Showing posts with label Soccer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soccer. Show all posts

11.13.2023

Am I Wearing Pants? And Other Random Stories

Who remembers this meme? 


Leg Pants. 

I think the meme above was from when it was once again becoming more common to wear leggings out in public for no reason (see --> "are they yoga pants? are you doing yoga?") and it was not always appreciated! These days it is more accepted, but there is still the "leg pants" phenomena, where I wonder if a woman (or man I guess) knows that her pants are the exact same color as her legs. Sometimes I nearly have a heart attack as I pass or come up behind her, thinking she is walking around naked. People, perhaps get a shade a few shades darker or lighter than you? Or maybe you like seeing how many people you can get to do a double take. 

As a kind of related side note, the other morning I was getting off the train and a lady was getting on the opposite train and I saw that she was wearing leg pants that really hugged her butt tightly and were the perfect color for her complexion. She had a nice fur coat on top and had her hair done up really fancy. Then I realized at the last minute that she was NOT wearing pants, or underwear and that was actually her butt I had been seeing. Good morning to you too!

Mean Dad. 

Two weekends ago I went to A's soccer game. If you come to spectate, you must sit on the same side of the centerline that your kids are sitting on on the opposite side. We arrived a few seconds after the game had already started and so the only place to sit was basically just left of the centerline (by mere inches) meaning that we were sitting right next to the spectators from the other team. There was a girl on the opposite team who was playing on our side of the field and her Dad was sitting a couple of chairs down from us. He kept yelling at her, berating her, telling her all of the things that she wasn't doing etc. (these girls are around 13 by the way). The ironic thing was that he was pretty supportive of the other players, but very critical of his own daughter, who I thought was doing quite well. 

As Broski and I were sitting there, we chatted about this cool camera that was sitting right on the centerline, filming the game. We even Googled it to find out how much it cost and surmised that one of the parents must really be into sports. My friend K (A's Mom) arrived around halftime and after she arrived, the mean Dad walked away and went to sit further down the field. I was telling her how this Dad was being so mean to his daughter and she was really doing well and K told me that the last time they played this team, the parents got into a huge fight because the parents of the other team were all being rude, mean and unsportsmanlike (i.e. telling their daughters to "take them out!" and encouraging them to hurt the other girls and things like that). Anyway, the game ended, our team won in the last three minutes (boo yeah!) and as we were packing up to go, we noticed mean Dad packing up the camera. We kind of shook our heads at ourselves, imagining him sitting at home with his poor daughter, making her relive everything she had done wrong in the game. 

Later that week I was having dinner with K and the kids and she told me that she had received a video from a parent using that same camera for L's last game and as she had watched it, she had remembered how good the audio is on these cameras. They sit up off the field about 15 or 20 feet, but she could hear the parents chatting underneath the camera. I asked her what they do with these videos and she said that often the team will review them all together and they will talk about what needs to be improved. So basically, the team that A's team played is going to do the same thing. And if they do, they are going to get an earful about how I felt about mean Dad!! Oops. However, nothing I said was not true, AND they are also going to be able to hear him berating her, so perhaps he will take note. People, we are being watched and listened to no matter where we are! I guess the moral of the story is don't say anything that you wouldn't want a bunch of thirteen year old girls (and their mean Dads) hearing! 

Expiration dates. 

Last week Nicole touched on suggested expirations and I just want to say that I pretty much ignore most expiration dates. This may make me gross in some people's minds, but I am fairly sure that most of them are just a ploy to get you to buy more of their product. Now, I know that if they are old they can be less effective or not as tasty in the case of food, but I don't think I am going to die if I use a 2 year old mascara or eat an expired can of corn. I take them as a suggestion and if it is food, I definitely give it a good sniff before eating it. But I am going to use up that two year old bottle of Jergens and that Costco coconut oil even if it kills me. 

Having said that, in the past year, I have bought new tires for both my car and Bertha (the road bike) and they are fabulous! I have been using the same tires on Bertha for about 10 years and I was starting to have trouble stopping due to the lack of tread. I even splurged for the fancy brand, and man are they nice. Same thing goes with the car; I have replaced a tire here and there but finally decided to get four new ones at the same time and I feel like a new woman. I also do replace the little things that I can fix myself, like my car cabin air filter (did you know you were supposed to do that? I just learned about it a few years ago), wipers and the engine air filter regularly. 

Old girl, new tires

Fall. 

It is perpetual leaf raking season again. I think I have mentioned before that my seasons are based on the status of the maple tree in my front yard. September: clean the leaves out of the gutter season. October to December: leaf raking season. January to March: ankle breaking ball pick up season, also coincides with rainy season. April to June: spring break. July to August: removing branches from electrical wire season. I pretty much fill up the compost bin and/or the green trash bin with leaves each week and I still can't really keep up with all of the leaves on the ground. Usually at some point in December there is a huge wind and rain and it knocks many of the remaining leaves off the tree, but I would prefer that just happen early so I can rake them all and be done with it. It is supposed to rain this week so maybe this will be the week it happens? I doubt it, as the tree still has about 87% of its leaves left right now but one can hope. 

Gutter cleaning season

How was your weekend? Do parents use fancy cameras to film stuff at your kid's sports events? Do you follow the suggested expiration dates on your products and/or foods? 

4.02.2008

River Plate Game!

This was absolutely crazy! We went to the River vs Arsenal game on Sunday and a huge fight broke out in the stands! Luckily it was not near where we were sitting, but it was quite a sight!

3.23.2008

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Haha, just when you think you are organized....

We had a very interesting Sunday last weekend. First, let me explain a little something. I want to go to a futbol (soccer) game. So, I asked about the schedule while we were at the Sheraton and the concierge told me that River and Boca both played on Sunday, River at 5, Boca at 7. In Buenos Aires. Both stadiums are easy to get to, and he had said that to get tickets we needed to go to the stadium. On Sunday, we were at Mar del Plata, which is about 5 hours from the city, so we planned on leaving early to give us enough time to settle in and then get to the stadium. On Saturday, we bought 7 am tickets for the next day.

On Sunday, we missed our alarm and woke up at 730. I was so pissed off, as I knew that if you missed your bus, you had to re-pay for your ticket. There was no such thing as a refund. So, we hustled to the bus station, becuase we still wanted to get an early bus. We arrived at the station at about 2 mintues until 8. The counter we had bought our ticket from was not open, but one of their partner companies had an open counter. We went and asked the guy what we could do and he said he thought we could get onto a later bus but we would have to enquire at the counter we had bought the tickets at. I asked what time it opened and he said 8. I looked down at my watch; it was 8:02. The counter was still not open. We sat down at a coffeeshop for a quick breakfast, while still continuing to check on the counter, which was still not opening.

Finally at 9, the counter opened. By now I was cursing the Argentines and thinking how the hell could they be an HOUR late in getting open!! We went to the counter and the man said he could get us on the 9 o'clock bus. I looked at my watch; it was 9:15. I said, ahora? (now?) and he said, no, in 45 minutes. I showed him my watch, ÿou mean at 10?" I asked. "No," he said, "in 45 minutes! We set our clocks back last night". Oh MY god! I was suprised. They had JUST set their clocks FORWARD about 2 and a half months ago! So I guess they observe "summer forward" AND "summer back"!

So, we bought another ticket and made it back to Buenos Aires. Next stop, the Boca Jr Stadium to hopefully catch that futbol game. We caught the bus to the stadium about 2 hours before the game and there was nobody there!! I went to ask a guard what time the game started and he said that there was no game today, that is was NEXT Sunday! So, we went to the local bar, which was empty, and sat down to have a beer and figure out what we were going to do. The owner of the bar, Luis, sat down with us and we ended up hanging out with him for the next three hours, just shooting the breeze and learning about Boca and slabs of meat and swords and all kinds of things! He was great! We promised to come back when we got back into town to sample his Sunday Asado (barbeque); he even said he would cook some fish for me!

So, we messed up twice in one day but got to meet Luis, which made it all worth it!