Skeleton Coast

Greetings. Looks like I'm going to have time to write every other week or so. Things have been hectic, school-wise lately. Parents are split between sending their kids back, or keeping them home for another year of virtual learning. It's a difficult call. A lot of parents work and when everything hit the fan last March, we all had to adjust how we'd work and teach the diva following the instructions given by her teacher. I totally get the parents that feel like they have no choice but to send their kids back, but the slightest hint of a school-wide spread of Covid, and we'll see everything hit the fan again. We don't want to take that chance and are hoping to get her into a virtual learning at her school. I'm hoping they have a re-entry come 2021 if things improve but who knows. Things are so in the dark and it's pretty frustrating to see that our school district isn't really doing anything to protect the kids. Mainly, the "suggestion to wear masks". Not sure how we think we can end this, but sending kids mask-less to an indoor place where they could be interacting with other children that could be carrying it certainly won't help.

The guests I meet on a daily basis that tell me how happy they are that we don't enforce a mandatory mask rule" annoys me. We wear them for 8 hours a day so we can protect us and them. Why is wearing a mask inside a store briefly so difficult? A few weeks ago, Mia had a practice with her team. Her coach got the finalized roster completing the team last week so we'll see who will be added to the Jaguars and when we'll get our Fall schedule. Scarlett is already showing signs of improvement with speed and ball control. Mia's developing strong control of the ball while running and will continue getting better. Both will be great as attackers this season and I hope I can develop some strong goalies. Maybe the new additions? We have practice this week so hopefully we can meet the new kids soon.

We got Mia her own phone recently. Mainly so that when she's out with friends, she has a way of contacting us when she's ready to come home.

Most importantly, one of my all-time favorite bands released their new record last week. The Lawrence Arms released Skeleton Coast which is their first full length album in 6 years. Their bassist/singer BK has been participating in a weekly podcast on a retrospect on their 20 years of albums they've put out. It's been fascinating to listen to it which lead to the release of the new record. It's very good and I'm slowly trying to navigate all the different references and characters they've manifested. They've always been a band that puts a lot of effort into creating stories in their albums and songs. In interviews, they mention that recording at a pecan ranch in Texas inspired some of the overall feels of the album.

Over the weekend, we had a small get together for my birthday. Sad my twin sis had to work and couldn't come, but we'll see her soon hopefully. Jill and Mia picked out a caramel praline Spidey cake and some great new art supplies for me. Always a good choice getting me art stuff. Jill's aunt Gail got me a very unique gift. She ordered me a bracelet made entirely out of glass bottles pulled out of the ocean by 4Ocean. I've always had an interest in ocean conservation and protecting our waters so this is a pretty great gift. Mia and I watched Chelsea's last league match against the Wolves. Great win securing our UCL spot for 2021. We've got an FA cup final still to play for and a UCL match against Munich come August.

Lastly, I've took some time to come up with some more concept shirts/jerseys for some of the youth clubs. The last week or so, I worked on Polonia and PSU. I'm overall pretty happy with the latest PSU away shirt that is actually getting presented at the club board so maybe it'll become something?

This week, we've got soccer and honestly, that's about it. Just trying to enjoy the Summer that seems to be moving insanely fast. Maybe some art lessons? Who knows. Thanks for reading!