I usually don’t let my anxiety get the better of me, but yesterday it woke me up at 4a.m. and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Let me give you the backstory to this, as it is actually relevant.
Now that it is summer, there’s a massive schedule shift in the house. This week August and Deal have CYO day camps where they have to be up at 6:00 in the morning to get ready to go. Their bus to the camp site leaves at 7:30, and if we are lucky with light traffic, the drive to the departure point is only 20 minutes. The bus returns at 5:00 in the afternoon, and everybody looks like they’ve had a great time interacting with horses, swimming, doing archery, or whatever they are doing at camp. This isn’t about them, however.
Ciárán, at the age of 3, is still too young to go to these types of camps. I’m trying to figure out things to do with him that is a little more than simply having him sit in front of the television while I work. Cost is also very much an issue. I found a baseball game to take him to, and decided it would be a great activity the two of us could do together.
The baseball game was for the minor league Everett Aquasox, about 30 minutes drive or so to the north of where we live in Seattle. The team is affiliated with the Mariners, but are a “short season” A team, not the more traditional AAA Minor League team that most people are aware of (that would be the Tacoma Rainiers, also affiliated with the Mariners). I had a couple of criteria for taking Ciárán to a baseball game. The first was time – most of the games in the area (Everett, Seattle and Tacoma) all start at 7:00p.m., except for the weekend games. I wanted to take Ciárán to a game during the week, while August and Déla were at one of their camps, and the ballpark would be less crowded.
Another requirement was price and with it the location of the seats. For his first game I wanted Ciárán to be able to see the action on the field, not so the players were colored specks, but there was no way I would be able to afford decent tickets to a Mariners game. Besides, there are only a couple of day games for the Mariners, so that was out. The best combination turned out to be the Everett Aquasox who had a day game during the week while August and Déla were away at day camp. The tickets were reasonable for a good seat as well, something like $12 a seat in row 7 about halfway up the first base line.
What clinched the deal was this particular game was “kid’s day” at the stadium, with a “special” start time of 11:05 a.m. so I was pleased as could be and ordered tickets. That start time would ensure I could attend the ball game with Ciárán and be done in plenty of time to pick up August and Deal when the bus dropped them off in the afternoon.
The night before, I told Ciárán what we would be doing, and he was excited. I was too, getting to spend a significant chunk of time with one of my children – just one on one. Besides, I enjoy baseball, and wish I could afford to go more often.
And this is where the anxiety part comes in. That night as I went to bed I went over the schedule for the coming day in my head. There wasn’t a heck of a lot going on, getting up at 6:00, getting August and Déla to the day camp bus before its 7:30 departure, getting home, Laura going to work, putting Xavier down for his morning nap, having the babysitter come over and going over with her last minute things for Xavier while Laura was at work and I was at the ball game with Ciárán, getting home, and finally going to pick up August and Déla. Somewhere towards the end we would have to figure out dinner as well. All of this was going through my mind as I went to sleep.
That night, I had the most vivid dream the game’s start time was at 1:00 p.m., not 11:00 a.m. – a dream so vivid, I had to get up and check the tickets. If the game start time was indeed 1:00 p.m. I was concerned I would not be able to go, or at the very least only stay for the first half of the game before having to travel through heavy traffic for a long period of time to pick up August and Déla at 5:00. I knew I purchased tickets for an 11:00 a.m. game, and double checked everything not only before purchasing the tickets, but after they arrived as well. This dream was so vivid it woke me up at 4:00 a.m. and I could not get back to sleep. Had I been mistaken? Did I read 1:00 as 11:00? I couldn’t get back to sleep and had to get up to look at the tickets. Turns out, I was being silly, the game did indeed start at 11:00, and everything was going to be alright. I couldn’t get back to sleep, and decided to get a little bit of work done, but I was so tired I didn’t make much headway. After a couple of hours and a pot of coffee, I was more on track and the day had begun in earnest.