Speed

This above blur is my son's Pinewood Derby car. My son and husband carefully and thoughtfully crafted it for weeks- sanding, painting, resanding, weighing, etc. It was fast. In fact, it was so fast it won the second place trophy!

I wish the story ended there. His car's placement meant it qualified for the District Pinewood Derby- which we didn't even know existed and (in complete honesty) kind of spoiled the win for me. I waffled as to whether I would take my son to Districts, since my hubbie was working that day and my son also had a baseball game that day. In the end I cast aside my doubts, sucked it up, and committed. I should have listened to my doubts. Districts was a Fiasco. The races were running behind when we arrived for our race time. We sat in a gym of chaos for 2 hours waiting for the first race to finish. We were the third race. We ultimately ended up leaving my son's car, drove home for him to change uniforms, relaxed a bit (sitting in a gym of chaos for 2 hours is exhausting), and returned at my estimated time of his race. From there we would drive to his baseball game. We completely missed the race! At some point during our absence, they figured out how to speed the process up. And to add insult to injury, his car didn't even place. A double whammy for my son. He cried as he grieved the death of a dream... and I suffered from excessive guilt.

Luckily, his baseball team had an awesome game (thank heavens) which helped ease his pain. But not completely. A few days later, in our calendar where I had written "Districts", my son crossed it out and wrote, "I did not go." Ouch. What a way to turn an initial sweet victory into a bitter memory.