HAPPY FRIDAY

Yesterday was a very nice day.  Not anything truly earth shaking.  Not anything that will stick in my mind forever….but very nice.

It started off with a text message from my dear friend, Judy.  Judy and I have been friends for probably close to 50 years.  During most of that time she has been a volunteer at the Cincinnati Zoo.  So, the text message informed me that on Friday morning, the TV show Good Morning America was going to be doing a live segment from the Cincinnati Zoo.  Of course this was very exciting for her, and of interest to me. 

The one minor glitch from my end is that I am rarely out of bed before 8 AM.  GMA starts at 7 AM.  I decided to at least wake up by 7 AM and I could watch from bed.  It would have been helpful if we knew precisely what time the segment would air, but of course there was no way to know that.

So, Friday morning, I woke up about 6 AM, rolled over and fell back to sleep, hard.  Woke up again at 7:30!!!  I was somewhat concerned that I had missed the segment, but laid in bed just in case I could still catch it. 

OK, I don’t mean to be a bitch….but who watches this show??  In no time I was aggravated because it was 90% advertising and 10% content.  The content is so brief that it barely gets your attention.  But I hung in there. 

Around 8:15 or so, up came the Cincinnati Zoo segment!  It was adorable, for the short time it was on, it featured baby otters.  So, cute.  I would have loved more, but ya gotta love what you get and I did.  A little later they did a 90 second highlight of Ohio, part of their celebration of the US’s 250 anniversary.  They are featuring all 50 states over the course of the next year. 

Anyway, they did a nice job of those 90 seconds and I learned something.  Never knew that Ohio was the birthplace of professional football.  Who knew??!!  Interesting that they mentioned that but didn’t mention that the Cincinnati Redlegs is the first professional baseball team.  Oh well!!

Moving on, the rest of the day was a typical Friday in the life of a retired lady, me!  Right up until 7 PM Friday night.  At 6 PM Pete and I headed south to Bethel, Ohio where our 3 grandsons live.  Our middle grandson, Eli, has been a star football player on his high school football team, the Bethel Tigers.  And last night, as a senior, was his last game of his high school career. 

 

 Eli & Pete

Oh the memories.  I have gone to every game that I could possibly get to for the past 4 years.    I missed the last 2 games due to my fight with my gallstones.  But I did make it last night. 

He is just so much fun to watch, not just because of the game (my least favorite sport of all of them), but because of him!  He is the most generous, caring, fun loving guy ever.  I can read him like a book from the stands.  When his hands are on his hips.  When he slams his helmet on the ground.  When the coach is leaning on him.  When he jumps for joy from a play that ended well.  The whole 9 yards.  I can’t even express how much I’m gonna miss this time.

 

Last night, he was the last guy to leave the field, saying goodbye to one of his great loves.  There is a path forward, just can’t wait to see where it takes him.