Mid-life crisis at 29?…The battle of turning another year older!

What does it feel like to got through a mid-life crisis? Is it when you have yet another birthday fast approaching and you start thinking about all of the things you want to do, or wanted to do that you haven’t done yet and you start to feel overwhelmed with the pressure? Is it that feeling you have when you feel like you are running as fast and you can but you are only walking as fast as the guy did in the Green Mile?

Well, last Tuesday was my 29th birthday and I was just not excited about it. I mean let’s face it; I am one year away from the big 3-0. Anyway, I was sharing what was heavy on my mind with one of my 50-something and fabulous co-workers, and as any great oracle does, she figured out what was going on. She said to me, “Yep…you are going through your mid-life crisis like I did at 29!” So when Debbie said this to me, I started to think, am I really going through a mid-life crisis? What are the things that I want to accomplish in life? I mean, if my oracle is right, I have only 30 more years to get busy here (I love you Debbie…but I hope I have more time then that left).
In the meantime…it was still my birthday and I still had to get through it and enjoy the day.

The lovely ladies in my office gave me the most beautiful birthday day. When I came in, Susie Ho-Shin decorated my office for my birthday with my favorite color red. Now, don’t get me wrong…I love red…but when I opened my office door and turned on the lights it looked like a room in the Red Light District, red boa and all!

Shout out to Ho-Shin…the next Vera Wang of creative designs!

They brought me a cake (that was very delicious), lunch from Five Guys (very, very good burgers), and gave me good company throughout the day. It was truly an enjoyable day at work.

My husband surprised me by coming to my office on Friday night with the most beautiful flowers, a pair of Puma sneakers and some diamond earrings. That was so sweet of him to continue to make me feel special for the entire week (keep up the good work Snowbunny...I love you).

So as my birthday week comes to an end tonight, I am sitting here thinking of the list of things I want to do with my time here on earth. I am hoping to fill my time with many wonderful things, and they will come in due time. I have survived another year, I am 29 and I feel great! So would I say I am going through a mid-life crisis…nope. I feel a little bit better about turning another year older and I am working on looking forward to turning 30 next year!

The Cell Phone Dilemma...should it be convenience vs safety?

In yesterday’s paper there was an article about the new cell phone law that will go into effect for the city of Harrisburg sometime in 2010 (once the Major signs off on it). It was very interesting to read about what others thought about the law and how they will adjust to it. But of course, it had me thinking… with this New Year and the new law will people really take this seriously?

The law states that you will be fined anywhere from $100 up to $1,000 if you are caught using any electric device to talk or text while driving. You will however, be allowed to use hands-free devices for voice calls but you will get fined if you are caught behind the wheel using your phone for anything other than starting or ending a call. Police will not be able to pull drivers over solely for using a cell phone; they are only allowed to give out citations when you commit other traffic violations(running a stop sign/light, speeding, etc.).

In the article, some people were interviewed on their feeling of the new law. The responses were shocking. One motorist said, “It seems like an inconvenience, I like to talk on the phone while I drive.” Another said, “"Can I say I'm definitely not going to use my cell phone? No, but if they're really enforcing it, I guess I'm going to take an extra couple minutes in the parking garage or wait until I get out on 81." Of course these weren’t all of the responses, but I was surprised that folks felt this way about the law; to say that it will just be a huge inconvenience and if they really “enforce” the law then maybe I will think about following it, etc. I can not come to terms with the fact that we are in an era where we openly state that we will not follow the law and that is just ok. The honesty I can appreciate, but do we not respect boundaries anymore? I mean we all have seen the German commercial where the 3 or 4 girls were in the car laughing and texting on the phone and got into that horrific accident. That commercial was not for show…it was to be a REAL wake up call folks!

The Harrisburg Chief of Police was quoted in the paper saying, “This isn't going to change anything, and all it's going to do is be an additional fines." “If the Mayor signs the ordinance, police are likely to give drivers a grace period when they hand out cell phone warnings.” Maybe this is why some people are not taking this law seriously. I mean, I thought the law was the law. You have to be a law abiding citizen right or do you? Is it now ok to break the law and quote it in the paper or other forms of media that you do not plan on taking the law seriously and that just be ok? I don’t want to sound too black and white here, but this is a little hard for me to understand.

So how safe will we be if folks are planning on using their cell phones for calling and texting even though the law says you are not supposed to? What is the difference between using the phone to make and receive calls and using a hands free device? How safe will we be if folks are planning on using their cell phones on the highway instead of in the city? How do you prevent an accident from happening if you are abiding by the laws being mindful of your safety (and other folk’s safety) and other drivers are not? I guess we just have to hope that people wake up and get the fact that it should be SAFETY over convenience! Something for us all to think about in the New Year!

Would women make good wrestling coaches?

Yesterday I watched one of the Susquehanna Twp JV wrestling team’s dual meets, the ones that last for hours and they go up against 4 or 5 teams. Of course I was not thrilled to be there all day and I had my new book handy (Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey). My intentions were good, and I set out to really “watch” the matches and be a good wrestling mom.

For the first two matches the team as a whole did not do so well. I don’t know much about the technical terms and rules of the sport, but we were not doing what we needed to do to win matches. My husband was a bit frustrated with our son’s performance and he felt the match he had was over to quickly. Now, this just made me frustrated because I feel you have to encourage the kids even when they don’t win. But hey, what do I know….I am just the mom…not the coach right? Well sitting there, I felt that if the boys got encouragement even when the loose then it will give them strength to continue to the next match. I mean…keep in mind they had 6 of them that day alone.

As I sat through the other matches (in silence not talking to my husband) I started to wonder, “How would the team do if women were coaches?” Women tend to be more attentive and more concerned with the way one feels. We are talkers,feelers and tend to “check-in” to see what others think or feel. I am sure we would do a thorough check in with the wrestlers after each match to see how they felt and what they thought of each match. Now, don't get me wrong I am not saying that men do a crappy job, I just feel that because women come at things in different ways, maybe we would get different results from it. Men tend to have a competitive nature and winning is high on the list of priorities. Women on the other hand want to win, but we also want to make sure that the kids have a good experience and that they enjoy the sport as a whole.

Before the last match the coaches took the boys back to the locker room for what I am sure was the last “pep talk”. I mean, they all had to get up and be at the school by 6:30am, they have to fight their opponents like it was their last fight (times 5), they were all tired and pumped up on sugar so you can just imaged how they felt. Well what ever the coaches said to them worked! When the boys were up for their last team match against Red Land, they brought the fire! Left and right they were kicking butts and taking names later. They were winning match after match. Not everyone won, but they fought hard and won a good bit of them. That day we ended up with 3rd place over all! We never expected to win so that was a huge moment for the boys (and the coaches)!

So for now, my questions remain unanswered...would women make good wrestling coaches? Would we get the same results as the male coaches do? Would the team respond differently to a woman coach? I don’t really know, but as I sat there thinking about how I would react to the team’s performance I could not help but wonder would we get different results if the mothers coached the team or co-coached the team. I guess I will never know the answer to the question as I do not see this happening any time soon. For now, I will just continue to bend my husband ear about it and get my coaching in that way!