(upbeat music)
She's out here somewhere.
Paris!
Paris, come!
The death guy.
The grim reaper.
The grim reaper, yes.
The grim reaper may have
drank a little too much.
He might've been over-served.
He's over-served, like
hanging on his sickle.
Just leaning on his sickle.
We don't talk about Bruno,
because Bruno was this bad, bad thing.
We're eating an elephant.
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
So I actually kept it
together the whole day.
Which is astonishing,
because there's a lot of patience
involved in this day.
Yes, you--
Struggle.
We're just not gonna talk about Bruno.
We're gonna talk about Bruno.
Mike was dehydrated,
sitting in the car all day.
That was his Gatorade bottle.
Totally the wrong color.
They don't make a
Gatorade that color, my love.
Shots of Patron for everybody.
Paris.
(laughs)
Paris!
Welcome to the Mr. and
Mrs. English Podcast.
I'm Megan.
And I'm Sean.
We're here to talk about
the wild ride of raising kids,
growing careers,
keeping life together in
the middle of all the chaos.
So buckle up,
because we're all in
this crazy journey together.
Paris.
Yeah, we're gonna watch
Paris while we're doing it.
No.
Paris.
I don't see her.
She's out here somewhere.
Paris.
Paris, come.
Paris.
Good girl.
You stay with us, baby.
All right.
Ready?
Yeah.
All right.
Well, we are back for the next episode.
Episode, this is 39.
39.
We weren't quite sure.
This one will be a little different.
Yes.
Primarily because this
is a behind the scenes,
like behind the curtains catch up.
We have literally not seen
each other for five days.
Correct.
We have no idea what's been happening.
Other than the texts here
and there in the FaceTime
to say goodnight.
Yes.
Yeah.
It has been a crazy few days,
particularly for you.
But yeah, I mean, we
haven't really seen each other.
And that's like, that's one of the things
I think a lot of people,
especially at this phase of life,
have to manage through, right?
Is like really busy schedules.
How do you continue to stay
connected and stay in touch?
It's hard and you have to be intentional.
And so thank goodness
we have Mr. and Mrs.
That's right.
To give us that time.
To publicly catch up on our
relationship and marriage.
And we're doing it in the backyard.
I was just throwing an acorn away
that our little puppy,
Paris, should not be eating.
Which I'm sure you'll
be watching us watch her
till one of our kids comes out.
Right.
And watches the puppy.
Yeah.
She's two years old now.
She's not really a puppy.
But because she's only eight pounds,
she will always be a puppy.
Like I don't think she'll ever be,
like feel like a full grown
dog because she's so small.
No, she won't.
Like she was just chasing a squirrel
that probably only weighs about two
pounds less than her.
That's right.
I have no idea what she
would do if she were to catch it.
I'm actually thankful she didn't, but.
Well, she'd lose that fight, but anyways.
What do you think?
Paris decide, you
might be able to see her
in the background walking through the
backyard or whatnot.
She's doing her thing.
Yeah, so we'll try to
get through it one episode
without getting too bit up by mosquitoes.
If we're doing this, we're
trying to take care of mosquitoes
and I apologize.
I know, we just need a citronella candle.
Hopefully we won't get bit
up out here, but anyways.
Yeah, well, I missed you.
I missed you.
It's been five days.
Our youngest and I, we were
in California and San Diego.
And at a soccer thing.
Yeah.
So we were there with
some of the parents there
and the soccer team while you were here
with two of the kids.
Yep.
And we were just
living the separate lives
for a little while.
So how was your weekend?
My weekend was surprisingly busy.
Yeah.
So I had mentally prepared
for, okay, Shawn's not here.
Okay, I only have two
kids, the two older kids
that are a little more helpful.
So I was like, surely I
can have coffee sitting
on the back patio at some point.
Can I relax, maybe put a puzzle together?
Yet none of that happened.
None of that happened.
It was busy with just
keeping up with things all weekend.
I mean, I left the house
at 10.15 on Saturday morning
and didn't get home
until about 8.30 at night.
Really?
Yeah, I mean, we were gone.
We came home, correction.
Track practice to shopping.
And then you took them out to dinner.
Yeah, well, and then I did, I lied.
We did come home because we watched then.
One of the cool things
is we have a live stream
of the soccer game.
So I could come home,
watch the soccer game.
Yeah, thank you to the
parents who take care of that too.
That is awesome when we can't be there.
It is amazing, yeah,
for especially in travel
when you have to split up.
It was fantastic and I
know that can't be easy
to lug all that stuff
halfway across the country.
So thank you to those parents.
And I know there are some parents there
that kind of helped
because only one of the parents
was there, mom was there.
So I think some of the dads on the team
and I didn't even know it was happening.
We're helping put that together.
So thank you to the behind
the scenes people that do that
because I know people
like you that are at home
and a lot of the other
parents have to stay back.
Appreciate that.
Yeah. For sure.
It was fantastic.
Yeah.
You could really see the game.
So that was fun.
And you can like get
really excited and like yell
and be like, go, go,
go, you know, without,
you know, bothering anyone.
So it was kind of fun.
The one or two times I've watched it,
it's been on the coach's side.
So it's been really fun for me
because I can hear the coaches talk.
And you can hear the
coaches kind of a little bit
what they're saying to the kids.
You can hear what
they're saying to the refs.
You can kind of hear
banter back and forth
between the coaches.
But I think you could hear the parents,
which oftentimes you don't
want to hear the parents,
especially if it's the other teams,
parents having issues.
Totally.
I will say that of the
three games that I watched,
I did not hear anything
other than positive cheering
from our parents.
Yeah.
It was very positive.
Now on the other side,
definitely a lot of colorful language.
And I was like, I'm so
glad they're not our parents.
Whew.
Yeah.
But anyway.
We get riled up here and there,
but could you guys, there was times,
because I knew you guys were watching it.
And so there was times
when I was like way that in.
There was a couple of
times I like yelled out
like things to you guys,
wondering if the camera
would pick it up.
Did you ever hear any of those things?
I heard you say like, come on, you know,
like let's go solar or whatever.
I was talking specifically to you
and the family at the house.
You didn't hear any of those.
We didn't, no, no.
And the camera had to be
in a really specific angle
for us to see you.
Although we did see you
eating your corn nuts.
I didn't know how she knew
I was eating my corn nuts.
(laughing)
Oh, we saw it.
I was like, dad's eating corn nuts.
I knew that they were corn nuts
probably before our daughter did.
Yeah.
She just saw you eating something.
That's a good nervous habit for me.
I just, it's having
something to crunch on
that I don't have to like,
I would probably be okay
having sunflower seeds.
A lot of dads do that there,
but I would obviously
put them in like a cup
so I could throw them away.
But I know to those dads that are eating
the sunflower seeds and just
spitting them on the ground,
other people use those
fields, not just you.
So if you wouldn't mind not doing that
and cleaning up after
yourself, it'd be fantastic.
That'd be great.
Yeah, that's just a public disclaimer.
Yeah, I like that.
What is that public?
Oh, PSA, I like that PSA.
A little PSA there.
Yeah.
Sunflower seeds, guys.
Yeah.
Unless it's a mom.
Sorry, I laughed.
Sure, it's a mom.
Sure.
Yeah, yeah.
Sorry, that was maybe a little.
So you guys watched the game,
then you guys got
ready, went out to dinner.
Yeah, we went to church,
then we went out to dinner
and then we came home.
Yeah, that's a long day though.
It was a long day.
It's a whole Saturday.
Yep, and then Sunday, it was
just busy around the house.
Loads of laundry, changing beds.
We finished putting up
the Halloween decorations,
picking up, it was just like.
Yeah, yeah, so that's what I did,
like the day of, or maybe the
day before, I can't remember,
but so the kids are on Halloween break.
They're on fall break,
which is something new.
Our generation never
had anything like that.
You know, they can't, I
think we talked about that once.
You can't go do a full
month of school, God forbid.
So let's give them a
whole nother week off.
Let's just give them a week off.
20 week a month for four
out of like eight months.
Anyways.
For sure.
50% of the time,
they're not a whole week off.
Anyways, I was rushing,
because it was already like October 4th,
and we've been joking about
getting all the stuff down
for Halloween and stuff, and I was like,
I have to do it, because if
I don't do it before we go,
by the time I get
back, it'll be the 14th,
and you know, it does, it'll
weigh on me a little bit that,
it's only after two weeks.
It's like Christmas stuff, right?
You get the Christmas stuff out early,
because you don't want to
put it away two weeks later.
Right, it's a really big--
It's a big pull, right?
Yeah, heck yeah. Yeah, it's big to do.
After looking around the house
and how much Halloween stuff we have too,
it's like, that's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, a lot of stuff.
Not really much Christmas,
but it's a lot.
It's a lot, and thank
you to our daughter,
who, she did a lot of
the stuff in the house.
But there were some big
things that we had to do.
And it was a group effort,
I should actually send the
video to you of the two kids
trying to put up this
really big, what is it?
What's the death guy?
The death guy. The death guy.
The grim reaper. The grim reaper.
Yeah, see, death guy, grim
reaper, it's the same thing.
Same thing, I knew exactly.
Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh,
the two older kids had
to work together to do it.
I have a video.
Somewhere along the way we lost,
it's like a nine foot grim reaper,
just so you can see.
Somewhere along the way we lost it,
the stilts for his legs.
So I got some PVC for it and just cut it.
So it might be like six inches taller
than he was initially meant to be,
or somewhere around there.
But because the PVC is a
little bit more pliable
than his initial legs were,
he leans a little bit for it.
So he's even more menacing now
because he's leaning over
everybody with his sickle.
It's true.
Almost like he wants to fall over though.
So much so that the grim reaper
may have drank a little too much.
He might have been over-served.
He's over-served hanging on his sickle.
Just leaning on his sickle.
It's pretty funny.
Well, they may have
had to turn him around
two or three times.
It's fine, it's fine.
I heard about some of that though.
Yeah, so you guys got all that up.
But yeah.
So it was a busy weekend.
But I'd love to hear about your weekend
because I think yours was a
little more fun and exciting.
Well, it didn't start
that way as you know.
And some of the parents I talked about--
They don't talk about Bruno?
Because we were actually
supposed to be in on Friday.
This is a Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday thing.
Everybody's coming in Friday.
Some people even came in Thursday.
And then through Monday
when our last game was
and people left Monday, some people
stayed till Tuesday.
This is a four to six
day thing for some people.
And this is a showcase for
all those that don't know.
This is not part of the league.
These are things that
certain levels of teams do.
They get together around
the country, showcases.
And literally they have
college coaches there.
They have USA coaches.
They have professional scouts there.
And you go and showcase your kids.
Now this is the first
year really of this age group
that any actual scouts will be there.
But there are.
There was a USA scout there.
That's how these things work.
So it is kind of a fun thing.
And it's a big deal for these kids.
It's a whole, I mean, there's,
I don't know how many teams are there
because it's not like it's open to
whoever wants to come in.
Whoever wants to do it.
But it's an invitational to some degree.
If you're at a certain level, you can
sign up for whatever.
I don't know.
But it's a big deal.
We have like a whole tent set up for,
there's all kinds of stuff set up.
There's eating tents.
There's merchant, there's merch tents,
which we always fill up on.
Always.
You know.
You can't not.
Yeah, everybody's got the
new sweatshirts and the hats
and all that kind of stuff.
So it's a big deal.
It's fun.
We played three of the top
100 teams in the country.
So it was good to see
how you kind of stack rank
against this.
I mean, if you look at
it at this age group,
there's probably 50,000 teams.
Right.
But these are the top,
anywhere from the top,
maybe 600 down, you might play in
something like this.
They usually try to put you near people
similar to your ranking.
And we're in the top 100.
I think we're 60-ish.
So we played quite a few
teams around the top 60 teams
in the country at this age group.
So it's a big deal.
That's why when parents
come in, they come in early,
you want to make sure
your kids are rested.
Yeah.
So all that's kind of
the long backstory of,
we were supposed to get
in early Friday morning,
the whole day there, first game Saturday.
Well, there was a domino effect.
And this is, I want to use
this as a teaching lesson.
When you say you're gonna
do something, you do it.
That's just how we raised our children.
Because it drives me bonkers.
But a professional, we'll call him,
said he was gonna do
something for me at my business.
And he didn't.
He's like, "Oh, I can't do it.
"I gotta do it now."
It was only like, instead of AM, it's PM.
I was like, "Okay, that's fine.
"We gotta be done.
"Oh, now it can't be PM.
"It's gotta be AM on another day."
Well, because of
that, that domino affected
all these other things.
Long story short, had
to change the AM flight.
And that was a direct.
So now it's like, okay, we can leave
just a little bit later.
I bought myself two more hours.
We have a layover now in Las
Vegas, which should be fine.
And then we'll just, we'll be there.
And we'll be there in plenty of time
because there's a team meeting at night
that you're supposed to be there for.
Yeah.
Okay.
What's the movie, Encantos?
Yes, Encantos.
Okay, Encantos.
If you have not seen the movie Encantos,
tell them about
Bruno, because I've talked
for like 100 minutes in a row here.
So there's a song called,
"We Don't Talk About Bruno,"
because Bruno was this bad, bad thing.
And they're like, "We
just don't talk about it.
"We just don't talk about it."
Anyway, so now back to your story.
I didn't have a whole
lot of backstory on,
"We Don't Talk About Bruno."
There's a whole song.
It's actually a pretty good song.
It's a great song.
But it's in this movie.
Yeah, and I don't need to sing it.
So our youngest and I were going,
and this was, there was a lot going on.
So I was trying to teach life skills.
Like, this is an elephant, buddy,
because it was a lot to get done.
There was a lot going on. It was.
It was rushed, because
we had to do something
that morning now.
That's why everything changed.
Yep.
And that morning was
hectic even before we got
Really what?
The ID in our heads to go to the airport.
There was a lot going on.
I didn't take a shower.
It was just whatever.
It's crazy.
But I was like, "Buddy, it's okay.
"We just need, we're eating an elephant,
"and how do you eat an elephant?"
One bite at a time.
So what's our first step?
I was like, "This was this one,
"so now we've done that one.
"Now the next bite is
just getting to the airport.
"And then the next bite's
getting through security,
"because government's
shut down right now,
"so we weren't sure how TSA would be."
Yep.
But surely we were
taking all these bites,
and everything was okay,
kind of going as it should have been
till we got to Vegas.
And Las Vegas,
like I don't know how to
affect the metaphor on this.
You have a good way to
affect that metaphor,
but it flipped it on its head.
It was a dumpster fire.
Long story short, we were in
Vegas for like seven hours.
We lived in Vegas.
Yes.
It rained there how many times?
Four.
Yeah.
Four.
In the entire times we lived.
In two years.
In Vegas.
Yeah.
Well there was storms
coming through Vegas,
thunderstorms, lightning storms.
Literally, I took a picture of it.
You know how you look at the radar,
and you got green, you got red,
where it's really
intense, and lightning and stuff.
Well, literally, and I
might try to put it on here,
the red just is a circle.
The red from the thunderstorm is a circle
around only the Las Vegas airport.
100%.
I bet the stratosphere on
the north side of the strip
was fine.
It was literally just around the airport.
It's in the runways itself.
It's itself.
It didn't touch, only airport real estate
was encapsulated by this red.
It was insane.
Yeah, that was just one of them.
But it was just like, it
was just rolling storms
and lightning, it was like a soccer game.
Every time there was a lightning strike
within three miles,
they closed the airport.
So we were there for like seven hours.
And it was
nightmarish, I tried to change,
because sometimes I've traveled enough
that sometimes later
flights will actually leave
earlier than sooner flights,
than the earlier flights,
because of how everything works.
Because, well, we're
sitting there five hours,
we were supposed to land
five hours ago in San Diego.
Well, our pilot was
still in LAX in Los Angeles.
And we're like, this
one was supposed to be
leaving in 20 minutes.
Its pilot was supposedly there,
because it was boarding in 20 minutes.
So I got into this
flight, which is great.
Fantastic.
Literally, like the
second I confirmed that,
it got delayed two more hours.
So now the new flight was leaving
an hour after the old flight.
Yes.
Oh, and so, okay, I can
go back to my old flight,
but guess what?
You lost your priority boarding.
Now you're in the bag.
So I actually kept it
together the whole day.
Which is astonishing,
because there's a lot of patience
involved in this day.
There was a lot.
And patience, it's
about you, I don't have.
Yes, you-- Struggle.
Often tell me, one of the
first things I knew about you,
by your own admission was,
patience is a virtue I do not possess.
Anyways.
Although you are getting way better.
Thanks, so I'm turning this
whole thing into 10 minutes.
I'm turning a long story into 10 minutes,
but I mean, I'm turning a long story
into a longer story than it needs to be.
But by the end of it, we
didn't get in till midnight,
1 a.m., heads hit the bed.
Yeah.
Team meeting was at 7.30 that night.
With this team, if
you miss a team meeting,
you're not playing.
You're not playing.
I was communicating,
can't control the weather,
which is true, I can't as much as I tried
to control everything.
That's exactly right.
So Coach was thankfully very--
He was.
Understanding-- So understanding.
Of the situation.
And that's part of it
too, we tell our kids,
hey, we're on time
almost everywhere we go.
So the one time that you're not on time,
if you make it effort--
Right, you're communicating.
Generally speaking,
you'll get a little bit of a--
Right, right.
They'll give you some space there.
Yeah.
Because you're almost
always checking the box.
Right.
Anyway, so some of the
parents knew I was late,
they're like, how was your flight?
And what time did you get in?
And our youngest and I were like,
we're just not talking about it,
because he was frustrated,
and he doesn't have patience either.
No.
And he did a good job, for the most part,
for an 11-year-old
trying to hold it together,
sitting in an airport for seven hours,
constantly, you know.
Like--
What's happening, this, that, this?
Right.
So we just ended up
saying, you know what,
we're just not gonna talk about Bruno.
We're gonna talk about Bruno.
So I told all the parents, I was like,
we got in seven hours
after we were supposed to,
we don't talk about Bruno.
But it was literally,
I told people this too,
short of catastrophes in our lives,
like non-material, bad days,
this was by far the worst
day I probably have ever had.
Of just like bad luck
after bad luck after bad luck.
I'm very trying.
Yeah, well the straw for me
that broke the camel's back,
sitting, I mean, and
you can even ask the kids
that were home with
me, I was stressed out
because I was like, oh my
gosh, is he gonna get to play?
They're just sitting
there, like what's gonna happen?
Are they gonna have to drive?
And I'm completely out of the loop
and I can't control anything.
But it was, so it was a
stressful weekend here
because I was working a lot.
And so I was like, you know what,
I'm just gonna stay up most
of the night, I'm gonna work.
And so you landed at
1230 local time here,
you said you landed and
then I saw at like 1.15
that you were still at
the rental car place.
So I texted you going,
hey, are you really still
at the rental car place?
And you never even read the text.
I get a call at 1.45 in
the morning, central time,
and it is our
youngest, it's a FaceTime call
and he is absolutely
beside himself, crying.
I don't know where dad is.
I can't find dad anywhere.
I haven't seen him in 30 minutes.
I don't know where he is.
I, in that moment, I
cannot tell you how sick I was.
Like I know I had
texted you 30 minutes before,
you never respond,
you never even read it.
Now our youngest who's 11 in Las Vegas
doesn't know where
you are for 30 minutes.
I remember San Diego
by that time, but yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
sorry, you were in San Diego.
Oh my gosh, and so like
trying to be calm for him
because he is, he's losing it quick.
And so I called you and
I got him to calm down
and then I called you
and you were actually
headed back to him.
I was actually
jogging when you called me.
Yeah, in that moment you
were jogging back to him,
but the reason, and this
was, you did a brilliant thing
because you actually got a
car that night because of it,
but you're like, you, I
think, put it and said,
"Hey, stay in this car, I'm gonna go and
talk to the people."
And it just, at the rental car place
because they canceled your reservation.
Well, everybody who travels enough knows
every now and again, if it's late enough,
there's no cars available
because people don't return them
or people keep them one more day or
they're late, whatever.
They go somewhere else with the car.
Well, Hertz, who I've been with forever,
I've got all the perks with
them, and I had a reservation.
They didn't have a car for me.
And there was multiple people online
yelling at the two
guys that were in there.
It's 12.30 a.m. and they're like,
"What's the use of having a reservation
"if you don't have a car for me?"
And I'm like, what he said.
Yeah, ditto, ditto on him.
He's like, "I can't rent
you one, there's no cars."
And I was like, "But I put in my flight
number and everything
"so you knew that's
supposed to hold it for me
"even though I'm delayed."
And they're like, "Well, we
only hold it for two hours."
I'm like, "Two hours?
"Well, if I'm delayed three
hours or seven, it's no go."
And I checked their website, actually.
It does say different
than that on their website
because I thought that was suspicious.
This guy had zero customer service.
Maybe he'd already been
yelled at a thousand times.
Probably.
But I was lucky in the fact
that I just happened to be,
because I get from President's Circle,
so you just could take whatever you want.
Someone pulled up a car into it.
And I got in it, tried
to check out, couldn't.
So I had to come back through.
So I hid the car around in a corner
that I thought was safe in the car.
So I hid it.
It wasn't out where anybody could get
into it and take it.
I'll be right back.
You're safe.
Lock the doors.
I'll be right back.
I have to go get this car.
The guy wouldn't have rented me one,
but I told him, he's like, "There's no
cars, there's no cars."
I'm like, "I've already got a car.
All I needed you to do is
put my name in the computer.
I've already got the car."
He didn't understand.
He was like, "You don't understand."
What do you mean?
I've got a car.
My son is in it.
My luggage is in it.
He's like, "You have the key?"
I'm like, "No, my son's
in the car right now."
And that was the only
reason I got the car that night.
But he wouldn't give me
my corporate rate for it.
It was a whole thing.
So again, it was
like, don't talk about it.
Don't talk about it.
Yeah.
But that was honestly a scary--
I had a cherry on the cake, for sure.
Yeah, but I mean, the
reason I kept him in there,
I guess I could've taken the keys.
But at the time, I was so just done.
Well, and I don't, yeah.
It was a 30 more minute
travel up to the hotel.
You would've had no idea that it was
gonna take 30 minutes.
It could've been five minutes.
You walk in there and you walk out.
Not a big deal.
Like no harm, no foul.
You could not have
foreseen what was happening
in the actual office
of the rental car place.
Oh my gosh, but I was terrified.
Like I just had panic.
And you were up because
you, before we left you,
it said like, I'll miss you,
but you're not gonna miss me
because I gotta work all weekend anyways.
Right, right.
So you were up at the
same time, just working away.
Just working away.
Now thinking something
terrible had happened.
So yeah, it was a great
weekend minus the first 24 hours.
24 hours, 24 hours were
honestly some of the most
frustrating worst days I
probably have ever had.
And I tried not to let that hangover.
We both did a fairly good job.
We just made a joke out of it and said,
we don't talk about Bruno.
We don't talk about Bruno.
And I think that's gonna stick right.
Even the kids asked
today, like how much is it?
We don't talk about Bruno.
That's funny.
Which, so then after that
though, I mean, was it fun?
Yeah, we had a great time.
It was a great time.
You know, it's weird because
there's only one game a day.
Usually when we travel
for like league games,
we have one or two games
or we have another game.
I mean, it just seems
like it's more packed.
This one was like one game.
I mean, you got 24
hours, you got another game,
you got 24 hours, another game.
So we were there for a long time.
I'm just, I'm cognizant of
how much I've been talking
this time, but you
and I haven't caught up.
I know, I know.
So I'll just talk to you like I would
normally talk to you.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, like we had a great time.
The games were good.
The boys played well.
It was a good stress
test for them, I think,
because we're ranked highly here.
So Cal's known for being one of the other
really strong point, strong areas.
There's three of
them, that's one of them.
We're one of them.
And you know, we are one, one and one.
So we won one, we tied one, we lost one.
The one we won, we
probably should have won
by a little bit more.
The one we tied, oh wait, no, no, no, no.
The one we tied, we should have won by a,
we probably should have won.
I think you should have won, yeah.
The one we tied, we
stole, we played horrible,
and it was too tough
to tell if we played bad
because we just played
bad, or if the other team was,
team's play made us play bad.
You know what I mean?
Like pushed us out of our comfort zone.
It was kind of tough to tell,
but I didn't think we
played all that well,
but we ended up eking out a--
A win.
A win, you know, our youngest,
he got a goal in that game,
he ended up earning the final PK,
which should have been a
red card, and it wasn't,
last man.
But he earned the PK on
it, so all good things there.
And then that last game, I
know you got to watch him,
but it was like that last one, it was
like the air was out.
It was.
Of the balloon.
And unfortunately, I
think it is what it is,
we lost three nothing in that one.
It was just a wasted show.
Yeah.
Really?
I didn't think, and you
could just kind of feel it
that morning too.
You could see it, for sure, watching it.
You could just see it.
Yeah.
And hey, you're gonna have those games,
these are youth sports
still, even the professionals.
Like you sometimes have
games where you're like,
really, what just
happened to my team there?
Yeah, it's tough.
And the coach even said it, you know,
he said it's tough to
play three top 100 teams
back to back to back.
Yeah.
I mean, it takes a lot to do that at 11,
well, I mean, Liam, I guess, is one of
only two 11 year olds
on the team still, everybody's 12 now,
but it's a lot to ask of 12 year olds.
Heck yeah.
When an 11 year old, you know,
there's two of them left on the team, so.
Right, right.
You know, so that's what it was.
But I think it's fun
for the kids, you know.
Some of my favorite
memories were traveling
to soccer tournaments and
running around the hotel
and, you know, getting
into, not into trouble,
but you know, just
having some independence.
That's absolutely right, yeah.
Within the walls of the hotel, hopefully.
Exactly.
And I do love the type of hotel,
I mean, you were in an Embassy Suites.
Those are always great for tournaments
because they do provide a
lot of area for the kids to go
where they don't even
have to leave the premises.
Yeah.
And you're like, okay,
you guys can spread out,
you guys can do your thing.
Our daughter had a tournament and we
stayed at one of those
and it was really
great, because it was like,
oh yeah, look who's down there,
you wanna go down and
talk to those girls?
Oh yeah, sure, you're all gonna go down.
You know, you're like, okay, go.
I know you're gonna be okay.
And as long as I don't
hear from the front desk clerk
that you guys are making
too much noise, I'm good.
Yeah, the only thing
that just bugs me about it
is like, the boys, it's
just this generational thing
and I gotta get over
it as our generation.
But their together time is
spent sitting at a table,
every one of them on their phone.
Now, I don't know if
they have some airplay
that they can play a game
together, like one or two of them.
I know they're not all doing it.
They might all be playing
the same game, not together.
You know, but that's
their social interaction
and it's just like,
you can't tell your son,
hey, put your phone away,
because that's what everybody's doing.
They're all doing, yeah.
It would be nice for them
all to put their phones away.
I mean, like-- Right.
I just, I grew up without phones.
I know. And those, you know,
at those things, we had a lot of fun.
That's how you make relationships,
you learn how to interact, social.
So it'll just be
interesting, I think, long term,
just to see how, I don't
know, maybe it's better somehow,
but I don't think it is.
I don't know that it is, but,
because I know that the last travel thing
that we did with the team,
like a whole group of them
were downstairs playing spoons.
Like the card game spoons, right?
And they had plastic spoons
in the middle of the table
and they had a blast,
like no phones involved.
That's what you're supposed to do.
And I was like, spoons is a fun game.
Yeah, yeah.
That was fun and then,
I don't usually stay up with the parents.
I usually am too tired or I go to bed
or being a natural introvert,
I just kind of like,
I'm out of energy already
from probably socializing
the whole part of the day,
because that just, as an introvert,
it takes energy out of you.
Yeah, for sure.
I did stay up with them.
I did stay with the
parents two nights in a row,
so it was Saturday, Sunday night.
And that was a lot of fun,
just hanging out with the parents there,
just talking about
anything and everything.
Everybody's just kind of joking around.
We had college football on Saturday,
we had Sunday football Sunday.
The one thing I will
say that was just crazy.
And I tell you about this at all,
like just how we got
treated like children.
I mentioned it just slightly.
So the first night was fine.
I mean, I was actually buying
drinks from the bar that night,
a bourbon from the bar.
You get big ice cubes with that.
They actually had like
bourbon ice cubes, so it was nice.
Oh, nice.
But so overpriced, it was unbelievable.
Oh, yeah.
So most of the, every
other get together like this,
and it's not like, I used to think like,
oh, these parents are drinking,
you know, when they're at these things.
It's what everybody does.
It's just what everybody does.
It's to be expected.
Exactly.
So some of the dads had, you know,
beer and like a little, you know, case
or something like that, you know,
because they're not going
to buy it from the bar for,
you know, $20 a beer.
You know, bourbon was,
you know, $25 for a double.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean, I could have bought a whole
bottle for two glasses.
Oh my gosh.
Should have taken that
bottle from Mexico that we bought.
Yeah, yeah.
I know, I've left so much
bourbon in different places
because we thought it
would be good to buy it.
Anyway, so I did buy
one the second night,
but because the first night,
I think they caught on to us doing that.
The other dad's doing that.
And there were some
security guards that were there
after I went to bed that were like,
you guys aren't allowed to
bring an outside alcohol.
And like, that's fine.
Everybody says that,
but nobody enforces that.
Right.
And maybe this is a
California thing, I don't know.
But the next night, these
ladies that were at the bar
were just harassing us.
Like they were the, you
know, the alcohol police.
They were like sniffing around.
They came out multiple times.
Like, you don't have any
outside alcohol out here, do you?
And then we'd go inside to get something
and they were just grumbling about us.
Like, oh, they want the nice ice cubes.
Those are for paying customers.
And they were so mad at us.
That's crazy.
Yeah, and like the security
guards kept doing drive-bys
all the time.
And it's like, what are you doing?
So like, now we're all like trying to,
like now we're trying to
like mask it a little bit.
You're like tailgating in college, right?
Because you're drinking underage
and you're trying to hide it, right?
Well, we're smart enough.
Like I had bought a bottle of bourbon
and I put it in a
Gatorade bottle, you know?
That's totally the wrong color.
They don't make a
Gatorade that color, my love.
There was a whole, yeah,
we had a whole conversation
about that too.
That was, yeah.
What kind of Gatorade is that?
Mike was dehydrated,
sitting in the car all day.
You know, that was his Gatorade bottle.
(laughing)
That is disgusting.
(laughing)
That is disgusting.
Yeah.
That's what we did in college, right?
We'd empty out a soda can,
add alcohol to the soda can,
and then it looks like
you're drinking Sprite.
But that's what we were all having to do.
Everybody's like hiding things.
Like there's one time
I asked for some ice
and I just joked with her.
I said, I can't get one of
those big ice cubes, can I?
And she's like, what
are you gonna do with it?
And I wanted to ask like--
Suck on it?
Yeah, I got my--
Like it?
My knee hurts.
Like I need to ice my knee
and that one will not melt as fast.
Like what do you think
I'm gonna do with it?
I'm gonna pour some bourbon on it.
I'm gonna pour, you know,
I'm gonna have a sipper.
But it was like, thanks mom or police.
They were so, they were over the top.
I'm a rule follower by nature.
For sure.
But we weren't causing trouble at all.
We were sitting in an
area just like this,
not being loud, not being rambunctious,
not making problems for anybody,
just talking amongst the 12 of us.
Your middle-aged parents.
Yeah.
Like what are you going to do?
Right, but I mean, they chased them out.
Like after some of us went to dinner,
like you can't be in here,
you can't be in a public place.
Then like some of them were out front,
like you can't be out front of here.
Like we're waiting on an Uber.
Some of them were saying like,
we're just waiting on an Uber.
And they're like chasing them around
for hours and hours and hours.
I mean, I honestly, it felt like a child
being, you know, chaperoned.
Yeah, that's insane.
Yeah, and all their little comments,
like, oh, it's for paying customers.
Like, well, we did.
I mean, we paid for
your overcharged rooms
and your overcharged liquor last night.
Right.
So that was, I'm not trying to be
negative here at all,
but that did add a little bit of a,
you kind of laughed about it,
but I mean, it hung over everybody.
Like, are you kidding me?
Yeah, yeah.
Like give me a break, but anyways.
That's just crazy.
It was fun.
It was fun getting to know.
I hung out with some
people I hadn't hung out before.
And so it was nice just
getting to know people and talking.
Yeah.
You know?
That's awesome.
I do love that.
And some of the moms are
down there for a while hanging,
you know, mostly with the moms too,
but I mean, everybody was
interacting a little bit
because sometimes it's
like dads and then moms
are somewhere else, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So they kind of hung.
There was a couple of couples there,
but not too many, but a
couple couples were there.
Yeah.
You know, it was just fun.
That's awesome.
I'm a little jealous
that you got to hang out
with all the soccer friends.
I stay up there than I usually do
because I think I was in
bed by 10 30, 11 every night,
but that was one o'clock our time.
So I was exhausted.
Yeah.
But 10 30 wasn't bad.
Right, right.
Honestly, based on our time, you know?
I did feel like I was out till 3 a.m.
and I had drank, you
know, more than, you know,
a glass, you know, at the house,
it's like, you know, a
glass and a half maybe.
Right, right.
You know, just to enjoy it, you know?
But over five hours there, you know,
I'm sipping on like three glasses.
Yeah.
And then one night, one of the parents,
they joined us at like 9
45 and the bar closed at 10.
Yeah.
And they bought shots of, um,
patroned for everybody.
Oh, golly.
(laughing)
Which was super nice.
I can only imagine the
check they wrote for that.
Right.
Because I was like 12 shots probably.
Oh my gosh.
So thank you for that.
But I was also like,
whoa, I'm going to bed
in like 30 minutes and
I'm pouring a shot of it.
A shot?
And they were not small shots.
I guess you got your money there?
I didn't finish my, I
didn't finish my whiskey on that.
Yeah.
I was like, I gotta
trade one for the other.
Anyways.
Well, mine was like a dry weekend
because I'm hanging out
with the kids and it's like,
well, it's not fun to have.
Were you dry the whole weekend?
You didn't drink?
I had a glass of wine on Sunday night.
Oh, okay.
I was just happy to
surprise a glass or two of wine.
It's not a big deal.
I didn't on, I didn't any other night.
Cause it was, it was just like, whatever.
I'm hanging out with the kids.
Like, which is great.
Like everyone, well, I
don't know about everyone,
but people tell you
like, hey, have date nights
with your kids, right?
Take one child by themselves and spend
that time with them.
And it's like, I kind of
feel like these weekends,
as hard as they are
when you and I are apart,
it does give you
one-on-one time with a kid.
It gave me, I guess
it was two-on-one time,
but it's still really good.
I mean, at dinner, to just
have those conversations,
I was like, I love the ages you are,
but I was surprised at
how busy this would be.
And I got to hear all about, I mean,
they were just chatting away, you know?
And so it was, that's the benefit,
even though it's really hard being away.
Yeah, they hit that age, like we said,
like two years ago, maybe,
where we can sit at a dinner,
whether it's two-on-one or
one-on-one or all five of us,
and we just have
really good conversation.
And they like that. They do.
Especially when we
haven't had it in a while,
which I think makes me
feel like in the end,
hopefully we're doing
the things right, you know?
That they want to have that.
There's times when like,
hey, do you guys wanna go
watch a movie, because we'll watch,
we'll eat and watch a
movie at the same time,
just to try to fit it in.
And there's a lot of
times where we're like,
well, can we just have
a family dinner tonight?
Right.
Or a game night, so we just interact.
Right.
We're like, yeah.
Right.
Did I attack you?
It was like right in my eye, sorry.
I'm like seeing stuff.
Yeah, there's one here.
And that's one reason why
I wanted to take them out
to dinner one night, because it's
different when we're home
and you door dash,
because then it's like,
well, let's turn on a movie,
and then you don't talk as much.
But when you're at a restaurant,
there's nothing else to
distract you, you know?
And so you just sit there and talk.
Yeah.
So that's why I really wanted to do that,
you know, with them,
because it's like
these times are fleeting.
They are, they really are.
They're gonna go fast.
But also my weekend was really good.
Just, you know, we're
lucky that this team
really is a pretty good team of parents.
And I could go down the list
and everybody's
sitting at that table there,
just learning about
people and hearing them
and just stories and just laughing.
I mean, you know,
obviously, you know, Mike's there.
I think I can use first
names at least, you know.
Mike's always ready for a good laugh.
Oh my gosh, so funny.
He and I were lobbing back and forth
and I did my first Mike impression.
Oh, I love it.
You gotta kick out of it, I think so.
If I can make Mike laugh,
you gotta be like,
okay, my job's done here.
You've done well.
Yeah, we had to finally drink with Jamie.
I know I've missed Jamie
a couple times or not, so.
I don't wanna go
through and name everybody,
but, you know, it was great.
It was great.
That's awesome.
I had something else to say on that one.
I don't remember what it was, but.
I think this is the, and
this may take you off track,
but stop me if you
remember what you were gonna say.
I think the time of life that
we're in is like your friends
because you don't have
time for maybe friends
that aren't doing the
same things that you do
because you're just so busy all the time.
We talk about it, right?
It's the four things
and you can only have two
or three or whatever.
You have to let one go.
But your friends become the people
who are doing the same
things that you're doing.
So it's the people that you're sitting
on the soccer sidelines
with or at the track field,
whether track with, not track field,
but you know what I meant.
As opposed to like kids
who are doing other things.
Like your friend group
becomes parents of the kids
that are doing the same thing.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And I think for the most part,
this group, as you well know,
as much as everybody does
cheer for their own kid,
and at this age, you're
still one of your own kids
to develop, I think,
especially the ones we've been with
for a long time, I
mean, I know I care about
some of their kids and
how well they're doing
and any of that stuff.
And I feel that reciprocally.
That one got me too,
straight into the face.
I know, and it's a big one.
Kamikaze in my cheek.
But that's what's nice about it.
It has that family feel to it because
some of us have been
around together for a long time,
but I think everybody does truly care,
for the most part on that team,
about everybody else's kids and whatnot.
It was fun, it was fun.
Good.
Yeah, but I was glad to be home,
because for me, I'm exhausted.
Again, the whole
introvert thing, I was on a lot.
Not that I was center of attention,
but just trying to be outgoing
is something I have to actually...
Yeah, that's a drain for you.
Exert energy to do.
I have to actually be
conscious about talking
and you know what I mean.
Now bourbon helps, I
probably drink more bourbon
than I should have for a
three day period, but...
That's pretty funny.
You're like, "Do you
wanna have a sip of tonight?"
I'm like, "Not really."
Not really, yeah.
I wanna still enjoy bourbon.
Yeah, yeah.
Not that I drink that much.
Well, yeah, but I'm the same way.
If we have a glass of
wine during the week,
I don't really, or even if
there's two nights a week
that we could have a glass of wine,
I don't usually drink bourbon,
but at least not during the week.
Your seasonal old
fashions are incredible.
Oh my gosh, yeah, come
Thanksgiving, that's my drink.
But yeah, I'm like, yeah, when the
weekend comes around,
if I've had a glass of wine
on a Tuesday and a Wednesday,
I'm like, "Yeah, I don't need it.
That's funny."
Yeah, yeah.
So, well, should we have this one up?
Probably.
I know, especially since I
have no idea where our dog is.
Yeah, Paris.
I thought you were gonna pick her up.
I know.
Make her first appearance, Paris.
Anyways.
Well, let's, I guess,
summarize this last week
for ourselves and we can move on.
That's good.
Goodness gracious.
It's tough.
Well, you're thinking,
though, I will just say,
it's just so nice to be home.
That's what I was
gonna say earlier, is like,
it's nice to spend all this
time with those good people
and thank God they're good people.
But three, four days like that, out of
the regular routine,
out of hanging out with
my spouse, my best friend.
To be away from that,
like, last night I came home,
I wasn't in a bad mood, but I was tired.
It all hit me at once.
And it's just so nice
to get home to routine,
your house, your stuff.
Because I was just, for me,
not only that's where the heart is,
but that's where my peace is.
That's where my, everything is.
So to get back to the other
kids and all that kind of stuff,
it's just, that's settling for me.
That's calming.
So it's just, it's
nice to get back to that.
And for me, being
still here the whole time,
it's one thing when it's
one night or two nights.
Like, because you've
traveled your whole career,
like, I'm used to you
being gone one or two nights,
that third night is just lonely.
You turn off the light
and you're just like,
gosh, this is just lonely.
It's sad.
It's like there's just a heaviness
when your partner, your best friend,
they're just not there and it is, yeah.
I just felt, it's that third night that,
oh my gosh, please get home.
I am ready for you to be home.
We could have done
that a little bit longer
if the whole family was there.
Yes.
It was just like when we were in Cancun.
I was like, pie could
have done that longer,
but it would have been
great to have the kids.
Yeah.
You know, it's just like,
that's just where we're at.
These are our people.
Yep, these are our people.
That's exactly right.
All right, did you think of a word?
Oh, gosh, I wish.
All right, I'm ready.
One, two, three.
Juggling. Go time.
I have another hyphenated.
I know, I think hyphenated works.
Yeah.
Okay, do your go time.
Well, it was just, as you know,
last week was just crazy
with everything at work,
for me, for you, it was just like,
we have to do this, this, this, this.
I mean, like, it just hasn't been a time,
even since Cancun, we
hit the ground running.
Yes.
We talked about that last week.
Yeah.
We just literally haven't stopped,
and then I had, don't
talk about Bruno Day,
and then four more days in San Diego,
and then back last night at 1 a.m.,
and then your whole day at work today,
and you were gone today
at work in the office.
Yeah.
So literally, this is the first time
we've seen each other.
That sounds like go time to me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For the last week.
Yeah.
And yours was?
Juggling.
Because it is, it was just constant like,
we got this, and we got
this, and we got this,
and oh, you're throwing me another ball.
Here we go, here we go, you know.
So, similar, just a different peek on it.
Yeah, yeah, I get it.
Oh.
All right, well, let's call it.
We're going long as it is.
All right.
All right, well, we will
see you guys next week, maybe?
Yeah.
All right, have a good weekend.
That's really awesome.
Thanks for tuning in.
Show show.
Talk to you, see ya.
Bye.
Paris!