Redux:Barbour-Books and Soccer

LFG and one of her bestest friends connected before walking into Cotillion the other evening. The horror…already beginning at age nine. She and D.B. had on the identical dress. Notice that LFG is holding her mandatory tights in her hand. Yes, her dad is not the most dialed in guy when it comes to getting little girls buttoned up for more formal things. Mandatory-I’ve also had since birth, a slight problem with authority. LFG put the tights on in the bathroom and was then locked and loaded for Cotillion.

LFG on the way home from Cotillion with Beary and The Indian in the Cupboard. It's all good.

 Saturday started early with soccer game number two accompanied by misty rain. No cancellations for these gals unless the ball floats on the field. It’s early so I am only half assed prepared for the day beyond soccer. LFG has no rain gear with her and my Briggs brolly is MIA so we are winging it at best. I’m in my typical weekend rig-Trad Homeless Man. No shave-no shower-baseball cap this time accompanied by the old Banana Republic Gurkha shorts and a popped collar-pink knit. My L.L. Bean bluchers still look kinda new-having not encountered anything more than rain on sidewalks to date. By bedtime Saturday night-they’d be fully initiated. If I would wait for the Adderall to kick in before getting dressed-I might do better on all fronts. LFG snapped this one of me at the soccer parking lot-iPhone camera is not a differentiating attribute for said device.

I love my Flusser Mac but it shames LFG when I wear it. My next go-to raingear is Barbour. Ultra Trad-gets better with age. Like me-shut up.

LFG is the smallest girl on her team but a scrappy little one none the less. Reminds me of me at that age. I finally ran track and cross country in high school-having eventually become just too damned little to play other sports.

LFG is kinda like a "player-mascot" on her team-with water.

We love books at our house and we have lots of them-but never enough. The National Book Festival is where my inner nerd just explodes into an external badge of honor. Why? Because there are three thousand other nerds with me-shoulder to shoulder. LFG and I had to haul ass from Chevy Chase to the Mall in order to make the book signing line for Daniel Silva before it closed. LFG could tell how excited I was to meet Silva and she was beyond compliant with my sense of urgency-she was rooting for us to get there in time. “Hurry daddy-hurry”. If you know anything about the Mall in D.C. then you know what a bitch parking down there usually is and especially during a festival. We usually take the Metro but this wasn’t an option. So, I park on a street adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial. The signing tents are at the far end of the Mall-nearest the U.S. Capitol. This is a trek, in the misty rain that is a haul for an adult-I was worried that LFG was going to start crying any minute. She’s a bit too heavy to ride on my shoulders-where she was a fixture for about five years.

My child is so cool. Her dad is a scatterbrained nerd. She had no other clothes to change in to but in retrospect, her soccer gear sans sin guards ended up being the perfect rig for the muddy grass and misty rain. She ended up with my Barbour and I ended up with nothing-as it should be.

Lady Barbour

We get to the queue for Daniel Silva and there are at least fifty people ahead of me and he’s been signing for almost an hour. There’s ten minutes left. All that hustling from one end of the Mall to the other and I’m not gonna get my book signed. One of the volunteers told me that he agreed to stay for an additional fifteen minutes-most authors are nice that way. I had to talk to him-there are a couple of characters in his novels that need some immediate attention and I had suggestions for him. I think LFG was as excited for me as I was proud to have my book signed.

Southern Cooking Maven Paul Deen is a really nice lady. Here you can see the back of her silver haired head as she is shuttled away from her signing. She had more security around her than the President usually has. Again, she’s a fine person but really-what’s gonna happen to her? Is some assassin gonna bean her with a ham hock?

Now this is a cool thing about hanging out with a nine year old who likes books. We then go over to the lecture tent and listen to Daniel Silva speak about his latest book as well as his approach to writing the spy thrillers that I so love. LFG is good with this but we have a conflict. Jeff Kinney-author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books is speaking at the Children’s Pavilion. Kinney trumps Silva so we head over there.

Jeff Kinney has an overflow crowd and I’m not gonna let my little LFG down. I stand her on a table while gathering a stabilizing fistful of Barbour in my hand and we are good. Jeff Kinney is magic with these kids. ADG cannot nudge under the tent awning so I’m keeping my child stable while standing precisely where the water is running off the tent. I needed a shower anyway. I looked like a wet t-shirt contestant and not a pretty one.

Kinney has already signed books for an hour and agrees to go back to signing tent number 13 and sign more books for the kids. LFG and I haul ass over to the sales tent-buy his latest and then run to the queue. LFG meets Jeff Kinney-gets her book signed and it’s all good. What a guy.

LFG gets attacked while cloaked in Barbour. We had to make up all kinds of fun and games to sojourn back to the car without crying from dampness and exhaustion.

 I do think we tend to take the Monuments on the Mall for granted sometimes. The Lincoln Memorial at sunset is to me, the most spectacular view as you had over the Memorial Bridge-for us it was going home time.

Pre Book Festival Bean shoddings.

Post Festival-Now Broken In

So yes, the walk back to the car was grueling. Twice as long it seems when you are tired and wet. Home to Old Town and comfort food prepared by dad before we crash. Went to the early Handlin’ and reveled in a lazy day yesterday. Five Guys post Handlin’. Gotta keep those arteries clear.

We had a blessed weekend and hope that you have a blessed week.

Onward-wet with signed books