Lions, Tigers and Bears, OH MY

I'm fairly certain there's been more packed into the past eight days than I can even cover, and frankly, hope to never have to cover again.


Starting with Tripoli. Getting ready for work last Monday, Bill made mention to me that the Rebels had taken over. ...... Full disclosure. My brain has only so much room in it these days, and admittedly my response was: um, will you please explain to me what that means to us? i wasn't at all being snarky; I just honestly drew a blank on a) was Tripoli a city or country? b) where was it again? and c) how can i sound somewhat intelligent?   its no wonder people think American's are dumb.  well.  I may not have at the tip of my tongue the details on Middle Eastern/Northern African politics and rebellions, but I can recall a two page grocery list almost verbatim and remember when 19 of Eileen's classmates turn 5.

I did take solace in the fact that the couple of people to whom I admitted this story, also smart successful women, shared my experience of utter blank-dom.


So then came Tuesday. I have this friend Aaron, a friend from college.  He is now a lawyer in San Diego, yet he manages to scoop any and ALL stories related to UT Atheltics. And he's never wrong.  And he's the reason Facebook is now where I get 98% of my news (hmm... wonder if there's some correlation between my knowledge of Tripoli & Facebook?)....  so the story Aaron scooped was a gut-wrenching one: Living Legend Coach Pat Summit diagnosed with early on-set Dementia, tied to Alzheimer's.  She's 59.  Most of you probably know who she is, and if you dont - the long and short of it: The woman has coached women's basketball at the University of Tennessee for 38 years.  Countless national championships.  Over one thousand wins.  You read it right. ONE THOUSAND plus wins. Her athletes don't do drugs, they get damn good grades, they graduate, and they win. The woman inspires people to a fault. It is simply in her nature.  

  So while the situation on it's own is tough to swallow, it seems even more unfair when one considers all the crap going on in genereal in NCAA Division I sports.  Our own football and (men's) basketball programs. The University of Miami.  The University of Ohio. Rumors about Auburn and Alabama. USC. LSU. It seems such a rarity these days to have a coach with integrity, loyalty, that actually cares about her kids.. and to know that person is faced with such unfairness is just infuriating. Yet, she'll no doubt fight like hell, and end up using even this as a teaching lesson. (which by the way is what my very own stepdad did when he beat colon cancer in 2004).

So my friend Aaron broke that story at roughly 1pm ET last Tuesday. Around 2pm that same day, I arrived at a meeting to discuss an upcoming event. Our VP Of Safety/Security was in attendance (remember people -yep, I work in TV. but our campus is up there with the Pentagon as far as security).  So just as we all sit down, said VP literally leaps out of his chair.  And this particular VP is roughly 6'5" and well over 250 lbs.  When this man leaps, everyone notices. And all he said was "I gotta go, Earthquake in NYC." 

Ok, wait. HUH? how is that possible? So those of us in the meeting with trusty laptops immediately jump online. CNN had little to share, FB however.. friends strecthing from NYC to DC, and some in VA and NC, all posting about the quaking earth they'd just experienced.

We all know how that turned out - indeed there was a fairly significant earthquake.

So back to UTsports news.. the other living legend from these parts, Peyton, seems to not quite have recovered from some neck surgery last spring.  Now while many of you may not find this blogworthy, the last time the man did NOT start a game was 9/26/1994.  Yes, 1994.  I was a sophmore in college, he was a freshman. Two QBs started ahead of him. Both got hurt. Peyton went in. And has started every single game in which he's played since then - at the college level and in the NFL.  All with teams - the Vols and the Colts.  For him not to start feels like the Earth isn't really round (drama? who? ME?).

The smidge of GOOD news the Big Orange received was that no further sanctions would be brought against the University with regards to recent Basketball & Football violations. Shew.  One (IDJIT) former coach was apparently 'disappointed' in the length of his personal punishment.  Seriously DUDE? you bold face lied to the NCAA. There were pictures to prove you were lying, and you still lied?!  and this man is 'disappointed'?  I continue to be baffled.

In the latter part of the week, I had follow up appointment with my orthopedic doctor. Who told me no running for two weeks. Then stuck me in the hip with a big nasty dose of cortisone. not so pleasant. so as of now, I have 8 more days til I can run again.  can you tell I'm anxious? 

I'm probably boring you. Most of you come here for tales of Eileen, and here I am prattling on.  If I could manage to blog more than once every 8 days, my posts would be shorter.  I strive to be like Sara.

The last non-Eileen story I'll touch on, is of course, Miss Irene. Oh my.  Not a pretty storm.  My mom and John fared well, except for their yard torn to shreds.  Loss of power was minimal, no flooding at their house. My friends & family in NYC & NE had some damage and loss of power.. but none were hurt and their homes are still standing.  The storm seemed to have run our lives for 4-5 days.  I remember when I was little, living in Memphis, and in (what felt like) constant fear of tornadoes.. I used to think Hurricanes were a better option.  At least you knew they were coming and could plan for it.  In reality- neither is better than the other. But in the mind of a (still terrified) 11year old, it made perfect sense.

As you can see by the pictures, we spent our weekend with Miss Syd. Eileen misses her terribly since Syd went to Kindergarten.  So we had our first sleepover, and it was a success!  We fully expected to have Syd wake up at 2am and be scared and want to go home. Nope, she slept all night.  (eileen, not so much.  she woke up three times. sigh).

• taking a tubby to get ready to go to a baby shower, they're playing with 'paint soap' ... eileen flips out bc sydney dumped the red all in the tub. it will be so godo for Miss Thang to have her baby sister here soon, and learn to s h a r e. luckily Syd ignored The Greedy One and continued playing. Eileen got over it.
• I took them to Sonic (seeing how it was almost 2pm and we were on the way to the shower and I realized I had yet to feed them any lunch...).  They each got a burger (Eileen's an oddball and doesn't want cheese on hers.  is that even American?!), tater tots, and a chocolate shake.  Eileen also did not want her tater tots! If she didn't look exactly like me, I'd wonder if she'd been switched at birth.  (no worries people, I ate the tots..).   As we drive off, Eileen sips her shake.  In full on 1980s Valley Girl accent - "Oh my GOSH Syd. you have GOT to take a sip. It is SOO good. I mean.  It is so so good."   This of course is about the time I use all my will power to not drive off the road from laughing so hard.
• Putting her to bed last night -
• Eileen: Mommy, why aren't you having another baby?
• Me: Well sweetie, some mommies only have one baby.
• Eileen: but we need to have four kids in our family!
• Me: umm. why?
• Eileen: because. When you & Bill & Daddy & Sarah get old, we'll need to have four kids so we can push ou around in your wheelchairs

And there ya go. I'd say that sums it up.