Pool lessons

[Zues126]

Hey guys! It's been a while. I haven't had much to post and it's pretty easy for me to retreat within myself.

Everything is going great.

My job, which has been a two year roller coaster, seems to be on an upswing. I was number one in April and am leading so far in May. January-March I had two of my best months, and what I did in the last 5 weeks has already exceeded that for quarter two. I don't know if it's repeatable but that buys me some time to figure all of that out and means I won't be looking for work in 2018 at least.

Family is awesome. Let's see. S13 is about to turn 14. He, like me when I was his age, is a huge Beatles fan. Ringo Starr, the drummer, has a concert in MN in September and I got him tickets for his birthday. I couldn't surprise him because his birthday is 3 weeks out and he was stressing about tickets selling out every day, sometimes the surprise isn't the most important thing. He's thrilled. He's a good kid, he's still been spending time with the rest of the family when we play games together and he's done an impressive job setting some better habits and keeping his grades up. It will be good to go to this show.

D11 is a blast. We went to the Mall of America yesterday for a school field trip, I ended up being a chaperon and riding on a ton of roller coasters and eating ice cream. Good times. We're still reading every night, watching shows (the new National Geographic series about the Earth, "This Strange Rock"). D11 is also starting to play some seriously good pool. I found out that the pool youth league next season is on Sundays, it is a little ways away but since it's on the weekend I think I can get her there. She has the potential to do very well and may find herself getting opportunities to fly and compete nationally. Or she might lose interest. Who knows. But it's fun to play with her. I'd like her to see what it's like to play other kids instead of her dad.

D7 is doing pretty well. She is becoming a read-o-holic which is awesome. I'm reading her choose your own adventures and she loves them. She's gotten a lot bigger. She still thinks she is a little kid sometimes and it's possible her mom might encourage that. There was a time XW liked my kids to be someone dependent and needy to feel needed and loved, but who knows, that was three years ago and I've been impressively distant since then so she may be a different person now. But I've been really impatient that D7 doesn't demand more from herself. She is kind of ditsy, like "I'm just a little girl" which doesn't fly with me. So I'm kind of putting the hammer down a bit, not accepting excuses and demanding what I know she's capable of. My kids may have a complex or hate their dad when they get older but they're not going to be helpless whiny victims that shrug and mumble 'I dunno, that's all I can do'.

What else? Pool? Man, I haven't been playing much. Tournaments haven't been popping up at the right times, and I don't skip my family weekends to compete. It's been two months of mostly practicing. And 80% of my practice is on my break, which is tedious, tedious work. I don't really have any desire to achieve any particular outcome with pool, but I have a vision of what I could do if I had a top notch break on top of my current level of play. I think it would be fun to put that together and then run it a few times in national competition. Just to do it, to enjoy the feeling of putting my true best self forward. The results will be what they will be and don't really matter to me.

Boy, pretty boring really. Oh, I have problems. I have been struggling to try to get into a work out routine and have been intermittent at best. But overall I just feel like everything is about as good as it gets. Something will give at some point and rock my world so I'll enjoy this while it lasts. But I also know that I've gone through the darkest hours of my life and I am prepared to survive more suffering when it next surfaces in my life.

Thanks for the note and be well DB gang!