Saturday in the Suburbs...

Today was opening day for my girls' soccer season. The mini-maniacs are back together for the third, fourth season, something like that. This year, the under-10 division was collapsed into the under-9's which means that Anna is now playing up 2 years and she may get creamed. Thank god she has tenacity. The team had a great game today winning 2 - 0 easily. Coach started practices a bit earlier this season so the group was looking pretty cohesive. He's added a Monday evening goalie clinic which I'm not too happy about but its paid off---Haley and Anna saw both saw their first assignments in goal today and both held off attempts pretty well. Haley actually came quite close to scoring her first game goal...its just a matter of time. Rob was fit to be tied, having to meet with executive people at work all day. He made me text him at each "quarter" break.

Okay, we live in a very priveleged place and I'm not knocking it. My kids play soccer at an amazing facility--the Maryland SoccerPlex currently boasts 24-regulation sized soccer fields, two indoor and an additional field in a 3200-seat stadium for exhibitions, tournaments and occassional high-profile events such as DC United matches, Olympic trials, etc. I'm agog at it. It represents a joint-effort between the County, the National Parks and Planning Commission and Discovery Sports. The fields are meticulously maintained and weekends there simply buzz with the buzz of soccer players of all ages. I doubt my kids know how unusual these kinds of facilities are. I'm always struck when I'm there---at the abundance of resources it took to put ith there, to maintain it and what I perceive as a rather blase' attitude about it. Every where you look, there are Mommys and Daddys in their high-end sedans, mini-vans, SUVs, all feeling very entitled and focussed on getting their little Susie to the field on time, never mind how their efforts to do so as quickly as possible might impact the other folks around them. Its entitlement. It drives me crazy. I can't believe they don't get it: You're not the only here. You're not the only one who should benefit from these resources. You're not the only ones who have earned it. Everybody here, they're all just like you: two parents at home, both with Master's degrees and high-salary jobs. Cool it. And move that damn Lexus SUV all the way over to the curb when you're letting the kids out---the rest of us are actually going to park our cars and we need to get by you. Drives me crazy.

Time flies...
Haley and I went to the music shoppe today to rent a clarinet...let the reedy sqwaking begin...

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