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Glimmer

So, "glimmer".  Why am I writing a post about it?  As I was reading through emails and Facebook posts this morning, this word "glimmer" just came to mind.  As I continued to read, my mind began to wander, and I began to ponder what it means to glimmer.  By definition, to glimmer is to shine with a faint light - the kind of light from a candle.  A glimmer can also be a flash of light or the faint hope or possibility of something.  Gleam, on the other hand, means to shine brightly like a star or a light. I don't think I wan to gleam, as I prefer not to be in the spotlight, but I would like to be a glimmer of light to those around me.

So, do I glimmer?  Do I shine?  Am I a flash of light, a faint hope, or a possibility of something to come to those around me?  I hope so.  I want to shine - to be a good wife and mother, to be good at my job, to be a good friend, daughter, co-worker, servant, etc. - but I don't like to be the center of attention.  Now that does not always mean that I want to be on the sidelines or that I'm not occasionally envious of those in the limelight - after all, I am a bit competitive, and there have been a few times in my life when I have gleamed.  But for the most part, I prefer to glimmer.  I would rather be working/observing away from the forefront.  This is more my comfort zone.

I hope that I glimmer.  I hope that I am a faint light of hope and possibilities to those around me.  I hope that I glimmer brightly enough to be noticed and to catch the attention of others in a positive way.  Brightly enough to make a difference, but not so bright that it becomes all about me.  I want to be a hope or a possibility of something to come for those seeking God, love, comfort, peace, companionship, friendship, answers, prayer, ... and more.  I think I have more to ponder on this thought, on this notion of "glimmering", and I am excited to see what I will discover.

St. Louis Lacrosse Tournament

We spent the weekend in St. Louis, Missouri for our very first out of town Lacrosse Tournament. We left on Thursday evening and drove to Joplin, Missouri, which is just across the Oklahoma/Missouri border. On Friday, we drove from Joplin to St. Louis, and arrived early evening. We
stayed at the Sheraton Westport Chalet. A shopping/restaurant mall surrounded the hotel. This was great because we were able to select from a variety of restaurants at which to eat during our stay. Unfortunately, all of the shops have closed due to the downturn in the economy, but we were able to find a small magazine/newspaper shop to browse through one evening before dinner.

Saturday morning we started bright and early. We grabbed some breakfast at Starbucks and then headed to the Sportport fields for the lacrosse tournament. Frisco Lacrosse set up "camp" next to field 1, as most of our teams played a couple of games on field 1 on Saturday.  Right out of the box, we have to play our own Frisco Bears Blue team.  We won the game and moved forward.  We played a team from Metro Lacrosse out of St. Louis and won the game handily.  Because the score was rather run up during that game, we decided that if we played them again, the boys would play positions they don't typically play and play the game with their opposite hand.  So, defensive players would play offense, offensive players would play defense, right handed kids would play the whole game left handed, and lots of kids would play with long sticks.

Before our rematch with Metro, we played a select team out of Kansas City, Kansas.  It was an extremely exciting game.  Our boys went head to head with them and battled for goals.  In the end, we came out on top.  Their team and parents were stunned; from inception, this team had never lost a game.  That is, until they met the Frisco Bears Black team!  We faced Metro for the second time in the semi-final round.  Our boys played opposite/new positions and played with their opposite hand throughout the game.  We won again, without much of a contest, and the boys felt great about not beating this team into the group, and they were happy that Metro scored one goal on them because they heard that they had never scored before.  I was proud that our coach taught the boys a great lesson during that game.  A lesson about being good sports, a lesson much larger than sports at all, a lesson in humanity and kindness.

We met the select team from Kansas City in the finals, and once again, we walked off the field victorious.  The boys were thrilled to have won the St. Louis Gold Cup, and we were all so proud of them.  Each player received a gold medal, and Connor received a special honor from Coach Joe and Coach Mark.  They honored him with a large bucket of ice water being poured over his head.  At first, he stood immobile, but then, he began to move and when he did, he began to swing.  He may have been cold for a second when the ice water hit him, but he was boiling with anger now.  His temper flaired and he was out to attack Coach Joe.  I struggled to grab hold of him and stop him as he lunged into Joe and continued swinging his fists toward him.  Joe managed to stay clear, and I finally got my hands on Connor enough to stop him and eventually calm him.  Wow!  Not quite the reaction you want your son to have.

It took a few moments to settle him and to convince him that Coach Joe and Coach Mark had honored him with the ice water bath.  I gave several examples, explained that they had dumped water on their own coach, etc., but it took him a while to calm his temper so that he could listen and understand.  In the end, he apologized to Coach Joe and they made peace, and now he knows that they were honoring him and not picking on him.  No one has dumped a bucket of water on him again, but if it happens again, I hope that Connor remembers that it is an honor and that he realizes that it is a special tribute him as a player.

Long Time No Blogging

Wow! I just pulled up my blog, and I cannot believe that it has been so long since I last blogged. Life has been rather busy, but I am a bit sad that I cannot review the past several months on my blog. I am going to do my best to recommit myself to blogging about our events.

We have just entered soccer and lacrosse season, so there will be lots of sporting events to blog about. Hopefully I will have other things to blog about, as well, but ... at least these sports give me a place a get started as I recommit myself to blogging. Soccer season is starting off a bit rough. The team that we had been on forever dissolved this season, so we have 3 boys from our original team, 2 boys from another dissolved team, and then 7 other boys ... 3 of which have never played soccer before in their lives. Yikes! So, since they boys don't know each other, they have only had 3 practices (none of which have included all 12 team members), and 3 boys don't even know the game, the season has started off a bit rough. The first game we lost a lot to 2. The second game we lost 5-2, I think. So, we are improving a bit. Connor has scored a goal in each game, so he is bugging Blake for his $20.00 ($10/goal).

The first half of today's game was awful. We had no one playing defense. A couple of our forwards were dropping back and trying to play defense part of the time because the defensive players were not staying back in a defensive position. At halftime, the boys sat on the field with the coach. Evidently they talked a lot about defense because they were a different team the second half. The defensive boys were actually back helping Connor (the goalie) defend the goal. It was a great change! Last week, it was Connor alone in the goal with 2-3 boys from the other team on attack. Poor Connor was not able to be the entire defensive line. Today, during the second half, Connor had a lot more help defending his goal, and he only allowed one ball to slip out of his hands and into the net. Way to go Connor! Hopefully next week's game will be better!

Lacrosse, on the other hand, is starting off on top! We won our first game by a landslide against Castle Hills White. Last night, we beat Parish 10-3, I believe. The boys have been on fire! They are passing well, catching more passes, winning face offs, attacking, holding their positions, making shots on goal, and taking control of the game. We are very proud of our Frisco Bears Black team and all that they are accomplishing on the lacrosse field.

Bennigans in Miami

We finally made it to Miami this evening. It is late, hot, we are worn out, but ... we need to eat. So, we decide to take a short walk over to the Bennigan's in the parking lot adjacent to our hotel. We enter and are quickly seated in a booth between several other occupied tables and booths by an Asian hostess. After sitting patiently for 5-6 minutes, fanning ourselves with the menus because it feels as though we are sitting under heat lamps, a waitress walks by and asks if we have been helped. Although we replied, "No. No one has waited on us yet," she just walks away. We pause our fanning for a brief moment and look at each other - both wondering why she did not stop to take our order or to let us know that she would send someone over. So, we continue to sit - tired, hungry, and roasting!

Finally, the Asian hostess who seated us, arrives at our table and announces, "I'll be your waitress this evening!" Since we have been waiting quite a while, are tired, and hungry, we decide that we better place our entire order while we have her attention. Blake orders us the buffalo wing appetizer, a chicken and shrimp meal, a beer, and a glass of water. Cindy, our Asian waitress, wearing a "trainee" name tag, begins to ask a lot of questions. Each time that we answer, she says, "Just one minute," and walks away from the table. The first time, she headed to the bar and returned only to tell us that she was not sure if they had the beer that Blake requested. So, Blake asked what beers she did have to offer. "Just a minute!" and she is once again off to the bar. This time, she returns with a laminated beer menu. Although the beer Blake requested is not listed on the menu, he selects a beer from the list. Cindy looks at him, a bit confused, so Blake repeats his request. Cindy still does not seem to grasp what he has said, so he points to the name of the beer on the menu. At this time, Cindy bends down over the menu - her face within inches of the table as she reads and says aloud the name of the beer - and then writes it down on her order pad. Then, she just stands there and looks at us; smiling. So, Blake orders the buffalo wing appetizer. Again, Cindy seems confused, so he points out the buffalo wing appetizer, and she bends down until her face is within inches of the menu, says aloud "buffalo wings", and then writes it down. Mind you, we have only ordered two drinks (one of which was water) and a appetizer, yet Cindy is on the second page of her order pad. On to the entree. Instead of just stating the name of the entree, Blake points out the item on the menu so that she can see it, Cindy repeats the same process, and writes down the entree order on the third page of her order pad. It has been a long and cumbersome ordering process, but our order is finally placed. Or so we thought.

So, we sit - sweating beneath the heat lamps shining down on us. After several minutes, Blake walks to the bar to see if he can get us some water. He discovers that it is much cooler in the bar, so we decide to relocate. We explain to our new waiter that we placed our order with Cindy, the trainee, and ask him to follow-up with her to make sure that the order was placed and that she knows that we have moved. He never returns. Instead, we flag down the bartender and ask for the manager. After speaking to the manager, Cindy returns. She has not placed our order. We get the manager a second time, he takes our order and says that he will make sure that we get it.

In the meantime, the bartender brings us two glasses of water, and here comes Cindy with two glasses of water in her hands. She mumbles something as she reaches the table and sees that we already have water and starts to turn and leave. Blake asks her to please leave the water and assures her that we will drink it. Again, she turns to leave, and Blake stops her by reaching for the glasses of water. He eventually has to take the glasses from her hands so that she does not walk away with them. We just have to laugh. After all, it would not do us any good to get angry.

Finally, our food and our appetizer arrive at the same time. Instantly, it is apparent that our shrimp is raw. So, we flag down the bartender, she locates Cindy, and we try to explain to Cindy that the shrimp is raw and needs to be cooked longer. Once again, Cindy says, "Just a minute," and walks away. She returns with another waitress. We show her the shrimp, she explains the situation to Cindy, and they take our shrimp away to cook it. We begin to eat our chicken, and a few minutes later, Cindy returns with the shrimp - still RAW! We laugh, decide to give up on the shrimp, and ask for our bill. Cindy finally figures out that we are asking for our ticket and leaves to prepare it.

The bill arrives. Blake begins to scan the bill. We have been charged for three beers, even though Blake only had two, were were charged for the shrimp, even though it was never fully cooked so we could not eat it, and ... there is a $5.00 service charge on our bill! A service charge? For what? Seriously!?!?!?!?

So, we flag down the manager, for the third time, to discuss the bill. Although the manager is sympathetic to our plight, he knows that we are from out-of-town. He agrees that we should not pay her a service fee for her "service" (and I use that term loosely), and we know that customer service is not his main concern, otherwise he would not have ever hired Cindy "the waitress" (Ha!) in the first place. The manager reduced the bill a bit and handed it to Cindy to return to us. After placing it on the table, she stood just a few feet from us and watched as we reviewed it and made our payment. I guess that she thought we were going to walk out without paying her.

Wow! What an experience! Like I said, "We had to laugh. Otherwise, we would have cried!" Cindy, the Asian Trainee from the Bennigan's in Miami, Florida ... I wonder how long she'll last? I wonder how many other travelers she will torture?

Want to be a Speed Reader?

I just saw this on a Twitter post. It is one of the coolest things I have seen all week! It is Zap Reader, and it actually allows you to read text on the web at 300 words per minute without the loss of comprehension. Basically, it takes the paragraph formatted text and shows it to you one word at a time (by default); therefore, you are focusing on only one word at a time rather than trying to stay focused on one word after another in paragraph form, so you read at 300 words per minute. If that is too fast for you, you can slow it down a bit, or if it is too slow for you, you can speed it up. For example, if you select to see two words at a time, you will read 600 wpm. Click here for demo and additional information or go to http://www.zapreader.com/ to try it out for yourself.