Things I like: High School Football.

Disclaimer: This game was played at SMU's stadium, not at a high school stadium


I am probably the least athletic and most uncoordinated person I know. But I have always loved watching sports. I was a huge Atlanta Braves fan growing up, and my dad took us to lots of baseball games (the Braves were terrible in the 70's so tickets were easy to come by!). I loved keeping score and studying the player and team statistics. I still enjoy reading the sports section of the paper, and I could make a full time job of perusing local high school hockey stats, which are available in staggering detail on the Internet these days.

I especially love high school football. Unfortunately, Vivian abhors noisy crowds, which are an inherent part of the high school football experience, so most Friday nights in the fall find Robert, Vivian and me in my car driving around and around our high school stadium with our windows down and our radio tuned to the game broadcast.

Last night was the season opener for Hockey Boy's high school's team, and I decided I would really like to attend in person. It took Robert and me an hour, but we were able to coax Vivian into the car so we could attend the game together. My friend Karey had suggested bringing noise-reducing headphones for Vivian, and they, along with a Dora video on Robert's iPhone, worked like a charm. We pushed Vivian in in her stroller, and she only mildly protested as we entered the stadium but was easily distracted by some Skittles and her movie. She even put the headphones and video aside at halftime to watch the band and the drill team!



Our weather has been unseasonably lovely for the end of August in Texas. The pleasant temperatures combined with the start of school and the advent of high school football make it easy to believe that fall is imminent.


This darling group of girls came running over, shouting, "Hi, Vivian!" Several of them had been Vivian's peer tutors at school last year (please ignore the monkey nightgown that Vivian is wearing over her clothes; it was part of the concession we made to get her out from under her bed before we left for the game)


Dots attended the game with a friend. She is way too cool to sit with her parents these days, but at least she stopped to speak to us. Hockey Boy, on the other hand, has some sort of radar that warns him that his camera-toting mother is near, and he was thus nowhere to be seen