Of Roaches and Lonely Trees...
Today was roach day, dead or alive, at the gym at the school. But it was also the best day for soccer yet...we are actually playing and after how many years now, I am actually teaching some rules and positions and team strategy! Roaches keep everyone from sitting down whenever they get tired. More running that way, but not less screaming. We had to have a special lesson today before we played on Anger Management. It helped. Rorica wanted me to be sure to tell Colleen that she was really trying not to get angry today and she wasn't being a ball hog. It was also a good day for basketball and we "played" tennis outside for another hour after soccer and b-ball. We had to go get many, many balls that were hit over the fence and over the roof of the senior housing next door, but oh well. Some of the girls actually tried to volley and use the backboards. It is a little irritating how every time we go over there, young men from the community who hang in the park try and take our balls that go over the fence. Today, I forgot myself and went after them...they gave the balls back and gave me some very direct looks when I told them I didn't like how they were calling each other "Boy". It then dawned on me what I had done and I remembered that I wasn't on recess duty in Magnolia. Love those guardian angels...mine.
Yesterday on the bus back from the River Park, Mih Lady told me that when I see the "lonely trees" in the middle of the fields-literally, one big old tree will just be in the center of acres and acres of growing cotton, she said that there will always be the ruins of an old house that had belonged to a dirt farmer or older in slavery days. Many of the old cabins and homes were torn down after mechanization kicked in so there would be more land to farm. But that struck me about the lonely trees and what they remind me of.
Another "almost peed my pants moment today"....remember when I first wrote about saying "Dribble" and they all obediently picked up the ball and began to bounce it b-ball style. Today in soccer scrimmage, I yelled"MOVE" (we are working on finding open space)--three of the girls began to shimmy-shake and groove while they moved into open space----I forgot it was the same language that the dance instructor uses!~They were totally unawares...until I mentioned it and they burst out laughing.:)
I am going to Natchez tomorrow and I have made arrangements to stay in what was a very luxurious billiards building for the Stanton Hall plantation. It is now a bed and breakfast. It is antebellum old in the family that has had it for several generations. I am looking forward to this experience...and I amsorry I was a complaining little grouch yesterday. It will be an adventure and a dream come true.
Now if I can only get my dreams under control...all this week I have been running around in my dreams naked, with red cowboy boots, a bathrobe tied to my back like a cape and yelling and kicking kabootie on anything that has been "unfair" or unjust" in my past or recent present...last night I made myself wake up at 3 am to read. I was running around in this state stopping logging trucks on the Olympic Peninsula and giving the truck drivers the what for....sigh! I need to talk to my therapist!:) Hee-Hee! Take care. Tomorrow we "Swim".