marathoning and GO TIGERS!

good.sweet.lord

scheduling for winter quarter is upon us and all of the advisors in the office are quite literally booked from 8-5 solid. i feel like i've run a marathon. thus, my lack of posting.

*wipes sweat from brow* pheewwwwwwwwwww.....................

I have spent the last couple of hours helping P catch up on laundry, fixing a potluck dinner out of all the leftovers in our fridge, eating said dinner and now chilling on the couch watching repeats of 2 and a half men. Oh charlie sheen...how you make me laugh.

I've gotten to spend a lot of time with my family the last couple of weekends. This past weekend we went up to Massillon where P is from for the Massillon v. McKinley football game. It was so so much fun.

When I was in highschool, it was not fun. I wasn't involved, I had my little circle of friends, nobody really cared about the school, the community or the people. It was pretty standard. When we graduated...we all went our seperate ways. Even those of us that went to the same college didn't stay in touch. It's only recently, because of facebook and myspace that I've really started reconnecting with some of them. This was NOT P's experience. Massillon is it's own special community. Some people look at them like they're crazy, but the town rallies around the football team. They get excited, they cheer, they are proud to be from Massillon. P still talks to a lot of the people in his graduating class. Nearly all of them go back to go to games and to spend time in the community every year. I can't imagine what growing up in that atmosphere was like. Massillon is in the middle of the rust belt. It doesn't have a lot of money. It's not all that special for anything other than football. It's such a fun place though...I love it.

We took my parents to the game, it was their first Massillon game and it was definitely a good one. My mom (a teacher in my old school system)was amazed that the town rallies around the school the way it does. Football may be at the heart of it...but how great is that for the kids?

I know that the football team is only 70, 80 guys, the band is there and the cheerleaders...but can you imagine what that experience is like? To be in highschool and play in front of 18 thousand people? To for one friday night have the whole community's attention on you? How fun would that have been if it were your experience?

More importantly than getting to show my parents the game was to let them see the part of P that I've gotten to know and love. We took them to his favorite places, the the little restaurant that has the best wings and potato soup ever. We took a little tour so he could show them the Walgreens he worked at in highschool and the candy company that his dad always gets chocolates from every Christmas. They got to see the town that made him who he is. They got to see the house he grew up in, the one his dad tore apart and rebuilt with his stepmom. They got to see how Stepmom and FIL are straight out of a Pier 1 catalogue and everything is organized just so. They got to see how the town doesn't have a lot, but the people in it work hard...just like P. They got to see his dad's stubborness and his generosity...the qualities that P inherited. It was neat. I think they understand him better and they really enjoyed themselves in his world. For me it was especially fun to hear him tell them the stories that I've already heard a thousand times.

I wouldn't mind someday moving to Massillon so that our kids could live in a community that comes together on Friday nights to support the school and the kids in it. Even if they didn't play on the team or have any part in it...I think that kind of experience can be really meaningful.

3 things:

Ben Heggy's candy
friday night lights
family