Nooooo!!!!

Under 'talk to Daddy' mid page
(is it weird that I don't use
 Coach's name in my
 notebook of things to-do?),
the second thing I crossed out was:
 'Boston/Wed? Th? or Fri?'
I felt so happy when I crossed it out.

I booked flights to take Tank and Mini to Boston to watch Laddie play water polo the end of October.  I obsessed over who to take, which games to go see, what flights to book, frequent flyer vs. not frequent flyer . . . for a few weeks.  Every day it would land back on my to-do list.

I preferred to do a 'girls' weekend'.  Tank had a Southwest ticket that he had to use, because he ended up meeting up with a friend in Florida over spring break.  When Coach headed home, Tank hooked up with his friend and we had to book him a different flight so he could fly home with his buddy's family.  Tank leads the life, people.

Tank was looking forward to seeing this friend in Boston that he met on a mission trip over the summer.  I was not sure how much 'friend-time' I could count on.  What if I brought one of my friends along to Boston and Tank ended up hanging out with us the majority of the time?  I didn't know the kid in Boston well enough to email his mom and say, 'So, were you planning on having Tank hang out with you the entire weekend or just like 2 hours?'

Eventually I opted to surprise Mini and bring her to Boston.  Mini was super excited.  If Tank hung with his friend, then she and I could shop or sight-see between water polo games.  We wouldn't bat an eye if Tank ended up spending more time with us than with his Boston friend, because we are accustomed to his antics at our home base already.

36 hours after I booked the flight, I got a text from Lad.  It read simply, 'Cancel your trip.  Messed up my shoulder.  Out for season.'

Nooooo!!!!  I wanted to cry, but instead I sat down- doubled over for a bit.  I felt horrible for Lad who worked so hard over the summer to go back to school in tip top shape.  I also dreaded telling Tank and Mini that our trip was cancelled.

Lad wouldn't even travel with the team since he was injured, so it wasn't like it made sense to go to Boston and sit with him in the stands during the game, etc.

Coach has never seen Lad play in college.  He teaches on the weekends sometimes, so he had plans to fly to New York on Wednesday (just 4 days after the bad news text arrived), watch a game, spend some time with Lad, and then fly to DC to teach for the weekend.

What's better than having your dad come to watch you play?  Having your dad come and evaluate your messed up shoulder.  Sigh.

Coach flew out there and checked out the injury.  He called it an unstable shoulder.  The doctor that Lad saw the next day also called in an unstable shoulder.  This impressed Coach, because often he disagrees with a doctor's assessment of his patients.  (Not to brag or anything, but my husband is a miracle worker.  Many, many patients are astounded at how he is able to cure them when all hope was lost.  I should have a t-shirt made that says, 'I put him thru PT school, you're welcome').  Basically a bunch of ligaments and muscles are working too hard to stabilize Lad's shoulder.

Coach gave him some exercises to do and they met with the trainers to make sure everyone was on the same page.

I am now trying to decide what to do with our frequent flyer miles.  The flights I booked out there was with Southwest - which Tank, Mini, and I can use as a voucher in the next year.  The way home was frequent flyer miles.  American Airlines said I can pay $200 to put the miles back, or I can use them like a voucher.  Each of the three passengers would have a voucher to use for the same amount of miles to go wherever we wanted within a year from the date I booked - NOT the date of travel.  If they could bend a bit on the travel date vs the booked date, I could try to re-book the trip same time next year. 

Just one more thing to write down in my list of things 'to-do' so I remember to figure it out.