Meet is over + a day I’ve been looking forward to

Good news- the swim meet is all over. Everything went fine. There were the usual hiccups here and there, but nothing terrible.

The biggest issue was that the head coach had set a ticket limit of 250 tickets per session (a.m and p.m.) because our pool just doesn’t have that much space for spectating. He wanted to ensure that those with tickets actually had a seat, and that the bleachers didn’t get overcrowded.

The tickets sold out for both sessions. We sold tickets online in advance (which was communicated to the other teams), but a lot of people still showed up without tickets- and trust me, they wanted them.

The online ticket thing is relatively new for youth sporting events. At the majority of meets, you still just show up and hand over a $5 bill for admission to a mom sitting at a folding table. I wouldn’t normally expect that a youth swim meet would “sell out” in advance, either. So, I get it! There were a lot of parents who were fairly…. irate? over the fact that the tickets were sold out and they could not go in and watch their kid swim. (Again- I get it!! I would be, too.)

We did have a livestream set up on a huge TV down the hall, so people without tickets could “watch” on there…. but obviously not the same. I was not actually in charge of working the admissions table, but I overheard several parents saying things like, “This is my daughter’s first swim meet, and I can’t watch?! Her grandparents are coming!” etc. (In our defense, our coach did tell everyone in advance about the pre-sales and ticket limits!!) But you know how it is. People don’t always read their email and/or the details…

Last year at our meets there were capacity limits due to local COVID restrictions, so people seemed much more understanding then. Now that the capacity limits are lifted, I think people are not as cool with the ticket caps “just because”. (We do have a legit space issue though- and there were a lot of teams at this meet.)

Anyway, I don’t know what the right answer is, and it wasn’t my call or decision, regardless. The whole thing still bugged me a little, because I did a lot of work to make this a great meet for everyone, and now I know that many parents still probably left very annoyed and with a negative impression of the event.

It’s over and done with now though, and the next meet in December will be hosted at our city’s new high school- which has WAYYYYY more space for pool spectators. So hopefully this will be an issue of the past.

The end of this week was stressful because in the 2-3 days before the meet I ended up needing to make about 4,256 changes to the volunteer sign up. Between parent emails and coach requests, by Friday afternoon I was losing my mind. I finally ended up writing back to the coach and saying, “NO MORE CHANGES, please.” Doesn’t seem like everyone understands that you can’t just “move” a worker from the afternoon to the morning when all the positions are filled. Where am I supposed to put them? And who exactly is going to fill in the newly created afternoon session hole, 12 hours before the meet??? Duh, right? Everyone seemed to think it was just like, no big deal. Well, when you’re the one manning the list and you basically don’t have a single extra body, it is a big deal.

Friday night Ivan and I went out for our nacho night, and I felt I deserved/ needed some tequila (which I normally do not):

I didn’t take a single picture at the meet, which I’m annoyed about. Not that I really need it, but, my life story in photos is not complete now. How will I ever remember what I did on October 8, 2022 without a photo?? 😆

Asher swam in the morning, but I stayed around helping until probably 4:00/4:30. I had arrived at 6:30 a.m. to help set up, so it was a nice long day for me. Yawn. Went home and ended up holing up in my office to read for 45 minutes or so to unwind in peace and quiet. It was quite wonderful.

Around 6:00 we decided to all go out for dinner at Red Lobster. Ivan had some gift card plus a coupon or something to use up, so, why not. There was a long wait for a table, so we drove across the parking lot to Barnes and Noble while we waited the ~40 minutes.

I thoroughly enjoyed just meandering around the store aimlessly reading the backs of books. 🙂

I also enjoyed perusing these cute Christmas puzzles!!

Dinner itself was nice. Those cheddar biscuits…. yeah. They are delish.

We got a bowl of clam chowder to share, and I had immediate flashbacks to our trip to Maine. I said, “Well, it’s official. I will never eat clam chowder again in my life without thinking of our trip to Maine/ Acadia National Park.” (If you’ve been reading since then, you’ll know I ate clam chowder basically every day for like, 8 or 9 days straight.)

Ivan ordered this amazing pina colada/daquiri mix thing and it was to die for. I stole several big sips.

And now today- Sunday. I’ve been looking forward to this day all week! Swim meet is over, and we have NO plans until Asher’s 4 pm soccer game. The Packers are playing in London, so the game starts at 8:30 a.m. I have been really looking forward to just lounging around lazily all morning watching the game with a cup of tea.

I dropped Ethan off at work a bit ago and picked up Starbucks to bring home for Ivan as a little surprise. (I do not drink coffee, so I basically never go to Starbucks. He loves their hot White Chocolate Mocha though. But dang, $5.96 for a grande hot mocha?!!!!!!! Guess I’m glad I don’t drink fancy coffee.)

Snapped this pic of Ethan by the McDonald’s sign…. I told him he will be happy to look back on this picture one day! 🙂

Off to go get settled in for the game!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful that the swim meet was only a one-day meet this time. Last year, it was both Saturday and Sunday. It’s nice to have one day free!!