Looking for some electricity

Good morning and greetings from Starbucks. It is day 3 without power and I am starting to lose my cool, calm demeanor. I had to throw out the food in the two refrigerators (a first world problem...no complaints, but sadness as to how much food was wasted). Thinking the power would return, I thought the freezer's food was safe. Guess what I found on the floor yesterday afternoon? Yep, the ice melted with the ice cream and seeped through the door and onto the floor. Clean up on Aisle 5!



Nights have been toasty without air conditioning. However, I am not complaining. This is not a horrible problem. True, it is warm, yet, I have decided that I am camping inside the house. So, no complaints. I have had family and friends offer me a shower (is that a hint?) and a bedroom, but I am gutting it out.


Yet, I do miss a few things such as warm showers....

Internet.....

The ability to see in my closet after 6 pm.....

A cold glass of water.....

A peaceful night's sleep....huh? Yep, my neighbor has an industrial size generator that sounds like a loud lawnmower....VRROOOOMMMMM....all day...all night......24/7.....Plus he is not home! He is at the shore!!!!


That's it.

I do not miss television at all. This was somewhat shocking. I do miss the news but I can catch up during my Starbucks wifi sessions. I guess I could also go to panera since they have free wifi.


There are other problems here. Trees were blown over and roads are blocked. The tree surgeons and landscapers cannot get to all of them. With the road closures and power outages, it has been a challenge to run errands since the traffic crawls.



And so, that is my saga....no big deal....just three plus days without power and I am hoping that some Good Samaritan finds a PECO truck technician, flips him a $20.00 on my behalf and points him to my neighborhood.

 My composure is beginning to melt.....



Peace!

Cut from the A squad

Good evening! Yes, I said evening. I know that I never post after 10 am but I had to get off the first floor and away from the cookies and refrigerator. Yesterday was the 6th annual cookie fest along with soup fest 2. My cousins decided to add the soup fest, so it made sense to me. Therefore, we had thousands of cookies and 6 different soups, apps, and cakes....oh yes, some adult beverages.....fun....family...food...and now, I have to make plans on how in the world I can get my weight watchers mentality back and stay away from the goodies.

Sure, I can toss them. But, that would be ridiculous. It would be like tossing out my puppy because he cannot figure out how to poo outside. In other words, my inability to stay away from the food is temporary. The pants will become tourniquets again and I will staple my mouth closed.



After spending a nice afternoon with Wildcat walking through an uncrowded mall, I sat on the sofa reading, relaxing, watching the fire, and letting the puppies run wild when I heard from the big lefty.
He was out with Hawk tossing the baseball at his elementary school when he saw his middle school baseball coach who immediately recognized him.




At that point they had a nice chat about the last several years of his life. He was  surprised to hear that he was playing D I baseball when the rest of his class mates fizzled out athletically in high school. While they chatted, the big guy thanked the coach for cutting him from the 8th grade basketball A team. He said that it made him focus on baseball since it seemed that his ambition to make it to the NBA was now over at the age of thirteen. That's right. A budding career derailed by the coach who could not see his ability to dribble and cross over in the lane.



He laughs about it today, but I remember the day that he was cut from the A squad like it was yesterday. Ready?

Fade to black.....


The school sponsored a late bus for after school activities, so I was not worried about picking him up after try outs. Instead, I met with a colleague at Starbucks to go over the tenure and promotion policy at the university. It seems that when my son was cut from the varsity, I was almost cut from the university since the administrator and I did not see eye to eye on my scholarship, so my colleague met with me to give me my options which did not include poisoning the administrator with a lethal chocolate caramel cookie (kidding.....although, this guy was not a nice man.....and I am not kidding about that). And so, we sat and chatted when I got a call from a crying kid who was sitting at the bus transfer point looking for me. He was inconsolable over the phone and I had to cut my conversation about job security short and run to find this sad boy.

I apologized to my colleague for having to leave as I ran out the door and zipped the car down the pike to find him. As I turned into the parking lot, there he was....sitting with his head down on the curb with his back pack on his back. He looked lost and incredibly upset. And so, it was another Lifesavers moment as I did my best to be therapeutic and help him to feel better....to no avail....rats! It was time for dad to get involved since I had run out of mom things to say.....he was so upset, I pitied him.



And so, once he calmed down, he was placed on the B team with his friends and they went on to win every game except one. He was the big star on the team, but still bitter about the A team. With that said, in March, I threw a basketball birthday party for him in my university's gym for his B team. After I brought out a cake that said "We're number two" on it....and all was sort of well.


Now these memories are etched in my mind as something quite traumatic and he is telling the coach that he was glad that he was cut. OH MY GOODNESS!


Yes, I know that all things work together for good, but to go back to the guy after I spent years feeling bad for him, he is telling the coach that he was secretly happy about it.



My take on it? Yikes! That's it...yikes.....


More about his chat with the coach later. I have to return to the first floor to make dinner...which I don't need tonight....or any night for a week....


Peace!

Tweets

Happy birthday Uncle C....my closet sibling in age is now a speed limit....you can figure this one out.
He has an intense work ethic and funny sense of humor. He signed a card to me at Christmas "To Bob from Betty" (A little White Christmas nod) that had me howling. Now I call him Betty, so happy day to my lil bro, Betty.



I also want to send a shout out to BP Grandpop who has been in the hospital and is recovering from 'something'. There is no definitive diagnosis yet, so we keep our fingers crossed and pray. BP Grandmom has been staying day and night at the hospital. This is commitment, gang. When I return home, I can take the night shift for her so that she can get some well deserved rest. Although, any time that I offer, she turns me down.  Hey, Pop! Get better! Hey Mom! Get some rest!



Where has the time gone? My great I 95 adventure is coming to a close. And yes, it has been an adventure. How so?

Well, I now know where every Hampton Inn is located along the I 95 corridor. I also know that there are no Starbucks located on I 95 throughout North and South Carolina (business opportunities abound). Lastly, I would rather drive through torrential downpours than snow as I encountered buckets of rain during the South Carolina to Florida portion of the journey (on the way and back, too! sheesh).

As far as my reflection on the games, the team was definitely man handled on Friday night to the point of embarrassment. With the score lopsided, the team had at least 7 errors (5 behind my son). Twitter was alive during this period and I will share some of the tweets....

1. "The team was seen in the local sub shop after the game, hope they don't drop their sandwiches"
2. "Where is the team staying? These guys are hawt"
3. "Pitcher did everything he could do to end the inning; his fielders wanted to stay and play."
4. "Standing next to players in elevator; swoon."

And swoon, they did. On the first night, there were quite a few team supporters, but by the second and third games, our side was full of the other team's coed supporters. In other words, the local Florida girls sat behind our dug out to watch the guys rather than the game. In fact, when the team did something good, they would stand up and cheer. Interestingly, there were wearing their school colors while supporting our team.

As a mom, I think that it is cute. As a university student, would I abandon my school team to cheer for the underdogs who happened to be cute guys? hmmm....possibly....uh, yeah.....probably.....University loyalty only goes so far; although I did marry a cute guy that I met in college.

On to the big kid....exhausted. That's the word of the weekend. He is taking 18 credits and struggling in the accounting course (yikes, don't tell dad). Dad suggested that he drops it and takes it this summer when he has more time. The kid's reply was "I don't quit." Maybe not, but let's put things into perspective. The schedule is overwhelming. They returned home from Florida at 2 am. He has a 9 am class and goes all day. This weekend, they head to Maryland, then California for a week. All of the travel, practices, and games interfere with being a student, which is not supposed to happen.

I took two of the pitchers to lunch on Saturday and both are having trouble keeping up with their studies to the point that Tonto is saying "forget it" and choosing to sleep rather than study. "I like sleep too much." Yeah, me too. But like my son, I cannot sleep when I have too much to do. It is a hazard of being an adult and a professional. Tonto, sleeping too much can cause a person to lose their job. Just a bit of advice from ole BPMom.

And so, today I have an afternoon Skype meeting then Tink and I hit I 95 again to start the trek home. I heard about the snow (oh joy!) coming and will choose to ignore it. I had terrific southern weather! As I sat in the stands on Saturday night, it was a warm evening with a cool breeze. All I could do was sit there and smile with this dopey grin on my face.....until our pitcher gave up five runs with two outs during the fourth inning.....then the wind shifted.....but the smile didn't....this was a gift for me.....

Onward and upward......remember if anyone wants to buy a Starbucks franchise and open it along the I 95 corridor in North and South Carolina, count me in. I will grab all of the change from the sofa and car and put my money in.

Peace!

An unnecessary grudge

Good morning! It is Sunday and I have not written for a variety of reasons such as a four letter word....W...O...R...K....

I finished three classes this week which means that I have been grading papers and projects for 2 consecutive weeks trying not to go crazy. Although, even through the mind wills it, the rest of me did have a meltdown on Friday.....fade to black.....

On Wednesday night, I finished the class 90 minutes from the house and got home late (natch...). I started to work on the papers and presentation grades the first thing in the morning on Thursday....had to run to the Food Cupboard to volunteer (can't give that up), shower....work...another class....during this class, the presentations went into overtime since students did not stick to their 10 minute limit. And so, I dismissed class at 11pm. People were not happy.....anyway....

On Friday, it was my goal to finish three classes worth of papers, presentations, and grades. Yep, that was my goal. So, I started early, stayed in my pajamas and robe, and did not move from my office until the goal was achieved. Somewhere along the day, I threw on old sweats to walk the dog. As I was plowing through good papers, bad papers, awful papers, and amazing papers, it happened....



Yep, the doorbell rang. Nope, I am not getting it. No way. Then I looked down and it was the girl scouts. Nope. Not getting it. Come back later, kids. Then my conscience kicked in: "Hey, you dummy, you were a girl scout once. Get off your butt and order some cookies!^%$#("

Fine. Fine. FINE!  I answered the door with three of the quints standing there while Diva yapped. "Would you like to buy some cookies?" The three of them looked so cute with the girl scout wearing their sashes and their brother Lil D standing next to them holding up his bicycle.

Now, last year, I ordered two cases of cookies for $100.00. Couldn't do it this year, so I said in a hurry, "Put me down for one of each. Later...."

"No" they said. "You have to write your name and address and check off your cookies on the order form."

"OK" I scribbled my name and address and saw that I was the first person that they stopped to see to sell the cookies. I guess that buying two cases of cookies gives a person a reputation as a soft touch. And thus, everything was signed and sealed. As I was ready to close the door, Lil D looks at me and says (oh so innocently), "What's wrong with your hair?"

Huh? My hair? "Uh, Lil D, what do you mean?"

"Well, it is messy and is sticking up."





Nice. Nice. Really NICE! Yeah, I just scared the kids. SO, I tried to explain to him that when I graded papers, I pulled at my hair. I did not want to tell him that it prevents me from screaming since many of them are bad, but I kept my tongue and shared that I played with my hair when I worked. Then I looked at him give me a look from the fur snow boots that I was wearing with my sweat pants to the chocolate stains on my shirt. Let's face it, I looked a mess and scared the kids. That will teach them to knock on my door at the end of the term. Actually, it teaches me not to listen to me conscience when I knew better and should have stayed hidden on the second floor of the house.

 

After leaving the kids to sell more cookies to a better dressed and showered neighbor, I trudged back to the office. As I began to work on another paper, tho phones rang....the house phone and my cell phone. Dad was on one line; the big leftie was on the other. Nice. Nice. NICE!

So, I answered both. Dad was upset about something. Buddy was happy about something. I decided to take the happy call and hang up on the unhappy one. Conscience again? Naw....I was not in the mood to listen to him when I was melting down...so, I spoke with the big kid who said that he had a great bullpen....all balls were zipping....only three bad pitches. Well now, that is good news. "Going out tonight to have a few beers with the guys." Have fun. Don't drink and drive. Walk home. Be careful.

That was the last that I heard from him this weekend, which means that he slept most of Saturday until he met with his high school baseball coach.

The coach contacted him to share that he was bringing his family to campus because his daughter had a gymnastics tournament. Naturally, he wanted to see his protege and have a tour of the facilities.

Now, here is where I get a bit salty. This is the coach who kicked him out of the dugout for showing up a few minutes late when he could not find a a parking space after taking his father to work. He is also the coach who could be heard screaming every time the kid threw a ball to get him the (*%&S off the mound and out of the game. It is also the coach who was puzzled when college coaches called him for more information about the kid when he was being recruited. He was shocked because he did not think that the big guy could pitch or play. He also gave him the "Most Improved Baseball Player" award at the banquet when he was clearly the MVP (this is not sour grapes, it is based upon statistics and being the only senior on the team named All State).  This award makes all of us smile....

And now, he is on campus and wants a tour of the field and baseball facilities. Yep....all I can think of is how he screamed at my son who called me and said in tears: "I am never going to pitch again" because the coach told him &%$)) *&#2!.

So, dude, you want a tour? OK, are you also telling the community or whoever would listen that he is at this university because of his magical coaching prowess? He is responsible for my son's success? Really?




Perhaps I am keeping a grudge, but I have never spoken to the man, nor do I ever intend to. He made my kid's life (and therefore my life) a living heck for three years. It was me who pulled him up by his shoelaces when the coach threw a hissy fit or belittled him or cursed at him. Maybe it made him stronger. That is definitely a possibility, but all I can think of is three years of constant torture.



Then today, I saw a study performed in England about kid's coaches and how most of them can be construed as bullies based upon the definition of bully. I can see it. I actually saw it and lived it. Were all of them bullies? Absolutely not. The majority of the coaches were nice people who encouraged the kids knowing that none of them were the next Michael Jordan or Derek Jeter. Yet, my son's Catholic school 5th grade football coach taught him how to curse in sentences. Nice. That plus tuition will give the kid the entire Catholic school experience.



I guess that I am a bit negative today, so it is time to leave the office and have some fun. I hope that you can too.

Peace!

Stress and pies

Good morning! I hope all is well in your lives. We had Thanksgiving in the south while BP grandmom and Pop had their turkey dinner in the hospital. Is there ever a good time to be admitted to the hospital? Probably not....but Pop is now home and we'll see him tomorrow when we return home to the northeast.

I heard from Wildcat who was very interested in finding out whether I have killed anyone with my little black stopper thingamajing in the apple pies. Here is how it went.....I made about 85+ pies last week and can attest that no black stoppers made it into a pie. You see....when the pies are filled with apples, the little black thingamajing would have stood out like a a little black thingamajing. Therefore, no pie filler reported seeing it and hence...no one will choke on it because it is not in a pie but in some corner of the bakery that the guys could not clean.

And so, I am so happy that I have not contributed to anyone's demise. Yes, I have filled their bellies with wholesome apples, sugar, butter, and cinnamon. According to Sparky, they sold thousands of pies, cakes, and cookies on Tuesday and Wednesday. A major league profitable two days. Yet, the gang slept only two hours in three days. I am sure that they are still sleeping today trying to catch up on their sleep and dreaming of carrot cakes, pumpkin pies, and pecans.

As I was filling the pies, one of the bakers suggested that I do not let the stress get to me. Stress? Huh? No way....I was having fun filling the pies and not worried about my own students and work. It was relaxing for me. Strange? Perhaps...then again, stress to one person is a delight to another.

For example, I think that teaching a course on death and dying is stressful 'cause everyone cries the entire time. I also think that watching my son play football is stressful...flying in a rain storm....stressful....labor and delivery...stressful....breaking down on the turnpike....stressful....making dinner for 20 wondering if you are poisoning them...stress....filling apple pies...not so bad. But then again, it is not my livelihood and therefore I am not relying on selling enough to pay the mortgage. I am merely helping a friend in need of assistance. I love doing that....I want to do a good job....no poison anyone or choke them...maybe I should have felt more stress. Oye!

OK, time for me to run an errand. see you next week!

Back home!

Greetings! I am back….how back…well almost back as I sit in the airplane as it is fueled waiting to take off.  I am a reluctant flyer and hate the fact that I am not in control in these aircrafts....that and person who must have eaten 5 cloves of garlic for breakfast and breathing on me right now.....

After stopping in Starbucks for my own kind of fuel….that’s right….a bit of caffeine goes a long way this afternoon.  In fact, I will need to ingest a number of Starbucks venti bold cups of coffee to get through the next few days.  

The business trip was scheduled by a national program accrediting body who sent me and two other women to assess the quality of a new program in Ohio. After spending three days in a classroom reading through documents and interviewing countless members of the community, we finally had the opportunity to write our report last night at 10 pm.  While trying to write a decent sentence describing my findings, I felt like a toddler in her high chair as I started to nod into my laptop.  What a strange feeling…

Once my section of the report was complete, I had to pick up another section because one of the team members was behind.  I really could not say to her: “Later, I am going to bed….” So, I picked up another section and we finally got to bed at midnight for the third 6 am wake up call in a row.   No complaining….just a sensation that my body is not attached to my head and I have the intellect of a five year old.  My eyes are red, sore, and puffy….and my mind is shot….fuzzy….non-functional….It’s going to be fun tomorrow as I think of ways to interact with my classes for seven hours.  Can anyone say: “Long breaks?”

I once had to teach a class the day after I returned from a trip to Italy. 

 Not realizing what was going on, the class was laughing at me as my eye lids started to close while I was speaking. Is it possible to fall asleep while standing up? I actually closed my eyes and kept the conversation going....actually I had no choice...it was either keep going or putting my head on the desk, fall asleep, and have my students watch while I pass out. Of course, I would wake up and find a mustache drawn on my face with a Sharpie or see my sleeping face online somewhere as someone captures my photo with their cell phone....

On to family crises that occurred while I sat in my classroom this week in Ohio reading document after document….

Dad called yesterday morning: “Uh…the bathroom window is shattered….and I pulled down the towel rack…you have to call the window manufacturer and the handy man to fix the towel rack...."

Gotcha

Tink called: “Uh….there is nothing to eat in the house and I think that Diva dog has hemorrhoids….”

Gotcha

Buddy called: “Uh…where are you?  LW heard a pop in his shoulder. I actually feel sorry for him? What is happening to me?”

Gotcha

 

Well now…I wonder if they can handle these issues without me? NOT!

OK…issue number 1….could a wayward golf ball have shattered the double pain window in our bathroom? Of course, we do not live near the golf course but that obviously has not stopped one of my neighbors from playing a round in my backyard. Tink and Dad looked for evidence of a divot or a ball and could not find them. 

Issue 2: the dog may indeed have hemorrhoids…but honestly….what the heck? How does this happen to a little dog that only eats kibble and baked chicken that I purchase at the meat market? Guess I have to call the vet…that should be an interesting conversation. Can a dog use Preparation H? I know that you can use it for eye puffiness. If you can use it on your face, why can’t you apply it to a dog’s bottom? I better “google” this one.

Issue 3: My son has budding compassion for the guy who has driven him crazy for the past two years. OK, it was bound to happen. I texted him that I thought that he was evolving and his response was that he did not like it. I suppose he wants to stay in the selfish, all-about-me mentality that he has developed and polished over the years.

And so, my gut tells me that I was needed at home and that I will have my hands full as I return to my family.  The window has me bugged and so does the dog’s bottom….the empathy that the big kid is displaying is giving me hope for the future.  

***One last piece of news…the toilet in the guys’ house during Saturday night’s party was blocked by a bar of soap. The plunger would not dislodge it so Buddy used a fork to pull it out not knowing what was going to be on the end of it. FYI: Toss the soap out and do not reuse it....just sayin'....Now….young man…how is that ‘open-door’ policy working for you?

Ok, we are starting our descent into the airport. Time for me to get back to reality and stop at Target to pick up some Preparation H or any other hemorrhoid cream. After all, the dog’s bottom needs it and I think that I will also use it to minimize the bags that have formed under my eyes….I will let you know if it works on both….

I will call the handy man, Ponch tomorrow after work or during a break, fix the dog's sore tush, and call the window manufacturer. As far as the big guy goes and his compassion....too bad....dude, face it...you're basically a nice guy.

Gotta run!

Have fun!