In the current madness that is my life, I’ve been alternately worried about dropping a ball while patting myself on the back for not dropping a ball.   Friday night, I realized I dropped a ball.  Not a big one, just as I was crawling into bed about 10 pm Friday night, I realized I hadn’t washed Edie’s soccer uniform.  Which meant it had sat and smouldered in her laundry basket all week and was going to be smelling fully ripe for her game in the morning.  I assured myself I’d wash it just as soon as she got home and got it off her back the next day.

Saturday she had a late game – 11:40.  She didn’t bother getting herself out of bed until about 11:15.  She’s fast becoming a teenager in her sleep habits and given her unpleasant nature upon first waking up, I let her lounge in bed as long as her little heart desires when she gets the chance.   After grabbing a quick breakfast, she started to get dressed for her game.  Which started at 11:40.  She couldn’t find her shirt.  It wasn’t in her bathroom, it wasn’t in her laundry basket and all three of us rummaged in the pile at the bottom of the laundry chute in the basement to confirm it wasn’t there either.  Suddenly I remembered that after soccer last week, she had taken off down the street to her friend Charlotte’s, where she ended up spending the night before heading to the Dogwood Festival last Sunday.  And that she probably left her shirt at Charlotte’s.  A few frantic phone calls and texts on our part later and we discovered that Charlotte & her mom were out of town.  Which meant Edie had no shirt to wear to her game.  That was starting in 10 minutes, at 11:40.

Her team color this  year is royal blue.  For the better part of the last 3 years, she’s played on the hunter green team.  She’s got a drawer full of hunter green soccer shirts – all with the same number.  But royal blue?  Forgetaboutit. More frantic phone calls on the part of her parents ensued, only to realize that everyone else was en route to the game, so there was no getting a spare shirt.  She grabbed one of her navy blue Auburn t-shirts out of her laundry basket, put it on inside out and off we went.

Thankfully, there was another girl on her team who couldn’t locate her team shirt either, so she didn’t completely stand out.  And Sunday, when Charlotte got home, the shirt was located.  In a huge preemptive move, the shirt is currently in the dryer part of the laundry cycle, so that it will be ready to go for this Saturday’s game.  I’m pretty sure that having her shirt clean this many days in advance will prompt another freak spring snowstorm in these parts, but such is life.  I was out of clean underwear, so a load of laundry was a necessary task.  The shirt was just helping to fill out a load.

Of course, I just walked out to the front porch for something and noticed her royal blue soccer socks sitting on a chair.  Looks like there will be another load of laundry in my future this week too.  But at least this week we will know where her soccer uniform is come Saturday morning.