2006 World Champions St. Louis Cardinals
Mood:  celebratory

Last night, the Cardinals won the World Series. We've waited a long time for this. What made it even sweeter was no one thought this team of limping veterans, bruised and battered players with some missing with injuries could do it.

There were placards all over Busch Stadium that only other Cardinal fans could understand: "Go crazy, folks, co crazy." "That's a winner." Things that Jack Buck used to say. I hope he's smiling down from Heaven and Darrel Kile is with him.

"Captain, oh Captain,our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, people are exulting."

Gregory entered the Navy today. I never dreamed this is what he would want to do.

I did think it was outrageous that that Navy demanded a marriage license from us and asked me to fill out a form explaining why I had a different last name than Gregory's father.

The Cardinals beat the Mets 9-6!!!!!!!

Will It Ever End?
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: Registering for Days
Topic: Foreign exchange

Failed again to register from China. The school district waived the language test, but the shots could not be gotten. I went to the state health department and they told me it would be an hour and a half wait.

"We're short-staffed. Everybody's quitting!"

The Texas Med Clinic told me they weren't entirely sure that I wasn't  a child stealer.

Maybe tomorrow this poor girl will be able to go to school. 

The Registration From Hell
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Emilia's First Day
Topic: Foreign exchange

Emilia and I just went through the registration from hell. It began Monday at 8:30 a.m. and ended Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. It was partly because she didn't have all the shots NISD required. Apparently, there's a shortage of small pox vaccinations in SA, so we had an adventure finding a med center that gave it. That more or less took care of Monday. Tuesday, we waited in the library all day long for her schedule. She wanted to read, but one of the women told her she couldn't read any of the books on the shelves.

It really wasn't so terrible, though. This and the way she arrived (she came on the day of the terrorist threat in London) are stories she can tell later.

Something that surprised me about her was how pretty she is. Everyone tells us that. The MA at the med clinic told her that yesterday. Jim is actually proud of her. He put a picture of her and Gregory up on his camera at work and he says people stop to look at it and tell him how pretty she is.

Emilia passed English
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Emilia Speaks English
Topic: Foreign exchange

Both Emilia and Gregory woke up early for them - 10 a.m., so that I could take Emilia to the language department to take a test and Gregory to get T shirts at the mall.

When I returned for Emilia, Mr. Nicholson told me that Emilia placed into regular classes with some ESL help. I took her to Clark, but they said she could nor register until Monday. Gregory and I were able to show her around and introduce her to the prncipal, the senior class president, the German and Latin teachers and others.

She seemed unimpressed by our immense popularity.

Married with Children
Mood:  surprised
Now Playing: A Thong or Two
Topic: marriage

A couple of a certain age, who had been married for 23 years,was driving down the highway to look at a PT Cruiser in a used car lot. It was her favorite vehicle. He couldn't quite understand why, but, well, whatever made her happy made him happy. She brushed her fingers across his cheek, rough with stubble. He took her hand.

While passing the new mall still under construction, he said, "There's going to be a JC Penney store. Do you see it?"

She looked past the already built BestBuy, past the shell of the new Target and saw the sign.

"I'm so glad it's a JC Penney! I buy my underwear there."

"Is that where you bought your thongs?" he asked. "I haven't seen you wear them in a while."

"I wear them on special occasions," she said. "I don't find them comfortable for every day. Do you know you passed the exit for the car lot? Now we're going way out of our way," she said, dismayed, thinking about the time and the fact they needed to pick up their daughter, home from college, by 5 p.m. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking about your things," he said.

 

 

Dancing Fool
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Singin' in the Rain and other tap dancing hits
Topic: Gregory's at it again
I was up at CHS today to do a couple of inerviews for the newspaper when Gregory's German teacher saw me. She was really ecited.
"I didn't know Gregory took tap dancing lessons when he was younger!" she said.
My mouth dropped open. I didn't, either.
He told us when he got home that he'd apparently told a cute girl that he too tap dance lessons. He claims that he actually did at one point when he was staying with his grandmother in Iowa.
The things you'll say to impress a cute member of the opposite se.
The Cards won their first game of the season yesterday.

Meet Me in St. Louis
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Going Home
Topic: Home
Something amazing happened today. Lori e-mailed me and said the Missouri History Museum had internships, but they don't pay. Then, I had one of my wild ideas: I could get a nursing job and/or reporting job in St. Louis for the two and one-half months of her internship and we could sublet a condo in Brentwood Forest. Jim isn't opposed to the idea, which was also surprising. I was looking at jobs and apartments on the internet and I think it's entirely doable.
On the Post-Dispatch website, there was an obit for Maureen Stapleton. Jim and I saw her on a train when we went to L.A. years ago. We also saw her in Reds.

A Child Is Waiting
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Can It Really Be?
Topic: adoption
I think this time, there might really be an adoption. After four years of disappointment and loss of hope, I heard from an adoption agency, who will even accept an idependent social worker on my end.
The social worker here in Texas and I are working on revising the homestudy now.
Could it really happen this time?

Dead Man's Curve
Mood:  blue
Now Playing: The Death of a Good Car
Topic: Teenage Drivers
I went to Waco to pick Lori up at Baylor on Friday. We got back to San Antonio around 7:30 p.m. I hadn't been back very long when we received the telephone call I'd been dreading, but knew was inevitable.
Gregory crashed the Contour. He says he was going around the curve on a neighborhood street at 30 mph, but the tow truck driver, who would be an expert witness, said it was more like 50 or 55 mph. I'm really frustrated because I've talked to him about driving in the neighborhood.
I know you really can't humanize a car, but that was a real sweet one, who never did anyone any harm and for its life to end that way was cruel.
The neighbors who came out to help were really nice and the people, who own the mailbox were also as nice as they could be about it.