Vacationing in Arizona - day 1

Jason and I are relaxing from our flight before going to a cookout with my Mom and Stepdad. Out flights were smoothe and uneventful. We flew first class from Detroit to Dallas, so Jason has now had his first taste of flying first class and immediately asked if we could also do that on the flight back - we will have to see on that one.

The weather is beautiful - sunny and warm. I will keep the blog posted throughout the week. Sounds like golf tomorrow morning :-)

Time...

45 minutes since I turned 35
4 days until I fly to Arizona for vacation
1 month until the NFL draft
3 months and 11 days until Jason turns 12
3 months and 15 days until Ira turns 39 (1 more year to the big 40)
9 months until Christmas

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Tales from Bloomington

Generally my travels are pretty uneventful, one town to the next, one hotel to the next, one library to the next. However, the last two days have had a strange amount of obscure happenings. Tuesday went pretty smoothe - drove to Richmond, lunch with 2 librarians and a meeting with two more librarians.

Wednesday is where the miscellaneous bad luck started. Nothing major really, just minor little frustrating inconveniences. First of all it had not stopped raining since Tuesday. Secondly, I got lost on my 15 minute trip to IU. I missed my turn and just had myself completely turned around in the rain. I have been to IU dozens of time and can generally get around without a second thought, but my foggy brain just could not comprehend which direction I was supposed to be going in. In this mess, I almost cut somebody off on top of that. But, I made it to the library and even found a close parking spot. On the way in the door, my shoe got stuck in the grate at the bottom of the outside set of the library doors - damnit!

After a valuable meeting, I head back to my hotel for a couple of hours before my next appointment and get frickinig lost on my way back to the hotel - how the heck did that happen?!? But, the good news is that I kinda knew where I was at and actually ended up a little south of where I normally go and found other dining options while I was out. Bonus!

The second appointment went without a hitch, but the third appointment my stupid shoe got stuck in the door again. AGAIN!! I was so tired by the time I got back to my room, I didn't want to go back out in the rain to find dinner. So, I wandered across the street with my book and had catfish, a sweet potato, and a massive margarita - ahhh, life was looking better. I met an older gentleman (also from MI) who works for a company that owns funeral homes and cemetaries. I was very intrigued by this and had lots of questions after my margarita. And in my buzzed state went back to my hotel room and back to work hoping that tomorrow would be better.

Wrong! Breackfast - I ate part of my cinnamon roll, a couple of bits of my cereal and they dumped half of my cereal and milk on top of my roll. Granted I only had 5 minutes to eat anyway. So, I cleaned it up and got a new cinnamon roll. I grabbed a yogurt and threw it in my bag for after my meeting. The highight was that it had at least stopped raining and the sun was out. My appointment went great and I headed out of Bloomington and up to Muncie for an afternoon appointment on my way home. I started fussing with my ipod somewhere along 465 and literally missed my exit to I69 Now this wasn't I saw it and couldn't get over, this was I saw 465 West(I was going North) and there was a familiar apartment complex that I should not be driving by. Crap!! I overshot it by 10 miles, now how did that happen!?! So, I got to Muncie and stopped at McDonald's for lunch. First, no shamrock shakes. They had egg nog shakes into March and they can't keep shamrock shakes three days after St. Patrick's Day? So, I order an iced tea. They are out of iced tea in front, so I go back to the counter to ask for some from the dispenser at the drive thru window. Of course, they don't put a lid on it. So, I go back to the drink counter to put a lid on it - poorly! When I picked up the drink I spilled half of the drink. I cleaned up the counter, but figured they can mop up the floor and I was not going back to the counter for more iced tea. I just wanted out of there at this point.

After my smoothe appointment, I risked a blizzard at DQ on my way out of town, since I didn't get to have the shamrock shake with lunch. Just hoping I did not spill it. Other than waiting 15 minutes behind two cars, I finally ate my first food of the day without some kind of issue.

I must have seen 15 - 20 cops between Bloomington and home, but no tickets and a pretty uneventful trip home from Muncie.

Like I said there wasn't anything major, but it was enough for me to want the week to end and just get the heck home. Luckily, next week is a shorter travel week and vacation is the week after that.

Spring Break

2 weeks until Jason and I leave for Arizona from Spring Break. It has been low to mid 70's during the day which is still warmer than Michigan.

We are going there to visit my Mom and Stepdad and while we are there we are planning to visit Bisbee, Tombstone, and the Grand Canyon. While I have been to Tombstone and Grand Canyon already this should be a great experience for Jason. Frankly, I am just looking forward to getting away, relaxing, and maybe playing a little golf. Here are some pics of where we will be going...

Benson, AZ

Tombstone, AZ

Grand Canyon

Athletic Supporter

Yes, the name of the title was on purpose.

My son Jason is 11 and has played some sport pretty consistently since he was 4. He started with coach pitch baseball when he was 4, soccer for 6 years (travel for 3), 4 years of basketball, 2 years of a bowling league, 1 year of football, and this spring we are going back to baseball. I can probably count on one hand all of the games I have missed and I travel three days a week. I managed his travel soccer team for 3 years and I will co-manage his football team this year. Ira has been his assistant coach for various basketball teams and his football team. We have literally become friends with the majority of his coaches because we become so involved.

Ask me about stats, weight, milestones, and I can list them off. So, yes, we are probably a little more involved than most parents. I don't expect all parents to take the same amount of interest that we have. But, more than some of the activity that I see.

I honestly think that besides feeling a need to be involved, I am a product of a lack of parent interest. My Mom will tell you how she was at all of my activities and frankly I remember her being involved when I was little with brownies, but I do not remember her at a softball game, any basketball or football games that I cheered at, any cheerleading competitions, band concerts, and frankly she wasn't even at my high school graduation. My Stepmom and Dad did go to my softball games because I was too young to get there myself. But after 6th grade, that was the end of that. However, they were at my plays, concerts, awards ceremonies, and my graduation. Parents nights - my Stepmom walked me out once, my Mom was late once and then immediately left, and my Dad never attended. So, I usually walked with the coach.

If you can't tell, this was a pretty big missing piece in my life and I refuse to not be there for my kid whether he is bowling, playing basketball, or trying to tackle guys three times his size. Now, don't think that I do not know my limits and that he knows that if there is anything he would prefer I don't attend than I understand that as well. Afterall he is getting to that age where he isn't going to want Mom around all the time. But, he is still happy to have me there.

So, based on all of this, I still see these parents that consistently drop their kids off and make a point to not be involved. I know that some parents have obligations that prevent this, but most do not. And, frankly, if I can make the amount of activites that I do with my schedule, I tend to have a little less understanding for those that drop their kids off and then go home to take a nap.

We are having a bit of a political war between our community junior football varisty team and our school middle school football team because they cover the same 7th and 8th grade boys. I won't go into exactly how nasty this has become and how it is effecting our boys, but what I can say is that, in my opinion, it comes down to a couple of major things - money, time, and coaching.

So far we don't know who the school coaches are and I do know that we were happy with the varsity coaches last year (my son played a year early), I also know that Jr. Football is over $200 (compared to over $1000 in soccer fees and travel costs, I have no problem with that) vs. $50 for the school, and I do know that the games are on Saturday with Jr. Football vs. 4:30 on Thursday for the school. I can understand that people may have an issue with the money, maybe they don't like the coaches, and one day is better than the other. Frankly, those are the only three variables that should be evaluated. If none of them make a difference, then you look at what friend is playing where.

So, Jason likes the coaches, I don't care about the $50 vs. $230, but what I do care about is the 4:30 on Thursday - home or 2 hours away. I have a fairly flexible schedule and I would not make all of the games. As far as Jason's dad, he wouldn't be at any and I doubt Ira would make many either.

All in all, I would pay $1000 a season vs. $50 if it made a difference on whether I was able to see my son play any sport or not. I will hopefully always be my son's biggest athletic supporter :-)

One Word

I am not feeling very creative today, so I thought I would follow Mary's lead on this one...

You.
Can.
Type.
Only.
One.
Word.
1. Where is your cell phone? credenza
2.Your significant other? Ira
3. Your hair? blowdried
4. Your mother? supportive
5. Your father? addicted
6. Your favorite thing? peace
7. Your dream last night? selfish
8. Your favorite drink? frappaccino
9. Your dream/goal? happy
10. The room you're in? office
11. Your ex? opinionated
12. Your fear? loneliness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? successful
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you're not? stupid
16. Muffins? blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? motorcycle
18. Where you grew up? WhitmoreLake
19. The last thing you did? ate
20. What are you wearing? jeans
21. Your TV? everchanging
22. Your pets? cats
23. Your computer? life
24. Your life? great
25. Your mood? optimistic
26. Missing someone? friends
27 Your car? Red
28. Something you're not wearing? glasses
29 Favorite Store? Kohl's
30. Your summer? warm
31. Like someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? red
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? pre-Christmas
35. Who will/would re-post this? dunno

Bowling Etiquette

Ira and I went out for a monthly date last night. See my review for dinner at http://monthlycritic.blogspot.com/. And, we decided to go bowling after dinner.

Now, let me start with the fact that this was not our regular bowling alley and since we are league bowlers there is a little less patience on people following the general bowling etiquette rules. Well, at least for me anyway.

So, we went to Ypsi-Arbor Lanes which has the old wood floors and I am pretty sure they are using the initial scoring progam that came out 15 years ago - can you say analog or DOS?!? I think they may have been better off leaving in the transperency lights and scoring papers and promoting it as old-fashioned bowling.

We went down to our lane and before we were even to our third frame we had a group of people (at least 5) on the lane to the left of us. I am pretty sure not one of these people had bowled before and kept walking up and throwing their ball at the same time we would be on our approach - I absolutely HATE this! This is like pulling your golf cart onto the green, it's just something you do not do. Plus, one of the girls stood on the wood portion of the floor between where they were bowling and we were bowling the whole entire time. By the middle of the second game, I was trying to figure out how exactly I could trip one of them that decided to bowl the same time as me. Not to worry, nobody was hurt, frankly because I could not figure out how to do that incospicuously.

Oddly enough, the 3 people that were put on the other side of this group also did not wait for people on the side of them to bowl. Either that or they just gave up on the rude group and decided to bowl and ignore them. Sorry, but it is too much of a distraction for me to ignore them.

I had also remembered a group teenage girls doing at our regular bowling alley who didn't seem to know that you are supposed to take turns with the people on each side of you. So, I have decided to do a public service announcement....

Bowling Etiquette
1. Do not bowl when someone on either side of you is standing on the floor, approaching, or bowling their ball.
2. You can walk up to get ready for your approach, once that person has started their approach. But, do not throw your ball until they have completed their turn.
3. When you have completed your turn, walk back to the non-bowling area. You can walk backwards in order to see how you score, but make sure you are moving.
4. Do not stand on the floor unless your are bowling. Sit your ass down or stand at least 3 feet away from the bowling area.
5. Do not wear street shows on the floor.
6. Do not drink or eat in the bowling area. That is why there are tables and chairs away from the bowling area.

That is pretty much it - pretty simple. The bowling alleys seem to have signs posted for 5 and 6, but they really need to have a sign posted at each lane with all 6 rules. If you are too young, too foriegn, or too stupid to read the signs and cannot follow the rules than please take up a non-social sport that will not get your ass tripped up the lane when you try to do synchromized bowling.