Grab the Pinatas, Pina Coladas & Cupcakes. We're Celebrating President's Day!

Who among us doesn't love President's Day? Right? I mean, it's a national holiday, we're all off work, truckers are lounging in their sleepers with their feet up, receivers are all closed, postmen are partying on the decks, the kids are out of school, mattresses everywhere are on sale... Bring on the party hats and ice cream cake.

Whoa there, Nellie! You mean, YOU aren't off work? Yeah right, me neither. What's to love about President's Day if you're not a government employee, a financial employee, a kid in grade school or in the market for a new mattress? Nada.

So alas, I'm still plugging along today, working on the April issue of Trucker's Connection and Downtime, harrassing my writers to send in their articles and working my way through them all with my hard-to-please red pen. My son Chase got to do something cool today, however. And it was nice for me because the alternative for us both would have been him walking into my home office every 15.4 minutes, asking what he could do because he's booooooored. What do you know? Me saying: "You'll need to figure it out because this isn't a vacation day for me; I'm working" never really floats his boat. Nor mine. But alas, someone came to our rescue and orchestrated a 4v4 round robin soccer tournament in a nearby neighborhood, and Chase is out there. Him and his black shorts, brown t-shirt, kelly green soccer socks and horrifically ugly, new black and white soccer cleats. That's right, friends, you could easily pick my kid out of a crowd by his GQ style alone. But whatever.

Since drop off was during my lunch break, I was able to watch the first square-off. Teams were randomly selected by the saint who concocted this occupy-your-kids activity. Poor Chase ended up with quite the motley crew. It's a crap-shoot when teams are organized completely randomly; luck of the draw. You either end up with a stellar team or a...um...not-so-stellar team. Chase's group looked like it'd fall into the latter category. It's probably a good thing I'm not off work and thus, unable to stay and watch. I'm a bit of a sore loser, which I'm sure surprises the hell out of all my friends (snort!). And thus, Chase ended up a smidge on the competitive side too. I know it'll be ugly when he calls to say how they finished up. And of all days to have Lady Luck cheering for the other side--the tournament champions get to order their own custom professional soccer jersey. Any team, any player number. Chase loves Cristiano Ronaldo. I could see visions of a #7 Manchester United jersey floating through his head the minute they announced the prize. Something tells me it ain't happenin'. But I'm sure playing out there will still be a lot more fun than moping into my office every few minutes to see that yes, indeed, I'm still having to work.

Speaking of work--no rest for the non-government employed weary, so off I go... Happy Prez Day!

Following Day Addendum: After the tournament Chase texted me to say he was done and I respnded with: "How'd your team do?" His answer? Short and sweet: "Bad."

I had to laugh. Oh well, who wants a Ronaldo jersey anyway?