Will it Float?

I'm a Letterman guy, always have been. At the height of my obsession with the Late Show they featured a great game called "Will it Float".

Time now to bring that game back.

Conflicted

My 28th birthday is around the corner, that used to seem so old. Not anymore. I don't feel much different than 24 when I first started teaching. What does feel different is the direction my career is headed. Ask young Brent what he wanted to do with his career and before you could finish he would have said "Be a head coach, teach, have a family". Ask the hair turning gray older version of that little pipsqueek and you'll get a "......can you repeat the question?"

I'm not sure where that sure fire answer went or where that focus for my career started to change. Here now I am not coaching at all, taking classes to become an administrator, and filming weddings. Don't get me wrong, I think all of those are great things and I don't regret anything. However, this is where I am conflicted. Am I doing what I really want to do?

For the life of me I can't answer that question. Each year I was driven by the fact that I was going to put my head down and coach, learn as much as I could and make a run at the head coaching gig when that season started. But I don't have that this year. Instead my head is down and trying to learn as much as I can to become an administrator. Hell, I don't even know if I want to be a principal, but I know I want that option in my career. I am getting what I asked for, I wanted a chance to look at my career without blinders on and decide if what I am doing is still my goal. Is this a Jerry Maguire "mission statement" moment in my life, no, it's a guy that is trying to decide if swallowing his childhood dream of being a head coach is the right decision, or if trading in the whistle for a larger paycheck and no lesson plans is the right decision?

Conflicted.

Only thing left to do is pray and see if he can straighten this out, cuz I can't.

Mary and John's

I have a few things in the summer that I get really anxious for, 4 man golf scrambles are one of those. This saturday we are traveling to my hometown of Tiffin to play in a memorial tournament for Nick Zeyan, the father of a close friend. I love the golf scramble because it brings so many things together...teamwork, redemption from a bad shot, and the opportunity to win. The only thing that could make a golf scramble even better is a pre-round breakfast from your favorite place. So when we decided to play in this outing I instantly thought it was the perfect setup because my favorite breakfast joint "Mary & John's" is in Tiffin.

.....or at least it was. I hyped up this breakfast of champions to only find out my childhood hash brown maker is closed. The level of disappointment I feel makes me want to blow up Bob Evan's even though their Rise and Shine had nothing to do with it. Mary & John's is that local flavor for a small town that is more than their eggs and bacon, it's their nostalgic feeling they pour out on you. The booths still have the music playing machines that you flip like a roladex until you find the song you want. This was the first place I heard the words "Do you want your usual?" This was a place I went to with my dad when he was a football coach. I would tag along as a little guy with the staff as they sat and talked about the upcoming scrimmage or 2-a-day. I would order my scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and hash browns and listen to those coaches intently. So to my dismay I will not be able to combine golf scrambles with egg scrambles because The Man took down my breakfast joint. I have a similar place here in Delaware called the Diner, my father in law has a place in Celina called The Fountain, and Tiffin is now short one great place. These places are more than their food, I hope you can find somewhere to eat where the term "usual" means a glorious start to your day.

One Year

Today (7-11) marks our one year anniv. Looking back it's hard to think that a year went by and I find myself sitting on my front porch watching the rain drop on the pond wondering what we did our first year? I know people say your first year of marriage is difficult and "boy things are going to change".....really? You have to be somewhat of an idiot to think going into marriage nothing is going to change. If you marry someone and expect your life to stay exactly the same then chances are you're having your divorce televised live on Judge Judy. Luckily we have a brain that works.

Sure things changed in my life, and hers, but that change has been well needed. I showed lindsey how to slow down her life a little and look around, while she showed me how to stay driven on things and keep motivated. She showed me the lifestyle of eating healthier, while I showed her that candy is actually pretty good. She would cook amazing meals, I would make amazing fires. She would show me how to keep my room clean, I would show her I am still a work in progress on that. She would screw something up with the computer, I would fix it. I get dressed, she tells me to change. She gets dressed, I tell her to get undressed.

Overall I've learned from our first year of wedlock that it's a partnership. It's a give and take, like ketchup and mustard.....or fried batter and anything. Have an open mind and remember the reason you said "I Do" and your first year of marriage should be as enjoyable as ours was. When in doubt, throw something into the mix like a dog and really see how fun things can get. The cool thing is that we started our own family, we are making our own traditions, our own decisions, and our own mistakes. Year one brought us a lot of laughs and some great stories, who knows what year two has in store for us, I can tell you what it doesn't have in store....a baby.

now to pay honor to the Duke of Earl one year Anniv:

Harmless Fun Evidence

My good friend scott wrote a blog about harmless fun. In that blog he spoke about our experiences with leafing people. Here is evidence of one time when I was leafed my second year of teaching by the football team.

The 4th

It's one of those days that I think lost it's original intentions, like we've turned the actual events of the day into what we should be celebrating, that a group of guys dared to make this bold statement of their declaration to cut all ties with the king. So the morning of the 4th as I sat awake while my dog chewed on rawhide, I did some research. As it turns out, I am wrong. We are doing exactly what John Adams wanted us to do, just two days late.

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more". John Adams to his wife Abigail

So I started to think if our 4th celebration met John Adams criteria, after all he was one of the architects of the reason for this pomp and base go boom. For nearly every 4th of July my family goes to our cabin on Rocky Fork Lake with most of my mothers side of the family. We pack close to 18 sleeping here at a time with more coming throughout the day. We have all the fixins' that John speaks of...we play all sorts of game, we do multiple sports, bonfires, potato guns, and of course illumination. Each year we take in two shows of fireworks...the first is at a local legends house that puts my hometown of tiffin fireworks to shame, the second is on the lake taking in various shows in all directions. The local legend though has to be in the witness protection program and this is his way of riding out the remainder of his former mob life. But, each year he delivers. He lights up the sky and cranks his cheesey patriotic music as the "booms" get louder and louder. It works though. For the 20 min we are there for the exact reason John Adams wrote that letter is fulfilled. We sit there and feel good about the place we live, feel good about our life we have built, and probably slip back into some distant memories from fireworks long ago. So whether or not you actually thought about the signing of the declaration or the group of men that approved the decision on July 2nd, and signed the letter stating their intent on the 4th, if you got together with family, friends, or your dog and played a game, watched a giant sparkler blow up, or ate pounds of fried goodness like we did, then you fulfilled John Adams request of succeeding generations celebrating the historic day of July 2nd, well 4th.