Reminders...

This isn't going to be a long post, just some thing I needed reminding of lately so I figured I'd remind you as well.

Every month I set out my intentions. My things to focus on. My mini goals. This month part of that was to enjoy World Cup without guilt. No "I really should be doing this" when I sit down to watch a match. No "I can only watch if I do X,Y and Z." None of that.

Once I decided that the corruption of FIFA has been baked into my World Cup viewing since day one and adding the layer of the Trump corruption that I live under every day was not actually going to take away my enjoyment of the athleticism on the pitch I was in. And I don't want to ruin it myself.

It only happens every four years. That's it.

I have great memories of watching with Katie. She's never been a big soccer/futbol fan, but World Cup I could get her into it. Especially women's matches (yes, there were always clues), but the men's as well. It was a World Cup year when she moved to Bend to start her first adult job and life. We watched the men's match in her hotel room on a tiny little junky TV. After having dinner with her and leaving Bend I posted that there were only a few tears and a hilariously funny to me amount of people thought I was talking about the men losing instead of leaving my baby alone in a new city!

The last World Cup they did during the winter and Brent had Covid. Lousy thing to have, great timing on his part to be able to watch more matches than he ever could before. Though he did watch matches in open air markets in Germany (he used to always be in Germany this time of year, thus why Katie would take pity and watch with me) and said that was an amazing experience.

But I love World Cup. The good (?) thing about the men's US team not traditionally being good is that you get to cheer for any team you choose. We often end up wearing orange (literally and figuratively) and spelling our name the correct Dutch way for a bit, and I'm always a sucker for any team that dances when they score so Colombia has often been the team I'm most excited to watch play.

But we start out cheering for the USMNT. And we talk about Golden Generations and we lament poor coaching decisions and I roll my eyes every time Alexi Lalas speaks...And right now I'm really enjoying that they have him and Zlatan on a panel together ego on ego crime, and I'm here for it.

But my main takeaway is enjoy the things you enjoy. Don't treat them as things you have to earn. Or things that have to be completely above reproach to even consider. Make your peace with what you can (and I understand if you cannot) and then settle in for the ride.

And along those lines...I got the last batch of Hood Strawberries for the season today. I went out early to see if the farm stand would have any strawberries at all and was rewarded with Hoods from a little patch they had that matured late. The weather is changing right now and will be close to 100 for the next few days so this is it for strawberry season. I got four weeks of Hoods and one week of another type they grow whose name I can never remember but are ALMOST as good.

Time moves fast and some things don't last long so when they come around enjoy them. No guilt allowed.

(they thought they'd have enough to be open tomorrow as well so if you are in Portland the farm stand in the parking lot above The Meating Place has Hoods, but get there early or you will miss out)