typically, i am busy 1-3 nights a week and hang out some with random people on the weekends. the last week has not been typical at all.
on saturday morning, my aunt called that she was on her way to kearney for my cousin's volleyball tourney. so i tagged along and watch a whole lot of volleyball in 4 hours. my uncle and a few other cousins joined us as well a bit later. in recent months, i've been much more observant of relationships of all kinds, especially the ones between parents and children. my aunt and uncle and their family appears to be on the right track. the parents treat each other with alot of humor and respect. this is also passed between the parents and the 5 kids (even the 3 teenagers). i don't notice any tension, nor any need for restraint of harsh words, etc. granted, most people wouldn't display this in a setting like a volleyball tournament, but they acted as they typically do -- with lots of respect and humor all around. this family is a joy to be around. i'm definitely blessed that i live close to them.
on saturday evening, dad called me to report about the husker game that he got to attend with one of my other uncles. :-\ my brother and i almost had tickets too, but it made it a little more tolerable that it rained during the whole game. :) other than discussing and analyzing the game, dad mentioned that he and my brother were going shopping in grand island (located right between us -- 45 mins away) on sunday afternoon and wanted me to join them. we ate lunch at whiskey creek and shopped a bit afterwards. the fact that i felt semi-comfortable hanging out with dad is a miracle in itself. in the last year, i've gone from not wanting anything to do with him to having lunch and talking some on the phone. it's still awkward for me, but progress is definitely being made. and as always, it was wonderful to see my brother.
on monday after work, i raced to henderson to watch my brother play football (he's on the reserve team). henderson didn't do too well until the 3rd quarter. our quarterback/kickoff returner made a brilliant run along the sideline and then didn't get up. the ambulance came and carted him off to the hospital. (the rumor is that he had a neck injury.) after this, the new quarterback (who had never taken any hikes) went 2-4 with 2 touchdown passes and loads of rushing yards. but in the end, henderson lost in overtime by 2 pts. my brother did well with a few tackles and *almost* had a reception. he also broke up some passes and did really well guarding his man on defense. i sat with mom and her parents. in most settings, i wouldn't enjoy being with the 3 of them -- too much bickering, "discussions" ending in awkward silences, complaining, gossiping, etc. but at a football game, it's usually enjoyable. between plays, i tease grandma about how little she knows about football ("a touchdown is good...but only when it's us that scored," etc). she's slowly learning. :) mom and grandpa sometimes jump in with sarcastic comments. after the game i drove home, arriving at 11.00.
on tuesday, i managed to leave work at 5.15, came home for 1.5 hrs, and then went back to the courthouse to help with a special election. a town in my county was voting on a school bond and the county election commissioner was responsible for all election services. i went to the polling place with her, tore down the voting booths and other equipment, talked with the poll workers about how the day had gone, and tried to understand why some of their end-of-the-day numbers didn't agree. the polls closed at 8.00 and we finally left at 9.15. we got back to the courthouse with the ballots and other equipment at around 9.30 and started scanning the ballots. after an hour of mishaps, we finally got the majority of them scanned and reported to the media. i'll have to manually enter 3 or 4 ballots into the reporting software, which is definitely better than the stack that i manually entered after the primary election. i left the courthouse shortly thereafter and got home around 10.40.
last night i worked a little late, grabbed something to eat, and went to bowl. i've never bowled more than once a year...and now i find myself in a bowling league. it's been really interesting, but i'm not doing too bad. last week, we started playing poker. we each put a quarter in and draw one card if we get 9 pins and 2 cards if we get a strike. last time, a teammate and i pooled our cards together so we could have a shot at winning. we won once, so we broke even at the end of the night. it's been really fun to focus on drawing cards and not on how good or bad
we're bowling. :)
and today i had nothing planned in the evening!! what did i do? i fell asleep watching tv and woke up 2 hours later. :)
