Great Saturday. Emma is in her first soccer league and we all came to the park to support her. Michel picked me up at 8:30 this morning , screeching around the corner as he was late, to drive me to the event. It was 39 degrees when the day started and there was frost on the "golf". It warmed up pretty quickly. Denise and John were just arriving as we were. They too, got lost. Suzi came a few minutes later. Nikki and Jack were already in the moment. Emma's posse was in place. She was out on the field when we arrived warming up with daddy. When she looked up and saw all of her people on the sidelines, her face burst into that Emma smile. At the first 2 minute juice break she ran over to greet everyone, hugging me tight, tentatively kissing Mike as she has not seen him in awhile. But she's not shy. She loves people. We had a delightful time. The hour flew by. All of the crazy parents and grandparents had a paparazzi line of cameras, me included. These are the moments in life that stay forever. I had recollection of when Michel was so small and we watched his soccer games. He was in love with the coach's daughter in his first league. I think he was 7 or 8 when he started playing. Coach Yogi was their leader. He was bald and boisterous and made Saturday's something to look forward to. I can hardly fathom so much time gone by as we are now rooting on the next generation.
When we left the field, Michel was starving as he had not had breakfast. We drove through Surprise looking for a breakfast place, but the usual chain restaurants were all that was available. On the west side of Sun City there was a lone spot in the road with an obscure hotel in the middle of nowhere. I told Mike to slow down because if there was a hotel, there would be food. Sure enough, I spotted a sign on the front of a derelict building called The Desert Palms Diner. This was our breakfast spot. We entered what was nothing short of a highway greasy spoon type diner. Perfect! We were escorted to a mahogany booth and handed laminated menus. Our waitress. Flo, complete with glasses and red curly hairy bid us a good morning. We ordered $6 breakfast plates that would have fed a family. Huge portions of home cooked food arrived. We ate every bite, talked while schmering jelly from little disposable cups onto our toast. We had a lot to say. I see Michel every day at work but rarely get the one on one time with him anymore. We discussed issues, school, grades and credits. And then he opened up about his uncertainty of the future after graduation. I assured him that very few people know what they want to do with the rest of their lives after high school and gave him my support no matter his choice. He visibly relaxed and then we discussed possibilities. His and mine. We are both at the beginning of our next phase of life. It was comfortable camaraderie.
No comments:
Post a Comment