I suppose waking up early this morning, after having only 3 hours of sleep would be enough to make any man crazy. For This Man, I had to be up, literally, at the crack of dawn because it was the first day of regional playoffs for my son's soccer team. So shortly before 6:30, we set out for San Marcos, CA up in the north part of San Diego county. It was frigid out, and the fact that L hadn't had breakfast and This Man hadn't had my morning cigarette, it was best and recommended that we ride in complete silence during the 30 minute drive. As for D, he was in the back seat, engrossed in yet another one of his Gameboy video games. My son's team was scheduled to play two games that morning, however the most important one would be the first seeing as it would determine whether there would be a second game. The team currently held a 15-0 record and I have to admit, it was easy to get caught up in their cockiness. However, the team that they were to play today was equally skilled and just as aggressive. Even the parents, on the sidelines were nervous. The two teams went head to head and it wasn't until just before half time before the first goal was scored. 1-0. Ultimately the team from Tierrasanta, CA managed to score, locking up the game. It wasn't until they scored another goal early into the 4th quarter that This Man was able to observe, not only my son, but his teammates' spirit starting to diminish. Finally, with a score of 2-1, the undefeated team from Kearny Mesa had succombed to being beat for the first time this season.
They were devasted.
This Man had never seen so many 9 year old boys display raw emotion. While us parents were proud of them, they were disappointed in themselves. There was nothing that any of us could say that could stop the flow of tears. It was at that moment that L and This Man realized that it wasn't about the fact that we'd gotten up at 6 this morning to bring D to play. It wasn't about the fact that it was just below 50 degrees outside. And it wasn't about the fact that they wouldn't be advancing on in the playoffs. At that moment, those boys cried, screamed and stormed off because they'd failed themselves.
On the drive back down to San Diego, This Man and L just kinda let the silence linger because the last thing, I'm sure the last thing, D wanted to hear at that moment was how it was clear that he'd given 110% and yet they'd lost.
In other news, we finally got the Christ mas tree put up. After some serious deliberations on whether to put it in the living room or the den, it finally went up in the den. The house is looking festive (in a tasteful way--but certainly not over the top). The more I look at the tree whenever This Man is at the workstation, it kinda reminds me of Little House on the Prairie, seeing as it's about 2 steps from the kitchen. Nevertheless, I guess now I should work on getting in the holiday spirit.

Mahalo.