A Lesson From Mom....

My Mom is the most wonderful woman I've ever met. Hands down. I almost fault her for setting the bar so high for my future wife. To live up to all that she is, would be such a monumental task (yet, it'd be sexy for someone to take that as a challenge and not a deterrent).

I think so highly of her, yet I'm not even sure how cognizant of it she is.

Let me give you an example.

Last Saturday night I went out with some friends to a nightclub in D.C. My friend Patsy has a long-term (2 years) boyfriend named Mike. Mike's a great guy and him and I get along pretty well (this isn't as off track as you think). When Patsy and the girls started dancing, him and I got into an interesting conversation.

I asked him what his Mom did for a living. He said she's a nurse. I said, hmmmm, that makes sense.

See, Patsy is gorgeous. A 10. Plus she just got promoted at work and has a lot spunk and ambition. She's a catch, and I wondered what she saw in Mike that makes him such a keeper.

Over the next half-hour him and I discussed what it was like to grow up with a Mom who was a nurse. The challenges they face. The late-night paperwork. The fact that our father's had to accompany them at times to visits in unsafe areas and at night.

But moreover, we discussed our supreme respect for women. Which surely differentiates us from many other men. See, when your mother is a nurse, you not only value her as your Mom, and as a good wife to your Pops. You also see the emotional taxation she faces in her career. Different than being a receptionist. Different than being a jeweler.

Additionally, our Mom's worked as home-health RN's. The nurses that see people at their worst. Their final days (week/months). And they try to make the transition to death as peaceful, painless and easy as possible. For the patient and their family/friends. You can't have just a regular heart for that. You need a superhuman one.

Which my Mom has. And I assume Mike's does as well.

Mike and I agreed that we value and respect women very highly. Our Mother(s) had to be a wife, a Mom and a nurse. With little margin for error or breakdowns. And we are in awe of them for handling that with grace and kindness.

We also agreed that it puts our petty problems in perspective. And that we recognize not to be like the 'typical' man who comes home and either vents/ignores his girlfriend or wife. I don't care how hard my 8-12 hour shift was, you still help cook and clean and you show her how much you love her.

Yes, this was a very strange conversation for two straight men to have at 1:00AM Saturday night after a few beers.

But it happened nonetheless. So thank you Mom. Thanks for being the most amazing, loving, wonderful woman on Earth. Thanks for teaching me how highly to value women. I'm sure my future wife/girlfriend's will thank you for your profound influence. They will be recipient's of a better man because of you.

Thanks Mom.

Hanging by a Moment...

To my bracket. I'm currently in 5th place out of 39 in my office pool. Only 3 points behind the leader. I have a few upsets tonight (and don't want to jinx them by singling them out) that if they don't pan out, will screw me over pretty thoroughly. But I prefer to root for the underdogs.

I'm currently 483,000 in the ESPN.com poll. So I'm hanging in there ;).

March could hardly be more maddening.

Wanting Someone Else to Fail...

Republicans are speaking out these days, are you listening? Each more vociferous than the next, proclaiming they wish Obama fails.

The Democratic response is obvious: Obama is President. His party controls Congress. If Obama's policies fail, the country will fail because of the impact they have. Therefore, Republicans ought to be ashamed of themselves for putting petty politics above the well-being of the nation.

Booorrrriiinngggg.

I beg to differ.

Of course the Republicans should want the Democrats to fail. Our democracy is designed for this. While President Bush was in office, many vocal Democrats wanted Bush policies to fail (sadly, most did). I surely did. If Bush was successful, I would feel like an idiot for holding viewpoints that are at best unimportant.

Which leads us to where we are today. A Democratic President with a Democratic Congress. The reason we got to change is because we booted out the guys who've been failing and inputted new and fresh faces into Congress.

Moreover, the US political atmosphere is designed to promote self-preservation above all else. The most important thing a lawmaker does is ensuring reelection. Good policies/bad policies/support of President/earmarks who cares??? The point is, put yourself in position to win the next go-around.

Therefore Democrats are foolish to be shocked and/or dismayed with Republican pessimism. In truth, the Democrats' response is just theatrics, that gives them a scapegoat when/if their policies actually don't succeed. Don't feed into it.

You'd be hard-pressed not to witness our country's recession, failing wars, infrastructure problems etc...

Should Democrats and Republicans work together to solve the problems? It'd be nice. But it's impractical. Like Democrats have been saying all along, "Why should we listen to the bozo's who got us into this mess."

And they'd be right.

So don't fret about the GOP wishing Obama and his Administration to fail. They come from different ideologies so of course they're not going to see the same route to prosperity.

Democrats have all the votes and support they need to "Change America."

Here's hoping they do it.

Overdosed...

Ever hear the old adage, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure(?)"

Well Sunday afternoon I took it to heart. I played in my championship basketball game for the Fall's Church Men's League. Per the semifinal game I took three Tylenol to prevent my knee from affecting my shot during the game.

And it worked wonderfully.

Therefore, just to rest assured, I predicted it was a grand idea to take 5 pills this time. On an empty stomach.

So (5) ounces of prevention really may not be worth a pound of cure...

I took the Tylenol around 12:00PM so it would settle in before tip off at 2:30. The first half of the game I had no problems (save for a few missed jump shots). And the game was tied.

During the second half I started to feel woozy. Every break in possesion, free throw, timeout, if I bent over with my hands on my knees to catch my breath I felt extremely dizzy. It would take a good minute and a half to re-acclimate myself with the world.

Early in the 4th quarter, my teammate Tai took a nasty elbow right above the eye and split his head open. Blood came rushing out and he had to be taken to the ER. Thankfully his girlfriend was in tow and he was able to get stitched up.

However, losing him gave me less of an option to come out of the game. In the championship game, a nail-biter, you play through whatever you're harboring. And my team relied on me to score and well, trash talk. My fortes.

And so I did.

And we won. Our team played excellent the last two minutes to give us a 7 point victory and bragging rights with the T-Shirts that accompany them.

However, after the game, I would experience hell for approximately 24 hours.

I went home and vomited a couple times. Feeling relieved, albeit still fairly dizzy, I walked to Georgetown to get a bite to eat.

Shortly thereafter, my body wanted an encore. At this point I couldn't even hold down an anchor. Everything I ate or drank came right up. What's worse is that I had to force myself to puke to temporarily alleviate the dizziness I felt. Everytime I moved I got a wave of dizziness. The same kind you feel after you forgot how many Patron shots you've drank.

Zero equilibrium.

So I slept. And slept. And woke up for about 20 minutes in between and then slept for another two hours.

24 hours after overdosing on the pills I felt much better. And this morning, normal.

My Mom reminded me I'm allergic to Aspirin and I pry have a sensitivity to other pain medications as well (she remembers my hallucinations post ACL-tear). Speaking of which, tomorrow morning is my MRI for my left knee to see if there's any tendon/meniscus damage.

Point of the story - don't preempt pain by swallowing pills.

Sometimes all you need is the prescribed dose.

Riddle Me This - Can You Solve??? Part 7

I stumble around in a sober daze,
I can juggle nothing but tasks,
Cheney is someone I've been linked to in jokes,
Don't pick me to walk the line,

Did I do that???,
What am I???

Evaluation

Sanctimoniously you bedevil,
Spreading animosity like dirt from a shovel,
Shredding the pieces behind you without care,
Who could complain - there's nobody there,

This is your trail of destruction,
Does your abhorrent behavior even serve a function?,
Intentions prove harder to prove than the guilt,
That you feel or don't when you service your will,

Monopoly can only be played with pieces,
Competition, money, others, some reason,
Therefore your feeling of satisfaction's miscued,
You're derelict to your own bemuse,

I believe you'll find this mitigation,
Is more tied down than your current elation,
There's never a need for retaliation,
When you play with yourself it's pathetically wasted.

Beware the Ides...

Pics Continued...

Pics from Jacksonville and More...

Finally. It was worth the wait, right?

During my trip to Florida I took some pictures of the Universities and downtown Jacksonville (at night and during the day). I also took a wonderful day trip 25 miles south to St. Augustine (a beautiful, charming little city) and drank from the fountain of youth used by Ponce de Leon. Very slimy btw, wouldn't recommend it.

There's a University named Flagler down there as well - I snapped some photos of. The beautifully intricate dome you see is the inside of one of the class buildings. Seeing it in person is even more amazing. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the nation.

I also included a few pics of my day-trip to Mt. Vernon (where George Washington founded our nation). Enjoy!

The story of the fountain of youth as I heard it: When Ponce de Leon landed in St. Augustine in the 1400's he was the commander of his ship. He sailed with Christopher Columbus. The tallest man was generally the commander of the ship in those days. At 4'10" de Leon was a giant for his age in Spain.

When he arrived in Florida he was greeted by an Indian tribe. The leader of the tribe was 7 feet tall. De Leon also noticed how old some of the women were. Up to 80 years old! He spotted the fountain, (or a boil in the ground) and assumed, "There's something in the water."

He took barrels of it back to Spain proclaiming he discovered the fountain of youth. When he came back for more, he decided to come to the Western side of Florida this time and unbeknowenst to him, was caught in a crossfire. Bad news travels fast, and the Spaniards weren't though of too highly by the natives after he stole the water.

He was hit with an arrow in the thigh that some believe was poison dipped. On his way to Cuba for treatment he perished per an infection. He was about 60 years old. And didn't die of natural causes. The average Spaniard at that time didn't see 40.

So, legend has it that there really is something in the water...

Please feel free to ask any question you may have in the comment section...