Granny Turns 100 and Other Fun Events

It is not everyday that a loved one turns 100. Granny Fran celebrated her 100th birthday this past weekend with family and friends at her church with a birthday lunch and cake after the Sunday service.  The highlight, other than seeing extended family and watching the cousins play, was experiencing Granny’s unfiltered mind at work which has always been a little blunt (“you must have been a fat baby” is one of my favorite Granny quotes) and has only gotten more amazing with age, although I suppose she has earned it.  During the church service the pastor asked all fathers to stand up to honor them on Fathers Day.  My Uncle David was sitting next to Granny and he stood up as requested.  Granny immediately quipped “Why are you standing up?  Are you celebrating a big birthday?”

In addition to 100 years, Martin and I also celebrated our anniversary early at Foreign Cinema, another Germany win at a watch party on Saturday, and Father’s Day on Sunday. And because, the end of the school year is always hectic, we had dim sum with my parents on Juneteenth, and Oskar graduated fourth grade (the end of elementary school in Germany)

Is this normal?!

I feel like the guardian of lost children and solo travelers. 

This past weekend we were in Houston for the World Cup and we spent most of Saturday at the Houston Children’s Museum. Towards the end of the visit we were walking down the stairs and we passed a kid who seemed to be in a bit of distress. I turned around and sure enough he was crying and lost. Turns out his name was Ben and he was in fact lost and looking for his mom. I introduced myself, asked what his mom’s name was and then walked with him to find a staff member to help locate his mom. 

It is weird, but this is not the first or even second time I have helped a lost child. There was the kid at Disneyland who I found hiding behind a garbage can, there was the little girl who was wandering the soccer pitch at one of Oskar’s games and then the treat or treating princess who couldn’t find her mom while out on Halloween night in the Marina. In all of these situations, I have stayed with the lost child until either their parents were found or those in charge were able to take over. 

And this isn’t limited to children in need, I have found myself assisting multiple solo travelers along the way as well: the girl who fainted on muni on the way to work, the guy who had a seizure on the Greyhound bus and the woman who crashed her car on the way back from Timber Cove.  

Is this normal? Does this happen to everyone? I am always happy to help but this seems a bit higher than average.

World Cup Is Here!

I have always loved the World Cup and have so many fun memories of watching the matches with friends and coworkers over the past years.  With the US hosting this year’s tournament, I knew we had to get tickets, or at least try.  

I entered the lottery to get tickets to see Germany play in Houston (and got 4 tickets in the process) and also scored tickets to a game in Santa Clara.  The tickets in Santa Clara I eventually resold (at face value) to a coworker (life became too hectic to make it work). And surprisingly, I had to convince Martin that we should go to Houston for the Germany match. I leveraged the best negotiating tactics available: I told him I was going and would be happy to take the kids by myself if they wanted to go too.  Of course the kids wanted to go, so Martin begrudgingly agreed to partake in the fun.  We were to fly out Friday night after school, have a day in Houston, watch the match Sunday midday and fly home Sunday night so the kids could still make it to school that following Monday. 

The Match

It is funny. After all of the anticipation before and the joy experienced during the actual game, I am at a loss on how to describe the actual day and match, watching the Germany team play against Curacao. 

It was all a bit overwhelming: there were so many people (68,000+), it took so long to get through security (we arrived at 10:30 for a 12pm match and still had to wait 40 minutes to get through the gates), it was so hot waiting to get inside the stadium (92 degrees and humid) and then pleasant once inside and, after weeks of anticipation and build up,  it was all over after less than 2 hours. 

And those 2 hours were action packed.  Germany scored the first goal which was followed shortly after by a goal from Curacao, the small nation of 160,000 who was playing in the World Cup for the very first time.  While the Germany fans had celebrated winning the first goal and a good start to the game, the Curacao fans put the Germans to shame: they sang, they danced,, they cheered, and they cried with pride in their team. 

Germany responded with a few more goals after finding their rhythm. And at the end of the game, Germany had secured the win with a 7-1 final score (a score tying the previous record for biggest win in the World Cup set in 2014 when Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in the semi-finals).  

Unfortunately my poor planning didn’t allow us to stay to enjoy the glow of the win: we had a flight to catch and bags to grab.  But we did get to walk out of the stadium singing Tage Wie Diese with the rest of the German fans. 

All in, we watched five matches over the course of the two days in town and the family was officially hooked on the World Cup festivities.  We have already started planning for the 2028 World Cup in Spain and maybe even the Euro Cup in England in 2026.  

One Day in Houston

With the game on Sunday and a very late night flight in on Friday, we really only had one day to spend in Houston. I had booked the Airbnb close to the stadium to make the day of the match a little easier (we could walk to the game) and had limited the plans for Saturday to some pool time and maybe some BBQ. By the end of that full day we had done neither and no one was complaining. 

Turns out there was very little to do near the condo and the pool would be good for maybe an hour tops. So with the need to go somewhere and do something, we started to expand our search for ideas. We opted for some time at the Houston Children’s Museum (which guaranteed AC during the middle of the day) and then pooltime and BBQ for dinner. 

Once we had the destination, we found a restaurant nearby for brunch, and called our Uber to get us out of the house for a little bit. On our way to brunch we passed a road sign highlighting road closures for FIFA Fan Fest so we made different plans for after the museum and the thoughts of a day at the pool completely vanished.  

Our brunch spot, Mo’s Brunch and Brews, was surprisingly good and very vegan, which was unexpected for a city known for its BBQ.  The Children’s Museum, where I thought the kids would be entertained for an hour or two, provided even more unexpected fun: four hours in and Martin and I had to convince them to leave so we could watch the Morocco vs Brazil match at the Fan Fest. And turns out most everyone else in the Houston area had the idea to attend Fan Fest for the match.  

Fan Fest was at capacity when we finally arrived just before the 5pm match so we made our way to the closest family friendly sports bar we could find, the Truck Yard, where we watched the game from a shaded table outside with fans from everywhere. Turns out it was a better, less crowded, more shaded and more convenient spot for the afternoon heat. 

After the game we made our way back to the Fan Fest in hopes of getting in before the Haiti v Scotland game. Luck was on our side and we were able to get in about thirty minutes before kick off. After a few moments of feeling overwhelmed, and after finding his courage, Oskar found a few other kids to play soccer with on the big grassy area, Alva did a few handstands and Martin and I staked out a space to watch the first half of the 8pm game.  

At half time we walked through the festival area, grabbed more food and convinced the kids it was time to head home as 9:30 rolled around. 

I know this was not a cheap trip and I know Martin wasn’t super excited when I told him I bought the tickets… but watching Oskar play soccer with kids from every walk of life and part of the world (in fact moving the goals around to make sure they had a pitch to play on) and then sitting and watching the two games with fans from Brazil, Morocco, Curaçao, Japan, Germany, Venezuela, Scotland, Korea and who knows where else, it made me thankful to be able to experience it.