Maria Spadaccini

Last Thursday was Senior Night for the Mathews Lady Blue Devils.

My daughter Maria is one of seven seniors associated with the team.

Her father is an assistant coach. 

It's hard to believe that she's graduating this year.

I know I'm her mother and everything, but indulge me for a minute.
She's a pretty darn great basketball player.  

But there's so much more to Maria.

She was one of only 96 accepted early action to University of Virginia's Architecture School.
16,768 students applied to UVA  (overall) early action.  But only 5,193 were accepted.  And she was 1 of only 96 accepted to the A-school.

It simply amazes me. 

She's beautiful.

She's kind.

She's wonderful.

And I am so very proud.

From the brochure at Thursday's game:

"Maria Spadaccini, #21, is the daughter of Janice Vogel and Thomas Spadaccini.  Maria is a member of the National Beta Club, National Honor Society and the National Society of High School Scholars.  She attended Girls State this past summer, has been on the honor roll every semester in high school and was awarded Junior of the Year last year.  Maria has played basketball for four years, ran cross country for three years, played soccer for two years and ran track for one year.  She plans to attend the University of Virginia in the fall of 2016 and pursue a degree in Architecture."

She also works at Merroir in her spare time.

On behalf of your aunts, your grandparents and your equally incredible brother Sam, way to go! We love you too much * and are so very proud of you, Maria.


*When Maria was only about 3 or 4, she said she loved me too much instead of so much.  The too much has stuck with this family.

**Many, many, many  thanks to Charlie Koenig of the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal  for sending me the first four photos above.  I greatly appreciate them!

Fog

Wednesday's warmer temperatures melted much of our recent snow and also brought a lot of fog.


 After a five-mile run down Beaverlett, I drove to the nearby public landing and took these pictures.

The warm temperatures and the fog will soon be a distant memory since the forecasters are calling for more cold, rain, sleet and snow over the next 24 hours.

In other news, basketball season officially ended Monday night in Buena Vista. I'm not sure what to do with myself now that it's over.  I don't know how to act.  I'm not used to looking at a calendar that isn't filled with two and three games per week and the prospect of days that begin at 5:30 a.m. and end at midnight.

What is a cowbell-toting mother to do?

Daughter is going to run track this spring, so we have that to look forward to.

Still, I'm going to miss basketball.

Basketball

Last Wednesday, even though schools were closed because of the snow, Mathews hosted (and defeated) West Point in the first and only game of the district tournament.  That night we received even more snow and later a decision was made to cancel the rest of the tournament.

Thanks to Charlie Koenig of the Gazette Journal for these first two pictures of Daughter in action at that game.  

Regardless, tonight we advance to regional action and travel to California to Parry McCluer High School in Buena Vista, Virginia.

Between injuries and the weather, our girls have had a lot of obstacles thrown their way this season, but they've done a great job in spite of everything.

I look forward to tonight's game.

The cowbell is coming too.

Acceptance

Miller's Cove,  Queens Creek

No amount of denial can change the fact that Mathews County received significant snowfall on top of snow on top of more snow Wednesday evening and into Thursday.

These shots of my front yard were taken from my porch Thursday morning.

Believe it or not, my driveway is in this picture.  Can't see it?  Neither can I.  You can't see my new-to-me car either, which I've nicknamed the  Skid Mobile.  I parked it at the very end of my driveway, in the hopes I may get out one day.  I'm aiming for 2016.  I'd like to be able to drive to see my daughter graduate high school.  We'll see. 

Although the newscasters--who sit comfortably an hour or two away--claimed that the snow would stop on Thursday morning and the sun might even peek out, that didn't happen.

Actually, that was fine with me.  My work was closed, school was closed, and if I'm going to be trapped inside, I'd prefer it be dark and gloomy outside.  If the sun were shining, I'd feel compelled to be doing something more productive than cooking clam chowder and seafood pasta and chocolate cakes and things like that.

I'm not sure what it is about a storm that makes me want to cook, but it's a compulsion.  Daughter and I eat well around here during a storm.

Daughter is not done with basketball yet, believe it or not.  School hasn't been in session  since September  regularly these past couple of weeks making the conference tournament--which decides who goes to regionals--very difficult. Not only have the games been cancelled but the school closings mean the team hasn't been able to practice.  The first tournament game against West Point was downright ugly. Really ugly. Daughter was so angry at herself for missing so many shots during a portion of the game that she was actually crying on the bench.  I've seen her cry once after a game, but never during one.  She was extremely upset with herself. But she snapped out of it quickly.

And somehow we won the game.

Now we're waiting on the weather to break so the next game can be played.

Or so the team can at least practice.

Or so we can locate our driveway get out of our driveway.

We're basically waiting.

On spring.

Basketball

High school basketball and an extremely busy work schedule have completely consumed my days and nights these past several months.  Nearing the end of the regular season, the Mathews Lady Blue Devils are second place in the conference, with only two losses to a team I'd like to personally pummel Middlesex.

Although the team has played well all season, lately we're suffering slightly because several key players are out with injuries and illness.  Above, the three under the basket not suited up are all injured.  Two are guards who help Daughter push the ball up the court.

Last Friday was the last home game and also Senior Night.  

We'll definitely miss these young ladies next year.

There are two more games this week before we move to the conference tournament.  At least one of our injured players should be back in action by then, thankfully.

Daughter has managed to juggle her schoolwork with this rigorous basketball schedule.  She played three games last week, was worn out after each one, and showed me a report card that had A's and only one B.  She said she's (for now) ranked first in her class of 106 students.  She's also been working as a ref for the county's youth basketball league on Saturdays and catching up on sleep when she can.

How in the world she manages to do it all and do it all so well with a (mostly) positive attitude is beyond me.

I'm extremely proud of her.

Odometer

The first Mathews High School girls' basketball game of 2015 was Tuesday night at home against King William.  In spite of an ugly first half, which was painfully sluggish likely due to the two-week Christmas break, we came out fighting in the second half and WON.

This is my neighbor Ann, who lives at the home known as Clifton.  She hails from South Africa and brought along some fans who currently live in Australia.  It's a little known secret that Mathews County girls basketball games attract a diverse, international crowd. It's the hottest ticket in town, and at five bucks a pop, what a bargain!  That five-dollar ticket includes musical entertainment in the form of a cow bell, which is fervently rung whenever MHS ties or comes ahead in the score.  

Here Daughter stretches to steal a pass.

Here, Daughter styles and profiles her new Game Do.
One of her BFFs braids it for her. I lack that skill set. 

Here, Daughter gives me the look that says, "Are you done with that camera yet?" But she'd actually say it more politely, as in "Hey, thanks, Mom, but I got this.  You can relax with the camera now. Also, I'm not so sure about that cowbell you've been bringing to games either.
Love you though!" She's nice like that.

In any case, both the JV and varsity teams have been on fire recently.  We also won against formidable Charles City Thursday evening, by a wide margin.  The games are hard-fought and more than a little stressful for those of us in the stands, but the girls are playing a really good game of basketball, and there is lots of potential ahead.

They do need a Chesapeake Bay Woman Rebounding Seminar, because they don't seem to want to jump for a rebound, to fight for a rebound, to go after a rebound like your life depends on it!  And because they stand flat-footed waiting for the ball to magically jump into their hands on the rebound, it makes me do insanely crazy things like holler instructions from the stands as if they (a) care and (b) can hear and (c) see (a).

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In other news.

Last night on the way home from Charles City, the odometer on my Saturn hit 200,000 miles.  This weekend, my personal odometer will hit 50 years of age.  Both of those numbers are absolutely shocking to me, but both of us are chugging along just fine in spite of the numeric horrors.

My sisters have concocted some sort of 200,000th birthday celebration that hopefully will take into consideration the fact that I really need my weekend afternoon nap will find us all safely preserved and intact by the time Middle Sister returns to Georgia Sunday afternoon.

If there are pictures to share, I'll post them here next week.  Knowing my two sisters, however, it's probably best if there isn't too much photographic evidence of whatever it is they're scheming.

In any case, I wish you a wonderful weekend.

Basketball

Work, basketball and extremely long days covering hundreds of miles have consumed most of my time this past week. Although they haven't won every time, the Mathews varsity girls are playing a darn fine game of basketball these days.

(Of course, I'm just a little bit biased.)

The girls play at Northumberland tonight, and next week there are three more games before the Christmas break.

Although I'm enjoying the season thus far, I'm looking forward to the break.

Enjoy the weekend.

Moon II

This view of the side of the old Moon post office--especially all the lines--caught my eye.  There are horizontal lines, vertical lines, diagonal lines and the haphazard lines of the trees and their branches.

(I suppose most of the branches don't form lines, exactly, but that's just a technicality. It wouldn't be the first time I've made up my own rules about what's what on this blog.)

There's simultaneously everything and nothing to report from my world.  Just the standard too much going on and not enough time to accomplish everything.

I will mention, though, since I've not reported it here yet (only on Facebook), that at last Friday night's basketball game in Lancaster my daughter sunk a three-pointer hurled from half-court right at the buzzer at half time to catapult Mathews to a lead going into the locker room.  We ended up winning the game in what was most definitely a team achievement.  But I keep replaying that shot over and over in my head, because it was so perfect.

The girls have a 2-1 record and take on Gloucester and Northumberland this week.

We're enjoying basketball season, but it's a grueling schedule, even if you're "only" a spectator. *


* I take my spectating responsibilities very seriously. Someone recently commented on my vertical leaping abilities in the stands while cheering.  This was, of course, after Daughter's half-court shot that I cannot stop talking about and probably will not until the day I die--which I hope is no time soon, for the record.