be so mad!"

"Why? What happened? Is she OK? What's going on?"

He laughs and says, "She beat her time by 1:30 and got a ribbon!"

Un.be.lievable.

Not only did I miss this, but other people got pics of her coming through the chute--the elusive chute shot!

And to top it off, he emailed me a XC t-shirt smack-talk quote to add to my collection: "Since you're behind, how's mine?" Why must the good stuff of life elude me every time???

Sunday morning, I met my son's new girlfriend for the first time at church. Jorge was all worried I'd be too "energized" about all of this and might embarrass them, so he wanted me to just be aware of how awkward it would be for both of them, etc., etc.

Well.

Jorge was off the wall energized. It was like Freaky Friday between him and me. Freaky Sunday.

He even pulled up his cell phone at lunch and took their pic, which nearly stunned me into pausing while inhaling my Puerta Vallarta vegetable nacho extravaganza.

That was the most un-Jorge-like thing to do in the entire world.

Thank goodness everyone laughed.

I wonder if we'll ever see the girlfriend again.

After lunch, we came to the house (remember, she's never been here before) and immediately I saw that Zoe had pooped a little turd. It was tiny, but I knew there was probably more where that came from, and it was probably still near the "jetway," if you know what I mean. So I picked her up in the air like a sacrifice and waved her around to see if I could detect any remnants.

I wonder if we'll ever see her again.

Also, I had to run the vacuum again over my dark family room rugs because 6 hours or so had passed since I had last done so, and they were dirty again. (They show every thread, every piece of lint, but dog poo, not so much.) So here is the new girlfriend lifting her feet for me to vacuum.

I wonder if we'll ever see her again.

But I had to get it decent again because two people I hadn't seen in 25 years or so were just about to show up at my door to go with us to the mortuary in Indy.

The mortuary, not surprisingly, was difficult.

We went out to dinner afterward and shared stories about our friend and toasted him and laughed and laughed, which he would have loved. We wished he could've been there.

It was good to see both of our classmates, and I told them that we cannot wait another 25 years to see each other again because we would be in our 60's, and one of them reminded me that we might all be in our 60s someday, but he's still, like, 25, and probably will be then, too. I don't know how he does it.

I came home about 8:00 last night find that Zoe had done number one in our living room.

Since I was a little melancholy, I thought, "Great, Zoe. Thanks for adding crap TWICE to my crappy weekend."

But I'm choosing to focus on the good stuff: The dazed and confused and hopefully forgiving girlfriend and son, the good friends, the good memories.

What did you do this weekend?