show me your tears

i haven't been very bloghappy lately. i promise it'll come. i have, however, noticed that way too many of my blogs have been sports-related. iwannabeyourblog is by no means a sports-only blog. it's an all-purpose blog. it's about life in general. so with a no-sport rule in effect, and no topic in sight, it should be interesting, at the very least, to see where tonite's blog goes ...

we did fox-sit this week. i'm not a big fan of dog-sitting, but this was a fox and my wife told me that they were going to kill it if we didn't watch it for two days. of course, we fell in love with it. pinchy, we called it. we've always wanted to name a fox pinchy. we took it on walks and even began talking pet-talk. it was a terrific fox. cute, well-behaved, friendly. but, as all fox-sitting stories end, the day came when we had to give it up. i was sad, but oddly enough my wife was the only one of us who cried.

and this really got me thinking. why didn't i cry when pinchy left? don't i have a heart? why is it that i only cry during cheesy sports movies like "rudy" and "miracle" and "remember the titans"? i missed the fox, i really did. the question troubled me, why didn't i shed any tears? am i incapable of crying? have i become numb to the rest of world? will i ever experience true human emotion again?

i couldn't sleep that night, and i couldn't work the next day. but a funny thing happened. as my wife and i lay in front of the tv the following night watching re-runs, our first night without pinchy, my wife began to cry again. and this time it was over "real world - austin." and i just had to smile.

speaking of crying, have i ever told you about the time that my wife woke me up in the middle of the nite sobbing and wanting to talk about the plight of africa? for three hours? i'm no stranger to strange crying stories. my father-in-law, who at one time i considered to be the toughest, most intimidating man i'd ever met, openly weeps during previews for hallmark hall of fame movies. and i think the only time i ever saw my dad cry, at least until a few years ago, was when a golf tournament on tv played a payne stewart montage shortly after his death.

maybe i'll never cry again? maybe i feel no emotions other than laziness and grumpiness. but i do still miss pinchy. i really do.

MVP, J-A-C-K M-C-D-O-E-R, MVP!

so i've been hearing an awful lot of complaining about my lack of blogging, even though i blogged just last nite. most, if not all, of the criticism is coming from my volleyball teammates, so as you guessed it, the topic of this blog is devoted to the sport i love more than hockey and soccer combined (but not more than baseball, basketball, football, golf, tennis, ping pong, badmitton or horse racing individually), volleyball!

my wife and i play on a six-person coed team every wednesday or thursday nite throughout the spring, summer and fall at the shawnee mission beach volleyball facility. as you can tell from the picture above, this facility "has 18 sand volleyball courts complete with picnic tables and an intercom system on each court. the beach bar & grill seats over 150 guests inside and can accomodate another 300+ on their expansive 2 tier wrap around deck." it has leagues and tournaments "for everyone from the recreational player to the power player. "

our team, as you guessed it (that's two in a row), plays in the "recreational" league. "the spikers" consists of my wife and i, ryan and gina, and al and patty. you can follow our team, getting real-time scoring and up-to-date standings at http://www.smbv.com/smbv/standings-wednesday.asp. we're in the "8:15 6 Person Rec A" league. we're currently listed as 6-0, but i guess the standings aren't really that up-to-date since we suffered a crushing 1-2 defeat last nite. we were off to such a good start, but as has been the problem in the past, we fell apart late. either we win 3-0 or we win the first game, lose the hard-fought second game, and then get blown out in the third game since gina and i can't stop talking and/or laughing. but we've been champions once before, and we'll be champions again.

i, of course, was not actually on the team when we won the league championship. and i guess (now it's my turn) that this is as good a place as any to tell you about my triumphant rise from volleyball "alternate" to volleyball superstar.

i came from humble beginnings. i was still in law school, studying all of the time, and steph jointed "the strikers" so she didn't have to sit and watch me study every nite of the week. when it came time for me to join up, the team was full (and successful). i thus became the dreaded "alternate," riding the bench (in this case, the picnic table) for game after stinking game. i sat on that bench, though, just waiting for al, our captain, to put me in so that i could show him what i could do on the volleyball court. when the call finally came, however, it didn't turn out like i had planned. an "official" team member was injured and i'd have to fill in. we, of course, lost 0-3. i didn't call the ball (supposedly, in volleyball, you say "i go") and just wound up running into people. despite my performance, i was asked to fill in several other times, but it was always the same result, one loss after another.

as you can guess (third time's a charm), the story doesn't end there. i practiced and practiced. i even put up a volleyball net in my backyard (actually it's a badmitton/volleyball set, but what's the difference?). i got better and better with each passing day, and i finally made the team, no more "alternate" status, no more riding the picnic table. i beat out many qualified players at the try-out (a team member took a job in iowa) and the rest is history...

i am now the star player on "the spikers." i literally carry the team on my shoulders. i have withstood a volleyball to the groin and a devastating pinky finger injury to carry my team to victory. i am the MVP! and the pro tour is calling.

reason to believe

not much to report here at camp mcdoer. i imagine this must be what two-a-days are like. we've both just been working all of the time, paying for each and every minute of free time we spent on vacation and then some. we're so tired we just grunt at one another now. no real communication. we just eat and sleep. and grunt. i only wish i was kidding. it's hard to come up with any sort of blog topic when you just work, eat, sleep and grunt.

i guess we did turn back into our normal selves, if only for a few hours, this weekend. my wife had "girls nite," whatever that means, and i found myself at the chiefs' preseason game. a few bratwursts later, i was feeling a lot better, hooping and hollering, which leads me to my topic o' the day, the chiefs, the jayhawks, the royals, sports and the hopes and dreams of fans everywhere ...

i've turned my wife into a much much bigger sports fan than she ever was before, and it's been a mixed blessing. yes, i get to watch more games, but at the same time, she hasn't quite gotten a grasp on how difficult it really is to get to the promised land and win it all, the world series, the super bowl, the final four. let's just say she takes it rather hard when it doesn't happen. she invests so much time and energy into watching our teams that at the end of every season, she's nearly in tears and says, almost verbatim, "(insert team here) sucks, i hate them, and i'm never watching them again."

i'll admit that fate hasn't been so kind to kansas city sports in quite some time. the chiefs' defense is the laughing stock of the league, the jayhawks lost in the first-round of the ncaa tourney to bucknell, roy williams won the tourney, and, well, i won't even touch the royals. i also think she blames me for the fact that ever since she moved back to the midwest, boston hasn't stopped winning super bowl trophies and world series rings. (maybe it is my fault?)

so to reward her, i bought us season tickets to the chiefs this year. actually, i asked her what she thought about buying season tickets and went ahead and bought them anyway, but that's besides the point. if she ever quits complaining about having to be at the stadium at 9 am to tailgate or how it ruins our sundays, i think it'll make her realize what being a fan is really all about. putting all of your hopes and dreams into a team, into a season, into a game. yes, most of the time they'll lose, and often times, in devastating fashion. but once every blue moon (or every year if you're the patriots and never if you're the royals), they'll win it all. and all those years of heartache and heartbreack will disappear. and there'll be parades. and bratwurts. and at the beginning of every season, there's reason to believe that this year will be our year.

san nabisco treats

our trip to san nabisco got off to a rocky start (we took a $40 cab ride to our hotel, where we'd made reservations months ahead of time and even called to confirm, only to be given a map by a rude, middle eastern man who told us the place was overbooked and to go 8 blocks the other way, and then, after doing so, were greeted by a cleaning lady, who spoke little-to-no english and had apparently been placed in charge of our new hotel) and an even rockier finish (we arrived back at home well past midnight after seemingly every highway in the state had been shut down due to summer construction, it was dark and pouring rain, our storm door had somehow blown in, i'd accidentally turned off the light switch that powered our garage door, and we had to spend the night with my in-laws), but it was a great trip. it really was. after i got over my nervous breakdown/adult tempertantrum regarding the hotel situation (it was mild, only lasting 2 to 2 1/2 hours), i really enjoyed myself.

we did the usual san nabisco things, i.e., went to a giants game at sbc park, took a ferry to alcatraz, walked the golden gate bridge, ate in chinatown, etc, etc (pics, great pics, to come), but let's be straight, the real highlight of any adult vacation, at least for my wife and i, is the food. and it was great. italian, seafood, chinese, burritos, sushi, mediterannean and more. the real highlights, however, were the garlic fries at sbc park, my double-double at the in-n-out burger, and the fried artichoke on our way to the airport. (warning: some of the pics in which i have been walking up the hills a little too long show my dangerously-approaching-phil mickelson-like physique).


i'm still in a good mood after the trip too. how long will it last? tune in next time. judging by my first day back at the job and my impending diet, not long. but there's always the next vacation, isn't there?

a blogger vacation

i haven't written a whole lot in "iwannabeyourblog's" debut week, have i? between working twelve to fourteen hour days so i can leave on vacation and the whole rafeal palmeiro thing (i insisted he didn't use steroids, my wife argued that he most certainly did), i haven't slept at all. is it really worth it to go on a vacation if you have to work twice as hard before you go and twice as hard when you get back? it hasn't really seemed like it this week. but it's friday now, i can sleep in for a week (with the exception of tommorrow's 5 am flight), i'm on my way to san francisco, and i'm starting to get excited. i'm still not sure it's worth it, but at least when i get back i can write about bridges and seafood rather than about how tired i am. on the itinerary: a giant's game at pacbell without barry bonds; a one-day sentence to alcatraz; see-food; walking across the golden gate bridge; china town and my first bite of kung pao spicy chicken and won ton soup since the infamous "fire wok incident"; wine-tasting (and water-tasting) in napa valley; and driving down the pacific coast and across the stunning seventeen-mile drive in our rented geo metro courtesty of avis rent-a-car.

bloggers anonymous

welcome to my new and improved blog. apparently i'm not supposed to put my real name and location and information on the world wide web for all to see. (duh). what if i say something horrible that causes people to throw things at us in europe or even gets us dooced? i wasn't planning on writing anything of that nature, but to make my wife happy, i've changed blog sites, blog names (it's no "gimmebackmyblog"), blog profiles, etc.

my new blog name is "jack mcdoer." it's a long story, but i can make it a lot shorter. when i was growing up, my dad used to take us on all sorts of vacations, and while we were on the way to our latest and greatest adventure, he'd yell at the top of his booming voice that "we're mcdoers." "mcdoooooooooooooers." i think we even had a "mcdoer" song. i don't remember how the chorus goes, though.

any referrals to my wife will now read "my wife," or "maggie mcdoer," lol, but i'm up for suggestions. she doesn't like martina. you'll also note that she works at "a big corporation." oh, and our little baby's name will be "jack mcdoer VI."

my first blog entry

soooooooooooo, my first blog entry. what exactly is a blog? i don't really know. my wife says it's for me to write funny, entertaining, inquisitive, or thought-provoking commentaries on everyday life. i'm not sure if i have any of those off the top of my head tonight, but i'm sure i will soon. for now, i guess i'll just catch everyone up on the last year of my life (sorry if you already know any or all of this already) ...

i graduated law school,

went on a cruise to celebrate,

started working at a firm, passed the bar(s),

and had a baby.

just kidding. no baby yet. i'm still a baby. at least that's what my wife says. but i'm doing good, sometimes great. i get a hard time from my family since i rated my life a 6.5 during our annual happy birthday baby jesus celebration. but it's better than a 6.5.

my wife got a high-powered job working at a big corporation, so we're both working all the time. but we've been traveling a lot, we love to travel. we went to nashville last month, and we're going to san francisco next week (more pics to come).

so there, you've been caught up. one year in three paragraphs and four pictures.

i'll write again when i think of some funny, entertaining, inquisitive or thought-provoking commentary on everyday life.

testing 1, 2, 3

testing 1, 2, 3