It Was Just One of Those Days

Swim meet in Springfield.  Event 1, 50 yard freestyle.  Sisi dives in off the block, all goes well, she does not swim her best time but she feels content about her swim.  Event 2, 100 yard breast stroke.  This is the stroke she has practiced most in the week before the meet.  We even got up early on Friday and went to the pool at 630 so she could work on it some more.  What we didn't anticipate was a goggle malfunction.

The goggles slipped off and down around her neck, essentially making her feel like she was choking.  There may have been some water-swallowing along the way.  She had to walk to the end of the lane and climb out, gasping a bit.  Coach Tommie did a great job of calming her down, reassuring her that her whole first year of swim meets might have snafus as she learns, and that stuff like that "happens to absolutely everyone."

Event 3 was at least an hour and a half later.  That's a long time to walk around and let worry build in your brain.  So that when she got in the water for her 100 yard backstroke, she was scared poop-less about choking again.  After the event (which she did finish) she was crying in the locker room because she was afraid she'd always have that feeling every time she got in a pool.

About halfway home from Springfield, after a short pep talk from her mom and 15 minutes of distracting video games, she announced in a cheerful voice "ok, that's over"  and then she asked her big brother for advice.

J'dude said when he messes up in a baseball game (which he would hardly admit EVER happens, well okay he strikes out a lot), he remembers there will be lots of other chances.  And, he added, it's just little league (not, for example, the 7th game of the World Series when the Cubs finally have a chance to win it all -- example provided by his mom, of course)

As it turns out, we drove straight from the meet to one of his games.  He pitched well, but struck out a lot.  And they lost.

Likewise for California Chrome, who I must say looked like he enjoyed running WITH the other horses instead of ahead of them.  

At the end of the day, all I can say is that we had a beautiful rain, then the stars came out last night brighter than I have seen them in years, and ....CUBS WIN, CUBS WIN!!