Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt Linky: The Boy's Team Logo (item 15)

It's the end of June and time for the first linky for the 2016 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. Please add a link to a post about the Scavenger Hunt. Either one written for today or one from earlier this month. Also, if you don't have a blog, feel free to link to your flickr or any other clickable photo sharing site where you have pictures. And please try to go visit a few other participants and leave a comment. It's all part of the fun!
***Edited to add: Apologies if the technology is not working for you; it's acting up for quite a few people, but working for others. You can always email me at rinda1961@yahoo.com if you can't link up, and I can add your link. Hopefully I'll get it sorted out! *****
My post today is a tale of two team logos. .  . and the choices a young man makes as he grows up. 
My son Henry is a very talented soccer player. Not EPL talented, but talented enough to be pursued by minor league teams here in the states, such as the Burlingame Football Club (second photo) or Lane United in Eugene, Oregon. Both are the lowest level feeder clubs for a MLS team. He would love to play for either of them - he loves being on the pitch, and he tells me that he is playing the best soccer of his life. 
But he is also a young man who will be graduating from University in a little over a year and knows that he needs to be building a resume and making contacts to start a career in his chosen field of sports business. 
So he applied for a summer job with the San Francisco Giants baseball team and had what he thought was a terrific interview. He waited and waited to hear back from them. His email and voice mail remained silent, and he asked whether we would be okay with him playing soccer and taking classes if a job with the Giants didn't come through. I said, "Of course!" I told him that he's only 21 once and the possibility of playing professional soccer is amazing and something he would never regret doing and would be able to talk about for the rest of his life. 
And then the email came with a job offer from the Giants. And Henry accepted the job. And he works every home game, wearing his employee badge with the San Francisco Giants logo. He's making good contacts and learning new skills  and hoping it will turn into a regular job upon graduation.
But if it doesn't, I'm hopeful that the clubs give him another chance. Because even though I'm proud of him for making the "right" choice, the adult choice about what team logo to wear this summer, part of me hopes that he still gets a chance to someday be able to tell his kids and grandkids about the year he played professional soccer . . . 

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Link up your scavenger hunt post below and don't forget to visit a few other participants when you get a chance! My other scavenger hunt posts can be found by clicking this link. Also, it's not too late to join the fun. You have until the end of September (approximately) to find the 21 items on the official list. You can find all the list and all the details here. 

Snap! Baseball season is coming!

A couple of weeks ago, while Henry was interviewing with the San Francisco Giants for a summer position in their Junior Giants Community Fund, I walked around the ball park a bit and took these four different photographs of the cement baseballs behind the park. I put together these  four photographs for this week's Snap! photo meme where people share four related photographs. For more of this week's selections, check out Helena's blog here. 

Mail Art and Scrapping Fun

Happy Monday! Here's some creative fun to start the week. I'm in a One Card a Month club, and I received this fantastic hand painted card from my friend Tracy.  I also love the envelope she sent it in! Speaking of decorated envelopes, mine is featured this week on Kat's  blog. I sent it  in with my post cards for the Liberate Your Art swap. It's about half way down this post.
On Sunday, I got together with a group of friends to scrapbook, and I made huge progress towards finishing Henry's Sports Scrapbook. The pages are all pretty simple and still need journaling, but here's a sample. {Sorry the lighting is so awful. The photos looked fine on my phone, and I'm in too big a hurry to retake them}
A few baseball layouts:

And a few soccer layouts. The first one will tell the story of when his coach was hospitalized for several months with an awful, degenerative disease. He miraculously turned the corner and, through several more months of courage and hard work, has recovered. Shortly before all the boys were scheduled to leave for college, they organized a trip to visit him in the hospital. I was proud and impressed by  the turnout. It said a lot about the type of coach that Franklin is and also about the great group of young men on the team. The second one is notable for using a Creative Memories die cut from about 20 years ago!

I was surprised by the number of teams that my boy has played on: one club soccer team; one adult city team; one high school team and now his college team. On the baseball side, he's played on little league, all starts, two different travel teams and high school. I'm going to a crop next week, so I might do a few more layouts.

Me on Monday (or Tuesday)

Spent a long weekend in Phoenix, Arizona watching my boy play soccer in the national club championship tournament.

The boys won the national championship!

And Henry was named to the All Tournament Team for his outstanding offensive play!

Who could ask for anything more?

Well, apparently I could. Because I also got to sneak in a dinner date with one of my favorite blog friends, Deb of Paper Turtle. Overall, an outstanding weekend!
How was yours?

Photo Pairs: Shorter/Taller

Several European soccer teams are touring the U.S. playing each other, as well as some of the U.S. teams. As long-time Manchester United fans, we decided to go see Man Utd. play the San Jose Earthquakes. It was a great decision. It was a beautiful, relaxing summer night. Avaya Stadium holds 18,000 people, and there's lots of green space around the stands to wander around, drink beer and grab dinner from food trucks. Henry brought his friend Cole, a great kid we have known forever. As we wandered to our seats, we were shocked to see that another kid from our small town was there with his family, sitting in our same row. Henry has played soccer off-and-on with Nacho since they were six years old. It was a beautiful night for the beautiful game, made all the more wonderful by this pair of pairs!
For more pairs, go check out Helena's blog. 

My Favorite Intern

Item #17: Two or more people in uniform

This summer, my son Henry is working as an intern with a minor league professional baseball team called The Vallejo Admirals. He's working in marketing, media and on-field operations. He's learned a lot in just his first week of work of what goes in to running a baseball team.

So, this last weekend, I went to go watch one of his games. He spent most of the game selling tickets and talking to fans.

Meanwhile, on the field, I captured some of the action.

As a bonus, I captured an item for the summertime photography scavenger hunt (#17).

I'd say the boy hit a home run with his summer internship this year. 

I'm looking forward to going to a few more games this summer.

Me on Monday

We've got a three day weekend here in the States (what the rest of the world seems to call a "Bank Holiday"). It's Memorial Day, and we're celebrating and remembering those who served in war. Thinking about my dad today and waving hi to Sian from High in the Sky with a check in on my (ongoing) weekend.
What kind of a weekend was it?

It was graduation weekend at the Law School where I teach. The highlight might have been the special ceremony for Latino law students that took place the night before.

That's me, with one of my favorite students and a group of mariachis (and one of my colleagues, Bill Hing, singing with them) featuring another of our graduates.
It was also a CCS Track and Field Championship Weekend watching my girl and her team mates.

 

 

It was also a volunteering at Guide Dogs; visiting with friends and eating at an unusual "Islamic Mandarin" restaurant; watching baseball on TV; catching up on paper work; chatting with the boy on the phone; planning for Peru; and writing a draft of an article for the symposium I'm attending this upcoming weekend kind of weekend.
A very busy weekend indeed!

Photo Pairs: Surf and Turf

Last weekend, my daughter's track team competed at a meet in the California beach town of Santa Barbara. The venue is right across the street from the beach, and, after the completion of the meet, we all went down to the beach to play and have dinner. The students very quickly divided into two groups - those that dove right into the water and those that stood on the shore, watching. I'm calling these two photos "surf and turf" and linking up with Helena's photo pairs meme this week.
Of course there were some runners who wanted to help some of the reluctant ones into the water:

And why not? People were enjoying body surfing and cooling off.

 Although some remained unconvinced!

A Sunny Weekend of Racing

How was your weekend? Mine was spent in the lovely southern California town of Santa Barbara with Clara's track team. I watched my beautiful girl run through a great deal of pain in her hip.

 

To help her two relay teams - the 4x800 meters and the distance medley (girls run 1200m, 400m, 800m and 1600m) - win medals! 

It was a very fun weekend. And now on Monday, we're off to have that hip looked at. . . . because we're hoping for a lot more running this spring!

Photo Pair at the Track Meet

Helena hosts a weekly photography meme asking people to share a pair of photographs that are related in some way. I call this action pair "Battle . . . Won."