The bigger kids and I drove to Elmwood this morning for the sectional meet. We’ve been there a couple of times in the past and it’s always nice to be familiar with the course. The night before while we were out for a rehearsal dinner, we stopped by Party City and purchased a dozen filled helium* balloons in school colors. I thought it was so funny and every time I saw the bunch of balloons I had to laugh. We brought them with us.

The rehearsal was fine but I didn’t want to go to the wedding. I feel bad that I have grown somewhat indifferent about these things. Dad was doing the service and the younger boys were dressed up in matching outfits as “ring security”. I should’ve gone, and was in the process of convincing myself to get dressed when something happened between me and one of the kids. If I’m already on the fence about not wanting to do something and then something like that happens, I get knocked off the fence.

And for whatever reason, I could not overcome myself enough for me to go. So the rest of the kids left and I fell asleep. After that I eventually got up and cleaned up the kitchen and then the living room while listening to Joe Rogan’s interview with J.D. Vance then for a while read An Ocean Vast of Blessing by Steven Cone while still listening. They came back later and said they’d had a good time. It was still a decent day even so.

(From dictionary.com and sciencenotes.org: helium is a colorless, odorless, nonflammable gas that is the second most abundant element in the universe. The most abundant element is hydrogen)