Saturday, November 9, 2013

What Makes a Man Cry......

I woke up early today, before the clowns and in the silence of a cool November morning, I wrote a post. Not an ordinary my kid shoved skittles up his nose kind of post. Not a my job or life sucks and God has all the answers type of post. This one was a little different.

You see when I was a junior in high school I lost my best friend to a car accident. And this morning, while I was thinking of something to blog about, my thoughts turned to my friend and I begin to type. I wrote about how I spoke to him hours before the accident and he wanted me to go with him. I wrote about when I got the news. I wrote about the following weeks and how I would see his face from time to time in a crowed hallway. I wrote about being 16/17 years old and dealing with death up close and personal. And as I sat at my computer typing away, a grown man, thinking about those events so long ago, my eyes welled up with tears.

Scars are souvenirs you never lose...

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Top 5 Vacations.....sort of..

So over fall break we went to Disney World. It was fantastic. My wife did a great job of planning every day for us and Disney did the rest. It was by far the best vacation I've ever had in my life. Which got me to thinking about some of the vacations my parents took me on when I was little. I present to you a worst of the worst vacations of my youth.

5. Florida -When I was about 10 or 11 we drove to Florida which is about an 18 hour trip. Now this vacation might have been rated the worst had it not been for the fact that we did get to go to Disney, Sea World, and the beach. But we had to stay with some friends of my parents which was really uncomfortable. I slept on the floor in a sleeping bag for 5 days, and got so scared while riding Space Mountain that I may have cried a bit. Oh and our car blew up on the drive down there. All in all one of the worst ever.

4. St. Louis - Not the worst vacation and it might have even been on a good list except for the fact that I got my head split open. We were walking down the street next to Bush Stadium as the Cardinals baseball team played inside. Someone threw a rock or money, we're not sure which, from atop the stadium and sure enough it hit me right in the head. Immediately I started crying and felt blood gushing from my head. I did get to go into the stadium and get bandaged up so that was swell.

3. The Ozarks - I'm not even sure what the hell the Ozarks are I just know it sucked. Once again we drove. Oh but this time we rode in style. My grandparents R.V. As if that wasn't bad enough, my dad had heard that this place was great for trout fishing. So every morning at 5 am my dad and older brother would get up and go trout fishing. I went the first time with hopes and dreams of bringing back the big one. Except we didn't. We didn't catch a damn thing. For hours and hours. And if that wasn't bad enough, my dad would shame me into going each morning by saying "you going with us, or staying here with the Girls''. This is why I hate fishing.

2. Connecticut - Now truth be told Connecticut maybe should be higher on the list because I was pretty young and don't remember much of it, but what I do remember sucked. I guess that's why I chose to put it at number 2. A vacation should be full of good memories not things you try to erase from your brain. Now for some reason my Dad was already in Connecticut so my mom, brother, sister and I were to take the train to meet him. Except when our train was pulling into the station in St. Louis our connecting train to Connecticut was already pulling out. So we missed it. We then had to take a Greyhound Bus from StL to Conn. Then when we got there, again we stayed with friends, which means the baby can just sleep on the floor.

1. Hot Springs Arkansas. -The all time worst vacation in the history of vacations. Sorry mom and dad, that 10 hour drive in the back seat of a 1978 Chevy Chevet to Hot Springs Arkansas just didn't do it for me. Maybe it was the fact that I had to ride back there with my two older, more miserable than I was, siblings.

Or maybe it was because we stayed in a timeshare in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing to do. No pool, no beach. No fun. My mom went to a grocery store and cooked dinner for us for crying out loud. We drove 10 hours in a cramped car to go to a town that sucked worst than the one we just left. We went there because my parents were looking to buy some land in the area. So not only did we drive ten hours to get there, but one of the days we went with a realtor driving around looking vacant lots for sale. Whoppie...

God love 'em my parents sucked at planning vacations.