No beach, just bleachers

So last Saturday, I'm sitting in some hole in the wall town, squeezed in between 150 people on a set of sticky bleachers, waiting for my daughter's basketball game to start. I needed to use the restroom and was dying for a bag of popcorn and a pop but couldn't seem to map out a trail through the mass of parents and kids so at the top I remained. My legs were squished together off to the side behind the bulky man in front of me and my 7 year old was squashed on the opposite side, belly-aching that there wasn't any room for her to get her toys out from the fun bag she brought for entertainment.

Since I was literally stuck in this uncomfortable situation, I pulled out my phone and scanned Facebook. Right off the bat I see an amazing picture my friend posted of the crystal clear ocean nestled against a white sandy beach with grass huts standing overtop of several inviting blue lounge chairs. She comments that they are never coming home and just sending for their kids. My friend and her husband are obviously spending their Saturday vacationing on a gorgeous island and enjoying perfect sunny weather while I on the other hand, am quite obviously not.

I'm not complaining that my day involved yet another travel basketball tournament, but for sarcastic humor only, I really wanted to walk around that day and post my own pictures of how my Saturday was being spent, a tad different than my lucky island friend. Instead of white sandy beaches and a crystal clear ocean, I could post a picture of the dirty snow covered streets and frozen trees with a gray, gloomy sky, instead of the bright sun against a beautiful blue background. Instead of inviting lounge chairs, would be a picture of the pop-stained, plastic bleachers that I was perched in for 5 hours straight, not relaxing with a good book either, but rather tensed up and yelling for my daughter's team. Instead of fancy drinks with umbrellas, I could have snapped a pic of all the half-empty Gatorade and water bottles rolling around my feet within those same sticky bleachers. Instead of a picture posted of me and my best friend in a swimsuit and flip flops smiling and having the time of our lives, it would be a picture of me and some mom from the opposing team sporting winter coats and boots, and keeping a tolerable distance of 2 feet away from each other. Or instead of the picture posted of me and Hubby enjoying a lobster dinner on the catamaran after our day of snorkeling, it'd be a picture of Hubby off by himself coaching our oldest daughter's team at one school gymnasium while another pic of me sitting alone watching our middle daughter at another gymnasium 20 minutes away.

As much as I wanted to quickly post my cynical pictures of how I was spending my Saturday in contrast to my island friend, I wasn't sure if everyone would understand my sarcastic attempts and would think I was just being spiteful and downright jealous. Now I admit, I would love to have been on that white sandy beach lounging under the island sun, but I wouldn't have traded my Saturday for anything. Despite the snow and freezing temps, despite the uncomfortable seating conditions, obnoxious parents and crazy chaos of running two girls to multiple gyms, I loved every minute of it. And at the end of the day, instead of posting the sarcastic pictures I so wanted to post, I shared a picture of my middle daughter's team and their 1st place tournament win. Her proud smile with that 1st place medal hanging from her neck, surrounded by her teammates was better than any island picture! So I guess for now, I'm sticking with the bleachers and not the beach ... literally.