Football in October

I spent yesterday morning on the football field.  It was a beautiful, sunny and chilly fall morning, and it was time for the 4-5 year old set to play flag football!  This is J’s first season of football, and I really wanted to play with my camera and commemorate the season for LB; luckily I got a few really good pictures.  I had such a great time!  Isa was thrilled to see me, and her first question was, “Is it a boy or a girl?”  I swear she thinks I’m delaying finding out, just to torture her!  She introduced me to a few of her friends, each time saying, “This is my Aunt Shannon, she has a baby in her tummy just like my mommy!”

Watching those boys (and one girl on the opposing team) on the field was so much fun.  Rather than bother with lots of verbal instructions on where to stand each play, the coaches frequently would just pick the kids up and move them.  And then when a kid got the ball and started running, all the coaches would point in the direction the child was supposed to run in, and half they time they still ran the wrong way.  But they all looked like they were having fun, and J scored two touchdowns, so he was beside himself with happiness.

Another bonus, the sidelines are really social!  My sister says she imagines that I’ll meet Mr. Right on the sideline of a t-ball game or something like that, and I’m starting to believe there might be some potential there.  And now I know I can actually have fun at little kids’ sporting events, without really knowing all the rules, so I think I’m more likely to make sure that Chiquitita gets signed up for a few sports at least once.

The truth is, I’m not a very good dater.  I’m better at it than I used to be, but I know I tend to put up a wall when I meet men in a social situation, especially when I find them attractive.  I don’t mean to do it, and sometimes I succeed in keeping myself from doing it, but it’s hard work, especially when I’m not sure why I do it in the first place.  It doesn’t help that I tend to be terribly shy in social situations.  That’s improved a lot, thanks to the discovery I made a few years ago that I feel not the tiniest bit of shyness on the job or in work related settings.  But so far that hasn’t really translated into improved dating skills, probably because of the added pressure of my biological clock kicking in at about the same time.  I really believe that I’m going to find it easier to keep that wall down once I have a baby in my life – though I’m not sure I’m going to be too interested in dating for the next few years – and am very hopeful that I will someday meet the right man for me.  But, for the first time in my life, I don’t feel any pressure at all to meet someone.  It’s an amazingly wonderful feeling to have.