bowl game swagger

Good Morning,

It's Friday I just wanted to keep a finger on the pulse...

I came across an item I thought could enrich your day.

Today and definitely tomorrow for many attention swings to the college football bowl games. Amidst the hype and hoopla you may come across the impassioned argument about paying players. The argument may go:

"The five athletes suspended for The Ohio State Football program...Would they be trading their memorabilia for tattoos if they had been paid a stipend to play the game?"

Those who see this as a financial decision tend to argue "No! Pay the athlete and the problem goes away!"

For those like NCAA president Mark Emmert I've heard him argue the point in these terms...

These athletes are being given a world class opportunity to train and develop their skills. The quality of education they receive is enough and besides the money made on selling their jerseys is not going directly into any one institutions pocket but rather into the general coffers which is then used to strengthen and support the overall high quality of the environment these athletes get to train in...

We cannot ever get to the point where athletes are paid!

(for more to this argument go to http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2010-12-15-mark-emmert-ncaa-pay_N.htm)

(...sigh) as in most things the answer lies somewhere in between. Folks like Mark Emmert are masters at spinning the question.

I'm not here to argue whether athletes get paid. I think it's clear college athletics is a big business with athletes in high revenue sports already being "paid" like Superstars with unquestioned adoration and affection. I see contrast in the soon to be millionaire and the soon to be laid off single mother trying to provide a happy holiday (including buying one of those stinkin jerseys) for her kids...

This is the levity I took this morning when looking more deeply into the bowl game swag bags. Gift suites, electronics, watches, luggage...And I found this

The Helen of Troy hair dryer!



Perfect! with so many of these boys wearing the long flowing hair these days. it's not just a Tom Brady thing but a trend among college players too!!!

Today at 2pm EST, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes will be going toe-to-toe after a week with...vanity, hot air, and a product suggesting these once heavy hitters are now taking on light weight durability.

The Sun Bowl will be an important opportunity for them to show off their hairdos.

In this respect I'm giving the edge to the "U" (the Miami Hurricanes). Watch for these guys.

Travis Benjamin- voted "Best Hair" by his teammates. A lightning quick wide receiver who can spread the field, beat you deep, and wraps a mean orange Ace Band Aid around his hair...


(from The Miami Hurricane.com)

“It feels good because you have players come up to you and be like, ‘Man, you’ve got to cut your hair so I can have the longest hair on the team...’”

Benjamin said that he hasn’t cut his hair since the eighth grade, but is considering cutting it next year if an opposing player tackles him by his dreads.

That’s something that has yet to happen in a game, though!"

For the Irish watch for Trevor Robinson #78 offense, guard...



See he is not smiling because he has lost his edge.



hmm, I guess some bowl games really "do" blow. Stay on the bright side ND fans.

Hope you have a Happy New Years Eve Day,

Amanda

Looking forward to the family holiday...

10 Ways to Spice Up Your Holidays and Enjoy Your Family

1. Watch White Christmas sing all songs loudly and slightly off key. (except if your name is Uncle Dan and we have determined it's best if you harmonize).

2. Have Grandma cook a family favorite and leave out a key ingredient. The rest get to take turns playing "guess the missing ingredient" while listening to Grandma giggle. It's really a great way to pass on the recipe.

3. Do something notably different with your hair. Mine will be significantly darker this year. You may prefer trying out the Nicki Minaj...

4. Take the family on a driving tour of holiday lights. Bring an award and give it to your favorite house. Better yet mail it to their address!

5. It may be too late for this one but...make it a tacky sweatshirt gathering! This works twofold. Not only do you take off the pressure of what to wear also the aunt who always buys these (or irons on the applique) gets to see her handiwork.

6. This one’s simply a time saver. Gather everyone together in the living room. Form a giant circle and hold hands. On the count of three yell THANK YOU! We are renouncing the age old practice of thank you notes!!! If somebody reeeally wants one...

replace "thank you" with an entirely different phrase. To that end, I will be using the phrase: "May your tribe increase." After some research, I found that it is a traditional form of well-wishing in India.

Other non-thank you "thank yous" you might use?

• Cheers
• Ta
• That's great
• Cool
• OK
• Brilliant
• Lovely
• Nice one
• Much appreciated
• Fab
• Awesome
• Wicked
• Merci
• Danke
• Gracias
• Super
• Ace

7. Have “alternative” story time (or as I'm seeing it...recount the beginnings of the first white elephant gift exchange). Here's my entry...

The Buddha too arrived in the world in what some would call a mythical or magical way.

One night amidst a great festival Queen Maya went to her quarters to rest. In a vivid dream, she dreamt four angels appeared and took her into white mountains where a great white bull elephant approached holding a white lotus flower in his trunk. He circled her three times then struck her with his trunk and entered into her right side. Thus it was in 10 lunar moons she would give birth to a son. According to tradition, Queen Maya asked to return to her father’s home to give birth. With the King’s blessing she set out in a large procession in a royal palanquin


Along the way she so captured by the splendor of a beautiful garden grove she asked to stop. As she reached up to touch the fruits of a blossoming tree her son, the Buddha, was born…while she was standing up, he came right out…

8. Christmas Day at 5pm “King” James and the Miami Heat take on the Los Angeles Lakers! Get out your Gloria Estefan records, push the furniture back and practice your spicy hot salsa dancing as your pre-game warm up!

9. Set up a hot chai tea stand and pass out cupfuls to crazy runners or intrepid dog walkers passing through the neighborhood.

10. Every time a bell rings take a big swig of eggnog (...spicy because of the nutmeg and rum!)

okay, have a very Merry One, : )

Amanda

Merry Christmas!

Happy Monday (on a "tuneful" Tuesday),

Amanda & Mitty : )

new beginnings

Good Morning,

January marks 20 years since I sustained a spinal cord injury. I was riding home with a friend from school when a lady ran a red light and broadsided the car I was riding in two blocks from my home. I woke up in the backseat wheel well and watched all my efforts to stand produced one small movement. My arm slowly lifted and dropped with a thud hitting me in the face. Instantly, I was a C5-C6 quadriplegic. Thankfully, no one else was injured.

Although I have made a considerable physical recovery and peace with my circumstances, I am still driven to look for resolution to unanswered questions.

In the spirit of new beginnings, I recently had "Muffins with the Minister" at a new church.

Over muffins (and grapes I might add...)

I learned things like the difference between “orthodoxy” and “orthopraxy,” how religion spread across the American frontier, and why perhaps every Wednesday afternoon before CCD class we had orange drink and cheese puffs--the Catholic church does not rely on shared governance when determining matters inside the church body (I would've voted for a cookie!).

Perhaps this is why I never really asked further after the “swishy-legged” nun.

I’ve told the story before but it basically goes like this…

I was 16 paralyzed from the neck down when the “swishy-legged” nun walked in “swish-swish-swish” to my darkened ICU room. I could hear her panty hose as she waddled up beside me and smiled down with a kind grandmotherly face. I cried, "Why did this happen?" I apologized for whatever sins I might have done…sometimes I am mean to my brother…sometimes I like to act like a big shot…I mean sometimes I showoff in sports…

I cried, “Does God care?”

The nun responded,

Yes God cared. He was in fact there (at the scene of the accident). God was sitting atop a very tall building and he yelled down "I care for you Amanda!" but he was too far away so I couldn’t hear him...

What? This makes no sense!

Now almost 20 years later, I still couldn’t hear him but listening to Pastor Holly’s talk I thought I’d try again. After “Muffins with the Minister,” I asked for an individual meeting to get a Christian perspective on why this (a spinal cord injury) happened.

Well, my meeting with Pastor Holly did not go as expected. As is the way of today's on-the-go culture, we met at a Panera Bread and shared a Pepsi. If there's one thing I took away from the talk, it's this Pastor Holly has run a marathon and has an interesting way of eating an apple...(okay, that's two...)

As we sat outside at a table next to a busy side street, I watched as she pulled a plump red apple and a kitchen knife from her purse. Pastor Holly is a down home girl from Texas. There's a refreshing candor and earnestness when she listens and a pfffft (finger!) to the world when she gets down to business. Still, I was caught a little off guard as she deftly sliced her apple and tossed the seeds, peel, and fleshy extras over the iron gate...right onto the sidewalk!

I was ready to ask the big question “why did this happen?” (in Christian terms) when our conversation took an abrupt turn. “I really don’t know what to tell you (about your injury).” The gist of her reply was random, permanent debilitation yep, that’s a tough one.

A week later our discussion with my reservations and permission, ended up in the morning's sermon. Very strange to hear some of the most intimate details of your life shared so publicly. Thankfully, the sermon was long and my story served as an illustrative point not the main message. I'm not sure anyone in the congregation realized Holly was speaking about me and I'd like to keep it that way.

I think a common theme we share in our stories (yours maybe in coming out; mine mostly with adjusting to SCI) is suffering. I went to the Adult Education class after Pastor Holly’s sermon and a professor of theology spoke on this topic. Bob Mesle of Graceland University is talking about suffering in a way I've never heard it before and it really resonated with me.

Basically he says

When people are in pain (here we're talking emotional/spiritual) it hurts more if it feels meaningless. Therefore we can expect people in pain to look for meaning in it.

As spiritual seekers, we take two main Paths. The first is to look for the hidden meaning in suffering saying what happened is not really bad after all, because everything that happens to us is really God's will and therefore good. Using this logic I would say, I'm glad my spinal cord injury happened because "everything happens for a reason" and the lessons I've learned from it outweigh any of the problems or negatives.

Yesterday as I sat in line haggling with the Costco Pharmacist about trying to find my bulk order of Fleet, “Liquid suppositories!” I had to say. “Could you please go check on them in the back!” I had to wholeheartedly reject this conclusion.

The other path (WHICH I THINK IS MORE HEALTHY AND REALISTIC) is to acknowledge that bad things happen to good people (things God did not intend or predetermine) and what we CAN DO is create whatever good we can out of what is left.

This is the path I am choosing.

I know with a spinal cord injury I will never get an answer to the BIG why question. I believe there is no solace in continuing to look for the hidden meaning in religious leaders they aren’t really our faith, just humans with struggles like us.

Instead, I’d rather focus on new beginnings, what’s left in the life before us. In this way, I can live today taking comfort in joy and whatever good there is left.

And there is plenty…I found it today.

Across the crowded mall, I saw her. Her eyes lit up like the sparkling Christmas lights all around. With her one strong arm she waved and beckoned me forward. With her one strong leg she scooted her wheelchair my way. I didn’t know this beautiful stranger with the cotton white hair and bright red sweat suit but she knew me. Although unable to speak, when our footrests finally met her smile melted my heart and lifted me…

Yes, yes! Her eyes said. She grabbed my hand and nodded her encouragement. She nodded excitedly to my wheelchair then sat herself up straighter in hers. She shook our clasped hands “We’re doing it together! Keep going keep going!”

Yes, I promised her we are strong!

This January for me is a month of new beginnings…

So why did this, a spinal cord injury happen?

Let’s let go and together

Let’s live on!

Happy Monday,

Amanda

how to adventure through Crate and Barrel...

Good Morning,

If there's one thing I've learned about ridin' around in a wheelchair in the winter it's that it is important to look for adventure both big and small. As things like ICE scraping and grocery shopping become the main event, some of those smaller adventures can take on more significance and meaning. For example, this past weekend my mom was in town and wanted to do some of her holiday shopping at Crate and Barrel.

I've created a pictorial primer for people in wheelchairs (or anyone for that matter) on how to enhance the experience.

How to Adventure Through Crate & Barrel




Create memory games with the flatware...




Play "hide the nut" with the menorah...




Always fun, stick a spoon on your nose... (*note to my wheelie friends. when the 5th sales person asks you if you need help say "yes" can you stick this on my nose?)



Practice your quad rugby or wheelchair football moves with a GIANT pine cone...






(watch out for glitter pants)

And last...don't overlook the arts. You can create some Kleenex origami and display the rest of the contents in your pockets using cool Memo clips!





Alright, now let's get out there and do it! Many bright wishes to your holiday adventures. Happy Monday.

Amanda