pies and indecency

Josh's MBA program has a soccer team on which he happily plays. Now, while I'm very pleased that he enjoys playing soccer, and gets good exercise doing so, there are times when I'd like to fling the soccer ball out of the window of a moving car. These moments are generally when he has spent the entire week in class, the entire weekend studying hard for some class/test/project, and then he has an intramural game in his two hours of free time.

This happens ALL THE TIME.

For the first half of his first semester, I told myself that the soccer season wouldn't last that long. I could certainly take over the bulk of cleaning the house, paying the bills, taking care of the dogs, running all the errands and working full-time, because he really loves to play soccer. I could sacrifice. Take one for the team. But at some point in November, I realized that one of two things was going to happen- I'd either lose my mind, or end up killing him. So we sat down and had a talk, and decided that he was going to have to set aside a little bit of time to help me around the house. After a couple of weeks of never having the time to even look at my lists of items that needed to get done, Josh decided that between studying and occasionally having a social life, he didn't have time to play soccer.

His teammates were displeased with his choice, to say the least. They actually came to him in the library and got down on their knees to beg him to play in X game, or Z tournament. He declined, mainly because I believe he'd finally seen the desperation in my eyes. Thank goodness.
Over winter break, far from the stress of school and exams, he reevaluated his stance, and told me that he thought he could do it all in the spring semester. He campaigned for these few weeks off, assuring me that because he now knew what to expect with school, he'd study in less time, have more time to spend with me, and would have enough time to play soccer. With his newfound vision, he signed up to play in a Texas soccer tournament this weekend.

And then the crazy soccer practices were scheduled. At 10pm on a Tuesday night. Both Saturdays and Sundays from 2-4pm. Every Thursday at 8pm. I was ready to cry. All this in addition to the fundraising for their trip. He sold raffle tickets, attended fundraising parties, went to planning meetings. Sigh.

As an aside, when I told all of this to my neighbor, she put on a sad face, pouted and said, "oh no! I forgot my violin!"

Last weekend the practices and raffle ticket selling and planning activities reached a crescendo, and when he rushed me out of my inlaws' house in the Berkshires, and then rushed me out of my neighbors' brunch because of practice, the desperate look returned to my eyes. When he left for practice he pledged- just one more week of this.

So yesterday, while I was lying in bed sick, he was getting a pie flung into his face by paying classmates at the MBA fundraiser. I did have a hearty laugh when he brought home his uniform for the tournament. The uniform that is AT LEAST one size too small for him. So small that he simple cannot wear it. Suffice to say that the shorts are tight enough to be indecent. I wish I could be in Texas to see it.

This afternoon I am off to a girls' weekend (well, girls' weekend with two male pooches) and some blogger meetups. Next week, I hope, my life will be returning to the insanity that it usually is, minus crazy soccer practices and fundraising.