March Highlights:
- Cathy and I see Seinfeld’s stand up show for the first time at the Arlington theater
- Celebrate Sebastian’s birthday
- Lilah takes on new swim event (100 IM) and wins on her first try (1:16 is her time)
- Kids and I try cross country skiing for the first time
- Lilah learns to snowboard — Luke does the coaching
Seinfeld at the Arlington Theater
Cathy purchased tickets for us to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Arlington theater in Santa Barbara. During the show, Jerry touched upon the fact that we had all ventured out on a work night to see him because as humans we are always looking for that next thing to do. In other words, we have to make plans so we can go see “that thing” and have something to talk about so that we can not have such a crappy life…otherwise, why come out on a Thursday night — I’m paraphrasing here. It was funny to hear Jerry talk about how the show was on a work night and how we all complain about such things and then once we get to “that thing” that we’ve been wanting to see, that we’ve made plans to see mind you, we start wondering about when the show is going to be over and when we’re going to leave because we have to get home and get some sleep.
The show was great and it was no nonsense which was refreshing. I mean the insights from Jerry are honest and funny but there is not a lot of pretense or build up to his show. For example, I’ve become so used to showing up at an event only to seemingly wait forever for the main act to appear on the stage. At Jerry’s show, there was none of that. There was a short 15-minute opening act (Larry Miller) and then Jerry walked out on the stage. There wasn’t a long waiting period after the opening act and Jerry routine. There was no announcer to introduce Jerry. It was just Jerry walking out on stage doing about an hour’s worth of material, taking a few questions at the end, and then walking off the stage to applause as I hurried down the stairs to avoid getting caught up in the after show hallway gridlock, because, as Jerry had so bemusingly brought up earlier, I had to get some sleep ;).
We Take a Trip to Mammoth Over the Spring Break
Last December, during the Christmas break, Lilah joined us on our trip to Mammoth only to be disappointed when she found out that, due to weather, we would not be able to do the one thing she wanted to try — cross country skiing. The conditions were cold and stormy which meant we had to cancel our reservations. On the day when it wasn’t so stormy we decided to snowboard at June Mountain. Our goal was to teach Lilah how to snowboard once and for all. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong lift to take us up the mountain. No, we didn’t take Lilah down a black diamond run or anything, but the beginner run we did take her on was more than 2 miles long. Not being able to see the end of the run played with Lilah’s psyche which made her fixate on all the negatives — her feet hurt, she fell a lot, she was tired, she hated this run. It probably took us about 1.5 to get Lilah down the run and at that point she was exhausted and through with snowboarding (and possibly any future trips to the mountains with the boys).
I guess three months of separation from that negative experience and the fact that the weather would be absolutely gorgeous for the Easter weekend was enough to convince Lilah to give Mammoth a second try over the spring break. I also told her that we would begin our trip with cross country skiing which seemed to make her happy. Our adventure started at the Tamarack Lodge where we rented our equipment and took lessons. We all did remarkably well, I thought, although Lilah did remind me that I fell “a lot.” I think I fell 4 times total in 3 hours, but since Lilah didn’t fall at all (keep in mind she was the only one with a skiing background), my fall counts were magnified in her mind. I had a hard time stopping and turning with speed but when it came to straight aways and uphills I did really well — this is where I think my triathlon conditioning definitely helped. Lilah wondered how I went so fast so at least I impressed her in some aspects of my cross country skiing.
The other thing I wanted Lilah to learn on this trip was snowboarding. I knew I had to do everything I could to make boarding easier for her so I rented a board that was about 10 cm smaller than the board she had used last time which would hopefully make it easier for her to turn. I also added inserts to her snowboard boots to help keep her feet from hurting. In addition, I enlisted the help of her brother. I set a goal for Luke to teach Lilah how to connect her turns. I told him that if he succeeded in his efforts I would pay him $20. And, having learned my lesson from June, I made sure we took Lilah on a run where she could see the end.
All that was left for me to do was watch as the lesson with Luke unfolded. He is a naturally patient guy. He told Lilah what she would be feeling each step of the way and that seemed to inspire some confidence in her as she knew what to expect. He then got to the point where he would tell Lilah exactly what do to and she would follow his orders. “Okay lean on your toes, turn…good, now lean on your heels,” he would say and Lilah listened and learned. I just sat back and recorded the exchange and enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing a plan come together and lead to results. By the end of the day, Lilah was connecting her turns with a smile on her face and that smile and good mood continued throughout the trip, which, as a parent, is always what you secretly want (even though it doesn’t always turn out that way).
That’s all for now. More next month.