A Kansas tornado in Philadelphia?

Posted on 04/20/2009 by RLW3

Tomorrow is Decision Day.

The Baker coach called to confirm our dinner appointment tomorrow night.

I called the Drexel coach. He answered the phone again! That’s three times in a week!

He received last week’s e-mail. It sounded like he was very excited about bringing my son to his school. He said that they are working hard on putting together the best package they can.

I am so excited for my son. It looks like he went from nothing to a Division 1 scholarship in less than 18 months!

Kinda like a Kansas tornado…it comes out of nowhere and changes everything that it touches.

Absolutely above and beyond anything that I ever imagined when we made the decision to move to Kansas 2 1/2 years ago. Amazing!

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For free…nah. Let’s pay for it!

Posted on 04/19/2009 by RLW3

I woke up this morning to the realization that my son’s next SAT date is less than two weeks away. He has been working very hard at his school work but he has not done any extra preparation for this test.

If he doesn’t do any preparation, it seems foolish to think that he will significantly improve his scores.

I searched “SAT” on our local Craig’s List and found what might be the smartest man in the world. At least his ad said so.

I called him and set up an appointment for this evening at 7:00. He charges $60/hour!

I decided to go with my son. If I am going to pay that kind of money, I want to make sure that the man is worth it. It is too easy for anyone to look “So Much Cooler Online.”

I no sooner shook his hand than he was working with my son. He didn’t slow down the entire hour.

At the end of one hour, he had my son’s weaknesses pegged. The irritating thing is that his mother and I have been pointing out those same weaknesses for several years…

and we didn’t charge anything!

But, hey, what do we know???

I now have to make a decision. Will it be worthwhile to keep meeting with him? There is no way to KNOW that.

However, if I do continue, I am absolutely certain about one thing…

It ain’t gonna be cheap!

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Pain from top to bottom

Posted on 04/18/2009 by RLW3

Today was not a very productive day.

I did go watch/coach my son in his latest tournament. (he won)

I also met with a college funding advisor only to find out that there is not much he can do to help me.

Outside of that, I spent most of the day in the horizontal position.

Yesterday, I briefly mentioned that I had dental surgery. Well, today my face is swollen and my head hurts. I am trying to take as few Vicodin as possible.

All I want to do is sleep. And it has not been peaceful sleep. It has been the “hold your head between your left bicep and right hand to counteract the pressure on the inside” kind of sleep.

And to top it off, I feel like a horse has kicked me in the tailbone. I have no idea how or when that happened but every time I stand up, I wince in pain audibly.

It is amazing how I discover how much I take for granted whenever something goes wrong in my body. I have never even thought of being grateful for being able to stand up without pain. I just stand up. However, now that there is a problem with one small muscle, that simple act has become a very painful challenge.

Anyway, my two youngest are off to the school prom and my wife is at work so…zzzzz

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HECK NO!!!

Posted on 04/17/2009 by RLW3

Something happened to me that I have never experienced before…

I’ve heard about this but have never experienced it myself and I have been around a few years!

A young man called me on the phone and introduced himself. Nothing unusual there. Telemarketers do it all of the time.

He then asked if he could take my oldest daughter out on a date!

My daughter lives in Dallas. She is 22 years old. She made him do it.

She texted me to tell me that he was going to call.

I called her back and threatened that I might say no. “Don’t say no, Daddy.”

“Oh, so this is just a courtesy call. He’s not really asking me. This is just a formality.”

She started laughing. She met him at church. He plays in the worship band and really seems to be a godly young man with great character.

Oh, what did I say…My son asked that very question.

“HECK NO!!!”

“Really?”…

“That is what I said.”

My son’s jaw dropped in disbelief.

“You said that?”

Yep.

The young man on the phone laughed nervously. My son, though, had a look of bewilderment and confusion on his face.

I fairly quickly caved and gave him permission to take her out. Then I really turned soft and told him that I hoped that they had a great time.

But…

I had just gotten out of dental surgery when he called…

So now that I am getting back to my right mind…

Where is that shotgun!

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Roll the tape again

Posted on 04/16/2009 by RLW3

The Drexel coach has evidently had a change of heart. 

I put eight matches on the DVD. 3 of those showed my son losing.

You might ask, “Now why would you do that when you are trying to impress someone?”

It turns out that was the smartest thing I could have done. Guess what part of the DVD convinced the Drexel coach that my son has Division 1 ability?…

Exactly…THE LOSSES!!!

Two of the losses were to young men who wrestled at Senior Nationals! One of them made it to the final sixteen. The guy who beat him in the KS State Finals finished 3rd…

in the nation!!!

That means that both of them beat a lot of wrestlers that the coach knows in the national tournament.

In fact, my son’s was eliminated by a guy from New York in a very close match.

Back to the e-mail…

After my call and e-mail, he and his assistant watched my son’s DVD again. This time, they had the High School Senior National bracket sheet out. They saw how he wrestled against the guy who finished in the top sixteen. They saw how he wrestled the guy who finished third in the nation. They saw the quality of the wrestlers from their area that were beaten in the Nationals by those two…

and they concluded that my son DEFINITELY has Division 1 ability and they would love to have him on their team!

I am glad I sent him to that tournament!

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Throw the line in and see if we get a bite

Posted on 04/15/2009 by RLW3

“I don’t know if your plans have changed since the last time we spoke, but would you be open to relocating to the NY/NJ area?”

That was the beginning text of an e-mail that I received from a recruiter last night. He had seen my reumé on Monster.com. To tell you the truth, I had forgotten that I had posted it.

Three months ago, I wasn’t. Now, I’m not so sure. If my son ends up going to college there…

I called my wife in and showed her…

“You’re kidding me.”

I called him today. The job is in Long Island, New York.

I did a search for universities in the area where the company is located.

Hofstra University…

finished top 10 in the NCAA tournament in wrestling…

they have a civil engineering major…

I called the wrestling coach…

He needs a 165 pounder…

He agreed to give my son a look.

We are sending the DVD tomorrow.

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Hide and seek, round two!

Posted on 04/14/2009 by RLW3

I have one week to make a BIG decision…

Where should my son go to school?

How will we pay for it?

I decided to call the Drexel coach. I didn’t really hold out much hope when I dialed the number because I haven’t heard from him in at least three weeks despite leaving several messages and sending several e-mails.

Surprise! He actually answered the phone. I wonder if he felt like his hiding place had just been discovered.

He confirmed that he got the DVD we sent him several weeks ago. He began telling me that he had watched it but he didn’t know the guys who he was wrestling against. He had nothing to compare it to. He knows the wrestlers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

However, the tone of his voice noticeably changed when I informed him that my son did in fact wrestle in the Senior Nationals. He then started talking about how he didn’t need a heavyweight until next year. I reminded him that my son wrestles in the 160 pound class.

It was quickly becoming obvious that the DVD had not made that much of an impression on him. That is why he had not returned my calls or e-mails.

After I hung up, I decided to send him an e-mail with the behind the scenes details of the Senior Nationals. After all, this is pretty much my last chance. I have a dinner appointment next Tuesday night!

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He found me!

Posted on 04/13/2009 by RLW3

I got an unexpected call this morning. It was a call that I had been trying to avoid.

Last week, we received the scholarship offer from Baker University.

The school costs $28,000 per year. After academic and athletic scholarships and a university grant, we would have to come up with $13,000 of that. We don’t have $13,000 per year. This is the very thing that I mentioned to him when he first approached me.

My first thought was to call the coach right away to express my surprise. However, I decided to wait.

Follow my logic and see if it makes sense to you…

If I call him and tell him that the university’s offer was quite a bit below what we had been led to expect, he would ask me what we were hoping for. If I tell him that we were expecting to have to provide between $5-6,000 and he improves his offer to give us that amount, I would be more or less obligated to accept his offer.

So, I didn’t call. In fact, I hoped that he would get so busy that he would forget about us for awhile. That would give us time to see if the other Division 1 schools were really interested.

You can imagine my surprise and discomfort when my phone started ringing and I saw who was calling me! It felt like we were playing Hide and Seek and he just discovered my hiding place!

He wants to get together for dinner and make his final offer. I managed to delay it until next Tuesday night. That doesn’t give me much time.

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Getting me ready for the slaughter

Posted on 04/12/2009 by RLW3

My wife is a hard woman to live with…

I have recounted my battles to get my body back in shape. Last year, I lost 25 pounds. This year is a different story.

So far, I have gained 6-7 pounds. Not all at once, mind you. A little here, a little there.

In the battle of the bulge, I don’t think that my wife is on my side.

Consider the most recent evidence.

I saw a guy with two beautiful, big pieces of pizza at my son’s wrestling tournament yesterday afternoon. However,  experience tells me that high school gym pizza generally looks better than it tastes so I decided to wait.

When I got home, I was hungry. I looked at the DiGiorno pizza in the freezer and decided against it. This was going to be my last meal of the day so I wanted to eat a little healthier. So, I heated up a nice bowl of chili and ate what I thought was an early dinner. The earlier that you eat your last meal of the day, the better.

Several hours later, my wife came home from work. What do you think she did? She marched in and heated up the frozen pizza!

I think we have bought frozen pizza maybe three times in our 23 year marriage. There is a reason for that. They aren’t very good. Yet, somehow, my wife was able to cook that pizza just right. The pie was fluffy. The cheese was soft and chewy. And she was obviously enjoying the piece that she was eating.

She brought me a small piece. You might say that is a good thing but you would be wrong!

It was just small enough that it MADE me ask for a second piece. Keep in mind that I already ate my dinner at 4:00.

I didn’t even bother getting on the scale this morning.

I had to take a quick shower before we left for church. It was late so I was planning on skipping breakfast. I thought, “Hey, this is great! I can recover from the last night’s pizza attack. I had already had a big cup of coffee and besides, we are going to eat an Easter dinner this afternoon.”

Imagine my surprise/disappointment when I rushed to the leave the house only to discover that my wife had made me two eggs and two pieces of toast!

Throw in an Easter dinner with the fluffiest shrimp dip that you ever tasted as an appetizer and…

well…

I am at my highest weight of the year!

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From Miley Cyrus to C.S. Lewis in 3.4 seconds

Posted on 04/11/2009 by RLW3

Talk about a quick about face…

Last night, my daughter went out with some friends to see the Mylie Cyrus movie. The theater was packed with screaming 12 year old girls.

Cakes could hardly believe it but she actually liked it. She kept saying, “I can’t believe I actually went to see that movie.”

Well, today when we came home from my son’s first freestyle wrestling tournament (he won and beat a state champ in the process), she was on the computer. What was she doing?

Watching a YouTube video of Tyra Banks interviewing the cast of the Mylie Cyrus movie.

To the male lead: “How was it kissing Miley?”

To the male lead: “You have a great smile.”

“Ca-a-a-a-kes! Come on! You’ve got to be kidding me. What are you, a 12 year old?”

She got OFFENDED!

I made her start studying. She has to read On The Incarnation by St. Athanasius. She started by reading the forward. It was written by C.S. Lewis. After just a few minutes, she was remarking on how she loved what she was reading, how it inspired her to want to read all of the old great books.

I couldn’t resist. I reminded her that less than an hour earlier she was offended that I told her she was getting sucked into the Miley Cyrus vortex.

Ah, how quickly and completely a young adult woman can completely change their mind.

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