Blue Friday...Sort Of

As I sit here and begin to type this out, I've got a slight bug of sadness today 'cause it was at this time exactly last week that Jennifer and I were in Chicago, prepping to see some of my best buds.

However, as I realize that it was only a week ago that I was looking for my nearly 7 ft tall buddy Chuck at our high school football game, it's kind of sad to think that we all have our own lives to lead and the times we have together to visit are (sadly) few and far between.

Perhaps it's realizing that I missed out on my senior year with Chuck, Scott and Eric.

Maybe it's recognizing that I had an incredible time with Chuck, Scott and several others last weekend and yet who knows when we'll all get to hang together again.

Maybe there's even a small part of me that, as an alpha-male, wants to have that constant interaction with other guys at work, at the game and on the golf course.

Maybe...it's just another realization that we've ALL grown up, gotten married, had kids and are now leading lives many of us never thought we'd lead.

That could be it...or even a combination of all 4.

Regardless, it's great to sit back and remember all that we did last weekend:

The close friendships that were renewed and a few new friendships that were started.

The laughter (and a LOT of it), the memories and the expectations of more reunions soon.

The pictures and subsequent text messages, phone calls and emails.

Yeah, those were some great memories of only a week ago.

But the thing I keep telling myself is it's a lot easier to keep in touch with my buds today than it may have been 20+ years ago. As slightly down as I may be tonight, I know that there are already plans being bantered around about maybe flying up to Minnesota or Illinois for a quick weekend or 2 within the next year.

OK...maybe I haven't shared my "plans" with Jennifer yet but I'm going to. Yeah...that's the ticket. :)

I don't know if any of my friends are going to see this but if you guys do, know that I had an absolute blast seeing you all and you've got a lifelong friend here in Arkansas.

OK...is this where I decide whether to start the sappy harp string sad music or the Randy Newman-esque "You've Got A Friend In Me" with Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody high fiving each other?

I think I'll go with Toy Story, Alex.



















By the way, if you stood me next to either Scott or Chuck, you'd see that the difference between Woody & Buzz is not unlike the the height differential between me and the other guys. LOL

The "Eyes" Have It

For most of us reading this today, our eyes aren't what they used to be. I'd been really going back & forth with using reading glasses you get at Wal-Mart, buying a new pair or 2 and going up in power each time. I'd really begun to notice things getting blurry up close so I figured it was time to get some glasses to wear on a more permanent basis.

About a year or so ago, I finally got fitted for a pair of specs that actually had lineless bifocals as the lenses. What that means is that I had a bifocal lense in each frame but there was no visible divider that anyone could see on the outside of the lense. I think they call them "progressive lenses".

Anyway, I wore these glasses for a year about 80% of the time until I started noticing things getting a bit blurry again. My blood sugars had been more on the normal side so I didn't want to attribute the change in vision due to my diabetes. I figured my eyes must be changing again and some new, slightly more powerful lenses might be in order.

Long story short, I went in and had my vision tested and sure enough, my right eye (the weaker of the two) had lost some of it's normal power. The optometrist fitted me with a new set of frames and made the adjustment to order my new lenses and said they'd be in within about 10 days.

I'd kind of wanted to bring the new frames to the reunion in Chicago but they weren't going to be in in time. No biggie. I could at least still see out of my older frames.

Now a quick word about the new frames.

I'd seen a few of these frames on other guys and to describe them...well let's use the old adage "what's old is now new again".

The frames I liked were a bit on the "old" style, resembling the modern twist on the horn-rimmed variety. I was a little unsure if these frames would look good on me so I got a second opinion.

My daughter Kaitlyn.

"Those look COOOOOL, Daddy" she said excitedly with a huge grin on her face.

"You think?" I asked, still a bit uncertain.

"Yes! They look really good" she responded.

So I asked the optometrist to order me the new frames with my new lenses in them and I'd pick them up after the Chicago reunion.

Flash ahead to Tuesday after we got back. I got a phone call saying the new frames were in. Excitedly, I went down to the eye doctor's office to pick them up.

There they were...my new specs with a modern flare to them. "Nice" I thought as I slipped them on over my noggin.

That day it had rained pretty hard and the ground was still sopping wet. In fact, it was still raining as I left the optometrist's office. I had both kids in the Sequoia with me and we were on our way to meet Jennifer at a restaurant for supper. I was looking forward to showing her my new glasses, certain she'd find me even more attractive and irresistible than she already does.

We walked in to Shogun's and she warmly greeted the kids with a big hug & kiss. Then...she turn to me.

"Well" I asked "what do you think?"

Silence between us and that awkward, uncomfortable grin came across her face. Her eyes looked the glasses up & down & all around, the perma-grin still firmly in place.

"Wow!" she mustered from somewhere deep within. "Yeah...uhh..."

Oh come on, I thought to myself. Surely you can fake it a little bit better than that. She was still grinning to try and convince me she liked what she saw but I could see in her eyes she wasn't all that impressed.

"They look nice" she said in a high pitched voice.

Now, for any husbands out there who know their wives very well, normally when your wife talks to you in a high pitched voice and there's not a rolling pin in her hand, she's probably trying really hard to convince herself you look OK wearing a hot pink tie with a red & green striped shirt. It's the kind of high pitched voice that tries to elicit some sort of sincerity but hopes to cover the lack of it up with feigned enthusiasm.

After being with Jennifer for 20+ years, I'm onto her game by now.

"You don't like them, do you?" I queried, somewhat slightly hurt.

"Well, it's not that I don't like them...it's just going to take some time getting used to them" she meekly responded as she walked toward the table.

"Oh come on" I pleaded. "They look cool, right? Kaitlyn said they looked cool. Don't you think they look cool?"

"I'm sure I'll like them eventually. It just wasn't what I was expecting" she said.

"Oh boy" I muttered to myself. "What have I done?"

Of course, I sat right in front of a mirror there at Shogun's so I could see the "error" on my nose all throughout dinner. Every once in a while I'd look over at my beloved, hoping to find a sort of "warming up" to my new look. Toward the end of the teriyaki steak being dumped on our plates, I could tell she was starting to get used to the idea of her hubby looking like Groucho Marx from back in the day.

Kaitlyn, however, knows how to make her daddy feel good and even this morning commented again how "cool" I look with my new glasses.

At least the kids think I'm in fashion. LOL

Chicago Recap

Well, we made it back from our trip to Chicago for my 20 year high school reunion and we had an absolute blast!!

As some of you may know, I'm not the biggest fan of "flying" so whenever we make plans to travel by plane, I get a little pit in my stomach that seems to get a little more intense the closer we get to take off. Sure, I know that statistically flying is safer than driving and that hundreds of thousands of people do it each day but that doesn't stop my palms from sweating pools of anxiety on the armrests.

However, all in all, it was a great flight up there and back. But...enough about the flight and on to the details!

We landed at O'Hare in Chicago and boarded a shuttle to take us to the car rental place a few miles away. I immediately noticed (and remembered) the congestion and construction that's continually going on in downtown Chicago and wondered how in the world we'd make it out to our hotel in Schaumburg.

As we pulled into the car rental lot, I noticed a mid-sized SUV (a Nissan Murano) sitting there unoccupied. I secretly hoped we could upgrade into one of those vehicles instead of some smaller cigar box on wheels and my prayers were answered. In fact, not only did they upgrade us to the Murano but for an additional $9/day, we were given a talking navigation system that showed us and told us the directions for wherever we wanted to go! Sweet!

Sure as rain, "Nicci" got us from O'Hare to the hotel in western Schaumburg. We called the nav system "Nicci" because the brand name is "Garmin" and I know a "Nicci Garmon" from my radio days in Columbia, MO. So, in homage to her, we named the nav after her.

Schaumburg is a very thriving place. One of those blended together suburbs around metro Chicago that if you blink you'll drive right through. I knew from living in Northern Illinois that the interstates ran through Schaumburg and it was about halfway between O'Hare and Burlington, where the high school is. We stayed next to Woodfield Mall, which at one time was the world's largest shopping mall.

It was around 1pm and we decided to grab some lunch at the Rainforest Cafe there at Woodfield. After we were done, we thought "let's do some couple shopping time together sans the children". I was expecting to go to any & all womens' clothing shops and maybe a few tennis shoes stores but no. That is not what happened.

We got wild & crazy and...are you ready for this?

We got our teeth bleached at an upscale dental hygienist's office there at the mall.

$400 each.

I thought to myself as I was filling out the paperwork "For $400 I could've gotten an iPhone but noooo...I gotta bleach my teeth!"

After about an hour and a half, we both left the store looking like the Cheshire cat with white pearly teeth and strict orders to eat only clear, white foods.

As fate would have it, the hotel was next to an authentic Chicago pizza place that obnoxiously called out to me, taunting me unmercifully.

Anyway, we left the mall, grabbed a white meal (a white bread turkey sandwich with mayo and water to drink) and headed out to the Central High football homecoming game. Driving by and through some of those old familiar places really brought back a ton of memories, most of them very good. I'd wanted to go by our old home there in Lily Lake but we ran out of time and sunlight. However, as we were zipping down Hwy 47 in the dark, we saw the football lights glowing brightly in the dark skies.

And we soon saw a tradition I'd long since forgotten about...

Every tree on the high school property and surrounding the football field had been "tee peed" or bombarded with toilet paper.

Hey, we were an isolated community with nothing much else to do on a Friday night save for a few lawn jobs.

That means driving your car across someone's lawn in the middle of the night, which we were a victim to many a time.

Jennifer & I got to the game and walked around for a minute or two, trying to see if we could find any of my old buds. As we turned to head to the other side of the bleachers, I saw one of my very bestest of buds Chuck lumber through the gates. Chuck is 6' 10" plus so it's hard to miss him.

Me? I'm 5' 8" and am easily lost in a crowd of preschoolers.

However, we saw each other instantly and it was great to finally see him. His wife Sue would be joining us later that night.

About an hour later, my other bestest bud Scott showed up and it was like the gang was all back together. We hung around and laughed & taunted and showed kiddie pics to each other and even bumped into a couple of our old teachers there at CHS. It was a great night seeing everyone and getting reacquainted.

We left the game after the third quarter and headed to a small bar in Burlington called "Mott's" where each year at the CHS' Homecoming Football game, they set up an outside tent for a bunch of the alumni from all the years to get together, drink and be merry.

Chuck's wife Sue showed up right as Jennifer and I got there and again...it was just a great night to meet up with some old, dear friends. I think we finally left there around midnight even though we had a 30+ minute drive back to Schaumburg. Thankfully, neither one of us drink so getting back was never an issue but was an issue is the fact that there were NO fast food restaurants open at 12:30am near the hotel!!

I think we ended up settling for a bag of Chex mix from the hotel lobby.

Saturday night was the big dinner where my class would all hook up again for a more social, relaxed setting at a nice, casual restaurant. We were able to see a lot of my other classmates who hadn't been at the game the night before and what was great was that my wife was immediately able to connect with a lot of the ladies there while the majority of us guys stood on the other side of the room.

It was kind of a surreal Sadie Hawkins atmosphere at times. LOL

Jennifer even noted how some of my female classmates just made her feel like she herself had been a part of the class. Seeing her enjoy herself with Sue, Annie (Scott's wife) and a bunch of my other "girl" friends (not romantic gf's) made me that much more relaxed and able to let loose with the guys.

I think by the time it was all said & done we closed down the restaurant around midnight and began the journey back to the hotel. Of course we all hugged and wrote down each other's emails and home addresses and began making plans for another reunion in 5 years instead of waiting another 10 before we said our final good-byes.

There's nothing like those friendships and relationships you make that span the years and I am so grateful I have a few of those. I even feel like I made a few on this trip that will hopefully carry us through until the next big reunion, whenever that might be.

So, here's to hoping that each and every one of my friends & classmates find success, happiness, contentment and love that will sustain them through the next chapters in their lives. As great as the memories of the past are, I know that the plans that have been made for my future are even greater.

Jeremiah 29:11

Hope you have a great week!

Reunion

A couple weeks ago, Jennifer had her 10 year reunion with her medical school class. We were able to get away for the weekend to go visit some old friends of her's and catch up with what everyone had been up to.

This weekend, we're flying up to Chicago for my 20 year high school reunion. Now, as most of you may know, I technically didn't graduate with my friends from Illinois (that happened here in Arkansas due to my dad relocating us my senior year...that'll be another blog) but I had been with them since the 5th grade. So, being as gracious as they are, they still extended an invite to me to come up for the party.

To be honest, I'm real excited to see a lot of my best friends this weekend but I'm also a little nervous. About what I'm not 100% certain but I think there's always a bit of trepidation when it comes to seeing old friends, old girlfriends, revisiting old memories, etc. However, a couple of great things happened to me during Jennifer's med school reunion that have helped my anxiousness dwindle considerably.

1. Everyone after 20 years:
a) has gotten heavier
b) lost some of their hair
c) gained a bunch of wrinkles
d) all the above.

For me, I've lost a lot of weight in the past couple of months and my hair is not as "thin" as it has been in the past so I'm not too worried about that. As far as wrinkles go, sure...I've got a few but that has never bothered me too much.

2. My "job". A lot of you know that I'm a stay-at-home dad and for a lot of men I know, there is no way they can ever comprehend doing this as their main occupation. That's fine. What has helped to inspire me a bit is that everyone I talked to at Jennifer's reunion, both male and female, were blown away and encouraging that I'd chosen to do this for our family. I can't begin to count the number of people who said they envied me and wished they could do the same thing & be home with their kids.

I have really begun to realize that God has blessed our family extraordinarily and maybe I should start giving Him more praise (and credit) for doing this instead of worrying about not having a 9-5 job. I did that for almost 17 years in radio so I think it's fair to say I've had a decent amount of "work time" under my belt. Plus, realizing what it takes to be a manager and/or DJ at a radio station, I don't want that kind of life to interfere with my time with our family.

Or, especially, with my Lord.

While we've had plenty of reunions to attend this month, there is one other that has really blessed me.

It's the reunion I've had with Christ.

For a number of weeks during the summer and even into the fall, I'd felt like I was out on some sort of spiritual desert. I was looking for a drink of Holy Spirit water to quench my thirst and help ignite the fire within me so that I could focus on serving Him instead of myself.

But it never seemed to happen.

I prayed and read the Bible and tried to keep His scriptures in my mind during the days but it never seemed to break through the drought I'd been feeling.

However, I am a firm believer in God's appointed timing and His plan for me and when I least expected it, there it was.

A spark deep within my spirit that began to be rekindled. A spark that became a few hundred sparks that began to smolder and catch and a small fire started. That fire began to grow and the distractions I'd had in my sight earlier began to burn away, allowing me to finally see how I'd erred and I could now see Christ before me, not behind me, lost in the daily distractions of my life.

I realized that with my workout schedule and running the kids here and there at night that I'd taken the priority of worshipping my Lord and placed it back in the "things to do" list. That never needs to happen in my life.

Praising Him needs to be something that isn't to "be done". It's something that needs to "be". It needs to "be constant" and "be consistent". I need to focus more on remaining in Him than how many miles I'm going to jog today. I need to focus on worshiping Him with my life than picking up the groceries before 3pm. I need to continually offer Him a sacrifice of praise from my lips rather than schedule yet another lunch or round of golf.

I need to remain in Him at all times. Keep Him at the forefront of all my thoughts. Remove any obstacles in my life that not only make me "negative" but also remind me of how awful I am.

Praise the Lord His word reminds us in Romans that "no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus because the Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Romans 8:1 HCSB)

Because I belong to Him, I no longer have to worry about the past and my sins. His blood has washed me and cleansed me of all those sins and the Bible says Jesus has taken those sins and cast them away from me, as far as the east is from the west.

Jesus has also taken the certificate of debt that was against me and has nailed it once and for all to the cross, erasing it and any obligation that was opposed to us. (Colossians 2:14)

Therefore, since I know this to be true, I can do as the Bible says and set my mind on what is above, not on what is here on earth. Sure, there will still be times that I get down and discouraged. That's going to happen to all of us. But if I can just keep in mind that these times of testing or even refinement are all being done for my good, I know that God will honor His promises to us all and bring us out of the fire unharmed and refined for His purposes.

What an incredible time to be reunited with the Lord!! I thank Him for His faithfulness, grace and mercy on my life and I pray that today you will also feel His love wherever you may be.

Have a great day in Him!