The Weekend

Today is Friday and it seemed like today would never come this week. I don't know if it is because I was so busy last week and weekend that this week seemed to drag on and on. Also there is not a lot planned this weekend which I am fine with. But I do find myself looking forward to Spring Break. I really was not planning on going anywhere but that has all changed.

Now I am going to Columbia to visit my best friend for a few days and then off to Tunica, MS.

I love Tunica. I love to gamble. I love to go to different casinos. I also love the fact that they still offer free drinks if you are playing. THAT IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!! I might also make it to Memphis and go to the Civil Rights Museum. I missed that the last few times down there. But then again, I can always visit it while I am down there in May for the Music Fest.

We are getting to the point of the school year that vacations get planned with a day or two off from school. Us teachers need to revive ourselves someway. We plan long weekends.

There is not much else to say today. I plan on getting my new room more organized this weekend and I will hopefully be in my new bed by the following weekend. I am anxious to get myself organized because I can feel myself getting kind of crazed because of it.

Have a good weekend everyone.

BOSS

Being Busy

You know there is much to say for being busy. If you are busy, you don't really have to reflect. If you are busy, you are usually surrounded by people. If you are busy, you can tell yourself you do not have time to .......... do whatever it is you are avoiding.

I took a step yesterday to slow down and think about what I want. I want my own room, my own space. I want it organized the way I want and need it, not what is convient for others. I took the first step yesterday and bought some plastic containers to organize some of my clothes. Then I went home and and worked on getting something accomplished. And within an hour it was amazing how much I did. Terri even worked on getting her scrapbook stuff out of the room that is going to be mine for now on.

This was not easy for either one of us. We saw our dream diminish. So I had to sit and reflect on that for a few minutes. Terri offered to do more in the room and I told her that we have done enough for one night. I just wanted to close the door and reflect. She left and I sat and looked around. Yea I could of gotten really depressed because I could of felt as if I was being reduced to one room but that is not reality. I have a house, a nice house. It will become a house sharing instead of a partnership but that is ok. It will be ok. I know it all takes time.

I will work to get the bedroom the way I will be the most comfortable in and then I will finally purchase a bed and get off the damm air mattress. Once again, it takes time. I have time. But I do want to get to the point that I feel COMFORTABLE in the house and not feel as though I can't say what is on my mind or do what I would like. If I want to stay up until 5 am I can and will and if I want to be in bed by 7 pm I can and will.

These are my thoughts from the last few days.

Later,

BOSS

Yes I am Finally Updating My Blog

Hello everyone,

Well the last month or two have been crazy for me. I came back to school the first of January and it just does not feel like I have stopped running since. I celebrated my 42nd birthday with a great group of people and had a wonderful dinner at Sidney Street Cafe. The service was excellent and the steak melted in my mouth. Then it was on to Hummels for Karaoke. NO, no of us did any drunk singing.
The highlight of my evening was seeing my best friend, Bear, show up with Uncle Doug from Columbia. That literally brought tears to my eyes. I miss that Bear so much. But we are going to catch up in Columbia in a few weeks, can't wait for that.

NOW on to the shocking news for most of you. If you know me, you know I have been in a relationship for 6 years with Terri. Well, I had to do what I had to do and I ended that relationship. I have not been single for 15 years!!!!!! Yea I am one of those that have gone from one relationship to the next most of my life. I am going to savor the fact that I only have to account for myself. The living arrangements are the same, it can get tense at times but we will work it out. Not much can happen with the housing market the way it is.

Next up in my crazy life is my part time job. I have started to bartend at a new bar in "the grove" called Rehab. Here is the link. http://rehabthegrove.blogspot.com/

My brother Rodney works very hard at updating all the fun times we have there. So please check out the link and come in for a drink. I work on Saturday's from 11 am to 7 pm. I make killer bloody mary's!!!!!

OK that is enough for now.... I hope to see you out and about.

Boss

Happy New Year Everyone

As I sit on my very comfortable recliner I am going to attempt to write this blog. New Year's Eve was fun. Terri and I went to dinner and then went to a party. It was a small group but it was fun. I enjoyed being able to sit and talk, play Wii and just hang out. I did get booed off the stage during Guitar Hero at least 4 times. Ha Ha. Kelly, I need to practice more at your house so I don't embarrass myself anymore.

We rang in the New Year and hung out for a little bit. We did not hear any gun shots until we got home and it sounded like it come from across the street.... great huh? Then we slept in. It was wonderful to sleep in.

We eventually got up and I went to watch the Hockey game that was being played at Wrigley Field. It was cool to hear how much the players of the Blackhawks and Red Wings loved playing on a outdoor "pond". Then Terri made me feel guilty with just sitting as she was working on cleaning up the living room, so I started to make some moves to clean the kitchen. Well that only lasted for a short lived 20 minutes or so and I retreated back to my recliner where I still sit.

These are the days that I miss. Just hanging out and watching college football and both of us on are respective laptops. She is playing a game and I am writing......... I love it.

I am starting to get hungry though and I certainly don't want to cook so we might venture to Lafayette Square to see if Square One Brewery is open....... I am craving their beer cheese soup.

Ok everyone, I hope you all had a nice and safe New Year's Eve. Here's to a wonderful 2009.

Christmas Trip to Illinois

I am up in Sycamore,IL. If you do not know where that is, just think of where Northern Illinois University is located and you can get a general idea where Sycamore is. My dad and Betty live here in a very nice home. I even have my own room. They call it a spare room but actually it is my room.

We went to visit my grandparents today. This is my dad's dad and his wife of 26 years, Helen. I wanted to watch part of the Bears game with my grandfather today. I really would of thought the Bears would of had more heart in them. If they would of won, they would of been in the playoffs. They faltered in the 2nd half. It was just really nice sitting with my grandfather watching a football team that I grew up with.

Dad and Betty soon came by and Helen came back from her visiting. I was very happy to see Helen not in the apartment today. She hates just sitting in her recliner, she loves to talk. She does not have all of her hearing but she can talk. She tries to follow most of the conversations, but they are too fast for her. I was glad to hear that after lunch she went walking.

Then after we took my grandparents to their dinner we headed to our dinner. I love the local pizza place in Homewood. We meet my brother and his family and had a Christmas celebration with them. His daughters are getting so big and mature. Amanda is on the second book in the Twlight series...... I guess I will need to pick this book up so I can have some intelligent conversations with her about this author. She thinks this author is the JK Rowlings of her time. It does help when a movie comes out to help promote the series of books. Please excuse me if I do not spell all the names right.......

Malorie loved the fact that she had the biggest bag of "Stuff". She is really into art so I was able to find her a cool art set with a black sketch pad. She also got two hand held games that she wanted. I was also very impressed with the fact that she was very good at sharing her games with her sister and her sister's friend.

I did kid Amanda about the scarf that she was suppose to knit me....... I was looking for it in her present to me....... I will keep bugging her about it........ :) Well it is getting late and I want to read my new John Grishman book. I will post some pictures when I get back home from my trip. See ya all soon, if not please have a great New Year's Eve and go into 2009 with a bang.

Goodbye Grandpa Backer

Do me a favor. If you choose to read this post, please give yourself enough time to really absorb what I am trying to express.



I learned of my grandfather's passing Thursday Dec. 11th. I had a call from my dad and when I called him back we talked about his dad for a while and then I was told about my mother's father. Roman Reece Backer was 88 when he died. He was a man of many talents. He was a pilot, an electrician, he tried to build his own plane and he built an wind boat.



I was not initially planning on traveling to Florida for the services. You see this man taught me a lesson even with his death. I was holding a grudge against him for 10 years or so. It was a stupid comment he made to me and I let it fester. The lesson I learned is there is no reason to hold a grudge because the person who is holding it is the only one that is hurting.



I was very surprised with myself and how I was genuinely upset by his passing. My brothers and my dad have visited him in the last 10 years and I had not. It bothered me that he was gone. It bothered me that I missed some time with him. I really don't know how close I would of gotten to him, we, as grandchildren, weren't that close to him. Mainly because of the distance between Florida and Chicago.

Flash Back to Monday Dec. 15th:

So this is the day I go to say goodbye to my grandfather. My brothers and I were reminiscing last night at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Restaurant in the City Walk of Universal Studios. Orlando has grown so much since I was last there. Ok back to subject. We would tell stories of what we remembered. My brother, Mark, has a lot of fond memories of trips to Florida. He is also the oldest. Scott, my other brother who is 11 months older than I am, remembers riding on a wind boat that my grandfather actually built. Mark also remembers a time when Grandpa took the family flying in his plane. These memories are not mine, I was too young to remember these visits.

This visit accomplished different agendas. We all went to Florida to say good bye to our grandfather but we also went to spend quality time with each other. We have not had quality time with each other with out wives, children or a parent around us. Yes we saw each other in August and spent some time together but it was not like this. It was comfortable, the way your favorite pajama's feel coming out of the dryer. Well it was like that. I really, really enjoyed the time spent with them. The other cool part about this is; it was not just me thinking this, they both expressed this as well.

OK here is a story I remember with my grandfather. Picture it: It was Christmas in Chicago, cold, snowy and stuck inside because it was just too cold to go out and play in the wonderful snow. Well Grandpa and Nanny came to visit. I think I was about 11 or so. I was at the kitchen table playing solitaire. You know the actual solitaire game with actual cards..... well apparently I missed some move on the board. I started to turn over my 3 cards and I got a SMACK on my arm. I don't know if this was how Grandpa wanted to spend quality time with his ONLY granddaughter.... I looked at him and said, "What was that for?" His reply, "You missed a move." I then looked back at the table and still did not see what he was talking about. So, I once again tried to throw my cards down and I get ANOTHER SMACK. I just looked at him and he then pointed out the move I did not see. I quickly lost that game and got up from the table. Quality time MY ASS.

There were many attributes about my grandfather that came up during the service. The pastor wanted us to think of one word that would describe him. Well one came to mind immediately but I would not say it. It was STUBBORN. It kind of came out later with bull headed. But once he got his point across, he would slap the table or arm chair three time and then just bellow in laughter. He had a GREAT laugh, one of those that are contagious. We learned many things about him just sitting around talking to the different people that came back to the house after the service.

We heard from his wife of 40 years, that the last few weeks were very difficult. He refused to get up off his recliner... even when the doctor wanted to just get him to walk to the mailbox. He refused. Avis, we called her Nanny, told him that he was slowly killing himself. And you know what his response was...... "I DON'T CARE" We all know that is bullshit because he loved life. He was tired of the fight. The fight to keep weight off, the fight to only eat certain foods and the fight to not have happy hour 7 days a week.


I am going to share several stories from what we were told while we sat around and listened to his "family" in Florida.


A story that was told about when he was in the hospital. His legs were really hurting. He was retaining a lot of water and the stool he had to put his feet up was just a little too high to get them elevated. So Nanny asked if she could get him a recliner. Now you have to understand that after 4 p.m. not much happens in the hospital for the rest of the day. It was going to be a long shot if he could get the recliner that day. Well by some miracle, a nurse found a recliner and brought it in the room. She was a brave soul because from what we heard, the nurses barely stuck their heads in his room because of all his uproars. I am sure in that person's mind, she thought she would be looked like a hero or a saint. Well this is my grandfather we are talking about. He took one look at that chair and yelled, " GET THAT SHIT THING OUT OF HERE!" No one knows why he did not like the looks of the chair but it could be for many reasons.

Another story Nanny told us was grandpa telling her to not give him a hard time. She wasn't giving him a hard time, he was just being, oh what word came to my mind at the service? Oh yea, STUBBORN.
Well Nanny soon left the hospital and went home. She was frazzled but his high demands. Well the next day, she was came into his room and he immediately, said to her, "Uh yesterday, you were right about....." I asked Nanny, well did he apologize? She laughed..... he did not ever say he was sorry. Well at least I know I have some of his blood in me too, it is hard for me to say those words as well.

Grandpa needed to have the perfect garage for all of his toys. He has one of the older full sized motor homes and he has a 2001 T- Bird. RED. HARD TOP. Guess how many miles he has on this car..... Just guess. ONLY 2,077 miles. This car is in mint condition. There is another story about this car as well. He wanted this car... so he bought it. A person refused the color of the car so Grandpa said, OK I'll take it. He asked the sale person if he could sit in the car. He said no, if you buy it you can sit in it. So he pulled out his check book and wrote the check for the car and then opened the driver's door and got in. He wanted to pull it out of the showroom but the dealership did not have another car to display so my grandfather was asked to give them a week or so to get another car there before he takes it home. For some reason, my grandfather agreed to that, which I really don't think is in his character, but he agreed to the arrangement. Then a few days later a friend of his came to visit and my grandfather wanted to show him his car. SO they went to the dealership and it is in the showroom all roped off so no one can touch the car. People were all standing around looking at the car, he just moved the ropes out of his way and got in the car and told his friend to get in the passenger seat. He then said to John, "They won't let me start her up in the showroom!" People were standing around looking amazed that some man just got into the most amazing car in the showroom.

He had to have a pole barn type of garage to fit these toys in as well as his plane that he was trying to build, his scooters and numerous other projects that he started. The amazing thing about his garage.. no matter how messy it looked.... he knew were everything was. A neighbor needed a washer for a sink faucet. He would say to her.... OK KID let's go out to the garage. Well she knew it would be a 45 minute endeavor just because they were going into the garage. She might have to get up on the ladder and go to this container, the third drawer to the right but it was ALWAYS were he said it would be.



At the memorial service, we learned many things about the man we called Grandpa. He was a WWII Fighter pilot and when normally the pilots went on 15-20 missions, my grandfather went on 34. He was responsible for getting the dead and wounded back to base. Maybe that is why we never knew that about him.

There was a picture of him, in his uniform, with my mom, who could not of been more than 3 years old. I have never seen that picture before. I asked Nanny, that is what we have always called her, if I could borrow that picture with some others so I can make copies of them for me and my brothers.



He was married to Avis or Nanny for 40 years. Right after they married, he took the savings they both had and bought land for his vision of developing an Industrial Park. They lived on very little after they bought land by Fort Lauderdale, FL. They developed the property to be very successful and sold it about 8 years ago. They did very well for themselves. They went and bought a house on a little canal in Stuart, FL. I can see why he loved that property. It was on a cul-de-sac and it had two different views of the canal. After lunch, I went and sat out on the swing that is aligned perfectly to see the most beautiful sunset.

Nanny has a lot of wonderful people in her life. Her niece has been a God send. Her fiends John and Jeff have been her rocks and her neighbors have been her stable companions. Nanny will be fine; she might shake a fist at Roman and say why didn't you listen to me and walk a little bit but she will know that he is free from his pain.

As the preacher said, "It is always too soon for the ones left behind..."

Good bye Grandpa. I love you.

News Highlights for Friday Dec. 5th

This is a true case of excellent networking: Follow the link for how Obama is reaching out to his college buddies. http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081205/pl_politico/16224

OJ Simpson just does not seem to get it. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/ap_on_re_us/oj_simpson

When will the Illinois Governor's Learn? http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/5C98EBD91CE8F03B862575160065B9F4?OpenDocument

We know the global economy is getting bad when....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20081205/ap_tr_ge/eu_travel_brief_piracy_cruise_insurance