Happy New Year!

Hello All. I wish everyone a safe and happy New Year's celebration! My celebration? Low-key. Hanging out with Laura N. here in Chariton. That is alright though. Lots of travel this past week with Christmas, going to a Hawkeye basketball game, Dotson's ski trip extravaganza, and this morning I got a new car. A 2000 Chevy Impala LS.

What a year it has been though. Graduation from college and entry into the "real world" are the highlights. I've enjoyed a lot of different moments this past year and hopefully 2005 will bring many more!

So, in my new "interactive" type blog. What are everyone's New Year's Resolutions? I always say my resolution is the be a better person. I know that is vague and covers a lot, but that is kinda the purpose. I want to not worry about things as much, I would like to help people more/give more this next year, and I would like to be more patient and let God guide things more (probably my most difficult task in all honesty). Hopefully 2005 brings everything that I and you want! Here's to 2005

ps. You didn't think I would forget this would you. GO HAWKEYES, BEAT LSU!!!!

Merry Christmas....

Hey all! How come nobody told me it had been so long since my last blog. I apologize to my faithful readers, if I have any left.

There are so many things I could talk about...an impromtu trip to Kansas City, the fact I'm nearly half done with my first year of teaching, Lineville-Clio girls basketball, the Iowa Hawkeyes fast start to the basketball season....you get the point.

After thinking for ohhh...about 2 minutes, it was an easy decision about what to write about. It is Christmas time! I wish all of you a very merry Christmas. I do really enjoy Christmas. When the season starts I'm kinda a Scrooge. I don't like the whole "kick off the holidays right after Thanksgiving with a mega-sale!" I don't like music stations switching their entire programming to Christmas music as of Dec. 1 (I'm talking to you Lite 104.1). Even with all of this bah-humbug, I eventually come around. I hear "O Holy Night" or I watch a Christmas classic (Elf is my new favorite, though Christmas Vacation and of course It's A Wonderful Life are up there) and bam! My Christmas spirit is back. I've got my gifts, I've chipped in with donations where I can, I put on my smile and wish Merry Christmas to people. It is just that time of the year.

So, I would like responses to this blog. What are your favorite memories of Christmas? Of course I'm going to give mine:

1. Singing Silent Night with the dimmed lights on Christmas Eve with a guitar accompanying. Even my voice gets better on Christmas Eve ;)

2. Mom reading her old Christmas tale "Velvet Eyes" to my sister and I every Christmas Eve. It is an old book with pop-ups, pull-outs, etc. A classic!

3. My distinct memory of when I was 5 or 6 and playing with a new truck that I had got as a present by the tree. I swear to this day that I heard bells and at that moment Santa Doppler on WHO-TV 13 said Santa was above the Tv towers in Algona...right across the street from us. My mom says I never went to bed faster! No one will ever tell me that some sort of Santa doesn't exist after that ;)

4. Bundling up in the freezing cold to head out to church on Christmas Eve and lighting the lumanaries.

5. Going to see Christmas lights in the area after church...or making a trip to see the Nativity Scene in Algona. This Nativity is half life size made of chicken wire and plaster...It was built by German POWs during World War II at the POW camp in Algona. A very Christmasy story and very neat to see.

Okay...now your turn. Hit me with your favorite Christmas memories or traditions.

highs and lows

I mentioned yesterday an interesting encounter with a basketball player's mom, so tonight I will tell a short story about this.

It is amazing the highs and lows you go through as a teacher. One class can be awesome, then the next hour will stink. Heck, within a single class things can go from great (students working/active) to bad (students being lazy/mouthing off). It is part of the game. Same goes with coaching.

Obviously in a basketball game the ups and downs are many. You are leading, then behind, then ahead again. Last night we got off to a terrible start against a pretty athletic team. To start the 4th quarter we were down 20 points. By the time th clock hit zero we were down only four! Still a loss, but fun to come back like that.

Anyways, after the game...First, a grandparent comes up to me. He comes to every game and takes pictures which are then posted on a website. Pretty cool of him to do that. Anyways, he comes up to me and says "Thanks for helping out (I don't get paid to do an assistants role), Julie is really enjoying the season. She loves playing." That always makes you feel good right? About five minutes later I'm on my way out to the car and I run into the head coach talking to a mom who is complaining about playing time. First, we only have six players- everyone is going to play! Secondly, she decided that her daughter will not be going to practice for the rest of the week and then we shall see after that. SHE decided this, not the player herself. An interesting approach to say the least. What does one do in that situation? At that point I was glad I wasn't the head coach, but a good learning experience none the less. Odd how you go from one adult praising your work to one questioning it. So is life!

Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up

Good Evening. I was going to type a little bit about some Lineville-Clio sports and a parent that has suddenly become a thorn in the sides, but I thought I would talk about something a bit more serious.

I came home tonight and some college basketball was on (yes, the Hawkeyes won! but this is another game). It was the Jimmy V Classic, a game between Oklahoma St. and Syracuse. If you don't know Jimmy V, he was the coach of the North Carolina St. Wolfpack when they upset highly favored Houston in the 1983 NCAA title game. He later became stricken with cancer and passed away because of it. His last wish though was to establish a foundation to help raise money for cancer research. Tonight I will type for you excerpts of his famous, very touching speech he gave only a few months before his death:

"To me there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh everyday. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears. Could be happiness or joy. But think about it, if you laugh, you think and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week and you've got something special."

"I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it."

"I know I gotta go, I gotta go (he had overrun his tv time), but I got one last thing and I've said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all."

There are not truer words. Coming from someone who has lost an aunt and two uncles to cancer, I urge you to contribute to a foundation if you can. I myself will be participating in Hustle Up the Hancock in Chicago in February, which funds lung research of all kinds (cancer included). If you cannot, pray for those with cancer. It is most definately beatable. Look at Lance Armstrong. Think of all the good that could have been done in the world had others also survived cancer. The possiblities are endless.

The truth about my love of sports...

Hello all. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

On Thursday I came home to my mailbox and got my Sports Illustrated for the week. The cover was a collage of pictures proclaiming the 2004 Boston Red Sox as the "Sportsmen of the Year." Tonight I sat down to read the article about why they were chosen and the lives they've touched. About 15 minutes later, I actually had tears in my eyes. Here are a few highlights:

79 year old George Sumner was dying of cancer and not in good shape, he continued to hang on though and died the day after the Red Sox won the World Series, he let out a sickly "yipee" after they won. There was Sharon Miller, who's husband died last Christmas at the age of 38. She found happiness again this October when she watched her late husband's beloved Red Sox. There was also Roberta Rogers, whose only vacations as a kid were to Fenway Park. She couldn't watch the final game because she was too nervous, the next day she went to the resthome to tell her 95 year old mother (who was sleeping when the final out was recorded). She got to see her mother's face light up and fists pumping in the air. There were many more stories too.

While reading this, all I could think of is "this is why I love sports." At their simplest they are a game played between good athletes, something to entertain us. At their best, they are a common bond between people, a sliver of hope, an escape to something we dream of being. I guess I just happen to see them at their best more often than some :)

As many of you know or have already guessed where this blog is headed, for me the team that brings that out in me are the Iowa Hawkeyes. My mom tells me that I became a fan because I got my bottle during the second half of basketball games (She watched because she liked Lute Olson, the Iowa coach at the time). Ever since then I've been "hooked." Oh, the players I could name that I cheered for wildly when things went right or hurt for when something went wrong. I have people who I haven't seen in years come up to me and instead of asking "Hey, what are you doing now?" They ask me "How about them Hawkeyes?" I know it sounds corny, cheesy, whatever but they are a part of me.

Now the recent success of the football team would make people say "well this isn't like the Red Sox though," and that is true. I love Hawkeye football, Kinnick Stadium is like a cathedral, but if there is one thing I love more, it is Hawkeye basketball. That is where the Red Sox part comes in. The Hawkeyes last went to the Final Four in 1980, a year before I was born. They haven't been back since. They came close in 1987, but blew a big lead in the Elite Eight. Things have looked promising, like the early 90's, but the Final Four never came. But every November, a new season starts, and a new reason to think that maybe, just maybe come the end of March I can watch my Hawkeyes run out onto the Final Four court. I don't tell many people, but I dream of it, I plan what I would do if it were to happen. That is why what the Red Sox did this last year hits all of us sports fans. Thank you 2004 Red Sox for giving us pathetic sports fans hope, and congrats on being 2004 SI Sportsmen of the Year.

Picks and Pans...

Seeing how I did a little tribute to music at the end of my last blog, I thought I would share my vast knowledge of the music world and give a little heads up on some of my favorite songs right now. So, fire up the iTunes, Limewire, Kazaa, whatever other downloading service you may be running on, and get these songs.

First up, "Disappear" by Hoobastank. I didn't think they could top "The Reason" but somehow they have. It may just be me, but I think "Diappear" blows that other one out of the water. Keep rockin' Hoobastank (mainly because I like to say Hoobastank)!

Next, probably my favorite song of the moment (changes quite a bit, so this may already be obsolete if your reading a couple days late): Linkin Park and Jay-Z teaming up and mixing together two of their songs into the uber-hit "Numb/Encore" (okay so they suck at naming songs). It is Linkin Park's "Numb" mixed together with Jay "I thought he retired a couple months ago"-Z's song "Encore." Really good stuff. They have a whole CD of songs mixed together too. I may actually have to buy that.

Now for a don't. Supposedly Shania Twain, while good looking, has put out a really crappy song. I personally have not heard it, but a good friend (Craig) told me to not bother. Thanks for that heads up buddy!

Next, another rap song..."Breathe, Stretch, Shake" by Mase. Heard it all the time in Minneapolis a couple weekends back, couldn't get it out of my head, now can't keep from not playing it on iTunes.

Welcome back Green Day! Didn't really go too much for "American Idiot" but "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is a solid hit.

I haven't decided yet if I really like Snoop Dogg's song "Drop it Like its Hot" but Pharrell did help put it together, and I love Pharrell (again, maybe just cause I like saying Pharell).

Trick Daddy kinda blows, but "Let's Go" (the one where he takes Ozzy's "Crazy Train") is catchy.

Finally, some oldies worth throwing into your mixes..."Stand by Me", "In My Life" and for the Christmas season my personal favorite "O Holy Night." One big no-no, please do not support Ron Artest (suspended NBA player) by listening to his piece of crap group (Allure? I think- but who cares) Happy Listening

Acceptance...

Wow, it has been a long time since I last "blogged." Darn near a week and a half. Hope everyone had a good and happy Thanksgiving. That is part of the reason I haven't blogged lately, the holiday. The bigger reason is that I haven't been in the best of moods lately. I never mean to "whine" and I consider (and most of you would agree) myself to be a cheery type person. So recently I've just found myself in a funk. One where I'm lonely, disliking aspects of where I'm at in various aspects of my life, etc. You know, the post-college blues if you want to call them that. After talks with trusted friends (some probably don't even know they were helping me out as we were talking) and some reading of the Bible (which I find myself doing a lot more since moving this summer) I've pepped up quite a bit. Part of that is accepting where I'm at, who I am. Accepting is different than settling...I still aspire or dream of bigger things...Accepting is just being comfortable with where I'm at, knowing those big things are ahead. Part of this is to BE PATIENT! Not the easiest thing in the world, but what I do is try to S-L-O-W everything down. If I'm stuck behind grandpa going 10 mph through town (like tonight), don't worry...I'll get to where I'm going. Just like bigger life issues...Don't worry, I'll get to where I'm going.

Change of pace, after reading another blog of one of our college friends (Tempa) I started thinking about music in our lives. Mind you, I'm not a music major, I could never write a song, I barely can sing, and my piano playing skills have gone down hill, but I consider myself to be one of the biggest music fans I know. I love all kinds of it, every genre and how fitting some of the lyrics are to what I feel, etc. is unbelievable. I know Tempa had a quote from T.S. Eliot on her blog about music. I don't mean to upstage her, but I instantly thought about my favorite scene from my favorite movie:
Andy has just come back from "the hole," serving time for playing Mozart on
loudspeaker. The guys ask him how his time was, he responds "easiest time
I've ever done, with Mr. Mozart to keep me company" They ask back, "Why?
Did you get to bring that record player with you?" Andy shoots back, "No, it
was right here (points to his head) and right here (points to his heart). You
guys don't feel that way about music?...it is something in your soul they can't
take." (Shawshank Redemption)

Later
ps. Congrats to the Lineville-Clio girls whom I'm helping coach, for their 30 point win tonight!