Magnetic Fields Weekend / Day the First / Part One

It wasn't just the Magnetic Fields shows that made today ok. Vacation is here, and although I have a week of getting up @ 7.30am when my sister goes out of her way to wake me by blasting music , @ least i can try to go back to sleep. Remember my sleep problems? She's such a jerk. And, for the first time, I'm going to be petty. She has her spring break the next week. It's been years of her going on like this, but i'm going to be petty*.

I know I've been avoiding writing on my soccer team (don't write about work!!!), but I had practice w/ just the JV girls by ourselves this Friday for the first time, and it went well. Also named one of the captains. Again, I feel blessed for many reasons in life, and being a coach is one of them. Lotta time and energy commitment, but I feel it is one of those things I have to do. Obv. I had years and years of seasons and seasons of coaching my nieces and nephews- sometimes two teams @ once - and i was doing my part as an uncle - but the kids in my school are also gods children, and it's also a special delight in taking part in nurturing them. It really was a rush gathering my team around me, having the captain lead stretching, and barking and yelling @ them during practice. I am not a great coach - when I compare myself to the staff @ the last school I was @ - my god, I'm worthless in many ways (really - me trying to teach an 18 superstar kid from Mexico anything about soccer is laughable)- but I fit in where I can. This team - a J-V team where many -wait , ALL- of the kids are just learning the game -I can do wonders. I used never think of the future except for my soccer teams. now of course, I think about finishing Ithica all the time.....a s well as who am I gonna put @ stopper ??

Last bit. I have coached maybe 25 different teams that my nieces and nephews have been on so far. Almost certainly, the time where I coached my kids has passed. Some of the kids have grown up and are in university and H.S. - and the other two live way out in the suburbs and probably have paid coaches in-their-posh-area. Niece.4 is still in grammer school, but since I presently have a team (and she is being coached by one of the worst coaches I have ever been around ((no, I won't tell her that))- what a disaster when this guy was foisted upon me one season ) , I'll only cheer her on. Three of them play in non competitive leagues in the summer, but I no longer want to coach there (A.Y.S.O.). An AYSO coach has to play all the kids equally, and since I'm a developer of talent these days - what, I'm not a teacher and I don't fully feel and understand my abilities in teaching and development of children?- I really don't want to play 'happy coach' and let them run around. Let someone who actually had kids play the role of happy coach - and let me use my energy reserves in the role of 'technical director'** where I can develop the kids over time.

Wait wait - my point this last paragraph was not that dirgession - it was this digression: I have coached both Sister.1 and Sister.2 's for those 25 different teams over the last 15 years, and there is a dramatic difference in their appreciation of me as their coach. Although I get along better w/ Sister.2, their kids- they Love me deeply, y'all - were a little..... Wait, maybe I should have started w/ Sister.1's kids. They have always deeply prized me as a coach, and they loved when Uncle Freak was also a freak as a coach. They were always more into soccer - Neice.1 was captain of her HS team and a starter since she was a freshman***, and Nephew.2 and Neice.3 also played/play for their hs soccer team. One AYSO summer when I still had energy to be 'happy coach' instead of Coach Ditka Coach I felt I had to spread my time around and chose to coach Neice.4's team (Sister.2) instead of Neice.3's (Sister.1) team, even though she'd been asking and begging me to coach her team from the time the season ended the year before. Truth be told, it was a bad decision on my part, and I know that now. Neice.4 didn't really appreciate Coach Freak, whearas Neice.3 missed my presence. I felt I needed to be fair to all the kids, but sometimes one must make a desision. I'll never make that mistake again/no.

Another item that has become appearent in the last 2-3 weeks. I have a real living breathing Idol in this life. Someone I really look up to, and I totally realize I'm trying to model myself after him. I'll tell you all later, but it's funny. As he has taught the kids, he has also taught me and others. The Peace of Christ is really in him- and of course, I bet he's really not a Christian. But first I must tackle The Magnetic Fields.
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*=sorry, I was in a dead sleep this morning- for the first time I was actually going to get proper rest. And now I'm awake.
**= translated from the Spanish
***=she was the one whose newspaper clippings I always emailed about - more to be annoying to my frenz, but also the pride in my blood thing.