Keep Your Chin Up!

April 24, 2016April 24, 2016

Keep Your Chin Up!

“Strike three, your out!” That phrase has so many connotations. Clearly, in baseball, your out, but that’s just one at bat. In life, it could land you prison for life in some states. And in friendships, like life, it can mean the time has come to end a long friendship. But does it really?

Is it that we only have the patience for three? “Good things come in threes.” My mother always told me. She always took the positive approach. So why is it that we look at three strikes as a negative? Baseball players adjust for the next time they’re at bat. Why can’t we do that in life? Adjust? Look at the positive?

Baseball players who are able to put their last strike out behind them can move on, adjust, and prepare to get that next hit. Focus. Determination. Concentration. Apply these things to life and those “strikes” become lessons learned. A strike in life is not a bad thing, it’s just another point in time in which things didn’t go your way.

Just get ready for your next at bat. Your next opportunity to adjust. But always remember, you can always strike out again.

April 14, 2016April 14, 2016

#ThisIsFifty

1966 was a very good year.

Miranda rights came into being from the Supreme Court.

The US Department of Transportation was created.

Batman debuted on ABC Television.

All cigarette packets in the United States must carry the health warning “Caution! Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.”

The Celtics defeated the Lakers for the NBA Championship.

Star Trek debuts on Television.

The Sound of Music won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Twister was introduced,

….and I was born.

I had a wonderful celebration back in February with my family and close friends. We had a throwback 1980’s prom. Everyone did their best to capture that time. Just look at my husband and his friends. From the dancing to the music to those crazy outfits we all had a great time. Even the boy showed up in plaid pants!

Birthdays are always fun when you can go back in time and relish in all the good. Sure, life wasn’t all mini skirts and moon walks in the 60’s. Vietnam, China, and a few disasters controlled the headlines most of that year.

However, what I want to remember is that my parents brought me into this world to celebrate life and all it brings. From sports to entertainment, I can say I enjoy all of it. And still do to this day. While the catastrophic events continue to haunt the world, we need to focus on the good. In reality, there is likely more good in the world than bad, it’s just that the bad gets all the press.

Think we can change that? Maybe, one post at a time. Join me in using the #ThisIsFifty to celebrate all the positive things in our world.

April 8, 2016April 11, 2016

Barbie’s Resume

Watching TV with my 6 year old can be a real trip. First, she’s obsessed with infomercials. She actually pauses them on the DVR so she can show me the product. Then she will look me in the eye and say, “See mom, see what it can do? We should get it!” I’m not quite convinced we need the closet keeper, or the sham-wow, or the carpet cleaner for three easy payments of just $49.95…we don’t even have carpeting in the house!

Read the rest on My So Called Laid Off Life.

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016

Polyvore

Finding new apps that no one else knows about has become a bit of a hobby for me. Especially when I get the jump on the girl. Her twelve year old little self is so hyper focused on social apps, that when I find one I KNOW she’s going to like, I’m all over it.

That’s where Polyvore comes in. I don’t mean to sound like a teenager, but this is the bomb! I get to mix and match clothes, accessories, and make those cute little images you see on Pinterest.

Way too much fun! And the beauty of it, you can actually buy the items you pull together. It’s the ultimate shopping trip. The girls think I’m nuts when I pull out my phone and show them new apps, but this one caught their attention.

Lulu, my sister-in-law was extremely skeptical. “How do you know if its going to fit?” (in all honesty she’s not much of an online shopper, she’s a fabulous jewelry designer, so most jewelry fits when you order online.) After a couple hours of playing around she got hooked, although she did find it to be time consuming. As you can see I haven’t gotten very far in the 16 days since I joined. Oh, to be a “Style Setter”. Not really on my list of things to accomplish this month.

I really just joined it for the girl, I knew she would like it. she has far more screen time than I do. Probably not good parenting, however, she does love fashion, and she doesn’t have a credit card, so onward to just create collections!

Have you visited Polyvore yet? It’s fun, and connects you to so many designers and stores you never knew existed! Have fun!

April 7, 2016April 7, 2016

Not “living well”

Once a year I go completely off the grid. Not by choice. It’s as though my body says “hey, let’s take a break, and not function.” that’s me today. I felt a cold coming on and thought I could knock it out with sudafed and advil. However that did not work. One day later and my body is aching, my chest feels like an elephant is sitting on it and my nose, well, we just won’t discuss what is coming out of it.

While most of my posts I hope are honest, this one is the most honest. I’m sick. I mean really sick. And I look the part. I don’t think I’ve showered in two days, but can’t event tell you what day it is. I do know I’m supposed to work out today so its either Tuesday or Thursday. Let’s go with Thursday.

Going off the grid was not my choice. I detest staying home and not working, or not doing anything. Hence, why I picked up the old laptop and decided to post. I did manage to pick up the girl at school, but that took effort. I also switched on the old magic box and decided on endless episodes of “Flip or Flop”. HGTV is my go to. I call it “Have to Go to Television”. Especially on days like today when I’m not living well, it makes me disappear in all the madness of “demo day”, “what else could go wrong”, and of course the old “it still hasn’t sold and now we’re $315,000 in debt. Why does that make me feel so much better?

Do you ever have one of those days when you can’t even function? What do you do to whittle away your time?

April 6, 2016April 7, 2016

Baseball weather

It’s as though Mother Nature is bi-polar. Literally. The polar winds have come down from Canada and frozen us once more. New England weather can be sunny and 70 one day and snowing, windy and cold the next. Typical baseball weather.

While the days are getting longer, so is the winter. Last winter’s record snowfall had a good excuse for ongoing cold and snow. This winter not so much. We had maybe 23″ of snow. In spurts. No real shoveling for me this winter. I let the sun do the work. It seemed as though Spring was going to arrive early. Not so fast. Last weekend it snowed. This week, it’s been 24 degrees at night. I finally got the aching, sneezing, coughing, stuffy nose I had avoided all winter. Sudafed take me away.

Desperately trying to keep warm I wrap myself in my World Series Red Sox blanket, which, opening day in Cleveland was postponed due to snow. Oh, baseball season. It can’t come any sooner, and yet, I recall opening day at Fenway in years past. 35 and rainy, flats, no socks. Big mistake. That was the last time I did that!

Now, I will watch from my computer at work. I’ll wait until July when it finally warms up!

November 19, 2009April 8, 2016

‘Ol Bessie

Ahhh, Wednesday. Not sure how I approach this day of jump, middle of the week, or the day from hell? Wednesday’s I drive 60 miles to take my son and his teammate to hockey practice. I get to fight the good fight of the Boston traffic going South and North. I have always wondered how that works, traffic both ways. I rush them down to practice, a 1/2 or or sometimes 45 minutes early, against their wishes, but I know in order to get through the traffic and pick up his sister by 6pm at the after-school program, they have to suck it up. Ahhh, Wednesday.

My week is generally planned around this special day. Special in that I get to spend quality time with two teenagers who mearly grunt and text message one another while they are less than 16 inches apart. When I pick up Charlie’s teammate and friend Zack, I ask the same questions, hoping to get some conversation from these boys. Now Zack is a great kid, as the weeks have passed he plays me like a fiddle engaging in my tete á tete. “How was school today Zack?”, I ask hoping for a sentence longer than one word. “Actually, it was great Mrs. McConnell. Today, I had a really nice day. Thanks for asking.” What, what, who is this? Oh the joys of conversation. Do I continue, or do I relish in the fact that he didn’t just grunt a “good” under his voice-changing breath?

I’ll take it. My Wednesday is fulfilled. Now I head into the traffic. I would love to calculate the miles put on my car over the course of the hockey season. My Ford Explorer has 210,000 miles (most of which was driving to and from a job 40 miles from our home). Now, she, (Bessie, I affectionately call her, or Big Blue), has retired from driving to those hockey tournaments outside a 250 mile radius. My husband fears Bessie will not make it much longer.

She’s got good fight in her. She’s been to Montreal, Quebec, Rochester, Providence, Stamford, and of course, nearly every MDC rink in eastern Massachusetts. She’s toured much of the South Shore for Baseball trips, but was left behind when we drove to Virginia Beach for the AAU National Tournament. It may have been a result of her lack of air conditioning, or simply the noises in the back tend to over deliver their sound over the music on the radio. We’re careful where Bessie goes now.

My favorite part of Bessie is her ability to house so much crap to keep my six year old content. As we travel from place to place, taking in as many dinners on the road as an amateur hockey team, we collect plenty of restaurant crayons. I wish just once, someone would supply colors other than red, blue, green and yellow. I’ll survive though. I keep a basket of “art supplies” in the back, tucked away next to the three or four fleece blankets, extra winter coats, and of course the travel potty seat. You laugh, but when you have a girl, they come in handy!

I’m pretty convinced Bessie looks forward to the switchover. This is the time when the basket and items in the car switchover from hockey to baseball, or vice versa. This, this is the time Bessie gets a good cleaning. I even think she runs better for a day or so. (Noises not so loud, or maybe I am just turning the radio up a little louder?) Fleece blankets are replaced with large blankets to act as a picnic blanket. The “tent” I purchased for $20 dollars goes alongside the pop up chairs. (I highly advise the purchase of a pop-up tent to keep little ones occupied at baseball games. Baseball, as you know, has no clock…

Yes, Bessie has a good life. International explorer that she is, she keeps chugging along. And, I have to say, no car payment leaves me more money to take the kids out to eat and score those free crayons.

November 17, 2009April 7, 2016

New Teacher

So, every six weeks a new session begins at Gymnastics. And every first day of the new session is a smattering of mothers mumbling under their breath the anger of the inconsistency of the teaching staff. What gives? Why is it the fault of the Gymnastics school that the teachers have changed? This is a phenomena I do not understand.

I dropped my daughter off yesterday afternoon 5 minutes late to Gymnastics class (as always). She popped a kiss to me and bounced right into the warm-ups. Behind me was a mother cursing loud enough for just a few of us to capture what it was she was complaining about…”New Teacher! She was just getting used to the other one, now they change, dammit. She’s all out of sorts…” She went on for a while, hoping to find some sympathy in the room.

None to be found here. Now, I know, perhaps her child has special needs and requires the consistency in their lives. Well, not so much for this little gymnast. She’s my daughters age, and has been going to the classes as long as my daughter has. No excuses mom. I watched from day one this little girl clinging to her mother, and mom coddling her in return. Come on! Break the umbilical cord already.

Why do parents feel this abandonment? Yes, it is the parent who is feeling abandoned. Why would you put your child in the class, angry they won’t let go, then smile casually as you hand a screaming , crying, miserable child to a Gymnastics Teacher? In my world children are this way because 1) We allow them to do this and don’t follow through on our actions, and 2) they simply are not ready for an extracurricular activity without the womb.

Don’t sign your children up for activities unless you can let go. Please, don’t watch the class, unless you’ve been invited in. It’s like watching paint dry and you will only critique the way they are working with your child. The gymnastics academy my daughter attends has two “viewing windows”. They are 24″ x 24″ total. This is for a reason. Take the hint.

Six weeks comes and goes. Teachers, instructors, coaches, come and go when you sign-up for extracurricular activities that are on a cycle. Think before you sign-up. Have a positive attitude towards these people who have the patience to work with your little one. And, wait until they are truly ready for you to let go.

November 16, 2009April 7, 2016

The Bleacher Butt

It’s been nearly 10 years in the making, but I’ve finally made it. I finally brought one of those handy dandy seat cushions to a game. You’d think I’d know better. After all, every Grandparent who ever attended any grandchild’s sporting event owns at least two or three. They even would offer me one, but I’d decline, suffering the wrath of my bleacher butt.

And so it goes. The first edition of bleacherbutt. You all know who you are, you are the dedicated, or not so perhaps dedicated, parents of children who relish in extracurricular activities, focused on the world of sports. Yes, my dear friends, you know who you are, and we all share a dream, that our child will outgrow his need for competitive sport.

Where would that leave us? That’s why we have multiple children, sanctioned perfectly three years and 2 months apart in order to generate at least 20 years of sporting events. Whether it’s good fortune or not, I have two children, ages 13 and 6. The 13 year old is the sport equivalent to 3 children, whereas the 6 year old would much prefer painting over perfunctory athletics. (Though, I do believe she has athletic prowess, however, we have not uncovered it yet)

That’s what we parents do, watch with great intent while our little ones try to win a game. When my son was 4 he started tee-ball. Now 4 is just crazy, as I didn’t start any sports until after I was 6. But, as I came to find out, we were actually late to the game (pun intended). Most of his friends had started soccer at age 3. They were the Brewers. Now, my son has a bit of an advantage. His father, the head baseball coach at a local university, placed a bat in his hand at age two months. I have to admit, he does have a natural swing. (My daughter on the other hand has no clue on how to swing a bat!)

The T-ball league was great. Each team consisted of 15 players, all who got to bat, all got to be in the field, at the same time, and no outs counted, unless you played the Brewers. These guys could turn double plays! They were amazing, and they were only 4. My son and his friends who understood the game of baseball were furious when they made their three outs, and had to stay until everyone batted. It was confusion on both sides.

What are we teaching them? My husband eventually boycotted the games, as I sat there, with my blanket in the cold New England spring. I wished I had that bleacher cushion back then. Nine years ago this all began. Along with baseball we added hockey at age 5. That’s when the real fan in me was exposed. I taped all of his first year. It’s somewhere on some camcorder tape in the house. That was the last year I ever taped a hockey game.

So, what is bleacherbutt all about? It’s about the dedication parents put into the games their children play. It’s about how fanatical we parents get when we’re at a game. It’s about how adults get lost in the competitive spirit of the game, and lose sight of what its all about. It’s about a mother who goes every Monday to get her son’s skates sharpened at the same place week after week. It’s about car pools and “stinky hockey boys”. It’s about making life work around your kids sporting event. It could be about you. It could be about your parents who also join you in the stands week after week.

Welcome. Welcome to bleacherbutt. Join me, share your stories.