Life of a soccer mom
Jan 2, 2010 A day in our life
It’s winter. There’s snow on the ground. And temps are dipping down in to the, well, under zero. But that doesn’t mean the soccer season is over. It just means soccer moves indoor.
Or so I thought.
Spencer had a soccer tournament today. His first game was at 8:30am. Eight fucking thirty in the morning. I had to set the alarm for 6:30am. Six thirty people. I loath 6:30. No I outright HATE 6:30. I’d like to kick 6:30am right in the privates with a pointy-toed 4″ high heel shoe. So, you know, I was pretty excited about getting up so early.
But I dragged my butt out of bed, threw myself in to the shower, put on my orange and black soccer sweatshirt and tried to conjure up some school spirit anyway.
The tournament was in the Hawkeye’s indoor football practice field (a.k.a. The Bubble). The university’s idea of indoor and my idea of indoor? Completely different.
The Bubble is fenced in. So you have to walk down a very long driveway to get to the door. When we drove out of town today we passed a sign that told us it was -11 degrees outside. So a walk down a long, icy driveway? Not so much fun. As soon as the cold went up my nose I could feel my nose hairs freeze and my throat seize up. I pulled my scarf up and rushed Spencer to the door.
We walked in to The Bubble and the lobby area was packed. We were running late and Spencer’s game was starting in about 10 minutes. So we pushed our way through the crowd, passed through the revolving door, and made our way on to the field. It immediately became abundantly clear why everybody was packed in to the lobby. The lobby was heated. The Bubble? Freezing.
We looked around for Spencer’s team. We made our way over to field 3 where his first game was. On the way there we passed the one and only heater that was working on the field. The heater was so powerful it practically blew me on to one of the fields. There was a crowd of at least 30 people standing in front of it trying to stay warm. They didn’t care that it was blowing them their hair in to their faces and pushing them around. At least it was warmth.
Lee and I watched the game from the sidelines. By the end of the half hour game I could no longer feel my toes. My thighs were burning because they were so cold. My fingers were numb. And my snot was running down my face. I was quite a sight.
We had an hour and a half until Spencer’s next game. So we decided to drive home. Never mind that home was a half hour away. I needed another pair of socks and some long underwear stat.
By the time we got back for the second game (again running late) The Bubble had started to warm up. And by “warm up” I mean that I was only shivering enough for my teeth to chatter, but no longer fearing frostbite and hypothermia.
Between the second and third game we headed to the local mall to eat lunch and buy some gloves. I had brought some gloves from home, but they weren’t very warm. I needed a new pair of Isotoners to warm up my fingers in hopes I could bring some color back to them…I mean a color other than blue.
By the third game the temp inside The Bubble was almost bearable. I still had to wear my winter coat, bundle up under my scarf and new gloves, and keep on my second pair of socks and long underwear, but at least I wasn’t shivering anymore.
Before the final game we headed to Starbucks to warm up with a tall Caramel Apple Spice. By this point the outside temp had warmed up to a balmy 3 degrees. And, after running all morning, the heater in The Bubble was finally starting to warm the place up. Spencer even took off his sweatshirt for the final game.
So after 6 1/2 hours and 4 games, Spencer’s team didn’t win a single game and Spencer’s accidentally scored a goal for one of the other teams. But we survived the cold.
Actually, other than that oops goal, Spencer did pretty well. He scored at least 5 or 6 goals for his own team. And he had a lot of fun. In the end that’s all that really matters.
But next year I’m bringing some thermal underwear.
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Tags: Bubble Blowout Tournament, cold, freezing, Iowa Hawkeye Bubble, Iowa Hawkeye indoor practice field, soccer, soccer mom, soccer tournamanet, The Bubble
January 11th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Note to self – do not let my child play soccer. Only summer sports.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:28 am
This post brings back memories…. I grew up in a big family and we constantly had my parents running from one horrificly cold and/or rainy sporting event to another!! I think that could be part of the reason my parents are nuts and I have limited myself to just two kids!!!!