When I put these socks on this morning, I didn’t know why. I mean, yeah, it’s mostly foods this week, but why the peaches on Wednesday? It’s not like Wednesday is particularly know for it’s peachy-esqueness. Truth is, I don’t even much like peaches that much.

It probably shouldn’t have surprised me then, that I was in a dark mood when I got home from work today. When you’ve been sporting less-favored fruits on your feet all day and you can’t even tell yourself why, well, odds are good you haven’t been putting the brightest energy out into the universe all day.

That said, I didn’t want to be in a mood. But, yanno, Life is full of disappointment. Here’s what really got me, though: on so many days,  many things have to happen one right after another in well-ordered succession for a busy family of six to successfully conquer the hours from 6 to 10 PM without anyone losing their mind…or worse. First, somebody has to be chauffeured somewhere, and then there’s a parent meeting about something at roughly exactly the same time. Oh hey, it’d be nice to find time to squeeze dinner down the ol’ piehole before cleaning up the kitchen and racing off to The Game Of the Night. After that, when you finally get home (sometime not too late after 10, if you’re lucky) any parent capable of keeping his or her eyes open is in need of a stiff drink and a comfy pair of shorts.

It’s a hectic piece of choreography when everything goes off like a well-oiled machine. When it doesn’t, well…

Enter dark mood.

In the midst of tonight’s mid-evening dance of chaos, I found that one of my darling children — who shall nameless because I’m not a complete monster — neglected the completion of their dishwasher unloading duties prior to departing for parts unknown*. Half a full dishwasher meant I couldn’t clean up dinner before we left for The Game Of The Night (which, in fact, was the Boys’ Varsity Soccer District Championship), thus dooming me to having to address the kitchen as well as dragging the weekly recycling to the curb and a few other nightly duties, after said game.

Long story, well, long, I likely wouldn’t be finding time to sink into My Comfy Chair until sometime after 11. If I wasn’t lucky, close to midnight.

Now, some days that wouldn’t have bothered me. But. Today was not that day.

Swearing that said nameless child would not be leaving the house ever again — or, like, at least for a month — except to go to school and, I don’t know, volunteer for the elderly or something, I did the best I could with the kitchen and then we left for The Game. Meanwhile, the Puddinette gave me a face and told me to quit being grumpy. I mumbled something non-committal, but let’s be honest…who has ever been told to quit being pissy without it accomplishing the complete opposite?

It started to rain before we got to The Game. Because, of course it did. If fact, you can see water on the bleacher next to my feet in the picture above.

Luckily, though, The Game started. Pretty soon I forgot all about the rain and dark mood and even how wet my shorts — and all the parts underneath — had gotten. Because, and I’ve said this before in posts from yesteryear about baseball, or soccer, or something else altogether, there simply is nothing like just getting to watch your kid do something they love unconditionally.

Especially when they’re teens. The band of things a teen will allow to you see them love unconditionally is a narrow space indeed.

And then, well after said dark mood had been burned away by the joy of watching my kid, the universe did us a solid, because sometimes the universe does that.  Said kid’s team scored 3 goals in 16 minutes to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead with 52 seconds left in the game. They won The Game Of The Night, and consequently, the District Championship, whilst I cheered myself nearly hoarse.

Now I know why I put on these peachy socks this morning.

*I’m kidding. Said child’s location was well known, and had been prearranged.