D's Notebook

Tag: school (Page 4 of 13)

Weekend Notes

January 6, 2020 /

Before I get to the notes, a quick warning that if you still access this site via thebrannanblog.net address, that site name will be going away at the end of the month. Please update your bookmarks to reflect dsnotebook.me as the correct address.

We are back at it today. Well, kind of. M started at her normal time today, but they are going to their first semester classes for 20 minutes each then will be dismissed for the day at 11:15. Which is kind of weird. They start the second semester with a normal schedule tomorrow.

St. P’s traditionally goes back to school on Tuesday. This year they’ve made today an eLearning day. As of 10:00 AM L has most of her work done. I’m still trying to get C out of bed.

So I guess Christmas break really ends tomorrow.

Some weekend for sports! I was sickish on the couch much of the weekend – the cold I have prevented me from sleeping much either Friday or Saturday nights – so I got to see plenty of football. I don’t have a great NFL memory, but that had to be one of the wackiest weekends in playoff history. Every game was competitive. Every game had a couple crazy-ass plays that set Twitter alight. Two overtime games and the likely end of the Patriots dynasty. Pretty solid work.

I watched most of the second half of the Buffalo-Houston game. When I turned it on, the Bills were up 16–0. As I caught up on Twitter I agreed with the universal thought of “Classic Houston in the playoffs!” But then Classic Buffalo in the playoffs said, “Not so fast!” The last 2:00 or so of regulation were some of the worst yet most entertaining football I’ve ever seen. I was so glad I was not a fan of either team because that was heart-attack inducing stuff. DeShaun Watson’s scramble and completion in overtime will be the signature play of these playoffs…until Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes top it when they get a chance this weekend.

I knew New England really wasn’t very good, but I still gave Tennessee no chance to win. A mediocre team from the AFC South going to Foxborough in January? No way. Good AFC South teams routinely get annihilated by the Patriots in the playoffs. But Derrick Henry was a freaking beast, the Pats offense was painfully pedestrian, and a shocking upset was the result. I don’t know what was more satisfying: Bill Belichick getting pissed when Mike Vrabel used a quirk in the rules – that Belichick himself used earlier this year – to burn a bunch of clock in the fourth quarter, or Tom Brady throwing a pick-six to seal the game. That they both happened is a gift to any fan whose team has been abused by the Patriots over the years.

I laughed at all the Boston media types who got all defensive about the Pats dynasty after the game. Listen, the Pats are, arguably, the greatest dynasty in sports history. They’ve done it in a league that sucks teams toward parity and away from continued dominance. They’ve managed to keep their franchise QB healthy for all but one year of his career. They’ve been coached by arguably the greatest coach in the sport’s history. And all that means non-Pats fans are going to delight in the apparent end of their run of excellence. That’s what sports are about: rooting for and against teams. Celebrate what the last 20 years have been like, but don’t get huffy when the rest of us celebrate its end.

I figured the Vikings-Saints game would be a rout. Had I done Super Bowl picks, I would have picked New Orleans to come out of the NFC. I thought they were the most complete team on both sides of the ball in the conference. Plus the Vikings were just too flawed to go to the Super Dome and pull off the upset.

Once again I prove that I know nothing about football. Just a delightful fourth quarter and overtime for us neutrals. With no dog in the fight I could both argue the non-call on the game-winning touchdown was a terrible miss and delight that New Orleans was again getting absolutely screwed by the refs at home.

With the Saints out of the way, the Seahawks became my NFC pick. I mentioned this to a buddy and he said, “Now watch the Eagles beat them.” I didn’t think the Eagles had a chance, home field or not, and when they lost Carson Wentz – who of course got hurt! – I was confident in my pick. This DK Metcalf kid is amazing! I don’t play fantasy and I don’t know that I had seen more than a few minutes of a Seattle game all year, so he was a revelation. It was very sobering, however, to learn that his dad, who had a long NFL career, is seven years younger than me. I mean, holy shit!

With the Wild Card games out of the way, I’ll lock in these picks for the next two weekends:

Kansas City over Houston
Baltimore over Tennessee

Seattle over Green Bay
San Francisco over Minnesota

Kansas City over Baltimore
Seattle over San Francisco

That’s right, Chiefs fans, for the first time in my life I’ve picked the Chiefs to go to the Super Bowl. Consider them jinxed.

I missed the first half of the Bills-Texans game watching the KU-West Virginia game. No one expected much from WVU this year, and even after they got off to a great start no one was sure if they were legit. That changed when the beat up on Ohio State a week ago.

Still, you figure a young Mountaineers team coming into Allen Fieldhouse for their conference opener would not be much of a contest. Naturally WVU totally controlled the first half, leading by 10 much of the half until a late KU run cut it to six. Oscar Tshibwe was un-guardable and the WVU defense totally took KU out of its game. I’ll admit I was nervous, even knowing the history of this series.

Fortunately Bill Self is pretty good at the halftime shit, he made some lineup and strategic tweaks, and KU got the win. Not quite as dramatic as the classic KU-WVU games but a decent start to the Big 12 season.

I watched several hours of the Sentry Tournament of Champions Sunday night. Even with relatively warm temps here in Indiana, it is always fun to watch prime time golf from Hawaii in January. We’ve been kicking around the idea of visiting the islands so I was paying extra attention to all the shots of the blue surf neighboring the green Kapalua Plantation course. I was hoping Gary Woodland would claw back into things but he never got it going yesterday. That left me rooting against the biggest villain in golf right now, Patrick Reed.

If you don’t follow golf – most of you fall into this category – Reed has a long history of, well, issues. He’s a complex character. In December he was caught improving his lie in a bunker, an act most people call cheating. He claimed the camera angle was bad and he had not, in fact, brushed a large quantity of sand back on two practice swings. He taunted Australian fans at the President’s Cup. Then his caddy attacked a fan during the event. Since it is golf, though, he has not been punished for his actions. In fact, the PGA Tour and its media sycophants have gone out of their way to brush all this aside and only discuss these acts in terms of how unfortunate it is that Reed has “had to go through all of this.” In the “Woke Golf” circles I follow, Reed has become public enemy #1. So it’s kind of cool that he’s a legitimately fantastic golfer, because he makes otherwise boring tournaments interesting and entertaining.

Anyway, I was pulling big time for either Justin Thomas or Xander Schauffele to hold off Reed. Thomas seemed to be in control, leading by two, until he bogeyed 16 and then dumped his approach into the penalty area on 18. Schauffele had two putts to win the tournament…and three-putted. That left a three-way playoff between Reed, Schauffele, and Thomas. The playoff started at 10:00 eastern and I was pretty well cooked after two sleepless nights, so I went to bed. That was a good call as the playoff lasted three holes before Thomas got the win. As long as Reed didn’t win, I was good with the result.

Weekend Notes

December 23, 2019 /

Last week was wild and wacky, which kept me away from my blogging duties. I’ll share some notes to try to get caught up before Christmas.

Family News

I’m very much a creature of habit. I can adjust most of the time. But when things get too out of whack, I do struggle. Last week we had four different schedules for five days of school. That really messed with my head and I was never sure what day it was or where I was supposed to be.

Monday and Tuesday we had one schedule: M on her finals schedule of 8:30-noon and C & L on a two-hour delay because of snow. (More on snow in a bit.) Wednesday C&L were back to normal but M only had one final, so I picked her up just after 10:00. Thursday M had her last two finals while C&L were on a regular schedule. And Friday M was home while C&L had 1:30 dismissal on their final day before break.

Oh, throw in that I squeezed doctor appointments in on Tuesday and Wednesday and a volleyball practice for C one night, and I felt like I was constantly coming and going.

The in-laws also arrived Wednesday night, which added another layer of complexity to things.

Fortunately everything worked out well. M did fantastic on her finals. I only nearly forgot about one thing on the calendar, remembering at the last minute that M needed to be somewhere on Friday.

Now we are in full Christmas vacation mode. Which means a lot of sitting around and doing nothing. M was complaining to me Sunday evening that she was bored. I reminded her that she’s not four anymore and she can control her social life by calling her friends and seeing if anyone wanted to go do something. I can’t wait until next Christmas when she’ll be driving.

Speaking of that, she wrapped up the online portion of her driver’s ed course Thursday after she completed finals. Depending on BMV hours this week, we’re going to try to go her get permit Thursday or Friday.

As I said, the in-laws arrived Wednesday. My brother-in-law who lives in Boston arrived with his family on Friday night. They are staying with one of his sisters. Saturday afternoon they came over, along with another of the locals and we had a mini-preview of how chaotic the holidays will be. There were four little ones running around with our girls. Well three running around; one is just learning how to sit up so she was pretty stationary.

The final out-of-towners arrive from Denver on Christmas night. That’s right, S’s entire family is in town this year, the first time everyone has been here in three or four years. We’re hosting a couple events, along with serving as the meeting point for an evening out. Saturday we’ll also be having some of S’s aunts and uncles and cousins over, pushing our head count well over 30. We have a big house, but I think it will be jam packed that day. Fortunately it looks like it may be close to 60 the back half of the week, so we may be able to kick on the outdoor fireplace and use the porch area for overflow.

Oh, last week’s snow. We got nearly eight inches from three snows over about 36 hours. Luckily both nights the snow stopped well before rush hour so the roads were at least so-so by the time we had to head out. C and L used the gentle slope of our front yard to make a slide for their sled. Once it got good and icy they could ride for about 50 feet before the up-slope slowed them down. It’s been over 50 the past two days and our lawn is slowly emerging.

One final big thing on the family front over the weekend: S had LASIK surgery Friday afternoon. Her eyes aren’t nearly as bad as mine, but as she approaches 50 she’s noticed both some changes in her prescription and less comfort while wearing her contacts. So she got them fixed (hopefully). I’m jealous, as my weak corneas mean I am not a candidate for the surgery. Otherwise I would have had it years ago. I wish I could still wear contacts but my terrible-ass eyes won’t even allow that anymore.

KU

I tried to write about KU hoops a couple times last week. Each time I prefaced it with the need to get some words out before they lost to Villanova. What a genius I was, seeing that L in advance!

That was such a frustrating game. For the first 10 minutes it felt like KU was much better and should be leading by 10+. There was the sense that if they could just get a couple deep balls to go down, they would pull away. Alas those shots never came, Nova righted the ship and forged an ugly 23-all tie at halftime.

With Marcus Garrett going out late in the first half to injury and the Wildcats getting hot early in the second half, I was ready to turn it off and go do other stuff.

But then KU got tough, clawed back, made some huge plays in the last four minutes, and seemed to have control of the game. Until Devon Dotson had the biggest KU point guard meltdown since Elijah Johnson in the Sweet 16 against Michigan. Going brain dead and getting picked from behind and giving up a layup, missing a huge free throw, and not closing out on the game-winning three. He had a chance to atone by forcing a Nova turnover, but ran terrible offense on KU’s two chances to score.

I was downright angry after the game. Not at Devon. Just at the general stupidity that went into losing the game. And to, once again, Villanova being the tougher, better team when they play KU. Those dudes aren’t flashy, they’re almost never pretty to watch. But they always freaking make plays.

Oh well, a one-point road loss to a ranked team in December that will hopefully highlight some areas the guys need to work on isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Culture & Media

Finally, there were two big nostalgia events for my generation this weekend: the release of The Rise of Skywalker and Eddie Murphy hosting Saturday Night Live. I’ll break those out for another post.

A Day in the Life

October 28, 2019 /

Monday got away from me a little. I had some things on the agenda, but also figured I’d be able to sit down and crank out a weekend summary post or something. Then things got a little weird.

So in the interest of posting something before Monday is over, here is a quick review of my day. I know, I know: I’m breaking ground for new levels of excitement here!

First, it was a late start day at dear old CHS, so we all got to sleep in. Until S forgot about that and went barging into M’s room at 6:45 asking her why she wasn’t up yet. Good times! On late start days I take C and L to school around 7:30, return home around 7:50, and M and I try to be out the door by 8:05. That went according to plan today.

Normally I would then come home, eat breakfast, go to the gym, and then hit the grocery store. Today, however, C had an ortho appointment at 10:40. So I had enough time to eat, shower, shave for the first time in five days, and get dressed before heading back to St. P’s to grab C a little after 10.

Up to ortho where she got some adjustments, new rubber band instructions, and then off to lunch. When the girls go to ortho midday, I always take them to lunch after. We went to Mod Pizza this time and had a nice lunch together before returning her to school at 11:45.

I made a quick grocery store run next. I only got a few things, not my normal big, Monday trip. I’ll save the bigger trip for later in the week.

Home, unpack groceries, check messages, change clothes, and then head to the driving range. Monday looked to be the only decent day this week and with my country club round scheduled for Sunday, I wanted to make sure I hit some balls. As soon as I got started, I got a message from M saying that the power was out at school, the assembly planned for the last hour of the day was cancelled, and school may be let out early.

Well crap.

She said she would update me so I started hitting balls quickly in case I had to go pick her up. The grass area of the range had not been mowed in a week or so, so the lies were pretty gnarly. I moved back and forth between the grass and mats to try to get some good swings in. I wrapped things up without getting a call from M, so headed over to the practice green to get some putting in. As I was walking I got a text from CHS saying that school dismissal would come at the normal 3:10 time. I putted three balls before my phone rang. I expected it to be M but instead it was C calling, in tears, saying her head hurt and could I come pick her up.

Lovely.

So back to St. P’s to grab C and take her home. S was home for the afternoon so once we got C settled we talked for a few minutes about her morning. After 10–15 minutes it was back out for afternoon pickup. L had basketball practice, so it was straight to CHS to get M. Seconds after she got in the car my phone rang with another call from St. P’s. This time it was L telling me she did not have practice.

Shit.

Her coach and I had even discussed what days they were practicing this week after their game Saturday. I knew it was Wednesday/Friday but for some reason Monday morning decided there was practice that day, too.

Back to St. P’s again to grab an annoyed L and head home for the day. Once home we checked in with all the girls, S and I went over her schedule for the week, we talked through dinner ideas, discussed what girl would be where on Halloween, and debated whether M should buy tickets to the CHS sectional game or if we should skip it since it’s going to be below freezing Friday night.

And that, my friends, is how a day slipped away from me rather quickly.

Oh, one note related to none of that but which happened today. As I was waiting in the pickup line at CHS listening to Alan Hunter on The Big 80s on 8, I heard him mention that they were playing Halloween music up on channel 70. I switched up there to see what they were spinning and what did I hear but Frank Sinatra singing “Mistletoe and Holly.” That’s not Halloween music! I left it on until M got in the car and she gave me a weird look. I explained why I had it on and we waited for the next song and it, too, was a Christmas song. I checked again later to hear more traditional Christmas tunes. I guess the Halloween music is on Halloween day only, and channel 70 is already spinning Christmas tunes.

Those of you who have known me and my weird ways for years know that hearing three Christmas songs, even if just bits of them, on October 28 shook me. Oh by gosh by golly…

Weekend/Fall Break Notes

October 14, 2019 /

It was a nice, semi-relaxing weekend at our house.

No sports, thanks to fall break. C was supposed to run at the City meet, but her foot pain never fully went away so she chose not to run. Kind of a bummer end to her season. M had finished her cross country season a week before. We are proud of her for sticking with it, as it was a very tough and humbling experience for her. But it served the purpose of helping her to settle in as a freshman and make new friends. We’re pretty sure she won’t run in the future, and are fine with that.

No homework, again thanks to fall break. M’s first quarter ended a week or so ago. We’re still not sure how grades work in high school; do they get proper report cards or do you just check online? We wonder because her first quarter grades have adjusted a couple times since the end of the quarter, so we’re not sure if everything is locked in or not. Regardless, she absolutely rocked her first quarter of high school. She has the best grades she’s ever had and seems to be really enjoying her classes and most of her teachers.

No football Friday, thanks to terrible weather. M hung out with some friends and we took C, L, and a friend bowling.

Saturday evening we went to a local beer hall/barbecue joint to meet our old neighbors for dinner and enjoy the Oktoberfest celebration. It was a perfect, cool mid-fall night for hanging with friends.

Sunday C joined the group of friends she will be trick or treating with to work on their costumes. They are going as 20-some of the 101 Dalmatians.

We had our last swims of the year Thursday night before I turned the heater off in advance of the pool closing process that begins tomorrow. L and I swam for about an hour then watched a movie on the outside TV with the fireplace on. That, my friends, was a outdoor living space triple crown!

This morning I had to kick the furnace on to take the chill out of the air. As always, it is a quick transition from air conditioning weather to furnace weather in Indiana. Hopefully we get a nice, long stretch of normal fall weather and don’t advance straight to coat weather like we did last year.

And I know the question you’re all answering is how is my poison ivy and associated issues? Good news is the rashes are almost completely gone. Looking at my arms, legs, and stomach you would barely know they had been covered in sores just a couple days ago. The downside is that I itched so much and so long that I still have itching spells despite the rash getting knocked down. S said sometimes when you get hit this hard, it takes awhile for your body to realize it doesn’t actually itch anymore. I’m feeling much better today. Especially since I was finally able to sleep last night. Since I started steroids I was getting 3–4 hours of sleep per night, but never more than 90 consecutive minutes. Sunday I was feeling pretty wiped out, but thank goodness I, more or less, slept through the night last night. I did wake several times all itchy, but could get back to sleep rather than lay there for two hours waiting for exhaustion to take over again.

I also had a rather scary 12 hours or so from overnight Saturday to midday Sunday when my heart beat was all erratic. S thinks it was a combination of the steroids, lack of sleep, and having several drinks when we went out that made my heart rebel a little. There were never any other issues, like shortness of breath or chest pain, and it has not come back. It was more annoying than anything, but anytime your heart starts misbehaving it is bound to get you a little nervous. Especially since both my dad and his dad had heart issues later in their lives.

More Firsts

August 27, 2019 /

A couple other firsts I need to share.

Friday was M’s first high school football game as a student. I think the night may have set an unreasonable expectation for the next four years.

CHS played Noblesville, a large, suburban school that generally isn’t very good at football. It was an utterly perfect night, in the low-70s at kickoff with a steady breeze, into the mid-60s by the time we left. More like late September than August.

CHS scored easily on their first drive, got a stop, threw an INT, got another stop, ripped off 20-straight points before letting Noblesville score, then got another quick score right before halftime. They looked awfully good on offense – their running back had two absolutely ridiculous TD runs, one that was for 77 yards and the entire defense, and they had an 80 yard catch and run for a score – plus they were dominant on defense, constantly forcing NHS into third and longs.

I say this game might have set an unreasonable expectation for M for a few reasons.

First, NHS was, by far, the weakest team CHS will play this year. CHS traditionally plays a brutal schedule and there is a chance they won’t win another game until deep into September. Also, while CHS is one of the most storied programs in Indiana, they’re in the midst of a rough patch. They were forced up two classes because of the “success factor” instituted a few years back. They are naturally a 4A school but moved to 5A, then 6A, then back to 5A because of their tournament success (and then lack of success). They were supposed to move back to 4A this year but the state athletic association decided to adjust the success factor in July and suddenly CHS is still in 5A.

Most of all, though, is their talent level is down. They cranked out Power 5 recruits for years and won seven state titles in nine years thanks to that. They just don’t have those kids right now. They have a lot of mid-major and FCS level kids, but none of this year’s skill position kids are going to Ohio State, USC, Notre Dame, or other schools where their best players have gone over the last decade.

But the important thing was that M enjoyed the night. We were sitting where we could kind of see her and she always seemed to be having fun. She spent time with friends from St. P’s, new friends from cross country and her classes, and then a few times we saw her standing with and talking to girls she didn’t know before the game. She has had absolutely zero problems adjusting socially, just as I expected.

C was the only family member who didn’t make the trek to the game. Instead, she joined a bunch of her classmates at the Bishop Chatard game. I was proud of her for wearing her Cathedral shirt. I like a kid that can subtly stir the pot!

The other first? We already had our first sick day of the year. All three girls have been battling colds but L had to stay home yesterday. I believe this might be the earliest sick day in family history. She nearly threw up when she tried to take some medicine before school so we figured that was a good enough reason to keep her home. She spent the day adding to her Minecraft world and seemed to be doing better, but she couldn’t fall to sleep last night because she was coughing so much. She ended up sleeping upright in a chair, which seems kind of awful. But she made it to school this morning and I haven’t gotten any calls from the nurse so she must be hanging in there.

Back at It

August 15, 2019 /

Whew! It has been a very busy couple of days.

Wednesday was the first day at St. P’s, C starting 7th grade and L starting 5th. Which meant it was also our first day dropping off at two schools. The morning went about as good as possible. C was already awake when I got up, everyone was ready to get out the door at 7:00, and we encountered no slowdowns on the way to CHS. It’s about 20 minutes to CHS, then 10 or so back to St. P’s.

What did I do on my first day alone in a couple months? Well, I spent the entire day working on kickball things. Schedules came out the night before so I was plugging them into both our scheduling calendar at school and our personal calendar. I was making final adjustments to a couple teams. I was answering questions from coaches. I was sorting uniforms and getting them ready for distribution. I dealt with a couple minor issues with players and parents. I collected sports physicals so players are eligible. And I also had to scramble as I got a nasty gram from the parish office because of some parking issues at practice. It was a constant cycle of emails, texts, and calls that added two things to my task list for each item I checked off.

Thursday morning was also easy. C was not only awake when I got up, but she was dressed, had eaten, and was turning on the Xbox. We’ll see how long this new morning routine lasts with her. Friday will be the first day I take C and L to school then come back and get M since it is a late-start day at CHS.

Thursday I did take some time to relax a little. Unfortunately I decided to go hit golf balls and it was a disaster. I had been working on the swing changes my coach gave me and they were becoming more comfortable. I wanted to hit some balls Thursday, which would be the first time in a couple weeks, and then hopefully go play one day next week. But, good grief, you would thought I never swung a club before. Normally I can get a rhythm with my irons and hit two decent shots for every one bad one at the range. It’s on the tee that I struggle.

Today I couldn’t hit an iron to save my life. I kept hitting awful shot after awful shot. Once I took a huge divot about five inches behind and three inches inside of the ball. The ball sat there, untouched, taunting me. But I was halfway decent on the tee. Driver was slicing every time, but not always a terrible slice and generally with decent distance. And I was scorching my three wood. I’d say I had a 50-50 split between straight shots and slices, and the straight ones were very long. I’d hit 7-8 shots with the three wood, feel comfortable, and try to take it to my irons. As soon as I swung a lofted club my swing went to shit again. Usually it’s the opposite way. Looks like I need another lesson before I try to play.

My afternoon and evening were a constant battle with traffic. Pick up at St. P’s at 3:20, back home. Leave at 4:30 to get M from practice. Because of traffic what would be a 40 minute trip in the morning takes an hour. Immediately back into the traffic to get C to her practice. Back through same traffic again to go home and eat. And then back to get C. Part of me is bummed that C and L play kickball games at the same time, in different locations, four times this season. Another part of me is happy because that’s a few less drives I have to make since I’ll get one girl or the other a ride to her game.

Firsts and Near Firsts

August 8, 2019 /

The first morning of high school went as well as we could have hoped. M woke up on her own, on time, got ready, and was pretty cheerful once she came downstairs. She was pleasant during the obligatory photo session and was chatty on the way to school. She admitted she was nervous but equally excited to get things started.

The first day of the school year is always a big deal at CHS, as the seniors teepee the trees on the long hill that leads to campus, and then line the street to cheer the other students as they drive in. There are always extra folks hanging around so the traffic is super tough to navigate. It is probably with that in mind that the first class begins 30 minutes later than normal. I had been warned by other parents about the nightmare of first-day traffic and those warnings were legit. We made it roughly a half mile from campus when we hit the gridlock. It took 20 minutes to travel about two blocks, thanks to traffic backing up through the one entrance to campus, and three directions of traffic coming together the way we were arriving from. Once we cleared the logjam of back-to-back lights, it was only five minutes up the hill to drop her off. We left a little later today than we normally will, but it was a good exercise to confirm if we don’t leave early next week, the sisters will be late getting to St. P’s.

We’ll see tonight, after she goes to cross country practice, how the first day went.

In the midst of all this M-centric posting recently, I forgot another huge story from her life: she went to her first concert last week.

Well, she was supposed to.

She and her three best friends lucked into free, suite tickets to see Cardi B at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. They were crazy excited. The parents organized who would drop them off and pick them up, the girls were given very clear instructions on how to get to the suite, how to never walk around alone, etc. There was very little discussion amongst the parents, probably owing to the fact that these four girls are all smart, rule-followers.

That said, I don’t think any of us parents were upset when the concert was cancelled at the last moment because of an “unspecified threat.” M called me and told me there had been a bomb threat, but that has never been confirmed. After a couple days word leaked that Cardi B was either too drunk or too hungover during her sound check and decided to call the show off. That has not been confirmed, either.

So instead the girls went out to dinner and shopped together before hanging out one last time for the summer.1 I was picking M up when I heard them all shrieking. They had just gotten word from the classmate that gave them the tickets that his family would let the girls use them for the makeup show in September. We’ll see if that actually happens.

On the way home, M was very dramatic, sighing heavily and saying things like, “Of course this has to happen at the concert I go to,” and “Why did this have to happen in Indianapolis instead of some other city?” I listened to her quietly while laughing at her in my head for her drama. I also did my best to reassure her that it was better to cancel the show than let it occur and let some crazy person do something awful. We were all glad the girls were not yet in the arena and the mom driving them could just turn around and come back. Three St. P’s 8th graders made the paper in a photo of them sitting on a curb, staring at their phones in disbelief.

The best part, though, was last Saturday at CHS orientation, one of the dads said to me, “I had never listened to any of Cardi B’s music before. I listened to a few songs the other night. They’re really awful! She says terrible things!” I chuckled, thinking of some of the stuff I listened to when I was a teenager. I’m hopeful as with how my parents raised me, M has enough sense to know that it is all a show and not to take any of it too seriously.

  1. One of the girls started high school last Thursday. ↩

The Final Countdown

August 5, 2019 /

Days are getting marked off the calendar, this meeting or that passes, and we keep getting closer and closer to M’s first day of high school.

Last week she took part in a three-day study skills workshop. I must share that this was not her choice. But it was the better end of a bargain she struck with us for making up for slacking off in her final quarter of 8th grade. We hope she picked up something from the sessions that will help make the transition to high school academics a little easier. She came home Friday kind of excited about things, and being able to explain these wacky, new-fangled high school class schedules to me.1 And she met a few more kids.

Saturday was a long, family orientation session. Everyone checked in at 3:00 before the kids went one direction, parents another, for about 90 minutes of presentations. We reconvened in the gym for a mass, which was brutal because the sound system was not working. It was amusing to watch all the kids who are not Catholic approach during communion for a blessing, unsure how to properly act. One kid was making me laugh because he had his arms very rigidly crossed across his chest and was nervously looking around to make sure he was doing it right the entire time he was in line. Been there, done that, young fella.

After that we ate and then parents went home while the kids hung out for another four hours. They played games, there was a dance, and then a quick candle ceremony outside at pickup before midnight. We think M had fun. She didn’t talk too much about it. We know she met a few more new kids. It was funny to see her going around hugging all these girls we’ve never seen before during the registration process. If nothing else the various summer activities she’s participated in have helped her make some connections so she won’t walk into classes Thursday not knowing anyone.

Oh, she had told me after the first day of the study skills workshop that there was a kid who is 6’8” in her grade. He was right behind us as we were getting our name tags Saturday and she was elbowing me to look. Kid is a legit 6’8”, 6’10” with his puffy hair. In fact, I saw a whole group of freshmen boys that are all much taller than me. If they are basketball players CHS is in good shape. If they’re football players, they need to get on a program because these kids were skinny.

This morning was the first official cross country practice of the fall. She did not wake up fresh as a daisy, rarin’ to go. But she is running as I type this. Or at least I hope she is. One more, final, technology orientation session Wednesday morning and then she’ll be off Thursday.

In semi-related news, we’ve started checking out the drivers ed options. She is very eager to get started. I’d be fine with her waiting awhile. If my mom and stepdad were still alive I’d ask them what the hell they were thinking letting me start driving at 16. And I think I was way more mature than M is. But what are you going to do?

  1. I don’t get them. Why does the schedule have to rotate? Why can’t math first period every day, science second, etc? And get off my lawn! ↩

Dog-ish Days

July 24, 2019 /

We are in weird times. I’m talking about our family and the point in the calendar we’re at, not more globally. Summer’s end is coming up quick and we’re beginning to squeeze in as much as we can. But we also just came out of the hottest stretch of weather in nearly seven years here in Indy, which made it tough to want to get out of the house. Or use the pool, which was a rather disgusting 98 degrees much of the weekend.

Fortunately, it has turned cooler, even if for only briefly, and life is a little better.

In the midst of all that heat, L had her soccer camp at Cathedral last week. This was her second year there and I could tell she thought she was pretty cool as high school players acknowledged her by name on the first day. They won the state title last year, and I think L feels like she was a part of that somehow. Unfortunately, she’s been fighting a minor injury to her dominant foot and struggled through camp. We’re hoping a couple weeks of rest will have her ready for the fall kickball and soccer seasons. Still, she had fun at camp.

M spent last week in Michigan with her best friend’s family. Man, was it a quiet, enjoyable, low-drama week in our house! I kid a little. She also had a fantastic time and is lobbying for us to head north next summer when her friend returns. I’m pretty mellow about sending my kids off with others. I will admit, though, I had some weird feelings about sending my almost 15-year-old off on a vacation without us. I hope she didn’t talk to any boys.

Friday night S and I went out on a local lake with one of her coworkers and her husband. It was a balmy 95 with a heat index well over 100, so the cheese tray they brought had to be consumed quickly. We were on their boat about five minutes before they asked if we missed our boat. I immediately said, “Nope,” and they laughed at how quick I responded. A little later, after we had cruised for awhile, S said, “Well, maybe we miss the boat a little.” Again I said, “Nope. Having friends who own a boat is way better than owning one yourself.”

Yesterday L went to the driving range at our local pitch-and-putt course with me. We planned on just hitting a few balls together. But midway through the bucket she asked if her swing was good enough to play. I watched her a bit and while there were plenty swings-and-misses, when she hit the ball it generally went the right direction. When we were done I asked if she wanted to play, she said yes, so we did a quick nine.

She didn’t do bad for her first time, a rather loose 47.1 She did manage to go six holes longer than me before she lost her first, and only, ball of the day. As I love to do on this course, my first tee shot was hot and scooted right through the green into the water behind it. She waited until the sixth hole to shoot a ball deep into a grove of pine trees. She seemed to both have fun and work up a healthy bit of frustration over poor swings. Which is what golf is all about, right?

Me? A pretty meh 35 after starting 5-5. Keep in mind, the longest hole is 84 yards and most are in the 60s. I generally only hit PW and maybe GW around the green. The last time I played this course in May my short game was much better and I was actually hitting putts. I guess the highlight of the day was some of those changes my coach made starting to feel a little more normal and me absolutely lacing my final tee shot over on the range. I figured it was time to stop hitting after that one and kicked the last few balls over to L.

I mentioned squeezing stuff in before the end of summer. M has a series of high school orientation events that begin next Wednesday. The following weekend she has a nine-hour – NINE HOURS! – thing that S and I have to join her for part of. I’m honestly not sure what the hell they’re going to do for that long. Especially when they have another orientation session the day before school starts. And we have a big parent meeting for all kids playing sports two nights before school begins. Her first day is August 8. C and L get an extra week before they go back.

Anyway, we’re taking the girls and friends to the festival hosted at the church they went to preschool at tomorrow night. This weekend we have friends coming in from KC.2 And I asked the girls today to make a list of what else we need to do before we start worrying about classes and fall sports practices. I think these next two weeks are going to fly.

  1. I say loose as we did not count misses, when she ran into trouble in some thick rough I only counted the swing that got her out of trouble, and she got a couple free re-hits. ↩
  2. More about that Monday. ↩

A Change Is Gonna Come

June 24, 2019 /

It has been an unsettled time for Catholic schools in Indianapolis. Unfortunately rather than watching other schools deal with a church leadership that is hopelessly out of touch with the times, it is now affecting our family directly.

Cathedral High School announced Sunday that after two years of working with the Archdiocese to resolve a personnel matter, they were caving[1] and choosing to “separate” from a teacher who is in a same-sex marriage. In a letter that went out to all Cathedral families Sunday afternoon, the school board said that the Archbishop threatened to remove Cathedral’s Catholic identity, which would prevent them from celebrating the sacraments, including holding masses on campus, and would also prevent Cathedral from calling itself a Catholic school, which would in turn remove the school’s tax-exempt status.

This came on the heels of Brebeuf, Indianapolis’ Jesuit high school, losing its Catholic identity on Friday as a result of their refusal to fire a gay teacher. Brebeuf is in a slightly different position as they are run by the Jesuits rather than the Archdiocese. The Jesuit leadership has offered vocal, public support of the Brebeuf board and questioned the Archdiocese’s decision.

This all began last fall when Roncalli, Indy’s south side Catholic high school, placed two school counselors on administrative leave until they renounced their same-sex marriages. The moves were made on orders of the Indy Archdiocese.

We also heard a rumor this weekend – at this point totally unconfirmed by anyone who would know for sure – that a teacher at St. P’s will not be returning next year because he is in a same-sex marriage. I fear a little for our main priest, who has voiced support for gay causes.

Clearly the Indianapolis Archbishop is on a mission.

I always struggle with how to handle issues like this. I have no problem criticizing many policies of the Catholic Church, or any church for that matter. But I do have a hard time understanding where the lines for my criticism fall. We pay tuition at two Catholic schools and send a monthly payment to a church in the archdiocese, I volunteer in the school and am a member of the athletic committee, so I am part of the community. But since I am not Catholic, I wonder what right I have to criticize the stances of an organization I’m not officially a part of.

But in a time when it is increasingly difficult to find people who have the gift for connecting with kids, who are willing to deal with all the shit that comes with being a teacher, who can live on the frankly embarrassing wages teaching offers,[2] it strikes me as counter to the mission of every school, Catholic or otherwise, to run people out of their jobs for the crime of wanting legal acknowledgement of and protection for their love for another human being.

It is more infuriating to see this come in an era when society as a whole is racing toward full equal rights for people of all sexual orientations. In an age where the leader of the Catholic church has stated that the church should accept and love gay people no differently than anyone else. When the American Catholic church has often been ahead of the Vatican in opening up to gay parishioners.

However, it seems that the Indianapolis Archbishop wants to carve out a niche as the man who took a stand against the Church accepting gay marriage. This seems like a decision that will only please conservatives in the church hierarchy who are trying to counter Pope Francis’ liberalization efforts, and people who will be dead in 10–15 years. At the same time it will continue to drive away the younger generation that the Church has been desperate to find ways of bringing back. This feels like a decision that may have seemed like a good idea to a small number of people when it was made, but down the road will look like a monumentally dumb and shortsighted choice that did more harm than good to the organization the Archbishop was trying to “protect.”

I do see some good in this, though. There has been an overwhelming response to the decision. My Facebook feed is filled almost exclusively with outrage at what Cathedral and the Archdiocese have done. Different people are laying blame in different ways, but the common message is that this was a horrible decision that will hurt Cathedral and its students. A few families who have written a lot of exceptionally large checks to Cathedral and churches within the Archdiocese over the years have come out strongly against the decision. Ultimately that is what could move the needle, if some of those funds that have only been promised but not yet delivered get placed in hold until there is a reconsideration.

One current teacher at Cathedral posted that she is divorced and remarried without getting an annulment from the church, which puts her in violation of the same morals clause in her contract the gay employees are charged with violating. She closed her post with “#FIREMETOO.” I can’t imagine how much courage it took to post something like that. There have to be dozens and dozens of teachers in her same situation across Archdiocese schools that will not be targeted by the Archbishop simply because they are married to someone of the opposite sex.

I was most pleased by how our girls responded. We got the email after dropping C off at camp, so it was just M and L with us. They both immediately expressed their confusion and anger. “That’s so stupid! It doesn’t make any sense! The only reason they should ever fire a teacher is if they are a bad teacher or hurt someone!” We’ve spent their entire lives teaching them not to judge people because of how they look, what language they speak, their culture, or who they love. When forced to confront the issue directly, it’s heartening to know that they can put those lessons into practice immediately.

I also think the vast majority of the Cathedral faculty support their colleague and believe this decision is wrong. I am confident that they will teach our daughters values that are more consistent with our world view than the Archbishop’s retrograde philosophy. It is that knowledge that allows me to remain comfortable with sending our girls there.

Despite those glimmers, it is a sad and frustrating moment. In general I think society is headed in the right direction, toward the time when everyone who pays taxes receives the same rights and protections under the law. There are still far too many extremely powerful organizations, though, that are dragging their feet and refusing to join the majority view that isolating and hating people is wrong. That this is occurring in the sphere of secondary education, where Catholic high schools pride themselves on having an advantage over public institutions in how they challenge young adults to broaden their perspectives, learn and practice empathy, and live moral lives where all God’s children are treated with love and respect is particularly disheartening.

  1. My term, not theirs.  ↩
  2. I had a conversation with a teacher at a Catholic school this past winter in which I learned how much this teacher made. It almost made me want to cry at how little this person, who has tons of education and experience, clears each year. Especially when you factor in all the bullshit that comes with dealing with kids all day.  ↩
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