scheduling priorities: basketball, mammograms, birthday

My mistake.  I know I just informed you in my last post that we are surviving with no schedule over break.  I was wrong.  Our entire break up until now has been dictated by basketball.  

Christmas tournament grid -
slightly complicated!

High school Christmas tournaments.  Tank was involved in one for freshman.  Ed participated in one for varsity.  These events are apparently dreamt up by coaches whose sole purpose in life is to mess with mothers.  I am familiar with this group of adults and how they operate.  They value predetermined schedules so much that they alert players what time they've CHANGED practice times to during the school day via text.  

Nothing screams  'who-gives-a-shit-about-mothers-and-planning' like a coach who adjusts practices at the last minute.  Constantly.  Christmas tournies are part of their master 'undo-the-mothers' plan.  The basketball game time for tomorrow's game is determined AFTER today's game is either won or lost.  

Don't get me wrong.  I love basketball.  There's no denying that.  Coach and I come from tall stock.  Our clan tends to tower over their peers.  Changes to practice times and contemplating the many 'what if' scenarios of a Christmas tournament is Hell for a family juggling one less car than drivers.  

Every morning we wake up and try to figure out who is driving where, who will utilize which car (we try to avoid the boys driving the great white, former airport shuttle), and who will be stranded with no vehicle the longest.  These decisions should be determined the night before we go to bed, but that would fall under the 'way-organized-family' category.  So not us.

Once there is a plan in place- which often includes someone getting driven to Coach's nearby PT clinic and 'stealing' his car that would otherwise just sit in the lot all day - the next step is to rifle thru Lad's coat pockets for the teenager car key.  He's NEVER awake when we do our car-shuffle-two-step, and he would NEVER put a key somewhere obvious.  

I was so smart.  I scheduled a million doctor appointments this week -some for the kids and some for me.  No school plus a met deductible equals time to squeeze in year-end doctor visits.  It seemed so simple.  So organized.  The dermatologist, the orthodontist, the pediatric neurologist, the OBGYN and a mammogram.  Before and after these appointments I have been hustling to two different away tournaments in two different directions.  Living on the edge is fun. 

When Ed's team lost on Thursday, I was at the dermatologist with Tank.  Coach was texting me updates.  Eddie hasn't played significantly all season.  That's been a real bummer.  He was told last year that he would start this year, but then he broke his wrist.  I hate that he seems to be penalized for the injury that happened on the b-ball court.  Not like he was out skateboarding. 

Because they lost, their game on Thursday landed right in the middle of my 4:00 mammogram.  I happened to call early Thursday morning and found that the imaging center had had a cancellation, so I moved my mammogram to an earlier time slot.  All the stars aligned - I got my boobs squeezed AND I got to go to his game AND my kid played.  He played well.  He scored 9 points, and looked great out there.  He'd been told so many times that he was going to play, and then nothing.  I was super excited that he finally got his chance.  

My birthday is today.  I wondered all week how Ed's game schedule would impact my birthday celebration.  Let's all have a good chuckle about the fact that I just wrote 'birthday celebration' as if that is a thing.  For a mother.  I'm thinking dinner out might happen, unless . . . basketball.