Hawkeye Memories

The 500 word essay that I submited to Hawkeyesports.com regarding Hawkeye memories in an attempt to win tickets to Iowa football and/or basketball games...if I win, I'll let you know!

I love sports. Football is my favorite. The Iowa Hawkeyes are my favorite team. This has been the case for as long as I can remember. I grew up east of Iowa City, in the same hometown of former Hawkeye great Marv Cook. My parents are both University of Iowa alums. I would usually get to go to one Hawkeyes game each season as a child, but I always watched them on TV. Nick Bell was the first player that I recall being my favorite, but other favorite Hawkeyes from my childhood included: Vernon Rollins, Damien Robinson, Sedrick Shaw, Tavian Banks, Bashir Yamini, Jerry Montgomery, and Fred Barr before my age equaled that of the players on the roster.

I was fortunate to be an undergraduate at the University of Iowa while Kirk Ferentz was re-establishing Iowa as a regular Big Ten contender. I had season tickets and I never missed a home game. Actually, my fondest memories of college took place while attending Iowa football games on the road in places like Minneapolis, Madison, Champaign, Miami, and Orlando, but those memories are longer than 500 words would allow. After graduation I moved to Davenport and gave up my season tickets as I became a graduate student taking Saturday class. Nonetheless, I still followed the Hawkeyes. My wife and I would travel to Iowa City for a handful of games each fall, and I would watch the rest on TV. Even when occupied by class, during games I would receive play-by-play text messages keeping me updated.

This year, however, I was done with graduate school. My wife and I purchased season tickets. Expectations for the season were the highest they’d been in my adulthood. Not only was 2010 going to be great because Iowa was going to contend for the Rose Bowl, but it was going to be great because my wife and I were expecting our first child on October 13th! The pregnancy was going well; my wife was a trooper going to the Iowa State, Ball State (staying through the rain), and Penn State games with me. After the Penn State game, I thought that I was in the clear! There were 20 days until Iowa’s next home game, and surely our son would be born prior to that. My son, knowing how much his Dad loved the Hawks was timing his entrance perfectly! Then the due date passed. The Michigan game came and went. My attendance at the Iowa/Wisconsin game was questionable. My wife agreed that if we were out of the hospital before Saturday, I could go to the game. We had Ryne on Thursday, the 21st. We were in the hospital on the 22nd, and we left around 10am on the 23rd. I decided to skip the game; I would be watching the Iowa/Wisconsin game with my family in our home. Unfortunately Iowa lost, but I’d never been in such a good mood after a loss due to the presence of my newly born son!

I'm not sure if I will win, but I'm pretty sure that I should win.

Christmas Movies

Like the song says Christmas, "it's the most wonderful time of the year!" Spending time with family, Christmas shopping, all of the lights (wish I could make some sort of connection to the Kanye West song that goes by this title, but there is unfortunately zero connection), the one time during the year when snow is tolerable, giving, the sending and receiving of Christmas cards with people that you haven’t found time to communicate with often enough, the decorations, the smells produced by Christmas trees and baking Christmas treats, the time off of work (sorry if this does not apply to you!), bowl season, the NFL playoffs starting to take shape, the Bulls back to playing on Christmas day, and wearing Christmas ties are amongst the many reasons why I love this time of the year. However, the intent of this entry is to elaborate on a recent Facebook status of mine, “My five favorite Christmas MOVIES,” because I LOVE staying in when it is cold outside and watching Christmas movies with my family (and a glass or two of red wine and/or dark beer).

Honorable Mention: Bad Santa, Elf, and Home Alone

5.) Family Stone: this is my guilty pleasure on the list. It is funny, it is serious, and it is sad. Like the late, great basketball coach Jimmy Valvano said, there are three things that you should do every day: think, laugh, and cry; this movie can bring you to all three of those things.

4.) Four Christmases: two reasons why I like this movie – 1) to a degree this is what Amy and I do each year, and 2) Vince Vaughn. Anything that Vince Vaughn says is funny due to his delivery. The best two parts of this movie: “Woman! Do your job and swaddle this baby!” This was all I knew about swaddling babies prior to Ryne. And, “I'm gonna vomit. I'm about to throw up. Oh, God. I'll get sick. I can't be here. Take it away from me. I'm sorry. I love you. You gotta get out of here. I can't breathe.”

3.) Die Hard (One & Two): one reason John McClane. He is the baddest fictional character ever who isn’t a superhero (second only to Batman). I remember seeing, and loving, Die Hard Two in the theaters on a rainy day when I was seven while vacationing to Lake Okoboji.

2.) It’s a Wonderful Life: classic. It really is a wonderful life for us all. Unfortunately, Clarence is not available to show all of us the little, subtle things that we do/have in our lives that are appreciated, enjoyable, and meaningful. However, when we slow down and take a step back to reflect, it is evident that our lives are meaningful to many others around us.

1.) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: this is the end goal. I want to go out with the family and cut down a tree from a tree farm. I want to host the family for Christmas (prerequisite: owning a larger home). I want to dress the house in lights that attract a crowd. I want to go sledding very fast down very big hills (though preferably not into traffic and/or Wal Mart parking lots). Through all of their faults and flaws, the Griswolds are a great family; a family that wouldn’t be horrible to model.

(Three favorite “Holiday” themed TV episodes/shows: A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Seinfeld – “The Strike” (which should be renamed to the Festivus episode))

Reading is FUNdamental

Before I begin...Ryne is now smiling from time to time!

There are MANY things that I hope Ryne will achieve/experience in his lifetime. First and foremost I want him to be happy and healthy. I would like for him to be well educated throughout his life, and well employed once he is an adult. Yes, I would like for him to be a world class athlete (or just an athlete for that matter), but that would just be icing on the cake; I honestly feel this way – Ryne could chose not to participate in athletics, and I would be fine with that. Although, hopefully he will at least choose to take an interest as a spectator of sports…

Anyways…I really hope that he becomes an avid reader. I love to read. Reading is enjoyable. Reading is relaxing. Reading is how you educate yourself. Reading is the sign of a life long learner. These days, life long learners are what we try to create in schools.

Prior to Ryne being born, I would read (usually) every night before going to bed for about half of an hour. I would (usually) finish about a book a month. I still read, it is just harder to find the time to read for long stretches of time.

I realize that I have many obligations as a parent while raising a child. Amongst the obligations, I feel obligated to model reading and I feel obligated to read to my child. I do read to Ryne, but I feel as though I should be reading to him more. It is hard to read to someone who is still too young to show too much reciprocal interest. However, he will sit and listen and stare at the pages if you catch him in the right mood; I LOVE to read to him when I can catch him in the right mood!

Ryne has a quite large book collection, considering he is still less than two months old. My favorite books to read to him are Where the Wild Things Are, The Giving Tree, and during Christmas season How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I can’t wait to steal a Griswold family tradition and begin reading The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve! I also enjoy reading the little cardboard books to him that contain facts about my favorite sports teams (it is NEVER too early to learn; Amy even usually learns a thing or two when I read these to Ryne).

Sometimes I will even read whatever it is that I am reading to Ryne. The fathering book that Amy gave me told me that babies liked to be read Sports Illustrated because of the colorful pictures (YES!) so I do that sometimes. On occasion, I will read him articles from the newspaper and the internet. When he was first born I was reading a book by John Wooden, and I read him the little anecdotes/life lessons that it contained.

Currently, (and this is kind of funny, to me) I am reading a book about the greatest team that I’ve ever seen – the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. This was my favorite team ever (and during this particular year my favorite player was Dennis Rodman), I think that my family probably watched a majority of their 82 regular season plus playoff games! I regress, last night I read aloud a few of the chapters to Ryne. Unfortunately this is not a picture book, but I noticed that Ryne was staring intently at the cover. I kind of thought (hoped) that he was staring at the front cover as there is a collage of the different Bulls on that cover. However, it seemed he was staring at the back cover…a picture of Dennis Rodman…in drag. Oh well, I think it is kind of funny…but maybe I should stick with cardboard picture books.