Sunny and Pleasant in Darien

Marisa and Granny at Mall

Morning at Albarrans

My Good Friend, Cody

Awakened at 5:45 by a garbage truck in the drive way, picking up the trash, a modern sound, a jarring way to wake up.  I prefer light and birds singing.  I walked outside, just to see what it was like, and it's still cool, a harbinger of another pleasant day.

An Exhausted Mitchell

We had a strange day for us, yesterday, relaxing around the house in the morning, the only exercise, taking Cody for a walk up the street and back.  I did drive to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things but that was it.  At noon, Marisa came home from school, we had lunch, and went off to Danbury Mall, about forty five minutes away.  Mitch had a volleyball game in Danbury, and Beth wanted to shop for some clothes, so we combined the two and spent a couple of hours shopping at the mall before the game at 4:00. It has been awhile since we have been to a mall, so it was fun for Evie, Beth and Marisa, mostly a bore for me as I am practicing distinguishing between 'want and need.'  I don't need anything but want lots of things.  We went to L. L Bean, which is always fun and bought Marisa a cute blue fleece vest, just what she wanted.  Later, Evie picked up a neat vest for hiking at Eddie Bauer while I had a coffee and read a book at Starbucks.  I am reading  THE FLAMEBLOWERS by Rachel Kushner, recommended by Jonathan Franzen...so far, so good. Both Marisa and I were hungry, so I bought us lunch, two cheeseburgers from Mc Donalds, for two bucks, the big spender.  They sure tasted good.
Beth picked up a couple of things for her trip and we then drove five minutes to Danbury High School, to watch the volleyball game.  Mitch did not play in the first two varsity games, but was substituted freely in the last two, which they won.  It was fun to see him play with the upper class men and I was impressed with his skills and poise since he has been playing volleyball for little over six weeks.  He's a natural, naturally!  After the varsity, the JV played and Mitch played all of the two games, as setter, perhaps the most important position on the team because he touches the ball each possession.  Again, he really understands the game, made few mistakes, was able to set front and backwards.  And they won fairly easily in two games.

Setting a Teammate

Serving an Ace

We got home around 7:00, ordered Chinese, and ate around 7:30, stuffing ourselves with various dishes, but we loved the Sezchuan dumplings, in an amazing sauce.  Rami got home at 8:00, his usual time, so we sat around and talked as he ate with us.  The boys went up to study, Marisa to bed, around 8:45, and about 9:30, Mitch came down and watched Seinfeld with Granny and me for an hour before going to bed.