In Search of a Common Goal

A large portion of the Excellente crew got together in North Carolina this past weekend. The excuse for the get-together was the Panther’s/Patriots’ pre-season game. Dave had gone last year, and my brother-in-law Matt had such a good time, he invited the whole family this year.

Of course, good times can never quite be replicated.

When this group gets together, not only are we going in different directions at different times, we have very different goals in mind.

Our goals for that Friday night, in no particular order:

• Go bar hopping
• Have a nice dinner
• Watch a football game
• Root our team – and especially our quarterback – on to victory
• Have your parents behave and not embarrass you
• Avoid melting into a puddle while having hot flashes in the Charlotte heat and humidity

All of the above goals were partially met. Except for the last one. That one was not met at all.

You might have noticed we were not seated in the front row. We were indeed seated in the very last row of the stadium, much to the embarrassment of my sister Jo who had purchased the tickets. I consider myself to be in fairly good shape. There are not many times when I can remember saying to myself “I’m not sure I’m going to make it.” One was childbirth. Another was climbing the stairs to those seats.

The next day Jo had a migraine. Three theories were put forth as to the source of the migraine:

1. the cheese on the flatbread
2. dehydration
3. family

While Jo was in bed, the rest of us had a lovely day. That might have been because we were in two separate groups. One group golfed while the other group went to the pool.

And that evening, we had another excellente dinner where the only thing we argued about was which tapa was the best.

Sunday suffered a little from no one being willing to put a firm plan in motion. Again, we had various goals:

• School shopping
• Having lunch
• Making our flights
• Avoid melting into a puddle while having hot flashes in the Charlotte heat and humidity

At some point during the confusion and lack of planning, I ended up in a car alone with my brother-in-law Matt. Those of you who know us know how odd that sounds. But, at one point during the ride, oil and water actually mixed. We both formulated a plan to go back to the house and take a nap on the screened-in porch under the fan – him on one end of the couch and me on the other.

In this case, all goals were met.

The last time I was in Charlotte, I spent most of my time at Sue’s house. This time, I was at Jo’s. So I will close with some photos of her beautiful gardens.