September has been another good (and busy) month for our family. Each of the kids has been actively involved in one or more activities, and while the family trips of the summer are behind us, Jessica and I each had a work trip this month that took us out of town for a few days.
As far as the kids go, Ava is off to a great start in high school. Even though she played the trumpet for all 3 years of middle school, she was hesitant to join the band in high school. It took a lot of convincing by Jessica and me throughout the summer to get her on board, but she eventually listened and now readily admits that it was the right thing to do. She instantly fell in with a good group of kids and has many more friends than she had in middle school. She joined the marching band and regularly spends her free time outside of school hours rehearsing their performances. She plays at all of the varsity football games and will soon begin competing with other schools.
In addition to band, her academics have never been better. We checked on her grades recently and were quite pleased to see that she had all A’s and 1 B. She takes her schoolwork very seriously these days, partly because she knows that poor grades mean she can’t participate in the marching band. Regardless of her motivation, Ava has really come into her own during these first couple of months of high school, and we’re extremely proud of and happy for her!
Elise is off to a good start in her final year of middle school. Her favorite class is orchestra, and this week she had her first performance with the chamber orchestra. She switched from violin to viola this year, and her progress is impressive. Their performance this week was related to the school’s multicultural night, and I loved watching her play.
It’s interesting to compare Ava and Elise’s experiences with school and music. Ava has become motivated to do well in each of her classes and loves being in the school band, but her experience in band isn’t as much about love for the trumpet as it is about being a part of a community. Elise has a solid group of friends at school and has traditionally had a more robust social life than Ava, but when it comes to orchestra, she truly loves playing her instrument. Certainly there’s a social aspect there as well, but she has more of a pure love for the music. It will be interesting to see where Enzo, who just started playing the clarinet in the school band, will fall on that spectrum.
In addition to getting started with the clarinet, Enzo joined the school’s cross-country team and has been quickly moving up the ranks. His progress over the past 6 weeks or so has been amazing to watch, and I can’t believe how he and his friends are constantly out there running in the heat. Before this he was more of a sprinter, but he is learning how to pace himself for longer-distance runs, and his times keep improving. He recently took first place in his group during a 400-meter dash.
Outside of school, Enzo and I continue to practice and play pool regularly. He attends a kids’ pool class on Sunday mornings at our favorite pool hall, and we now usually stick around to play in their Sunday afternoon tournament. He was nervous about this at first, due to having to compete with adults, but he quickly realized that he could hang with them. There’s a handicapping system in place based on everyone’s ranking, and consequently, he wins plenty of matches. More importantly, he’s gaining the respect of so many people who attend these tournaments, and his identity is evolving around it. Many of them are shocked to learn that he just started playing six months ago.
Regarding work trips, Jessica joined many of the 5th graders on their annual trip to the Pali Summer Camp in Southern California. Each of our kids had a chance to experience this during 5th grade, but Jessica had never gone until now. She had a great time and can now visualize all of the experiences the kids talk about.
I ended up going back to Manhattan for a few days to attend the LDX3 conference, sponsored by LeadDev. A manager on my team was volunteering at the conference, and because of that, he received an extra ticket. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of that ticket and had a great time attending talks by various industry leaders. Not surprisingly, most of the talks were related to the influence of AI on software engineering, so it was interesting to learn from their experiences. The event was held at the Javits Center, overlooking the Hudson River in midtown Manhattan.
While my days were busy, I had free time both nights, and I wanted to make the most of it. I arrived in New York on a Monday afternoon, checked into my hotel, and immediately began a 3-mile walk down to the Meatpacking District so I could play pool at the famous Amsterdam Billiards. I could have taken a train, but I wanted to see as much of the city as possible. At one point I felt like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever as I walked down the streets of New York City while eating a slice of pizza. I had a blast playing pool at Amsterdam, then stopped by my favorite Indian restaurant for Butter Salmon while walking back to midtown.
The next night was even more special because I got to hang out at a members-only pool hall called the New York Cue Club. My friend Max Eberle is a professional pool player in Las Vegas, and he knew that I was in NYC for a few days, so he got me in touch with his friend Pascal, who is one of the owners of the club. After a delicious meal at an Italian restaurant, I met up with Pascal and his friend Ada (who is one of the top female pool players in the world), and they took me up to the club. Hanging out and playing there was such a cool experience! I was a little nervous at first because the place was packed and it was clear that everyone knew each other, but I was able to get into a groove after a bit and finished strong with several people watching.
I was filled with excitement as I walked back to the hotel that night. Even on a Tuesday near midnight, the city was alive with tourists, nightclubs, and even a model posing for photos in front of a Lamborghini. I tried to walk by quickly with my head down, but I must have appeared in the background in some of those pics. New York truly is the city that never sleeps, and I hope it won’t be too long before my next trip there. It’s funny because it was 32 years between my first two trips to NYC, and about 6 weeks between my second and third trip there.
That’s all for now. We don’t have any other trips on the calendar until Christmas, when we’ll be going to Grandma and Grandpa Martin’s house in the Colorado mountains. October will bring a few visitors, though; Dana and Brad will be spending a night with us early in the month, then Amy and Tom are coming to visit for a long weekend about a week later. Halloween is always big for our family too, so we’ll be looking forward to that.