maestrojpl

I have always been able to recognize faces in the crowd.  I never forget a face....honestly.  It is probably one of my best talents.  I just tend to be extremely observant.  Maybe I should have been a detective.  Anyhow, as a child of an airline employee I have spent countless hours in airports across the country and over the years I have seen plenty of celebrities, sports personalities and the like.  I have even struck up some brief conversations with a few of them.  Some on my list include Greg Lougainis (before I began referring to him as Greg Loose-anus), Brett Hull, Joe Carter, Trent Reznor (got his autograph/lead singer of Nine Inch Nails for the musically challenged) and now I can add Ron Gardenhire to my list.

Ron Gardenhire?  Some people who are sports fans may not even know who that is, but there he was waiting to board a flight to Chicago from Tulsa, OK.  The fact that he was in Tulsa completely through me off his scent initially, but after a few glances in his direction I figured out that the Minnesota Twins manager was for some reason flying from Tulsa to Chicago.  The fact that he was in Tulsa made me question whether he was even still the Twins manager.  Why would he be in Tulsa in the middle of the first half of the baseball season?  No clue, but no douby about it Ron Gardenhire was on my flight.

I thought about approaching him to ask why he was in Tulsa, but chose not to.  He seemed pretty uncomfortable and was moving around the terminal quite a bit so I decided not to bother him.

After a t-storm delay we finally boarded the plane and Mr. Gardenhire was sitting in first class.  My last chance to say something.  All I could think to say was "Go Indians" just to let him know that I knew who he was but was not a fan of his team.  Something kept me from saying it though and I am glad.

As soon as I could get on-line I began to look for info about why he might have been in Tulsa and there it was.  His 54 year old brother had died and he was in town for the funeral.  There were even some quotes in the story that showed that he was deeply hurt by the loss of his brother and the last thing he needed was some fan popping off about baseball.  I was so relieved that I left him alone and did not bother this man who was in pain.

As a sports fan I always become excited when I see someone who is an elite athlete or coach and my enthusiasm makes me want to interact with these people, but thankfully this time my restraint was intact and I did not act on my instincts of ethusiasm.  Even though we see these people on SportsCenter and they seem larger-than-life the truth is that most of them are very down-to-earth normal people.

Well, I want all of the Cleveland Steamer and Dirty Sanchez folks to go away immediately. This blog is not for you....unless you have another story. No this is not about perverted bedroom behavior, it is about other digusting things that happen in life.

I was shopping with my daughter yesterday. Just a beautiful day here in Tulsa, the sun was shining and the wind was finally not gail force. I was excited to get to the hardware to take care of some necessary honey-do's and do some flower shopping with my 3 year old who is quite the gardening assistant.

I parked the car and went around to retrieve her from her car seat when I felt something wet hit my chest.....sure enough it was bird crap. Disgusting!!!!!!! Nothing gives me the willies like bird crap. I have dissected human cadavers, cleaned fish/rabbits/birds/deer, hooked many a worm, cleaned litter boxes, shoveled dog poop, and done my fair share of changing dirty diapers but nothing grosses me out like bird crap. Well, that not entirely true. Tracheotomy suctioning is pretty retchid too, but bird crap ranks right up there.

So anyhow the day became a little less sunny after the bird crap. Thankfully it was a fairly small amount that I was able to shake off and then I headed directly to the bathroom in the store to clean up better.

I want to hear your disgusting stories of happenstance. Once again the disclaimer that this is not intended to be about your sexual exploits with people on Spring Break or in Vegas. Please refrain yourselves somewhat.

Well, I heard on the news this morning that our military has placed another Aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean near Iran. 

Is this to appease Israel who have been increasingly threatened by Iran?  Is this a show of strength to let Iran know that we mean business about their nuclear desires?  Was there a strong western breeze that blew the ship through the Staight of Gibraltar?

I guess this happens occassionally, but I cannot imagine that we can spread our military out even more by sending any troops into Iran.  I suppose it would be mostly an aerial assualt if we do anything. 

Regardless of whether anything happens in the immediate future I know that we are going to have to deal with Iran at some point.  What are your thoughts folks?  Diplomacy?  Shock and Awe?  A combination of those?

Well, this is my first blog and I am sure that it will disappoint plenty, but I hope it can entertain/relate to a few.  You know what they say "to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world."

I am blessed with 2 absolutely beautiful kids.  I love them more than anything except my wife of course.  They are pure joy.....most of the time, and I definitely love being a parent.  However, as all of you parents know well with parenthood comes some sacrifice.  Free time is a thing of the past so you have to pick your moments.  Running used to be my moment, but I usually take my daugter with me now.  If you are a runner and have kids you must get a running stroller....I digress.  I had a moment today though.

I left the house, by myself, to go buy my wife a bottle of wine and my son some nasal spray, but it was a moment.  I got in the car and I rolled the windows down, opened the sunroof, changed the cd from Laurie Berkner (kids music I would recommend) to a mixed cd that I made recently and just soaked it all in.  I turned up the Radiohead and took a deep breath of the post thunderstorm cool air and realized that I never would have appreciated such a moment before I was a parent.  It was fantastic.  I even talked to the cashiers at the liquor store and the pharmacy.

Then I returned home to a family of smiling faces (thankfully) and looked forward to another moment whenever that might happen.