The day began with The Little Guy's piano recital. This one was different, though, from his other recitals. He decided he wasn't ready (he was wrong about that), so he didn't play.
The Little Guy's unwillingness to put out effort if there's any risk of self-perceived failure has been an increasing issue, and I'm not sure how to help him with that. It's already getting in his way, and that can only get worse.In the evening, Ms. 63 and I had theatre tickets, and we more or less enjoyed the show. (As an aside, I had to rush to get back. We were about 15 minutes into the show before I remembered to turn off my cell phone. If I'd waited another 5 minutes or so, I'd have gotten the call from my sister immediately, rather than when I picked up my voice mails after the show.)
In between, I played bridge -- the Grand National Teams. This was an on-again, off-again venture for me. I originally planned not to play the event this year, specifically because it conflicted with The Little Guy's recital. About a month ago, though, he and his teacher decided to take that pressure off him because his refusal to practice meant that he didn't have any pieces ready. When I learned that, I told him that if he didn't plan to play the recital, then I'd play bridge.
About a week later (and before I'd made much progress putting a team together), he decided that he would play after all. At around the same time, I was invited by Bruce, an occasional partner, to play on a team with him. Ordinarily I decline that invitation because he insists on playing "Flight B" whereas I usually insist on playing the "open" flight. This year, however, Bruce needed to put together a 5-person team because he couldn't play the end of the event yesterday. (Eligibility rules require each member of the team to play at least half of each stage.) I couldn't play the beginning due to the recital, so our schedules dovetailed well, and this way I'd be able to play whereas I clearly couldn't have played otherwise.
The Grand National Teams is a multi-day event. In our District, the first day is a round robin (there were 10 teams this year) from which the top four teams qualified for today's knockout semifinal and final. As you may recall, although I've played a bunch of multi-day events, I had <U>never</U> qualified for the second (or subsequent) day of such event. I had high hopes, though -- the reason I don't play Flight B is that it simply isn't that much of a challenge.
I'm finally off my schneider. We came in second or third yesterday (I don't yet know which), so we're into the knockout stage. I'll let you know how it goes. --Bob
