Daily doubles and 3 hours of purgatory...

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...

No, it's not Jeopardy or Dante's Inferno, it's the dreaded high school late summer sports practice schedule.

For those of you who don't know about it, let me fill you in...lets start with that titan clashing game of football that males seem to know and love (luckily, my male only watches if he has to). For some strange reason, high schools have decided that they need to practice TWICE in the same day, hence the dreaded daily doubles.

Now, as a mom, I wouldn't have a problem with this, hmmm, excercise...nice...but as the mom of a NINTH grader who doesn't drive yet, who lives over a mile from the local school...you get the picture. I was ready for my day to be a bit busier with ferrying kids back and forth, then came the revelation! This was to happen at FIVE A.M. and FIVE Thirty in the evening.

You caught that, right? FIVE A.M. So, of course, the boy has to get up 45 minutes to an hour before that. (He originally wanted to take a SHOWER before this practice...NOPE, mom's not getting up THAT early!)

So, since I know the boy won't wake himself up, I graciously (or not so graciously) wake my @ss out of bed to get him up and roll back in for about half an hour...then spring up again (yes, sarcasm) to drive him to the school. No, people who see me don't get smiles at this time in the morning. I'm the proud possessor of a T-shirt (somewhere) that reads, "I can't even talk at this time in the morning, and you want me to think?" That about describes it. So I nag him to get finished up and ready to go and I drive his rear down to the school and by the time I'm home I'm wide awake for the rest of the day.

Now, for most people this wouldn't be too bad, but for me, who is eating pain pills lately like candy so that I can just move, being awake is NOT a good thing. Unconsciousness, even with weird nightmares of people beating my body is better than vertical. Especially vertical, behind a steering wheel. No matter how short the drive.

Then we have the evening part of the 'daily doubles.' Yay, I get to do it all over again, after he's napped and showered and rubbed Aspercream all over his owies. LOL I shouldn't laugh at owies, but he was so righteous all summer about how he was going to stay in shape. Now he's eating a bit of his words...and they don't taste good. He comes by this skill honestly. (Eating words.)

If I had to do the practices, I'd be dead of a heart attack in about 10 minutes. :) But he's young and fit and strong, so it's a bit amusing.

Then we're on to purgatory and high school girl's volleyball. Think their 3 hour practice is easy? Hah, you haven't met their coach! She works those girls, HARD! And since my dd isn't the fastest, or the most athletic, she runs harder and longer and does more drills than the girls who win their friendly little competitions. Eeek! She also had great plans for staying in shape this summer...she too spent most of the summer in front of the computer instead.

Maybe I should be more like my mom and kick the kids out of the house in the morning to "play." The problem with that is living in a tourist town and being paranoid enough to want to know where your kids are at all times.

but this sleep deprived goddess still has some time before I need to pick up the kids (at wildly different times, of course.)

so may you all be spared the insanity of daily doubles and volleyball hell, from a puzzled goddess