The Road to 40 Day 24/365: Daddy’s game night

by | Jun 3, 2025 | Strawberry-Filled Donuts

Che had to fly out for work, so it’s just me and Vino today.

The alarm went off at 6:30AM and I started cooking rice, which will take 45 minutes. I had a lot of time, because Vino typically gets up around 7:15 to 7:30.

However, he has a habit of trying to cuddle up in the morning, so with Che not there on the bed, he got up just 5 minutes after I got up.

Since the rice wasn’t ready, he had to eat bread for breakfast.

After prepping everything, we were ready at around the time that he usually wakes up, which is a nice change. I don’t expect this to happen on a regular basis, but at least we got to experience it once.

We booked a ride and surprisingly, there was no traffic heading into the school.

Then, we learned that cars can only be let in at 8:00AM. We’ve been to school late, but this was the first time we arrived earlier than what the school allowed. And to think, it took us until the last month of the term to experience it.

We had to wait a bit before the guard let us in, so that was new.

Back home, I had to transcribe the transcript of my interview. AI is helping me out in cleaning it, but the context still needs to be cleaned manually.

As a writer, I’m still not a fan of AI, but on proper settings and uses, it could help greatly.

I have a basketball game in the evening, so I prepared adobo for Vino by lunchtime so that I only need to heat it up for dinner.

Vino knew that I had a basketball game in the evening, so I asked him if he wanted to eat before we went to the game or if he wanted me to pack it for him to eat on the court.

He chose to bring it to the court, which he did.

So before games, we would have a running list on our group chat to confirm who are going to play and if we would have enough players. In the morning, there were about five who confirmed.

Towards late in the afternoon, it looked like only eight would make it.

By time we got there, we had 15 people.

Since this was a friendly league among peers, the goal was for everyone to at least get on the floor to play. By rule all players must play at least five minutes. I went in after the first five minutes and helped the team lead by two after trailing by four.

Next five came in and got stuck on offense with not much passing, bad shots, and turnovers. In the third quarter, the team started to get things going by turning defense into offense.

I was asked to come in at around the seven-minute mark to keep legs fresh inside the court. One of my OG buddies drove to the basket to draw three defenders and found me in my usual spot at the elbow for a quick three. We increased our six-point lead to 12 and we pulled away from there.

The other team didn’t have one of their aces, and they only had about eight players to our 15, so those factors really went well for us to get a win.

So far, my team is 2-0 when Vino comes to watch me play. Sure, he’s mostly on his tablet while he’s there, but he stops a bit to watch me play when I’m on the court.

When Che tried to get back to volleyball after giving birth to Vino, we would also take him along for her games. For me, I didn’t want them to come because I don’t usually play big minutes.

But for smaller leagues like this, I appreciate the opportunities that Vino has no choice but to come with me because it exposes him to the camaraderie that sport brings. We’re all playing to win, we’re getting hit, bumping bodies, but there’s never any tension or animosity. It’s all smiles and fake anger, even against the referees, who are our friends as well.

Vino is pursuing a different sport, but the friendships built on and off the court or the pitch are all the same.

Before going to bed, I got a call from Steph checking up on how things are. First day was unscathed though, it’s really not that new. Our home of three always feels a bit empty when we’re not complete sleeping in the same room. 

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