Game Faces

The Boys decided to keep me company while I watch one of the three World Series games our Cubbies played over the weekend. You may not be able to tell but they are simply overcome with the excitement of it all.

Seriously.

They are.

I'm not a big baseball fan. But it is hard to sit idly by while the city is so pumped.  Rooting for the home team.

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It's Official! Re-boot.

Dani wih Chester Chicago Pride 2008 

You may remember a mention some weeks ago of an opportunity my daughter had that was going to take her to Colorado and then Wyoming for the next two years. She was slated to leave early next month to report to the Colorado site within the next three weeks.

While extremely happy for and proud of her I don't mind telling you the prospect of saying good-bye (if even temporarily) was causing me some amount of anxiety. But, I stood strong for her sake. On the surface this was a grand opportunity.

In the days after the the announcement daughter worked (hard) to earn the fare. She made plans and decisions about how she would travel, what possessions to take and what to leave. All while emailing the company representative trying to get some definitive information on her assignment and more specifics about the set-up.

The information she was seeking was not forthcoming and as the days and then weeks leaked by she grew more and more anxious. The baseball season (her primary job was with the group that operates restaurants at US Cellular Field-Chicago White Sox) was drawing to a close and she was afraid of an employment / income gap. So she updated her resume and began to set up interviews.

To make a long story short (too late --a "Clue" reference) she isn't going to Colorado (or Wyoming).The part-time / independent contractor gig she was working with a local catering company offered her a regular, full-time, year-round job.

She is, in a word, stoked. And while a little sad about not traveling, she's pleased the the netting fell apart before she broke the bank moving out of state. And she will travel. And she will move away when the time and circumstances are right.

In the meantime, we celebrate the new job We celebrate the kitchen and business training she will receive.

My little girl (as my mother would have said) had a birthday last week. It was shaping up to be a hectic, bittersweet affair. But, it has turned into one of the happiest she's had in a few years. I am excited to bear witness to the next career and life steps.

For she's a jolly good daughter.

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Four Words

Seventeen. August 1st 1976, the day after my 16th birthday, the beginning of my seventeenth year. That August meant preparing for my last year of high school and trying to figure out a post high school life.

Life was, in a word, hectic.

Seventeen. August 1st 1977, the day after my 17th birthday. High School graduation done. First day of the first year of college fast approaching.

Life was, in a word, hectic.

Family life was in shambles with two out of control brothers. I was working three jobs to earn the money to begin school (and to get away which is what I wanted most in the world at the time).

A close, valued relationship came to a crashing end.

Life was, in a word, hectic.

If I were to have a conversation with my 17 year old self drilled down to 4 words those words would be:

Leave now, take charge. 

   See more HERE. 

What 4 words would you say to your 17 year old self?
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