As the World Happens

I stand alone in the distance while the foreground slowly moves.

Dropkick Murphys

Do you ever feel like your life gets all arranged for you and you don't have much say in it? Saturday was like this. We had so many things going on, they wouldn't all fit in the little calendar square. Here's a partial rundown:

• 7:30 am, Aarim's track meet in Kearns
• 10:30 am, Tian Tian's scout bowling activity in Bountiful
• 10:30 am, Amria's piano federation test at the University
• 11:00 am, Amria's church activity in Salt Lake
• 11:30 am, Miara's rock flying (or something) activity in Ogden
• 1:00 pm, friends stopping by to visit
• 5:00 pm, dinner party at friend's house in South Jordan
• 8:00 pm, stop by another friend's house in South Jordan to see their new baby

Meanwhile, Stephanie and I both have things we'd like to do for ourselves once in a while. She's trying to spend some time on the treadmill each day. I'm trying to spend every spare moment I can revising a manuscript I'd like to finish soon (and I have two more in line waiting.)

Yes, the birds and dogs hit the fan Saturday.

Amria barely made it into her test on time. I was parking the car and ran in and couldn't find the room. I kept texting Stephanie, "Which room is it?" She kept texting me "We're in room 006. " But we had no bars in the basement of Gardner Hall. So by the time I found the room, I ended up listening to Amria's performance from the hallway because you can't enter during performances. Then when we got outside, Stephanie's and my phones started buzzing like crazy as all our texts finally made it through.

People keep telling me that when the kids are grown up and move out, we'll miss these days.

But once again, in the end, it all worked out.

• Aarim did well in his events, running at my alma mater, Kearns High
• Stephanie had time to run on the treadmill
• Tian Tian had fun bowling
• Amria did very well in her piano test and had fun at her activity
• I assume Miara fell off the rock OK, but I don't think I've seen her since Saturday, so I'm not sure
• I spent about an hour writing
• We enjoyed Taiwanese food at the Hong's house and saw the Leavitt's cute baby

So even though we try hard to schedule well, sometimes life plops on us all at once, but we manage to survive.