Saturday; Sleep, Soccer and ... Party!

Another Saturday and more goofing off. Bronson woke at 6:30am and we hung out for awhile. Then, since soccer didn't start until 2:30, we decided to take a walk and let Matthew sleep in. He hadn't gotten much sleep this week, so we thought it was fair. We walked to Michaels (4 blocks), then over to Target (4 blocks in the other direction), then down Lake avenue on the way home. We found a bakery/cafe called Wildberry, where we bought a loaf of fresh sourdough bread and a Chocolate croissant (aka pain au chocolat). As my ACG co-workers can attest to - I love the pain au chocolat. So, I'm sure everyone could understand my disappointment when 2 blocks away from the bakery, I pull it out for a bite and find they've only given me a PLAIN croissant! I chose not to dwell, however. I have decided to go back on Monday. I'll sit at a table with Bronson and have a pain au chocolat and think of the Amaranth folk possibly enjoying the same thing from 'La vieux cafe Montreal' or Bond Bonds just then in the office. *sigh

After our walk and lunch and waking dad, we went to Soccer. I'm still injured, I actually think that I've aggravated my hip injury sustained during labour with Bronson (Mom, you may recall having to push my hip in while I was pushing). Anyhow, the deal is, I don't play until I can do a 30 minute run on my own. If I keep trying on the soccer field I'll keep pushing myself for one more tackle-just one more until I can't run anymore, then I'll never recover. I have come to terms with this. I feel I'm being very adult about it. Good for me :)

We played the aeronautics team - wow. They were composed of italian and south american Premier players - I'm sure of it. They were like the team from the Nike airport commercial - they were amazing, however they had an Achilles heel...big egos. Which all in all made for a super interesting game, and we only lost 3-0 so I think it went very well. I was talking to one of the guys on our team - he looks an awful lot like our friend from Vic, Fraser. And I found that he also talks like Fraser... and though I've never seen Fraser play soccer (I know, what kind of a friend am I?) I'm willing to bet that he plays just like Fraser, too. [Matthew says Fraser only plays goalkeep and that I'm on crack - perhaps someone can clarify?] I kept waiting for a Sarah look alike to come pick him up, but she never did. Anyhow, point, missing Vic moment #2.

After recovering from playing and watching soccer and eating some food stuff, we headed over to Karin and Thiago's housewarming party! They're both grad students in the astronomy department (the department tends to be quite incestuous), and they have a really nice, small 2 bedroom house not too far from here. We, of course took Bronson, and he was up to his usual crowd pleasing antics - sleeping and whatnot. Actually, he did spend some time awake and give some nice sleepy smiles, so I shouldn't make fun :)
The party was Brazilian and Puerto Rico themed (Thiago's from Brazil and Karin is from Puerto Rico) - it was fun and lots of interesting food. Matthew was particularly excited about the Pisco Sour they were serving, he hasn't had any Pisco since Kurt drank it all at our engagement party :) [Pisco is an alcohol found in South America, apparently unlike anything you can find here, very strong and smelly - I've never tried it myself] Anyhow, very fun party, spoke to lots of interesting people. At one point, I looked down at the coffee table in front of me, and realized that it's the same one Sabrina and Mike have. Then I looked into one of the shelves, and sitting there was a game I haven't seen in awhile - Puerto Rico! This was homesick moment #3, missing playing Puerto Rico at Sabrina and Mike's place.

Well it's 3:45 now in the AM - Matthew tried putting Bronson to bed at a decent hour, 11pm, and somehow that's backfired... on me ?!?

I'll end with a disclaimer - I'm not really homesick. I am having moments where I'm reminded of Victoria, family and friends, however they aren't sad moments, they're nice, actually because I'm thinking about people and places out there that I know, and that know me, and it's nice knowing there's more than just the 20 mile radius that is Pasadena. I'm actually REALLY loving it here - we're in a great neighbourhood, and making friends through the astronomy department, and we're certainly never bored. There's plenty about Pasadena for me still to explore, and once I've done that, then there's LA - this adventure's only begun. Yes, I'm tired because I get little sleep, and it would be nice having close friends or relatives around to babysit every now and then, but it's not really a big deal, we just take Bronson with us everywhere, and he sleeps and it's fine.
I don't want anyone thinking that we're unhappy here - we're certainly not, but I also don't want anyone thinking that we don't miss them - we certainly do.