I’m reading a book now, and I’m only a few pages in so it’s too early to write about it but I will be writing about it soon. Stay tuned. Watch this space.
So what should I write about, other than the collapse of America, a topic of which I never tire. But maybe my vast readership would like for me to change the subject. So I will.
It’s Super Bowl Sunday and I don’t care one little bit about this game, although I do hope Seattle wins, for reasons. It’s extraordinarily cold and bright outside. Sunlight always seems so much brighter on crisp, cold days, especially when it reflects on the snow that fell two weeks ago and that is nowhere close to melting.
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My sons and I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday. I wanted to buy books, but I really can’t justify the purchase of any additional books until I read all the ones I already have. So it’s going to be a while. Instead, I paid for the books that my sons had picked out for themselves because I can and because I like to treat my kids.
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We go to the same Super Bowl party every year, and that’s exactly what we did on Sunday. It was lovely - fewer people than usual, and we were quieter than usual, but it was still a good time. It was nice to be out. It was nice to be with people.
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My younger son has always liked the grocery store. He always went shopping with me, while my older son, given the choice, would stay home with my husband or on his own when he got old enough. We both liked the one-on-one time. My son also had (and still has) very specific preferences for breakfast and lunch and snack foods, and accompanying me was the best way to make sure that I stocked up on his favorites.
Last weekend, he was home overnight. When I announced that I was going shopping and asked if anyone wanted anything, my younger son stood up and said “Can I go?” Can you go? Of course you can! My son is 21 and he doesn’t get home as often as I would like and I will take any chance I can to hang out with him, including a grocery run. Especially a grocery run.
And that’s really all there is to that story. It was just one of those mundane and ordinary little bits of time that wouldn’t seem memorable from the outside but it was memorable to me. I will remember that grocery store trip and that bookstore visit.
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The temperature is going to claw its way out of the 30s today - maybe even out of the 40s - and the sun is out and I’m watching my favorite fat little squirrel sitting on the fence outside my window. He appears to be grooming himself. Or maybe it’s a she. The squirrel does appear to be up the spout, so I think she’s a she. Anyway, she just finished her morning routine, and she’s on her way. But she’s always welcome to return. My fence is your fence, Squirrelly Hemphill. Take care of yourself.
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On Thursday, we leave for Lexington Park, where we’ll be spending the weekend. The Atlantic East Conference Championship is at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, too far from Silver Spring to drive back and forth between prelims and finals. And it’s a really fun weekend. The Benito Bowl was great, and the Olympics are fine (I’m a Summer Olympics person), but this is the real sports highlight of the year for us.
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Imagine spending 15 weeks walking all day and into the night, carrying all of your belongings, eating one meal per day, sleeping wherever you find room (sometimes outdoors), through highways and trails and city streets and suburban neighborhoods, in all conditions and no matter how much your body might be crying out for rest, you keep going. The Buddhist monks who have been walking for peace for 15 weeks wrapped up their 1,800-mile walk from Texas to Washington, DC. Marymount University, where my son is a student, was one of their last stops. They arrived late on Monday afternoon and spent the night on campus - I’m not sure where, because they barely have enough dorm rooms for the students. Maybe some students volunteered to give up their rooms for the monks. Or maybe they spent the night in the gym.
My son sent me a video of the peace walk arriving at Marymount’s tiny campus, and I think that not only the entire university, but the entire neighborhood, turned out to welcome the monks. I wish I could have been there, but I’m glad he got to be there.
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It's Thursday afternoon and I'm in the car on the Capital Beltway (not driving, of course). It's 2 PM, bright and sunny, and we're on our way to do our favorite thing, which is to watch college swimming. The only thing better than a college swim meet is a 4-day multiple session college swimming extravaganza. It's Atlantic East Conference championship weekend. The Super Bowl and Olympics cannot compare.
This is our third year as Marymount swim parents, and we have a routine now. We're staying at our usual hotel, and we'll have lunch and happy hour with the other team parents at the usual spots, and we'll spend an afternoon at Solomon's Island, and we'll chill in the hotel room in the evening. But mostly we'll sit in the bleachers at the Saint Mary's College of Maryland pool and we'll cheer for the Saints. What could be better?
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On a typical Thursday night, I would drive home from work, do some household chores, drop off my work bag, and then go grocery shopping for my old lady. Then I would eat sushi and do laundry and write something and then read or watch TV or both until it's time to go to bed. Last night, I watched my son's 200 medley relay break their own program, conference, and meet records, and his teammates’ 800 free relay also break all their records, and then I sat in a hotel lobby drinking wine and chatting with my favorite team parents. That was a pretty good Thursday night.
It's Friday morning now. I woke up early and sat quietly in the dark hotel room, reading and drinking hotel room coffee. Waking up in a quiet, dark hotel room and making room coffee and then getting back into bed with a book is such an underrated human experience. It's one of my favorite things about any overnight trip.
Friday is 200 IM day. 200 IM is not my son's best event, but he'll final, and one of his teammates will probably win. As always, the Marymount parents group shows up and shows out. We have team lanyards (it's a swimming thing) and pom-poms and T-shirts, and we cheer loudly and enthusiastically. The other teams are catching up. The pool at the Michael P. O'Brien Aquatic and Recreation Center was a hub of excitement last night, and that excitement will build throughout the weekend as Marymount and St. Mary's trade leads. No disrespect to the other four teams, but this thing is pretty much a dual meet.
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It's Saturday morning now, and the Marymount boys hold a 16 point lead. In a college championship meet, this is a veritable tie. So it's going to be an interesting day.
Saturday is 100 breast day. My son is nervous and so am I. He is the defending champion in this event and everyone wants to take down a defending champion. And there are three or four swimmers here who could do it. This race could go any way.
I know that it's silly for me to be nervous but I am. And all of the swim parents out here saying that they don't really care about their kids' times or placement or if they win or lose or make a relay or not are lying. I say stupid shit like this all the time and when I do, I am lying.
We all care. But why we care is what varies. A few parents might really feel that their kids' athletic performance reflects on them and so a bad race is something they could or should have done something to prevent. But most of us care because we hate to see our child's disappointment after a bad race. And more than that, we really love seeing their elation after a best time or a flipped race or a win or even a record. That moment of triumph and sheer joy is something to witness. We love to see it.
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And we got to see it last night. Even though it was a silver finish, it might have been the best and most exciting race of my son's career, and it wasn't just me saying that.
My son's senior teammate, also an excellent breaststroker, has been trying to beat him in the 100 breaststroke for three years, and he finally did it last night. Both boys swam best times and they were neck and neck, trading the razor thin lead throughout the four lengths of the pool. The finish was so close that we had to check the scoreboard to confirm the winner. I'd have loved to see my son win it and swim the 400 medley relay, but I certainly couldn't have asked him to do better or try harder. They left it all in the pool last night.
It's Sunday now. One more day of championship swimming and then it's over again until next year. My son swims the 200 breast today, and he's not likely to win but he could very well medal. The Marymount boys have a solid lead now, and the girls are behind by only 6 points. Hoping for a two way Saints win tonight.
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I overheard two parents talking - one asked where the other’s wife was, and the man said that she was skipping the meet this year and the first person laughed and said “How is she getting away with that?”
These are two really fine people who happen to have other children who are D1 swimmers. I couldn’t tell if they were being performatively blase or if they’d really rather have been somewhere else. No judgement, but I would not have been anywhere else this weekend.
It’s Monday morning, and the 2025-2026 swim season is over. The Marymount boys won the meet, with the girls a close second. And my son did medal in the 200 breaststroke - he finished second just behind the conference record-holder, a St. Mary’s junior. My son’s girlfriend told me that the St. Mary’s swimmer’s parents were very nervous during this race, as they should have been. It was very very close until the last 25.
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This is Presidents’ Day. This week’s internet joke is that Presidents’ Day should be cancelled until we have a real President, which is not only a lame joke (even though the principle behind it is quite sound) but an outrage because I am not willing to give up the free gift of a day off. It was a wonderful weekend, but I have some catching up to do - bills to pay, groceries to buy, laundry to do, and a house that isn’t going to compulsively clean itself. The promised book review is coming. I’m sure you’re all agog.
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