Who Would You Spend a Day With?

For as long as I can remember I have loved Lucy.  I Love Lucy that is; and today through Facebook Lucy fans were asked, "If you could spend 24 hours with Lucy, what would you do?  I quickly found myself having great fun thinking of the possibilities. 

Imagine having a tour of Hollywood from one of the legends - we could go to the Brown Derby Restaurant, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and see her star on the Walk of Fame.  Or perhaps I would ask her to introduce me to the rest of the cast - I mean they have all passed away now; but if I am meeting Lucy, why can't see find the other three?  I definitely need to  ask her to tell me about being a pioneer for women both in front of the camera, but also in the business world.    I love the thought of having the opportunity to ask her what it was like to create some of the greatest moments in television history.  Lucy was more of a physical comedian than a quick quips type of woman, which explains why my Grandmom said she was not a very funny interview.    I feel as though the writers for her shows worked to play on her strengths, and created some wonderful acts in the process.  Moments such as, 'Vitameatavegamin", the chocolate factory, stomping grapes, or my personal favorite a mirror routine with Harpo Marx.  I have often wondered if she and the rest of the cast had any idea that they were taping shows that would prove to stand the test of time.  At the end of that day I would like to be able to give Lucy a hug, and say thank you for all the laughs.

While I am on the subject of spending the day with someone who is deceased, I may as well go all out and admit my fascination for James Madison.  Yes, I am just cool enough to want to spend time with our fourth president or the "Father of the Constitution."  For those of you keeping track at home, Madison passed away in 1836 - I only missed my chance by 146 years.  The picture above, taken two years ago at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia may be the closest I ever get to him.  A few side notes about the picture:  first, if you ever get the chance, please go to the National Constitution Center as it is a really well done museum; next, the height difference is to scale - Madison stood at a towering 5'5" to my impressive stature of 5'2", which may be part of his appeal to me; third, I am well aware that the picture does not do much for my pallor, but I blame the lighting.  

I digress.  Back to James Madison, and what I would do if I could spend a day with him.  As with Lucille Ball, I would welcome the opportunity to ask whether Madison and the other Founding Fathers had any idea of the impact that would have on future generations.  The Constitution is a remarkable document.  It was ratified in 1787, and yet in 225 years has only been amended 27 times.  It was also written in such a way that allows for multiple interpretations; so allowing time for him to explain the true original intent of the words must be taken into consideration when planning the day.   Another interesting (yes, interesting!) topic for discussion would be Madison's thoughts on the politics of today, as well as the place that the United States holds in the world.  

On a lighter note, Perhaps he could lay to rest the question of whether his wife, Dolley really did save the painting of George Washington as the White House burned during the War of 1812 or if that is just folklore.  I do not know that a day with President Madison would consist of anything more than talking, since I still cannot eat ice cream.  I connect ice cream and Madison since many people think Dolley Madison was the first person to serve ice cream in the White House (false - it was Jefferson).  Even if it was "just" talking, what an experience for a history dork/former Social Studies teacher like me.

I once had someone ask me to switch brains, since she was suffering from a terrible migraine.  I told her that I did not think she understood what a ridiculous brain she would get in return.  This post is a glimpse at how silly (okay, dorky) I am, but also a look at things that I find interesting beyond the world of sports.  You now know my choices, but I hope that perhaps you will tell me a person (living or deceased) that you would like to spend the day with, and what you would do with that time?

 

I Got a Gig - Her Game Life

My love of sports is pretty well documented at this point, but a fact that I do not readily share is that I was never much of an athlete myself.  There are probably athletic genes somewhere in my body as my parents were gifted athletes.  Me, not so much: basically I am short, slow, and really lack the ability to trash-talk.  Not the makings of a great athlete.  It's okay though, I have enjoyed being an avid spectator.  Although I had always hoped perhaps I could do more in the world of sports.  To that end, I will put a positive spin on a terrible expression - those who can't do coach, or in my case write. 

I had a couple disastrous experiences with coaching in college, and so that is probably not the path for me.  My junior year at IU, I was the co-head coach of a co-ed 3rd grade basketball team for the local parks and rec department.   It was a non-competitive league that was designed to teach kids the fundamentals of basketball.  Apparently someone forgot to explain this concept to a number of the parents.  Oh my - the pressure many of them were putting on their children was pretty horrible to watch.  Then when we didn't win (which was most of the time),  parents and even grandparents would come up to the other coach and me to tell us how we could have done things differently.  I was very saddened by the apparent disregard for the fact that the kids were trying really hard; but like me, most of them were not born athletes. 

While that experience was less than enjoyable, it was not even the worst thing I ever heard in my short-lived "coaching" career.  Oh no - that honor goes to the woman who called me a b*tch from the stands as I was pitching for the youth KICKBALL league.  It was summer following the basketball team debacle, and I was a part-time camp counselor for the same parks and rec department.  One of the roles of the part-timers was to lead the kickball league.  Our job was to "coach" the teams, which really just meant trying to be sure everyone was having fun, had the chance to play, and we took turns pitching.  Well apparently that woman was a hard-core kickball enthusiast (who knew those existed); who took issue with how I was throwing the ball.  That pretty much ended any aspirations I had of coaching, especially kickball!

Perhaps I will have better luck with writing since about a month ago, I got a [volunteer] gig!  I am one of three contributors for the Chicago Bears on the all-female football site, Her Game Life.   

Her Game Life began as trash talking text messages between native New Yorkers, Nikki Sickles and Shamika Lee. Despite growing up in the Big Apple, both ladies are avid fans of other teams in the NFC East (it’s complicated ). At least twice a year, Nikki (a Dallas Cowboys fan) and Shamika (a Philadelphia Eagles fan) would put aside their friendship and represent their teams. At the end of the 2011 season, Nikki and Shamika found themselves with plenty of time on their hands as their teams went home early. They started Her Game Life to answer the question “Are there other female NFL fans in America?” In response to that question, Nikki and Shamika received applications for contributors from women from all walks of life. Our writers include the daughter of an NFL coach, college students, former Division I athletes, Green Bay Packer shareholders, actresses, stand-up comedians, finance and marketing professionals, lawyers, and freelance writers from across the country. The answer was clear. Nikki and Shamika forged ahead to create the most complete website for female NFL fans.

I found the site completely by accident through a friend who has another friend that was already contributing to the site.  Without too much thought (otherwise, I probably would have thought my way out of it), I submitted a writing sample; was then asked for more information, including answers to specific questions, and a couple days later I was accepted!  So far I have posted three articles for my Bears, all of which can be seen by clicking here. 

Today I received a notice that we now  have an official NFC North Division editor to support the blogging teams as a means of working toward the goal of making the site more of a professional news organization.  Still, what may be the most exciting part of this whole experience was what arrived over the weekend (a media pass)!

I have no idea what I will use it for, but I am going to try to figure it out!  If nothing else, a life-long dream of doing more than just yell at the TV during various sporting events has come true.  I hope you will consider following my coverage of the Bears through what looks to be a very promising season!

I Plan, but Do I Enjoy?

I have already admitted here that I am a planner.   I embrace this fact mostly because, truth be told, there really is no hiding it.  It's what I do, but also how I think for better or worse.  With the recent tragic events in Aurora, I found myself wondering if I am truly enjoying what I do/plan to the fullest; or am I guilty of looking ahead to the next event.  There is also some concern that I need to be sure to enjoy the wedding day that has been in the making for a year by the time it takes place.

Ironically, two events both happened last week that have been on the calendar for months; so I feel as though I can answer my own question.  First was the Chicago and Doobie Brothers concert at Red Rocks.  Our group (Denise, John, Emily, Danny and I) bought the tickets back in March or April.

A little bit of rain was not going to spoil this evening, we had a blast!  There really is no concert venue like Red Rocks. At least not that I have ever experienced; it really is a phenomenal place to see a show.  It sure doesn't hurt that two of my all-time favorite bands were playing together, and did play together for the encore.  Oh my - I got goosebumps as they blended their two sounds to play each bands' hits.  There was also a funny moment for Danny and me when Chicago started to play, "Just You 'n Me".   The verbal intro was, "most of the people in this crowd have a connection to this song - you were either married to it or conceived to it."  Well, that just happens to be the song for Danny and my first dance as husband and wife.  I will not even acknowledge the latter part of that statement - you can ask my parents, but I do not want to know.

Next, Danny, Emily and I finally made it to the Colorado Sky Sox game that we originally had tickets for in early-April.  The fact that this became a long-range event was really beyond our control, since the game we had tickets for was called off due to SNOW.  Yes, spring snow is always possible in Colorado.  The Sky Sox are the minor league affiliate to the Rockies, and play down in Colorado Springs.  So we had to limit ourselves to weekend games to allow for the hour and a half drive each way.  Looking at the schedule, I decided that "Jim Thome Bobble Head" night sounded like a winner.  Ironically, we arrived a few minutes late so we only got a bobble head doll because someone had turned one in.  Of course, we also managed to squeeze in a trip to two breweries along the way.  Luckily, Emily enjoys beer too, but I got a kick out of one of the beer names:  7258 Blonde Ale at Colorado Mountain Brewery.  You may wonder, as I did, what the number means:   7258 denotes both the altitude of the nearby United States Air Force Academy, as well as the attitude of Colorado and its residents... "Far, far above that of West Point or Annapolis" ... and the rest of the world.  

I really do enjoy minor league baseball.  The stadiums are smaller, the ticket prices are reasonable (especially when you have a buy one get one free voucher), and you usually get to see good baseball.  As the Rockies are stinking up the place, it was nice to root for the winning team.  There were a couple botched plays that reminds you that you are in fact at a minor league game, but oh well.  Danny and I have decided we would like to make a Sky Sox game an annual event.  

Of course, I will admit that sometimes my forward thinking gets me in to trouble.  For example the kerfuffle that Danny and I got into on Sunday because he was thinking out loud, and I was worried about executing this plan.  Just one of the many examples of how Danny and I think differently; we are working on it.  Still, I did take my parents up on their offer to help with the wedding planning.  I had an easy task for them that will be tremendously helpful to me.  Progress all around!  

Sometimes I say that I am ready for September 16 so that I can enjoy life without wedding planning, but I don't mean it in the way that it sounds.  Yes, I am ready to move on with my life as Danny's wife, but I am also beyond excited (and scared to death) about the rehearsal dinner, and the wedding itself.  I want to enjoy all the hard work, but even more so I am looking forward to celebrating with everyone who is joining us.  It is truly overwhelming the outpouring of love and support that Danny and I are receiving.  Of course not everyone will be able to make the trip, but we are extremely grateful to those who are going to be there for what we hope will be a fun time.

Danny accepts that I am a planner, just as I know he is not.  We balance each other out, and most importantly have a lot of fun!  A great piece of wedding advice that I received and will try to embody, "the weddings that are the most fun, are the ones that it is clear that the bride and groom are enjoying themselves."  Well Danny and I fully intend to have a great time!  Because as someone else says, regardless of what goes wrong as something inevitably will, we will still be married.

 

So I Have this Idea... Now What?

As a diversion to wedding planning, I am trying to purge stuff from our apartment.  Truth be told, most of the crap in this place is mine; so it is my responsibility to get rid of it.  I have found some real personal buried treasures.  For instance, as I was going through my boxes (read plural - five) of letters, which included pretty much everything anyone has ever sent me, one card my Grandmom was particularly special to me because of what was inside.  There was a coupon for Red Lobster (unfortunately it expired in 2008 - crud - missed opportunity), but there was also a clipping from her local paper.  You see my Grandmom is very thoughtful about sending coupons and clippings of interest to her "dear ones," as she calls us.  I remembered reading this when it first came; it struck a chord then and it has struck a chord now.

Q: Is there a company that offers trips to different baseball stadiums, where the participants would stay at the same hotel as the teams?  I would like to spend some time with my son next year visiting different ballparks.  - R.S.

A: Finding tours for sports fans is a frustrating process, since most are set up solely to sell package tours to big events, such as an all-star game, World Series, Super Bowl or NCAA basketball Final Four. ...  I have yet to find a sports tour operator with any imagination.  I think there's a big market for tours that take sports fans to various parks and halls of fame, even when no playoffs or big events are scheduled.

What if I could be such a sports tour operator?  It would be a dream come true to find a way to put my love of sports to good use, perhaps even one that pays.  I need to do some extensive research, but in the meantime it is fun to think about the possibilities.  For instance, what about a tour of all five teams in the American League Central (White Sox, Twins, Indians, Royals, and Tigers).  Or a cross country tour of stadiums designed by the architectural firm Populous, formerly HOK Sports, that are responsible for some of the most beautiful parks in all of my baseball (ESPN says so too, it is not just my opinion).  Their parks include, but are not limited to:  Coors Field, Denver; Progressive Field, Cleveland; PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore; and Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim.  

There really is no limit to the kinds of tours that could be created if someone would just put some thought into it.  I would love to go on these tours, but how exciting to design and even lead them!

Perhaps this is that why not idea/moment I have been searching for...  Of course I can think of a million reasons why it will not work, but I am not ready to accept those just yet.

In the meantime, sports will continue to be a passionate hobby as I have been selected to join a team of female Bears Bloggers for a site called, Her Game Life.  My first post was published last week, Mrs. McCaskey, I Would Like Two Bears Tickets Please; so I hope you will follow me there too.

When I pitched this idea to Danny I am pretty sure the look he gave me was, "please let's get through the wedding first."  Okay, fine.  After that though, there may be no stopping me!

      

  

Road Trip!

At a board committee meeting a couple months back each person was asked to share something "spectacular" that had happened in their lives.  Well mine was the fact that Danny and I are still engaged given all that goes into planning a wedding. 

When Danny and I were in a long-distance relationship, we both had to remember that sometimes you had to chalk up a fight to frustration about the distance.  I think we are both trying to remember that the same can be said about wedding planning.  Sometimes this process just sucks, and we may take it out on each other.  I must not be alone in this thinking because one of the many pieces of wedding planning advice that I have been given is to take a trip together during the process to remind yourselves why you are doing all this in the first place. 

With that in mind, combined with the fact that we will both be turning 30 this year, we planned a road trip to Grand Junction, Colorado and Arches National Park near Moab, Utah for Memorial Day weekend.  Denise and John were able to join us, which just added to the fun.  On some level the trip did help remind me why I am marrying Danny - he can take good care of me. While climbing the rocks of Arches National Park, Danny always made sure I was okay. He would hold my hand or just tell me I could do it. I like knowing that he will always be by my side.

For those of you who are new to this bird's eye view of our relationship, you should know that for Danny an essential part of any road trip in or around the state of Colorado involves breweries, usually many.  For this trip, seven; in two days.  My role: designated driver, I drink lots of water on these adventures.  Please do not think I am complaining, breweries can be fun places plus I get to see random towns that I may not have seen otherwise.  Think Rifle or Palisade, Colorado.  Plus I usually get something out of these trips too.  I already mentioned the rainbow sherbet fudge that I got in Palisade, but I also scored some fresh apricot jelly.  It was also fun to see John purchase his first growler filled with Dirty Hippie Beer from the brewery in Palisade.  You can see from the picture above, he was truly a kid in a candy store.   I also found out on this trip that when there is a brewery involved, my fiance will plan ahead.  After touring Arches National Park, we headed to lunch in Moab.  Denise, John and I found out that there is a lone brewery in the town of Moab, and Danny not only knew about it, but had the address written down [in advance].  At that point, all I could do was laugh and shake my head.  I shake my head at him a lot.

Here's another quirky fact about Danny and me.  We play the license plate game against each other on a fairly regular basis.  So what does this have to do with our trip?  Well we finally got to see the Arch that is on the current Utah license plate, which is shown in the picture in the top right hand corner.  None of us thought it was the best Arch we saw that day, but it appears to be the most famous.  We all had a blast climbing and driving around the beautiful park.  After lunch in Moab, we went to Bananas Fun Park, where I stunk it up at miniature golf (although I did make a rousing come-back that fell short), and rode my first go-kart in years.  I had a chance at go-karts until this kid made it his mission to cut me off at every opportunity. 

On the trip home, we found Rifle Falls State Park.  The website states, "Rifle Falls State Park may not be loudly advertised, but it’s a wonderful park to explore on a sunny day. You’ll find beautiful waterfalls, small caves to investigate and plenty of trails to hike."  It really was a fun little side trip.

I would consider my first trip without really planning in advance, aside from making hotel reservations in Fruita, Colorado (which I was disappointed to find out is pronounced phonetically), a success!  I had two goals for our trip: enjoy myself and bond with my car.  You see, I still find myself missing my little Scion, and so I felt like the remedy would be a good road trip with the Forester.  The fact that it could sit four adults comfortably with our luggage went a long way to helping me feel better about this car.

Moral of this post: It is okay not to plan everything AND you really should make a trip to Western Colorado/Eastern Utah.  If anyone wants to come, Danny and I will be going back to Canyonlands National Park in the near future, plus I have been told we need to find a Starbucks in Utah since Danny just found out there is a Starbucks Mug for Utah.  Oy vey.

Finally, A big thank you to Denise and John for taking all the pictures since Danny and I were sans camera for a while by accident.

Holy Invitations, Batman!

Pretty early on in the wedding planning process, one of my bridesmaids JennCable (yes, one word) told me about Etsy.  If you are not familiar with Etsy - "Etsy is your place to buy and sell all things handmade, vintage, and supplies."  Oh my - what a wonderful suggestion!  The Save the Dates, rehearsal dinner invitation, wedding program, and flower girl "basket" have all come from sellers on Etsy!  I have worked with a number of fun and incredibly talented people through this site.  My favorite part of this process has been having the opportunity to personalize aspects of our wedding through other people's creativity.

My first Etsy purchase was our Save the Dates:

Danny and I were both beyond happy with how these turned out.  It is amazing what a simple search of "baseball save the dates" can yield.  The cards were very well received, and so we were hoping to follow it up with an invitation that we liked just as much.  As it turned out, this was much easier said than done.  My first search was an online vendor that quickly became a headache because you had to send away for samples.  While I appreciated the fact that we could hold samples in our hands before ordering, it became a cumbersome process.  Plus, we weren't finding anything we loved as much as those Save the Dates.  So I went back to my friend Google to find local wedding invitation vendors.  Sadly, there are not very many places left that allow you to come to their store and rifle through invitations.  I found one that seemed promising and then spoke to a woman on the phone who said they had done a wedding before at Coors Field.  She was quite confident she could help us.  So one Saturday afternoon, Danny and I went:  DISASTER!!  I hope that I am not a drama queen, but I will say it again - DISASTER!!  As it turns out the sports venue wedding was Invesco Field, where the Broncos play and since our colors are not orange and blue they didn't know what to do with us.  Also, the extent of their help/advice was here, let me get you another book.  Also, for the most part "what you see is what you get" with wedding invitations.  Your only options really are, take it or pay an astronomical fee to make some tiny changes.  We left totally demoralized, thinking we were going to have to settle on something.  Danny and I have worked hard to not settle on anything in this planning process, and we did not want to start now.  Back to Google - this time looking for custom wedding invitation designers.  I found Sugar Ink Design in Littleton.  After feeling good about the email exchanges, Danny and I went to meet with them in person.  We walked out of that appointment on Cloud Nine because someone understood what we wanted, and was going to make it affordable.  Of course the process was not without a few glitches - most notably in an effort to make flower stems look like the seams of a baseball there were centipede-like creations on our wedding invitation!  For those of you who don't know, I have a terrible fear of centipedes; so this was especially horrible for me to see.  The ladies kept at it though, and we ended up with a final product that made us were very, very excited.  I am proud to say that a lot of work went into them, and that a number of people contributed to the final product.  I am especially grateful to my family for helping to wordsmith the verbiage since we could not go with something traditional, and in general being another set of eyes on the final product.  At one point Steph even volunteered to speak on behalf of other people to make me feel better - her quote was priceless, "they're kind of weird looking, but it's a good weird."  I preferred my bridesmaid Beth's interpretation, "it incorporates the baseball theme while still keeping it elegant." 

Honestly the invitations have been the hardest part of the wedding planning process to date, but it feels good to have them done and sent out.  It was also helpful to know that other brides can say the same thing - there must be something about wedding invitations.  Now if we can just get response cards that people are coming - so far we have more regrets than confirmations.  We do have a yes from two members of our bridal party, one of our ministers, and a verbal confirmation from Pam (yea, Pam)!  Of course, the invitations only went out last week, I am just a worrier.  Danny keeps reminding me, "if you build it, they will come."   I need him to watch Field of Dreams again because he missed a key component of that movie, the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson.  The real irony there is that the real quote is, "if you build it, he will come." 

I will stop now because otherwise this will become a post about that sordid Chicago White Sox team of 1918, aka the Chicago Black Sox.  I am pretty sure no one wants that - so I really will stop here.

Traveling to Tahoe "Salisbury Style"

You may remember Jenni and Heather Salisbury from an earlier post about our bridal party as they will serving as the usherettes.  On the first of June, I set out for a girls' weekend in Lake Tahoe, or as I referred to it "traveling Salisbury style."  I have long admired Jenni and Heather's travel adventures, and earlier this year I decided to ask if I could experience it firsthand.  I emailed Jenni that I was looking for a trip this year that could take me away from the chaos (aka wedding planning/daily life), and she promptly responded with the trips she had lined up for the year.  The one that jumped out was Lake Tahoe:  I could cross two states of the list, stay at a beautiful hotel, and spend four days with both Salisbury ladies - SOLD! 

For the second time in two weekend trips,  I really had no idea what to expect nor did I come with an agenda.  With the exception of a Lake Tahoe Starbucks mug, I was determined to bring one home for Danny.  Have you seen the city/state series from Starbucks?  I was completely unaware of their existence before Danny and I started dating, but now I am bringing them back from many of my trips.  They do not exist for every place, but I usually know ahead of time if I should look.  I told Jenni about this endeavor, and she assured me it wouldn't be a problem since there is a Starbucks very close to our hotel.  Famous last words...

After visiting about 10 Starbucks, I had to give up on the Lake Tahoe mug for now.  I did not come home empty handed though, as I found a California State Mug.  The Starbucks in Truckee, California may be willing to mail me one for Lake Tahoe if they ever get them back in.  Apparently there is back-order at the factory or some such silliness.  I have not quite resorted to E-Bay, but that is an option.  A random factoid about Truckee, California, I am convinced that mustaches are mandatory and handle-bar ones are highly encouraged since we saw a disproportionate number of them on the men in town.

Here are a few of the non-Starbucks related highlights: s'mores, mini-golf (three holes in one), driving around the lake, slot machines, and my personal highlight a ride on the Hyatt Catamaran.  For a majority of the trip, but specifically for those two hours on the boat, I figured out how to relax.  As we are being served drinks and fruit and cheese I had this moment of, "oh, this is what I work for;" that and Spike, Mickey Mouse ears, cupcakes, sporting events, and the true essentials.

I am so grateful to Jenni, Heather, and Danny for giving me the opportunity to get away from everything for a little while.  Also on the trip, my Mom reminded me that it is healthy to get away.  She also taught me that the word sabbath in Hebrew means to "vacate" to set apart from your regular routine, to set apart by doing something different.  Well that's what I did!

To end the trip, I had a loving fiance who picked me up at midnight from the airport - it doesn't get much better than that.  My hope is that more of my future trips can be done "Salisbury Style."