Bus 10...er 4, Music Lesson

It being Christmas, I figured it was time for us to give all of our readers a very special gift…two blogs from me in one day! This first one will be a follow up to the assignment I gave the kids on my school bus. As we had previously been discussing music in our blog series, I had mentioned that I was giving the kids on my bus the assignment of telling me why they liked music, what their favorite music was and what they liked to do while listening to music.

I didn’t get as many written responses as I was hoping for, but the fact that some of the kids actually went home and spent some time in thought about music, and what they enjoyed about it was fantastic! It also sparked a lot of conversation on the bus about music throughout the last couple of weeks before Christmas break.

For the most part the main theme that kept coming up was that they really enjoyed singing and dancing to it, both things we strongly encourage on our bus as long as everyone remains in their seats! Some of the kids may not always enjoy the singing but those kids generally come up to the front of the bus and shoot the breeze with their driver. We still talk about music a lot, but we also talk about books, and sports and the big issues as well.

The week after Nelson Mandela passed away we discussed his accomplishments quite a bit. I was actually pretty surprised to hear that they had not been talking about this great man during school so I figured I’d give the kids the basics about him, and treat them to a week’s worth of life lessons from the man who helped to end apartheid in South Africa.

We also spent a day discussing names. I spoke with the kids about how everyone should find out where their name comes from. Sometimes a name is just something that a parent liked at the time, such as “Apple.” But more than likely there is more meaning behind their name than the fact that it was just their parent’s favorite fruit or computer product… My parents named me Jason after “Jason and the Golden Fleece.” After my mom passed away I found another little card that had my name on it saying that the meaning was “healer.” We also discussed what your name would have been if you would have been the opposite gender that you are…that got a few laughs out of the bus!

We talk about a lot of stuff on our bus, but I think the most important thing is that we talk. I want the kids to know that no matter what happens throughout the rest of their day that they have someone on their way to and from school that generally cares about them and wants them to be the fantastic people I know they all can be. The kids on my bus are pretty awesome kids. They all have a very unique personality which I really enjoy and the greatest thing about them is that they’re kids, that sing, dance, read, discuss what’s going on in their lives, and I think are learning that the other kids they spend the bus ride with will end up being some of their best friends. It’s pretty cool how a bus with various ages of kids can end up being like a little family.

So the music theme was more than anything a way to get the kids discussing things, not just on our bus but at home as well. Hopefully this little exercise had the kids headed home to tell their parents why they liked music so much, or asking about Nelson Mandela, or even discussing why they were named what they are named. SoulPancake is an organization that promotes everyone to ask the big questions during this thing we call life; my bus tries to do that every day! If there are parents or teachers reading this blog, may I suggest that you go to YouTube and check out some of the “Kid President” videos? I would be very surprised if you didn’t all enjoy them and find that we all have a lot that we can learn from this generation that so many people seem worried about! It may even give you some more to discuss at home or in the class room!

 

 

Here are the responses I received from the music assignment:

“My favorite song is Wrecking Ball. I like it because I have fun doing programs with it.”

“Music I Like: Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Cary Rae Jepson”

“I like music because it rocks and it’s fun to sing along with friends…and it is awesome!”

“I like music because it is awesome!”

“I like music because it is nice to listen.”

And simply…

“Taylor Swift.”

 

Here we are at Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons trying to find the inner deeper meaning to why we all enjoy music so much and after all of our blogs, is there really a better answer than, “I like music because it is awesome?!” Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a deeper reason, sometimes we just like something because we do. I like the kids on my bus; they’re pretty awesome if you ask me.

Customer (dis)Service

Life Lesson: The person at the other end of the line (or counter) is not your enemy.

I think we have all been there. We have purchased a product or service and have been unhappy about it. No, downright pissed off about it. We’ve waited for an hour for our food to arrive at a restaurant, or even worse, waited an hour to even be greeted by a waiter. Your TV broke under warranty and you spent an hour on hold with customer service and by the time a real human being speaks you unleash a barely intelligible explosion words you’d never use in front of your grandmother - unless you’re watching a Twins game with her. Or you have ever been to a DMV in a state like California where you wait in line, to wait in a different line, so that you can pick a number to loiter around in a cold-war era building with no soul where there just doesn't seem to be enough chairs for the amount floor space. After a 3 hour+ stint at my local DMV recently, I was thoroughly convinced that they were wearing me down to confess to crimes I didn’t commit.

We get angry. Sometimes, really angry.

We also like to buy stuff, we expect that it work right, and we demand that someone fix it when the system breaks down; and to do it immediately, with a smile, and without an argument. After all the customer is always right. Always? I could go on about the ‘system’ and its flaws but to stay on point, I want to focus on those poor saps who have to deal with customers returning meat to a grocery store because it went bad, complain that coffee is too hot, or who “want to see a manager” while getting quite creative with their expletives in order to get their point across. For these are the soldiers of customer service: the front lines of consumer society.

And chances are that many of you reading this have worked a job like this and we easily forget that, for (usually) a crap wage, we agreed to take a beating, to smile, nod, apologize, and in short, take other people’s shit for a living. And chances are, you really hated it or just grew jaded and emotionless lest the job grind you to the ground. We certainly don’t forget when we are at the job, but we do forget when we change roles and become the customer. Why?

Possibly because we believe we are right and therefore have a right to be angry and of all the human emotions, anger needs to be released and doesn't really matter if the victim is deserving of it or not. We forget that pesky little rule that most of us are taught early on in life. You know the one. It’s so important that we have dubbed it “golden.” It can be expressed in one word: empathy. Separate and distinct from sympathy, empathy is your ability to place yourself into the shoes of another person and imagine the world from their perspective because you’ve been there, you’ve experienced it, and you know exactly how it feels.

I’m certainly not saying that all customer service representatives are good at their jobs, or that they are good at their jobs all the time. But they have to work with rules they didn’t create, answer to supervisors that enforce those rules, and are probably just trying to make ends meet like the rest of us. Sadly, they end up taking the brunt of the frustration that they have no control over. And in the end, they are just regular people just like us who can’t wait until the work day is over so they go home and stick their head in a bottle of whiskey.. or a banana daiquiri perhaps?

So stated another way -  Life Lesson: Customer service workers are not your enemy, lack of empathy certainly is.

How we treat each other is ultimately a series of decisions we make everyday, all day. Practicing a little empathy will help remind us that we are all human and should treat each other humanely and that there are ways to express your dissatisfaction without tearing someone down. I believe this is a valuable lesson to remember as you rush out to retail outlets to do your last minute holiday shopping.

The website below has some good customer service stories from the "otherside" of the counter:

http://notalwaysright.com/

Cheers and I hope you and yours have a wonderful Holiday and New Year season.

PERFECTION

Perfection.... 

        "The condition, state, or quality of being free, or as free as possible, from all flaws or defects"        

As humans, we try to perfect everything. Some things are good, or even great, but we still try to find a way to make them even better. That is why the human brain is so great – We look at a product, and although we may be impressed by it, we still wonder how we can make it better. Companies throughout the world have been doing this for years. Let’s take music devices for example. We had the record player, followed by the eight track player, then came the tape deck (Walkman), then the CD player, and now we have MP3 players and iPods. Every time we come up with a great idea, there’s always a way to perfect it and make it even better.

We can also take perfection into sports, which could be labeled as ‘repetition until perfect.’ I can remember basketball practices, back in my prime, where we would run the same play over and over and over again until perfect, or at least until it was drilled into our heads. This continuous repetition to make a play perfect obviously set in, not only with me, but with other former EAGLES as well. (…and to me we will always be Eagles, not this Rebels BS) Anyway, when we played a game and a teammate yelled “one” when in-bounding the ball, it’s like clockwork. We ran the play to PERFECTION...You can’t stop it and YOU CAN’T TEACH THIS (cue the Rumplemintz shots). Even running the play to perfection, there are still ways to tweak it (or twerk it, depending on if you’re playing with Miley or not).

You may say perfection is not possible, and it is very hard to argue with that. How can you make something free of any flaws or defects? I’m not sure how to do that, but if you ask my parents, they will tell you...they nailed it with me.

Life Lesson: Although perfection may be tough to reach, this does not mean we shouldn't strive for it, work for it, and believe in it. I feel that if we keep trying to perfect ourselves and not worry about other people, the world would be a better place. Every day I can make myself better, by ‘finding a way to laugh, finding a way to wrap myself in emotion, and finding time to think.’ Living the way the great Jimmy V states, and I do believe the world would be a better place. I also believe that this is the first paragraph in my blogging history that truly has a meaning behind it and is not filled with too many jokes. It actually felt good. I guess you do do your best thinking on the toilet.

Although I stated earlier that perfection may not be able to be met...I will agree to disagree with you, and myself, on that point. Refer to the following proof! 

BANANA DAIQUIRI:

1.5 cups of ice
2 oz. Triple Sec
2 oz. Rum
2 Fresh Bananas
3 Fresh Strawberries
1 Spoon full of Sugar (Makes the medicine go down)
1 squirt of lemon juice (light on the lemon juice)

- Place ingredients into a blender, using the ice crushing feature.
- Serve until gone.
- Then repeat.

THE BANANA DAIQUIRI HAS BEEN PERFECTED. 

Now make a few, sit around with a friend or two, and talk about LIFE LESSONS.

Stupid Music Blog

If there is one thing I hate, it’s being told to do something that I do not want to do!  I have a part of me that wants to revolt against anything and anyone who forces me to do something against my will.  This music blog is being forced upon me… and I don’t like it!  Damn you Mason!!!

Sorry to disappoint you, but I just don’t have the energy & motivation for writing about music at this point in time.  Now another apple blog, that I could get on board with… but I digress… and I promised you (Mason (Jason)) that I would write something.  I apologize in advance to those of you who might have expected more than the unorganized mesh of random thoughts that are about to follow.

I enjoy music, I think I can play guitar, & I can’t sing.  This is what I know to be true.  My Pandora account consists of the following playlist/channels: Garth Brooks, Foo Fighters, Mos Def, Of Monsters & Men, Drake, Mumford & Sons, Dwight Yoakam,  Frank Sinatra, Boston, Fleet Foxes, Metallica, Atmosphere, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Dave Matthews Band, Soundgarden, Beastie Boys, Chevelle, Notorious B.I.G., & a few others I think.  But from these channels I get most everything else in between.   And as Pandora gets to know what I like, I’ve found that I will occasionally get hip hop music on my rock stations, rock music on my country stations, and country music on my reggae station… I might as well just have it all on shuffle, because that’s what happens when you listen for 3+ hours… it all becomes the same.  There’s a lesson in there somewhere… but I’m too tired to run with it.

I listen to a wide variety of music.  I don’t have favorites overall, but I do pass from genera to genera depending on my mood.  I often listen to Pandora at work, only to get distracted by new songs (or great ones that I have not heard in a while).  This causes me to forget what I’m working on and go watch the music video on youtube (apparently I feel that helps me to understand the song… even though most music videos do the complete opposite… especially for TOOL songs), which then causes me to look up a guitar tab for that song and print it off.  Now you would think the next logical step would be to learn that guitar tab and rock out to a sweet cover of that awesome song I was so captivated by… but no… I just put it in a pile next to my guitar cases and tell myself that I will get to it after baseball season, then after football season, then next year, then once I get a free weekend… the excuses go on and on.  Point being… I need to make a better effort to play guitar more, and I probably make to many excuses in general with everything!  I actually used to be half decent (or at least I think I was), but over the last 10 years (wow that seams like a long time!) I haven’t practiced enough to just pick it up and rip off an entire song from memory.  This leaves me feeling like I’ve lost a part of myself.  Playing guitar had always centered me and kept me from losing my mind in the chaos of life.  I wonder how I got so “busy” that the hobby I used to enjoy the most became an afterthought... something I stumble across when I’m downstairs cleaning.   Tossed aside to collect dust while I catch up on laundry & make sure the dishes don’t pile up on the sink.  Left in the corner of a spare bedroom while I concentrate on my adult responsibilities and my job!  Peter Pan said it best “Growing up blows!” (that’s a real quote).

I’m reminded of the lyrics in so many songs that I’ve heard over the years… the inspiration you feel and the power they give you to overcome difficulty & cope with heartbreak.  Music is there for you when others are not… with songs that can carry you up over anything… it’s often what get you through a long day/week & keeps you from loosing your sanity while traveling from point A to point B.

So enjoy it, create it, or if you have the sweet, alcohol induced moves of Pat… dance your ass off to it!

BLOG DONE!

"I Will Remember You"

Life Lessons:  Volume 1

Don’t speed while playing 5 star….

-          You might get pulled over naked.

While Partying in uptown Minneapolis make sure your phone is charged…

-          Never mind. Everything works itself out and you will be fine.

Never have a drinking contest with the drink called “Combats”…

-          You will wake up with the a curb as your pillow.

When someone tells you there is a mountain lion at their wedding dance, believe them.

-          No one jokes about that; and peeing in the woods is a bad idea.

Drinking does not conquer all your fears….

-          You might get stuck halfway up a water tower.

When talking to someone and you know you’re wrong or doing wrong, do it with confidence…

-          It will get you far.

Dress up as the conscience with your buddy for Halloween…

-          Super easy costume and very easy way to start a conversation with the opposite sex.

Make awesome friends…

-          It can be expensive and you will have ups and downs, but boy-oh-boy will you have stories that will last a lifetime.

Shotgun rule…

-          This is the silver rule, right behind the golden rule, and must be followed.

When you say you’re going to blog, you better blog…

-          Mason may get after you.

Oh, this blog was supposed to be about music, my bad. Not into music very much – usually it’s just noise in the background for me. But, it can bring people together for the good and the bad. It can give you energy before a big event (Jock Jams) and it can bring you to tears in hard times (Sarah McLachlan).

Don’t worry, if you can’t figure out what to write for a music blog…

 

-          Do What You Want…    THANKS

I list “mixtapes” under my work experience.

I’m not drinking a banana daiquiri and I get most my life lessons from fortune cookies and whiskey labels but for better or worse here’s my BDandLL debut. Honored to contribute and feel like I just got invited to sit at the cool kids’ table. My name is Mike, and I’m sitting on the floor in my living room, laptop at hand, drinking a Newcastle Cabbie Black Ale with the Our Lady Peace “Live” DVD pumped into the flat screen in the background and two completely different first drafts of a blog piece on music to churn up and steal from. An oat soda, some badass music after a day bleeding for the man and some writing about art to do. Not a bad place to be.

Art. Is not a complete sentence, but that looks right. Art is the reflection of life at a given time in history. It is a Dionysian scream into the world that proclaims, I Exist!!  .. and it kinda hurts sometimes and stuff. The artist overcomes pain to make something beautiful.

Quick (I promise) sociology lesson: Music is part of culture, which is best described as a civilization’s way of life. Along with other, more physical and visual, forms of art, music is bound up with language, law, custom, science, literature, et cetera which makes up what stuffy academics refer to as culture. i like to think of culture as the glue that holds a society together. Lesson over.

As part of culture music is special. As a part of our lives, music is special. No other art form seems to resonate in our souls quite like music does. Case in point, the old cliche: music is the soundtrack of our lives. Maybe that’s not true of everyone, but from my experience for myself and for many that I’ve been surrounded by in life, it holds true. Music is woven into the very fabric of who I am. I mean, who doesn’t have “a jam,” who doesn’t get transported somewhere into their past when a certain song hits their ear drums, and who doesn’t feel like breaking shit when listening to Pantera? I’m not wrong.

When you listen to Pantera, you willingly take punches to the face.

I got hooked on this music drug at an early age and with a couple uncles that were diehard music fans and culture buffs, I got exposed to a wide range of it as well. I believe I was around 10 years old when I bought my bombtastic Sony cfd- 510 boom box with mega bass and detachable speakers (I know, right? See below.) and Green Day’s “Dookie” album on compact disc. The 510 pumped out mixtapes and thanks to my walkman, mowing the lawn and riding the bus were never dull and my life became earmarked by musicians and their art.

When I was still quite young, I remember telling my mother that “Dr. Love” by KISS (I had just bought their Double Platinum album) was my theme song. She asked, “why is that?” to which I didn’t have an answer, still don’t. But I do know I really liked that song. I can hear it my head right now. It takes me back to that moment sitting on the front steps of our deck with the ole’ 510. Just as Nerf Herder takes me to my garage where I sang along with every word and played wiffle bat guitar; to my bedroom where I would sit right next to my stereo, hitting the pause button when I needed so I could transcribe the words of every song on Goo Goo Dolls’ “A Boy Named Goo”; to my high school locker room as Dr. Dre’s “Chronic 2000” became the music of the 1999-2000 Tri-County basketball season. At this moment, Our Lady Peace takes me to the Orange House during the 2nd chapter of my college career, living in that house with my bandmates, we didn’t just listen to music, we lived it, we made it, we it experienced the shit out of it. I could go on and on like this. I won’t.

Music can mean many things to many different people. Some music seems more “serious” than other forms and music critics are always keen to point this out; judging some music as inherently more artistic and more worthy than others. While I certainly have my own thoughts and opinions on music, in the end it really doesn't matter, for all that is required is experience music and to experience life as music plays out the score. Do you listen to “good” music, do you listen to “bad” music? Did you listen to “bad” music that at the time you thought was “good.” Fucking 'A you did, and will continue to do so. I mean if Councilman Brumwell can extol the virtues of Ace of Base, none of us can judge each others’ music taste. Whatever moves you, whatever gets you on the dance floor, whatever singing along at the top of your lungs, whatever make you feel free, feel above the mundane, whatever makes you feel. That's "good" music. Which brings me to the “life lesson” part of this piece that I take from pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman:

“...culture can’t be wrong. That doesn't mean it’s always ‘right,’ nor does it mean you always have to agree with it. But culture is never wrong. People can be wrong, and movements can be wrong. But culture - as a whole - cannot be wrong. Culture is just there.”  - from “IV”

This is a lesson I need enforce upon myself when my wife insists on watching “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “The Voice” (which I personally believe guts everything of substance from music), but I digress. Where am I? Where did all the Newcastles go? Oh, right...

To sum, music is awesome and becomes woven into who we are as our life plays out. Life Lesson: don’t be a jerk~face that judges people based on what they listen to (or watch). It will only make you miserable and probably miserable to be around.

So, what songs are the mixtape of your life and when you hear them, where do they take you?

Here’s a few albums from my current rotation:

Music:

“Exile on Mainstreet” Album by The Rolling Stones

“Den of Thieves” Album by The Trews

I highly, highly recommend Led Zeppelin III

Thought to leave with, from Wikipedia:

"Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien has called the personal mix tape "the most widely practiced American art form"

90 Minute TDK's were the BOMB.

I wrote this blog post like a "Wrecking Ball...or Rainbow..."

I would like to first respond to the last blog entitled, “My Friend Mason.” I just recently finished my typical 12 to 14 hour work day which generally starts about 5am when I get up to find a new life lesson to post on my bus, yes I’m still doing that which I mentioned I was going to do several blogs ago…what can I say, I’m a man of my word! After trying to spread life lessons to tomorrow’s leaders, I hop back in my car and head over to my second job to landscape, drive truck, cut trees, plow snow, change oil or drain the rear ends of machines…and just a bunch or random work. Generally when I get home I have laundry, garbage, driveways to shovel, dogs to play with, cats to take care of, and beer/whiskey/wine to drink. So needless to say, my life has been plenty busy…but one of the things I’ve always truly wanted to do, a passion in my life, is to one day be a writer. So I read a ton, and I write very crappy blog posts so that I can get some practice and some day leave something behind that may make the world a better place…obviously my blogs about how much I drink and club may not be that, but it’s the practice that counts…and how many writers weren’t addicts of one sort or another?!

We always tried to talk my mom into writing a book about how she and my dad started our family business or just about anything at all, and I believe she really wanted to but never got the chance to because life got too busy and in the end, as with all of us, it was too short. If she were alive today, she would love this blog, she probably would have even written with us, and more than likely would have had more than one story about how she and I maybe had too much wine together and had to take naps at the kitchen table, or as in one Thanksgiving we spent together, how my dad had to carry her to bed! She was a character, and when I think about what I’d like to do with my spare time, more than anything it would to make her proud…I’d like to think that how I live my life, drunk or not, she’d be proud…but enough about how my friend Sadam…sorry, it just works…needs to realize how awesome this blog could be! Our topic is music…and so here it goes:

Why music? I guess I should say, why has it taken us this long to take on this subject?! Music is everything art should be. It moves us, can help us to relive moments in our lives and can connect us to our best friends, loved ones, and complete strangers. How many times have you been listening to the radio, a CD, or any music through any medium and have been transported back to a memory of something you did in the past? There may be memories of fantastic times with amazing friends/loved ones, and there may be songs that make you feel miserable because it instantly reminds you of a bad time in your life, and sometimes you just want to shut of the song, or maybe scream it at the top of your lungs and cry your lungs out. Music moves people, there is absolutely no doubt about it. If you spend your time in your car listening to public radio…fuck you. I get my news strictly from Ron Burgundy and he only makes a movie once every 8 years or so…

My buddy Mike and I were discussing this blog topic just last night and we started talking about Walkman, and Portable CD players with skip protection and some how we got on the topic of Ace of Base. I shouldn’t say, somehow, they’re one of the greatest bands of all time and their album “The Sign,” may have been one of the greatest albums of all time. I remember listening to one side on my Walkman, then flipping the tape over and listening to the other side…then repeating. It may have been the only tape I listened to enough times to actually burn out the tape. God, how I wish I was kidding…I swear I’m cooler in real life than I come across in this blog…

But AoB was da bomb. You just can’t argue with that logic.

As I’m writing this blog I’m currently drinking a nice glass of Bogle Cab. and it is amazing. I am also listening to a little Bob Dylan who always reminds me of two things, my brother-in-law Joe because he shares his hometown with one of the most amazing songwriters of our time, and my mom and brother and I watching the film, “No Direction Home,” about Dylan. Shortly before she passed away we watched the film together and its definitely one of those movies that really gives you a completely different perspective on a person…and his music transports me back to that time. I also had the pleasure of seeing him in concert…I’m not positive he wasn’t dead up the stage there, but he still sounded amazing!

Now here’s another amazing thing about music. I think we start loving it in the womb and don’t stop until we’re dead…maybe it’s even after that. Many of you know that I drive school bus, and every now and then, I allow the kids on my bus to dance in their seats (while seated) and I’m always open to them belting out songs at the top of their lungs and I even occasionally call upon them to play their band instruments for the bus…we have a pretty awesome bus, and I have some pretty awesome kids that ride it…but I subbed last year and got to know pretty much all the kids that ride the bus in Red Lake Falls, and I can safely say that they’re all pretty awesome. Anyone that tells you different just doesn’t have the patience to realize that sometimes kids just need to be kids.

But anyway, back to my bus…we recently switched up my afternoon route and one of the kindergartner kids on my bus wanted to create a list for herself so that she knew when everybody got off. She would ask me who got off, in order, and then I would spell out the last name for her…after about an hour of this exercise I believe she was able to correctly get four names onto her sheet. This same little girl, then proceeded to sing every word of the next three songs that came on the radio. Word-for-word. Music promotes memory, and definitely, without a doubt helps kids to learn. Also, it makes me love my kids even more when the Miley Cyrus song, “Wrecking Ball” comes on, because I told them all that I always thought she was saying, “Rainbow” and so now they all scream that out when that part comes on. I have awesome kids on my bus, the parents around Red Lake Falls have awesome kids all the time, and I’m awfully glad that music is obviously a big part of their lives.

I never learned to play an instrument, and that will always be one of my biggest regrets…until I finally figure out how to play one! I have a piano and guitar and I would love to learn how to play one before I no longer have the ability. You’re never too old to learn anything, and at 30, I still feel like a pup…maybe its all the wine!

If you ask me what my favorite music is, I wouldn’t be able to give you a definitive answer. It’s kind of like books for me, I really do enjoy just taking everything I can in and there are so many different types that just fit the different situations, even the stuff I’m not crazy about (country) definitely stirs some memories in me and I would still say Zac Brown Band is one of my favorites…not necessarily for all of their music, but every time I hear one of their songs, I have nothing but good memories come to mind. My favorite bands may be; The Foo Fighters, The Killers, and Jack Johnson, but these bands probably aren’t responsible for my favorite songs of all time, they just put together the most music that I enjoy. Again, the power of music!

Well, I’m onto my third glass of wine, and probably should fold some laundry…busy, busy, busy! But, remember to listen to a little music everyday. If you can play, then play. Everyone can sing, and I strongly suggest you do so…it’s hard to stay upset or be in a bad mood while you’re shouting out the wrong lyrics to yet another terrible Miley Cyrus song!

My friend Mason.

I have this friend… let’s call him “Mason”. I also have another friend… let’s say his name is “Matt”, sometimes he goes by “Matrick”. Mason is a good guy, but Mason is really into blogging this time of year. And is not necessarily a bad thing for him, because it’s an ideal time of year for him to enjoy his blogging hobby. However, Matrick and myself are not able to find much time to join Mason in his blogging endeavors because this is a very busy time for both of us. And we feel bad about it, because we do enjoy blogging when we have the time. And there are so many great topics that we would like to touch on…mostly they are about current political issues (according to FOX news), determining which religion is best (SPOILER ALERT…it’s Buddhism), or maybe just a simple debate about the best beer ever created (which is probably a tie between PBR & Nordeast)! All of which are topics worth discussing!

But where do we find the time… life is crazy busy for me right now with work, family, Parks League Basketball (were 2-1 right now, and I feel my sideline yelling is helping), winterizing my house, watching football & The Voice on Monday night, the dang holidays are coming up, I need to find time to actually make food instead of eating at Arby’s all week, laundry… holy crap all the laundry, and all that the other stuff occupies every waking minute of my day. Hell, I would forget to take out the garbage every Friday if my neighbors didn’t have theirs already out to visually remind me as I pull out of the driveway…already late for work, I have to run back in and empty everything. And today I finally took my ‘99 Grand Am in to get some work done that I have been putting off for the last 3 months… as my power steering hardly works and it’s been leaking coolant/anti-freeze all over my garage. I just hope that plastic wonder can hold together for one more winter, that’s my Christmas wish! Speaking of which, now as I write this I’m thinking about making copies so that I don’t have to write a Christmas Letter… so many check one thing off the list! I certainly don’t have time for facebook, so I don’t know what the hell anyone else has been up to… even though I feel like it’s always just announcements of pregnancies/births, birthdays, or everyone’s daily/hourly updates of what they just ate… so maybe I really haven’t missed anything?

In summary, I’m the busiest lazy person you will ever know or hear about, and I’m sorry I have not been blogging enough Mason! But watch out once I do have time, because I have another apple challenge that will blow your minds. I have currently been eating apples almost every day for the last several months in order to train for it. But I refuse to follow through unless our other friend finishes that lemon… let’s say his name is Bryan.

Men's Weekend

Every now and again, my buddy’s wives let them out to play with me…what a terrible idea on their part! This past weekend the boys were left to fend for themselves and were given a weekend to live vicariously through their single friend, which we all took full advantage of!

First of all, no one was maced, tased, stabbed, shot, and not a single one of us were involved in any underground drug deals…we’re growing up rather nicely. We have a pretty awesome group of guys if I do say so myself. We can pretty much turn any situation into an unbelievable time as long as we’re hanging out together. We don’t try to get ourselves into too much trouble and we’re all pretty easy going guys so fights simply don’t happen and the only controversy that we generally run into is when we accidentally misplace one or more of the group or maybe stumble a bit and consequently are no longer allowed into some bars…but thankfully there are plenty of bars in Minneapolis and they don’t all have the same definition of “intoxicated individuals.”

The main reason for the trip was to get together with a bunch of our buddies before some big changes that will be happening for them. Two of my greatest friends are about to become fathers for the first time and a third will become a father for the third time! I can’t tell you just how excited I am for all of them…but I’m a little worried that the wives know me too well and our little get togethers may become limited shortly here, but that’s alright, I like their wives almost as much so I’ll just take them out when I can’t hang out with the guys! That’s right ladies, pop those babies out already then we’re going clubbing!

One of our fellow bloggers and one of the members of the group who participated in last weekends activities just got back from Washington, D.C. with his wife and might have had the hardest time convincing his wife that he should probably go on this trip with us, so he was busy explaining to her how we’re not as crazy as we use to be when we get together, how we’re definitely more mature now and it will be a much more laid back weekend than she might think…when he showed up at his house we were already waiting for him, parked on his front lawn and raiding his fridge for beer…his wife was probably not too terribly impressed…but remember, we’re going clubbing!

We’re pretty lucky to have a guy in our group who doesn’t really like to drink that much and is generally our designated driver, so that meant that by the time we reached my sister and brother-in-law’s place on Friday night we had hit a bar or two between Mentor and St. Louis Park…I believe it was two. We arrived in St. Louis Park and were immediately greeted with hugs and beers for everyone in the group, we’re a really close knit group…we’re huggers, and the alcohol makes us even more so…

After sitting around and watching some very entertaining Key and Peele videos at my sister’s place we decided that we might as well hit up some Park Tavern action to see if we could sing a little karaoke or bowl a little bit. Neither were options when we got there but we were able to have a few more cocktails and get caught up a bit more as we really don’t get to see each other very often any more. I think if we all lived really close to each other we would be pretty darn happy guys, the wives…maybe not so much (but remember, we’re going clubbing ladies!).

As our nights often end when we’re all together, we got back to my sister’s place and B.S.ed until about 5am and then somehow woke up early enough to make it to the tailgating for the Gopher game the next day…somehow it seems like at least three of us always end up in the same bed too, so if the wives are wondering if there was any extra curricular’s going on…I can say there were no girls involved at least…

So, the main event that we wanted to get together for was the Gopher’s vs. Nebraska football game…well the main reason we wanted to get together is just to get together, but apparently when you get married your significant other wants a little more reason then you just going to get drunk with your buddies. Turns out single life isn’t so bad!

We got our Gopher tickets through someone that one of our buddies works with and met up with them to tailgate, but as they were all pretty much Nebraska fans we just ate their food and stole their football to play catch with. So for our entertainment we started off with a good old fashion game of paper, rock, scissors…and because our group is who we are, we were obviously having more fun than anyone else in the whole lot. It takes very little to entertain people who truly enjoy one another’s company.

I feel like there’s a lot to cover in this blog so I’m going to go ahead and spare you the play-by-play of the game but it was pretty darn awesome. We hadn’t beat Nebraska in something like 50 years and we were able to pull off the victory! I randomly ran into one of my high school classmates while we were at the game too! She’s a reader of the blog and also was my prom date in high school. We went to the same city for college as well and she use to like to tell all of the people we met that she stole my virginity on prom night…and she just went ahead and introduced herself to all of my buddies the same way at the game…at least that’s how I remember it happening.

So we won! We had already been celebrating the victory for the past couple of days but now we really had a reason to let loose! We ran over to grab a bite after the game at the…crap…um restaurant (maybe I drank too much), where we were able to meet a very lovely woman by the name of Lindsay who happened to work for Sunday Night Football and was in town to cover the game. We were able to take a few photos with her, talk to her for quite a while and then one of the guys hailed her a cab so that she could get back uptown where they were doing a charity event later in the night. We also met up with my sister and her friends and continued to celebrate.

Our new friend Lindsay with a couple of the BDandLL boys!

We decided that it would be best to head to Uptown so that we could spend some more quality time with our new friend Lindsay and also get a chance to tour the SNF bus! The event was held at Bar Abilene where I think we ate for the fifteenth time that day or so, and also decided to celebrate a little more. We got there a little bit before the event so there was plenty of time to celebrate. At some point during our celebrating my one buddy called one of the bar tenders “Jamal” just randomly and the guy looked at him like, “what the hell?!” Later, I ran across him in the bathroom and was able to convince him to go up to my buddy and tell him that he better watch his back and that he was going to knife him in the parking lot, classic Jay.

When the guy went up to my buddy, he was so shocked he was speechless…and I’m pretty sure needed a change of pants. My brother, (who knew I had convinced the guy to do it) told him very seriously that he better go and apologize, but my buddy had no idea what he had done. So, he goes to apologize and he’s so nervous and has no idea what’s going on and what to expect and the guy finally lets him in on the joke, but for about ten minutes there I’m pretty sure my buddy’s life was flashing before his eyes…priceless.

Next big event of the night, Carl Eller shows up! One of the Purple People Eaters and probably one of the main reason’s anyone still call themselves Vikings fans. We had the opportunity to meet Jim Marshall when we were kids as well when he came up to play in a “Celebrity” softball game during a Klingon Language camp that use to be held at our campground. I think it was one of the biggest moments in my mom’s life as we were featured on Entertainment Tonight because of it…yeah, we’re kind of a big deal…or maybe she just was!

One of my buddies tried to tell Mr. Eller that his cousin had dated Mr. Eller’s son and it was pretty awesome how easily he blew off my buddy! I believe it went something like, “Oh, yeah! That’s great. O.K. then…” (Thumbs up, then walks away). Classic Carl.

We were able to talk to him a bit later on, though, and spoke to him about our charity basketball tournament and he seemed really interested in trying to get us something to help us out with our charity auction we hold that weekend too, even gave me his card…boom mom, I finally made it too!

So, Carl Eller is awesome. Fact. Fact number 2, our new friend Lindsay…also pretty awesome.

So, Lindsay is working her way into being a real big deal in the sports broadcasting industry. She is unbelievably personable, seems to be a very smart and funny girl, knows far more than me (or probably most guys) about most sports, and not too hard on the eyes either. She even put up with a bunch of random Northern Minnesota guys for most of the night. I had a pretty good conversation with her at the end of the night (hers not ours) too. I told her that I’m not looking for anything serious, that I have girlfriends in a bunch of different areas but that I didn’t have a New York one, so I could maybe let her take me out to a nice dinner next time she happened to be in Minnesota. I think we’re also going to play Madden with our perspective buses going to the winner. I would get the SNF bus and she would get the Voyageur’s “Totally Topless Tubing Transit.” She definitely gets the better end of the deal, but I’m not sacred…its been like three years since I’ve played the game but my smack talk hasn’t missed a beat.

My sister and her friends also took off at this point which left the boys to fend for themselves once again, and this time we didn’t do as good of a job. The next few hours had us losing each other throughout Uptown Minneapolis, our group of seven soon became two and the two remaining ones just said, you know what…I just want to dance, so we went clubbing.

At some point we looked over and another one of our buddies happened to be on the dance floor, we don’t know how he got there and neither does he, but he got there. He said that his phone had died so he tried to get some random girl to give me a call…but he couldn’t remember my phone number, so he had her add me on Facebook, ahh technology! Really, it didn’t matter, though, because I was far too busy clubbing to pay any attention to my phone. But the music must have taken a hold of him, like it did us, and before long we were reunited!

Shortly after our first reunion, another one of our friends randomly resurfaced. This one wasn’t as surprising as he somehow has a tendency to disappear for hours than always end up at the same place we all are to end the night, I don’t know how he does it but its unbelievable. I bet all the wives are wondering, whom the hell is he talking about and what the hell was he doing?! Turns out he had been with the other part of the group and when they decided to call it a night he decided to find the rest of us. The guy is like a bloodhound for his buddies, no clue how he does it.

We finally decided to call it a night when they told us that they were now closing the bar and that we had to leave…seemed like a good time to head home. We then decided to share a cab with some random girl at the end of the night, and although my memory is pretty foggy of everything after the football game, I think she was pretty good looking and somehow by the time we got her back to her place she and I had been messing around a little bit. We were hanging out in front of her place and the cabby was trying to convince me that I had to stay with her, that’s right, the cabby. He was taking photos and I swear he goes, “come on Jay, you got this!” The cabby and I are on a first name basis apparently, and it turns out he’s my wingman. But, I’m pretty sure we were now in the ghetto and it was one of those nights where it was just time to go home.

I knew I had made the right decision when I woke up in the cab and we were sitting in some random cul-de-sac and my wingman was nudging me saying, “Seriously, I need an address.” Turns out the last four standing were now all passed out in the cab. We finally were able to make it back to my sister’s place and three of us got out of the cab and got to the door of the house before we realized that our forth buddy was still passed out in the cab. Thank god, my wingman had my back.

So, we had a fantastic weekend. We don’t get to see each other too often anymore but when we do it’s like we never left each other. I’m pretty sure I have the greatest friends in the world, including Carl, Lindsay, and the cabby.

On a side note, I’ve been on a bit of a working and partying bender as of late as I’ve had buddies leaving for far away lands, friends having babies, friends visiting from other states, and sometimes I just felt like I needed to club. Because of this I have not had a whole lot of time to work out, but tonight I attempted to get back on track after about a month…turns out you can’t just start where you left off after being so terrible to your body for so long. So I couldn’t hop on the treadmill and go six miles no problem, 1.5 just about killed me as a matter of fact. I think it would be pretty easy to give up, especially since I wanted to figure out how to do leg lifts correctly and I happened across a video of Brooke Burke demonstrating them…it would have been really easy to just watch those videos instead of actually working out. But, sometimes starting over isn’t the worst thing in the world. It sucks to start with, but I think I’ll get back into it pretty easily now…hopefully I don’t have to see any of my friends for quite some time! I have a few months before the ladies will be ready for their night out clubbing with me, and it may take me that long to recover from this past weekend…

Good night folks, I’m throwing in the towel for the night!

The Slow Clap

 

 

Given the title of this blog, and some of our past posts, you may all assume that myself and the rest of the BDandLL crew had a few too many daiquiri’s and are now battling a venereal disease…I assure you this is not the case, we are not battling the clap…alcoholism is another story completely…

I can’t remember how old I was at the time, I think I was probably around 15, but my parents decided to celebrate their 25^th wedding anniversary by going somewhere my mom had always wanted to go…Hawaii! Even better was the fact that they decided that the whole family should go with as well, so something my mom had waited her whole life to do was something I was going to be able to check off of my list by a very young age, how awesome are my parents?!

The trip was amazing, I had never seen such beautiful things in all my life and getting to experience them with my whole family was a real treat. Looking back at it now that my mom is gone makes it all that much more special. But the memories we shared together here and everywhere as well as the values she instilled in me, and really everything that I am, make it so I will always have my parents with me, even if they can’t always physically be here. My mom’s voice is always floating around in my head helping me to make difficult decisions as well as knowing that it’s alright to let loose and truly live my life. I think both my parents have taught me the great values it takes to truly be a leader of men…and that’s where this blog is headed…

So, we’re in Hawaii…I’m 15, and having the time of my life. Who gets to do this right?! There were two events that made the trip for me, the first was an authentic Luau out in the jungle where they roasted a pig in the ground with palm leaves, the way it’s supposed to be done! The food was amazing, and after dinner there were all of these Polynesian dancers that came onto the stage to perform for everyone. After a while of performing they asked for volunteers from the audience to join them on stage, who actually volunteers for something like that?! As no one volunteered, they sent the dancers into the crowd to gather volunteers. It’s easy to turn this opportunity down when someone is asking you to do it over a microphone, but when they send out all these beautiful people to gather you up it becomes a little bit more difficult.

They came to our table to see if we would join them and believe it or not, I was a bit more of an introvert at this time and my brother really had to pretty much drag me onto the stage with him, saying that we might not ever get a chance to do something like this again, but I still went very reluctantly.

After a brief lesson on how to “hula,” they began a dance competition amongst all of the volunteers, which I think was pretty much just designed to get everyone out of their comfort zone and make them have fun. There’s a line from “Almost Famous” that comes to mind here, the lead singer tells the main character, a reporter, that he finds the one person in the crowd that isn’t getting off and makes them get off!” Well, apparently I was that one person. I was very nervous and obviously not really letting loose, so somehow they determined that I was the winner of the dance contest. What did I win? An opportunity to dance with a Polynesian princess…I shit you not. Fifteen years old and I was already ruined. How can any experience I have from here on out really compare to that?! Fifteen years later I still have the grass head dress she gave me after she kissed me on the cheek after our dance. Maybe it wasn’t that intimate being there were about 400 people there watching us, but more than anything the experience got me out of my comfort zone and showed me that life can be a real joy when you get out there and allow yourself to experience everything it has to offer.

The next day we went to another Luau, I was now officially on the circuit and decided I wasn’t leaving Hawaii without my own Polynesian princess…

This Luau was in the middle of the city and wasn’t very authentic, but the food was great and the entertainment was very good as well. Once again they gathered volunteers from the audience to come participate in the dance, but these guys were nowhere as good as the crew from the night before…

As I was not a dancer this time, we watched as the other people got their chance to get out of their comfort zones and really have a great experience themselves. But something about the music just took a hold of me, and that’s when the greatest moment of my entire life occurred…I began a slow clap.

It started small, just me. Then a few of my family members joined in, a little faster. Than the whole table took up with us, then the next, and the next! Before you knew it, something like 500 to 1,000 people were clapping in unison to the music, and I had started it all! The power immediately went to my head. There were a few other attempts to get it going again later by other individuals, but they never really took. It was an amazing moment shared by the entire crowd where we really became one, and it could have only been in that moment and it could only have been started by the true love of that beautiful Polynesian princess…but alas, we were not meant to be. She tried to get back with the world famous “slow clapper” but our moment, like the moment for the slow clap had lapsed. We’ll always have that very special dance together but we were both destined for other things…I sure hope she’s doing alright.

I think that trip to Hawaii awakened something in me. I started really putting myself out there a lot more after that. I think I started to figure out that we all only have this one life that we’re given and that it’s important to live it to the fullest. I struggle with the ups and downs of life as everyone else does, but at the end of the day I think I can safely say I leave it all out on the field. I make the most out of my experiences and relationships and have very few regrets in my life. I believe that people in general want to do good and I believe that for good reasons.

Each year we host a charity basketball tournament called “Hoops for Hope,” which raises money for cancer research. This April will be our 9^th year hosting the tournament and each year we have been able to raise more money than the previous year. We also get more participants and more and more people are not only getting involved with our event but are getting more and more involved with the organization we donate our money to, The V Foundation for Cancer Research. Now I started this blog by talking about leadership and the title of this blog is “The Slow Clap.” Can you see how such organizations as ours are very similar to that event that happened to me back in Hawaii?! A few of us got together and wanted to do something special to help find a cure for cancer…then a few more joined us, then a few more. We have now raised over $160,000 for cancer research through our event…clap.

I’ve really taken a liking to this Kid President kid as well. If you found this blog post through my Facebook page, than I’m sure you’ve seen me post several videos of this kid doing his thing. He is a true inspiration and I wish we could all heed his words a little more. Right now he has a “Socktober” campaign going where he is trying to get everyone to gather up donations for homeless shelters across the nation, world, universe! Clap.

It truly is amazing when you think about it. Fifteen years ago I got it in my head that I could get a group of people to come together to do something pretty cool together, and we did it. The timing was right and let’s face it, the motivation was there too. The confidence I got from the event the night before told me I could do anything…but can’t we all do anything? Clap

The first step to starting a slow clap is knowing the timing is right, I’m here to tell you that the timing is right. There is no day like today! What’s your slow clap going to be? I’m more than willing to be here to help you keep it going. Clap