Game #3 - Granville

I would've gone...

The September 5th game was at Granville, about an hour east of home. I would've gone - but Jared said they had never beaten Granville, a division II team... and it was raining heavily. So we opted to listen to the web broadcast instead. Again, there was another weather delay!

Jared's name!

I was delighted to hear Jared's name announced late in the game after he made a very good tackle. Go Jared! Unfortunately, the Blue Aces won - 49-7. Even more unfortunately, the boys came back to light the fire at the traditional Ox Roast but it was raining so hard few people showed up and they couldn't get the fire going, even with gasoline. More on the Ox Roast later....

Game #2 - East Knox

Lightning!

As I was getting ready to head out to the game Friday night, my mom called to tell me to wait - thunder and lightning had caused the game to be delayed. And, sure enough, the game was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon (although the boys had to sit in their pads until 10:30).

Sunny Saturday afternoon

So, Saturday afternoon I took the little kids to the stadium. To my happy surprise no admission was charged so I had $6 extra to buy concessions for the kids. That bought about one quarter of quiet! We played East Knox and I found myself sitting in the midst of East Knox parents in the bandstands (taking advantage again of the shade).

Grandview wins!
At half-time the score was tied 14-14. But by the end of the third quarter Grandview was up 28-14. Jared got some playing action in the fourth quarter to our delight. I didn't see him much in the earlier quarters. The game ended with a score of 34-14. The Bobcats then very enthusiastically ran to the big iron bell to ring out their victory. For a moment I couldn't figure out what they were doing - it had been a long time since their last real win! But boy it felt good!

Away Game Varsity / Home Game JV (Utica)

Radio broadcasts rock!

We did not make the hour drive up to Utica last night to see the Bobcats play. However, I did not feel TOO guilty for a few reasons - eleven family members did make the trek so I knew Jared would be supported, Jared told me there was a less than "4 in 10 chance" that he'd play (his words) and ghfootball.com provides a web broadcast! Yay! So in our nice comfy airconditioned living room we were able to listen in. At half time the score was tied up, 14 to 14. Unfortunately we missed the half-time show - a tribute to AC/DC. But the broadcast rocked!

Unfortunately, they lost. Twice.

Jared never was put in last night's game, even for a minute. And they lost - final score 35-21. Today the little kids and I went to Bobcat Stadium for the home JV game. Jared played the whole time! Three guys were injured on the sidelines. The score was 22-0 at half-time but the Bobcats did score two touchdowns. Final score was 30-16. Next week... East Knox. Go Bobcats!

Scrimmage #2

Where is #62?

We arrived late (PJ lost his shoes - again) and spent the first minutes at the game eagerly scanning the field for jersey #62. No luck. I thought maybe Jared was wearing a plain blue jersey again but Molly insisted Jared was #30 based on his stance and the bandaged right arm. I wasn't convinced but #30 did have a few good plays towards the end. We took plenty of pictures of #30. Fortunately that was Jared after all!


Not much play time

Jared was disappointed that he didn't get as much play time as he would've liked. He is really hoping to start this year. However, he did play well and his coach said he'd give him a free burrito. And that is what really counts!

Winners

Again, the scoreboard didn't keep score (but did keep time). But I'm fairly certain the Bobcats won over Columbus Academy. It was another beautiful summer afternoon - and another game we spent on the bandstand to get out of the sun. Aunt Pam and Uncle Jim came this time to cheer on Jared. Next up - the first real game this Friday in Utica. GO BOBCATS! (I hope Jared starts!)

GO BOBCATS! Scrimmage #1

Today was the first scrimmage for the Bobcats. PJ and I arrived right at 10 AM. The sun was already terribly hot and bright (we'll sorely miss that by the cold wet October Saturdays!) so we followed the example of a few other parents and sat in the bandstand under two large shade trees. Ahhhhh... we were right at the goal post too so it was fun to be right at the scene of all the action.

Confusion

The first hour was terribly confusing. Our guys were wearing yellow practice jerseys for some reason. The other team was in white and yellow. Then randomly, the coaches brought the blue jerseys on the field and the guys changed right there. "Must've finished up in the dryer, " a parent commented. I never saw Jared's #62. For awhile I thought he was wearing #82 but then I heard people yelling "GO SEAN!!!!" and realized #82 - who played very well - was not my son. Apparently my child was wearing a plain bright blue jersey. I'm sure he played extremely well...even if I never quite figured out which player was him!


So much yelling

Having never sat so close before, I never realized how much yelling goes on during a game! Players yelling at other players, coaches yelling at players, coaches yelling at coaches, refs and coaches yelling at each other, refs yelling at players... And then we saw a player PUNCH one of our guys. The mom behind me said "maybe it was a friendly teasing hit?" The dad said no, and I turned around to agree. And the refs did nothing! What the heck sort of sport did I sign my kid up for??


I think we won?

They didn't keep score on the score board and the plays seemed very random but I think we won? Maybe? We definitely scored a couple of touchdowns... The other team was HUGE though... corn fed farm boys (with anger management issues!) And I think they outnumbered our guys 3 to 1... another guy behind me mused that our guys seem to get smaller every year ...

GO BOBCATS

Here's to a great season! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Getting PJ's birth certificate

So I finally quit procrastinating and picked up PJ's birth certificate today so I could enroll him in school. I should've ordered it online and saved the trip but that takes up to 6 weeks to process and I need to get him in school before that!

My plan was to go right when they opened to minimize the wait time. I did manage to get lost downtown during morning rush hour and all the one way streets only added to my fun - but on the second try I found the Vital Statistics office. Luckily there were free parking spaces open (which was fortunate in that I didn't have any change on hand for the meters).

I was the only person wanting a copy of a birth certificate. Silly me, I assumed that with no line there wouldn't be a wait - the posted waiting time was 20 minutes and they managed to take exactly 20 minutes to process my request. The office was quite grim - dirty, stained brown carpeting, fifteen stained red chairs, and one sad clock. No magazines, no water fountain, the only entertainment was listening to the guard chatter on his cellphone about how sick he was (with graphic descriptions!) and how he couldn't afford the $15 copay to see his dr. until payday. You know, for all the talk of how much money the government wastes, apparently none of it is filtered to Vital Statistics! I would've appreciated some 5 year old Readers Digests and some free weak coffee... sigh.

Anyhow, $16.50 later, I was in possession of my son's official birth certificate and now I can enroll him for kindergarten!

Feeling like a tattle tale :-(

Ugh, I had a stressful day at work today and now I'm feeling very guilty. What do you think about this situation? One person in my 5 person department is relatively new (7 months). What we do isn't really hard - it's basically data entry, we work in the admissions department of a large charter school. We do work with the guidance department too, we work to make sure students are placed in the correct grade, that they have their papers all in order, etc. There are lots of exceptions, pages of State rules, etc. that we have to follow to admit a student. For example - certain things usually must be sent with the application as proof of Ohio residency - but there are always exceptions - such as for homeless students or victims of natural disasters (like Katrina). I think the lack of black and white guidelines keeps the job interesting - you can't just sit at your desk and listen to music and type away for 8 straight hours, we are always talking to the families, to the counselors, the previous schools, even probation officers or social workers, etc. (we have a very large at risk population, many of whom have been out of school for awhile and are now getting their lives back on track).

Anyhow, the new hire is struggling. She keeps making the same mistakes repeatedly and it's affecting the rest of us - her new thing is just marking every single application that crosses her desk "pended" and handing it off to another person - (it only takes minutes to pend it, it takes longer to accept one. One of things they look for at our review is how many applications we process per day). This makes more work for the rest of us. Also, some of the mistakes she is making can affect the state funding we receive - we absolutely must make sure certain things are in perfect order in case of a state audit. After talking to her many times (she just smiles but doesn't change) I finally went to our supervisor today. Unhappily, he called in his boss too and made it a closed door meeting - NOT what I anticipated. I approached it as "I'm concerned ... I'm afraid she is unclear... maybe we can send some more reminder emails..." and I volunteered to sit with her, but the two supervisors said no, they knew there was an issue, then they wanted me to address everything she's messing up... my boss even wrote on his notebook "PENDS applications for NO reason" and underlined it. I felt so uncomfortable but they said I did the right thing and they appreciated it. I told Patrick (my husband, he works there too) afterwards and he said "Congrats. You got her fired. Happy now?" Ugh! What do you think? Was I a big tattle tale rat? I feel guilty. :-(