June Highlights:
- Lilah plays “Rainbow Connection,” and Luke plays “Back to Russia” at music recital
- Luke’s team wraps up basketball season with exciting playoff game decided by one point
- Celebrating Father’s days with pops
- I compete in my 10th Breath of Life Triathlon
- We celebrate Lilah’s Birthday
Kids Play to a “Sitting Room Only” of Seniors
For the first time, the kids’ music recital was held at a senior center. Shelley let us know that we’d have to set up and get through our performances quickly as the elderly patrons are used to their routines, which means meals, entertainment and bedtimes all occur at a designated time each day — waver from the schedule for just a bit and you risk disrupting the soothing order of their world.
Luckily, the musical performances went well. The only thing the kids had to contend with at this recital was more ambient noise (in the form of coughing and sneezing), but they managed to keep their concentration and play their songs much to the delight of the old folks. Although we did have one incident where an elderly man in a wheelchair barked out “move your chair” to an elderly lady in her own wheelchair. He seemed perturbed that the woman, who could barely move her hand wasn’t able to move out of his way fast enough. That’s when the caretaker stepped in and helped settle things by moving the lady and providing enough space for the grumpy old guy to pass. I looked at Lilah while this was going on and she smirked and almost started laughing, thinking it was a pretty funny spectacle.
Lilah played the Rainbow Connection and was pleased with her mistake-free performance. Luke was the sole guitar player at the event and played Back to Russia.
Luke Finishes Basketball Season with a Scoring Flurry & Receives a Big Gift for His Scholarship
As I mentioned last month, Luke got his team into the playoffs with his high scoring performance. He continued where he left off in the playoffs, leading his team in scoring in a game that was a seesaw back and forth affair. It was probably the most exciting game I’ve ever seen his team play as it went down to the wire. Luke’s team was leading by a point with 45 seconds left. Then the other team scored with 20 seconds left leaving Luke’s team to scramble back up the court to get one more basket to avoid being eliminated. Unfortunately, they did not get the final shot off, but what a thriller it was. Luke confessed he was actually happy it was all over because otherwise they would have had to play a final game one hour later. I could tell he was spent and congratulated him on his hustle out on the court. I’m sure if he had won, his story would have been a little different, but that’s cool — that’s how the little guy copes.
The other big news for Luke this month was that he achieved his goal of maintaining a 4.0 grade point average for the entire year. Poor little guy fretted a lot over his grades in the last few weeks leading up to his final report card. He thought for sure he would not be able get an A in math, but when he checked his math grade online after taking the final he realized that he had just squeaked by. I thought he would be happy but then he filled me in on the fact that his science grade was going to take a hit because one of the kids on his group project had not come through and delivered his portion of the assignment. This meant that Luke’s grade was going to suffer and he was really upset by this. Luckily, his teacher did not penalize him as much as he thought and he was able to maintain the A he had in science too.
And for all the hard work, we kept our end of the bargain and gave him the gift he had been working toward all year — his own iPhone. Congratulations Luke, you deserved it!
Complete my 10th Breath of Life Triathlon
After getting a DNF in my first triathlon of the season, I bounced back with a solid performance at the Breath of Life Triathlon, completing it for the 10th time in just as many years. This time around, I wore my wetsuit and had a good swim. Really, it was just an okay swim, but the good news is that I completed the event, erasing any doubts I may have had about my health due to my inability to finish the swim in the first race of the season. Once I got out of the water and onto the bike, it was like old times. I was within 5 seconds of last year’s time on the bike and 50 seconds of my run time. I get the feeling I probably could have run a little faster if there had been more runners around me after exiting the transition area. On the run I managed to maintain an even seven minute mile pace, passing quite a few people along the way (only a kid less than half my age passed me toward the end of the 5k). It was a good performance overall and enough to land me a 4th out of 29 in my age group. But this event was really more about getting back out on the race course again and building my confidence again. I believe I accomplished that in this race and am looking forward to finishing the season strong after a little bit of vacation in July.
We Cap Off the Month by Celebrating Lilah’s Birthday
Our young lady turned 15 this month. We celebrated her birthday at home with a Red Velvet cupcake from the Bread Basket. Then we celebrated it again when my parents took us all out to Yolanda’s. The waiters took great delight in singing to Lilah — I could tell she was a little embarrassed but also could see that she appreciated our gesture of making her feel special. Her friend Vicky joined us, as did cousin Nicholas and Tia Michelle. In addition to the multiple celebrations, she received gifts cards from Tia Christine, my parents and my sister. Cathy also took her to the salon to get her first professional hairdo and I believe the two of them have plans to do a spa day soon.
That’s all for now. More next month…