Pine Wood Derby Day

Yesterday was a big day: pine wood derby, followed by Chuckie Cheese's with his best friend John and a sleepover at our place.

Troop 469 met at Wilson school for the derby. There were 44 cars entered. I've never been to one of these things, so I didn't know what to expect. But I had to laugh at the near-total lack of organization. You can sure tell that the event was put together by men. We hung around waiting for everyone to get there. Then they started a long slow process of checking the boys in, then another long chaotic process of allowing each group of boys to go up and cast their vote for best design, and then a long period of futzing around before the meet actually started.

Then there were 88 races to get through... yup. Do the math. 44 cars, two cars at a time. Each car has to race 4 times. It was a two hour ordeal, and then there were the final elimination rounds for the top 8. I sat next to John Tolbert's mom, Molly, and we both just gritted our teeth and got through it. Molly said "I just keep thinking, 'if the Junior League had organized this...'"

I'm no Junior Leaguer, but I had to agree.

Grayson's car did not win any of its races, but it actually didn't do too badly, coming in at just over 3 seconds for each race. He didn't have too much invested in it, so he didn't cry like some of the boys did. And when he did get a bit of a long face after the third race, Gray went over to encourage him and reminded him I was taking them to Chuckie Cheese, and that made everything okay.

FINALLY after all the races were done, they called out the winners for best design. Third place, second place, first place: Grayson Coldwell! Yes! G's shark design took top honors by popular vote. Grayson was thrilled, and Gray was massively relieved. He had put many hours into making Grayson's vision for the car become a reality: carving the shape down by hand and painstakingly painting it silver and white. It really does look very cool.

Grayson has never won a trophy before. He was beside himself. I was very happy for both boys. Gray said he was glad we could come to events like that and sit side by side and still be friends. It was a tiny bit awkward, but mainly because we're so used to being together we don't know how to not be together, if you know what I mean. Gray was talking to one of the grandparents of another scout when I arrived and introduced me as "Grayson's mom." It was the first time he'd introduced me as something other than his wife, and it was accurate, but odd at the same time.

Gray had a date after the meet (second one this week, same girl), and I loaded up the boys and went by the house to pick up the dogs. I am dogsitting this weekend. Not because I needed to, but just because I miss my girls so much. It was good to have them here again last night, even with the hassle of walkies at 7 this morning. I especially miss having Kobi snuggling me at bedtime. Cats are okay, but I miss my dogs.

We dropped the dogs off at the apartment and then took the boys to Chuck E Cheese. Thank god that place still serves beer. I brought a book and just parked in a booth with a beer while the boys ran around. Went through $60 in two hours, but it was a special payday treat and celebration of Grayson's big first-place win.

Today is Linda's Superbowl Sunday Big Cooking Extravaganza. I'm making a ginormous pot of Simon Juan and Garfunkle chicken soup (parsley sage rosemary jalapeno and thyme); and another pot of vegetarian chili. Biff is coming by this evening for Superbowl dinner.

It's interesting to have Gray dating now, too. I have no one clear feeling about it. It's funny, the main thing I sense, in the jumbled soup of feelings, is some sort of jealousy that he is able to spend so much time with her. I get only every other weekend with Biff, and have to compete with his cycling training schedule on those weekends, as well, plus the inconvenience factor of Biff living in Edmond. Gray, being responsible for Grayson only on alternate weekends, can pop out for drinks after work almost any day of the week. Funny that that's what bugs me, not that he's seeing someone else. I guess our relationship really had been dead for a long time before the end. We were just living together. It's enough to make you doubt the permanence of love.

Biff made a funny last weekend. I was laughing about some joke I'd heard about how blase married men are, and said something like "one more reason not to get married." Biff said "you divorced women, always so anti-marriage. According to you, we shouldn't have a president now."

Huh?

"If you had a bad one, you never need another one."

I had to laugh. Yeah. He had me there. Touche.