Emily visits........it's so nice

We got to spend almost four days with her.  Just her.  We had nice long talks, spent time together eating, walking, swimming, and just allowing her to relax.   She took some 6-mile runs, which are difficult to squeeze in when she is at home.

 

Emily really wanted a large Ice Tea from Starbucks to sip on over the course of her visit.  Sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree. 

  

And we got pies from Village Inn, a tradition in Leisure World since my parents starting living here 34 years ago.  We got two French Silk chocolate ones.  VERY degenerate....and delicious.

Like every parent, we miss this kind of time that we had for many years when they were children.  And we think back to those times and wonder, paraphrasing the phrase from the play Our Town:  " Did I stop and look?"

I know I did.  And Vicky knows she did.  Or this kind of time with children when they are adults would be torture. We would look back with enormous regret at what I passed up with Jules and Emily or what she passed up with Rachelle, Candice, Alison, and Owen.

One of the things we did during her visit was watch the film A League of their Own, about the female baseball league that was formed during WWII when Major League Baseball was shut down.  

Besides being just a plain old good film, it has a special meaning.

For a few years during her early adolescence I was her basketball "coach."  

 

Basically I knew nothing about coaching.  I was one of those "roll out the ball" coaches.  Mostly her teams played at the YMCA in a boys' league.  They were the only girls team.  They also played in a few summer tournaments, so I would take the girls different places in the state to play. 

I loved it. 

One time, playing in Springfield, we had a morning game and then a late afternoon game.  Between games I took them all to see this film--some 30 years ago.  So it has a special meaning in my heart.

We also watched a few episodes of My so-called Life.  We watched this together during her late adolescence, and it was fun to see it after all of these years.  We didn't get through the series--deciding we would watching it a little at a time over the next few years.

...and, then, just like her childhood, her visit was over.  We will see her again soon and will see Jules, Ian and Adam soon.

I read this somewhere:

"Raising children is like being moved around in a theater. When children are very young, you are the director of the play of their life. Later you have front-row seats for what is happening with them. Then maybe fourth-row seats. They get older, and you, the parents, get to watch from the front of the mezzanine. But you keep getting moved farther back. 

Eventually you’re so far, you’re in the seats they used to call paradise."