Home Alone

Very seldom do I find myself all alone. Except for the times I was travelling on business in Asia or Europe, I don't recall being by myself at home, alone. Well, today I was.

The wife was still out on a conference, and James left this afternoon for his 4-day volleyball camp at Stanford. Well, I dropped him off, that is.

The volleyball camp registration was from 1-2pm. Working back, we had to leave the house a little past 11 so we could grab lunch and have enough time to get to Stanford. That meant, I had to wake up James no later than 9:30am so he could have some breakfast and have enough time to prepare whatever else it was he needed to prepare for his camp. Since we wanted him to be a little more independent, we had been asking him to do certain things on his own. For this camp, I've asked him to pack his own stuff. I gave him a general idea of what he might need, but I let him do everything. When he said he was done, I just ran a quick checklist to make sure he did cover everything, which he did.

At around 11:15, we left the house for lunch. I called in our order at our "default" Filipino restaurant so the food would be ready by the time we got there. I knew James will not have rice or Filipino food for the next 4 days, so I chose this place. Well, he wasn't really particular about Pinoy food, but I just thought he might be. As expected, our food was all ready, with our favorite drinks, when we got there. Just after 12, we were on our way to Stanford.

I knew how to get to Stanford, but not to the Maples Pavilion -- the site of James' volleyball camp. I used Google Maps to find my way to the venue. But for some strange reason, the app took me to places and routes I never expected. I thought to myself that there's got to be a better way to get there. Eventually, we did get there with time to spare.

We parked at the parking structure across Maples. There were 2 lines at the registration, one longer than the other. The longer one was for the 4-day campers, while the shorter one was for the All Skill day camp. The confirmation letter said there would be 3 lines to process the 4-day campers, probably because of the volume. Obviously, it wasn't the case. And what's even worse was than an iPad was being used to process the longer line. While we were there, they were having problems with it, so the process took longer. But eventually, we managed to move along and got registered.

The campers, with all their gear, milled at one part of the Pavilion. They left all their stuff there before they proceeded to their dorm for check in. James brought his club backpack, a duffle bag, a sleeping bag, and a pillow. Most of the participants pretty much did the same. Others were smarter and brought bags and luggages with wheels.

The camp was open to parents and anyone else who wanted to watch. I had hoped to see how the camp
started, but they all moved out of the Pavilion to another practice facility. And since no other parent followed them, I figured it was time to go home. As I stepped out of the Pavilion, I knew I was all alone for the next day or so, until the wife comes home the next day.

Now that I was alone, one would think that I had planned to go out, do a little shopping or meet up with friends. Nope!!! None of those happened. I felt that I needed the quiet time more than anything else, so I just stayed home. Not even a beer.