Reminiscing...

Can it be that it was just two weeks ago? When we were walking through the orange groves outside Tyrinth, or moseying our way through the pedestrian streets of Marousi? Could it be that we celebrated the first (and official) of Irini's birthday's on her actual day of birth (the second such celebration took place just this past Sunday morning - poolside with a chocolate cake covered in multi-colored M&Ms)? Is it possible that we met Monica for the first time just a month ago? Can it be that just a few short weeks ago we were enjoying Christmas-eve dinner with Ralph, Anne and Maria (and Maria)?

Before heading back to Greece for this vacation Laurence was in a self-proclaimed "mid life crisis". His head was swirling in the realization that inspiration was running dry, that professional life had reached the proverbial "rut" and that the family life had reached the point of an amazing consumption of time spent preparing for, participating in, or just having come out of either naps, feeding or pooping. Was this was "mid life" was all about? And then Natalia reminded him: "You haven't been home in a year and a half". Suddenly Laurence recognized just how true that statement was.

The subsequent weeks were spent partly enjoying the social touch of friends and family and partly spent in seeming endless hours of various government offices doing paperwork that it now happily forgotten (well, not completely). But in just under three weeks Greece was able to restore a good deal of mental stability and balance to Laurence. The cool air. The Greek language. The friends so often missed for so long. The conversations on economy (and there were many of those!), and politics and soccer and corruption. Catching up for a year and a half. And now something new.... surrounded with high school friends, but only this time as parents. What a new and wonderful experience.

Now that we've returned morale, memory and mental balance have been restored, and Greece has, once again, shown itself to be more than the myriad of woes that brazenly cover the newspaper front covers. It is also the walk in Kifissia, the rizogalo at Varsos, the mediocre frape at any plateia (square). Rut or not, Laurence (and the rest of the family) is ready once again to face the future and take things in stride.

Victory Smiles :-)

It's sometimes difficult to go from the quiet and relaxation of vacation back to "full swing" of essentially living on campus and coaching/teaching with purpose. Our return to KL was on Saturday morning and on Sunday at 9:40 am, Laurence was walking to school to open the gym for the first practice of 2011. On the other end, waiting outside the gym, was the team he has been happily coaching this year with Scott. Laurence loves coaching, of course, and over the years has been fortunate to coach some great girls.

This year was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Seven of the 14 girls on the roster are ninth graders. Three are 10th graders. There are no juniors. But somehow, along the way, this team worked out to be quite a talented bunch of girls. As with any team there comes a "click" moment, when the players "get it" and suddenly they stop playing individual basketball and working much more like an organized group. This happened just before the December break for these girls.... and so when January 9th came along it was back to the gym for the final dash to the IASAS tournament finish line. Running, running, running. Oh, and some shooting and a few plays scattered here and there.

The almost final (IASAS is this coming weekend) was a superior performance at the ISKL invitational cup this past weekend. The girls went undefeated and currently stand at 9 wins in their last 10 games, including a stretch of 7 consecutive wins. The girls can't believe it. Laurence can't believe it. But is sure is nice!

Obviously everyone is delighted. The girls who have been around for more than this year have never experienced success like this and it only gives them something to dream about when we head to Manila on Wednesday. Our seniors have never won a game at IASAS in their career, but we also haven't had such a good team during their tenure here. This team seems destined for a little more, even if it is a rebuilding year. :-)

Let's see what IASAS has in store for us. We dream, we hope, we run.

New Year, New Family!

Way back in May, Walter came to Malaysia to visit the family and to meet his new granddaughter. As soon as he got off the plane Natalia and Laurence noticed "something" about him. He seemed more filled with energy, happier, more optimistic. He seemed like his mind was wandering more frequently, thinking of other things. He was singing, dancing. He was laughing and happy. Of course that's not to say that he isn't that way normally, but there was a distinct difference in the way he carried himself; almost a unique combination of teenage-optimism-meets-retiree-wisdom kind of thing.

After some prodding it turned out that, in fact, he had rekindled a 'friendship' with an old flame, Monica. We had known of Monica from stories of a previous life, before our family had become just that, but we soon found out that we were about to get to know her a little better...

After a half-century hiatus, the lightning re-introduction took only weeks. First through a letter from Monica. Then through emails (lots of emails!). Then a Skype meeting, followed by others. Soon enough Monica was visiting Athens, and then Walter Sweden. It was a very short (and surprisingly speedy) while before propositions were made and plans set for a wedding.

And so, on January 8th - in the presence of Aleko, Diana P., Stefan and Vicky, Alexi and Monica's son Jovo, brother and his partner - Walter and Monica (in our circles knows as "Moca" as Irini has christened her) were married under a fittingly beautiful clear blue sky, on a rooftop in Plaka, looking up to the Parthenon and the clouds beyond. It was a day fittingly filled with clarity, with sunlight and with love.

As our new chapters of additional family members of the baby sort are added it is good to know that, even after retirement and the painful loss of a spouse, the story does not quite end. There is love to be found in the past, in the present, in the future. Love, it would seem, knows no boundaries.