Tuesday, July 10, 2007

My Dad

This morning I rode over with my old high school baseball coach to see my grandparents. I was actually in my old hometown and my old coach said he had to do some work in the town that my grandparents lived in, and asked if I'd like to ride over with him. Once we got over there, he'd just drop me off, and then pick me up once he had finished. I agreed, since I had been meaning to stop over and see my grandfather after his recent surgery.

I dropped in and surprised both he and my grandmother, and immediately I was back in the routine of having to repeat myself every other sentence because of their lack of hearing. "How you been doing?" "What?" "I said how have you been doing.....since the surgery?" "Oh.....good." I'm just kidding it's not that bad, but sometimes it can be pretty close.

We caught up and talked mostly about sports. Well, I say sports, the conversation mostly consisted of my grandfather complaining about what a travesty it was that Craig Biggio was left off the National League All-Star Roster. "He hit 3,000 this year. I tell you what, Bud Selig has too much Milwaukee biased in him." "I know Pappaw. I know." I was a little shocked that 'the Beeg' was left off the roster, but that's for another blog.

The conversations then started to shift back to when I played, which I loved; and then they began to shift to when my dad and my uncle played college football together. I always loved these stories the best. I always took so much pride in the way people spoke of my dad's play. "Hunter, he was just that good. He was always so competitive."

I then began to ask him for his favorite moments of when my father played. I had probably heard these stories before, but I still craved to listen to them over and over again. Whether it was football, basketball, and baseball stories in high school, or him playing baseball and football in college. I loved hearing the war stories over and over and over.

My grandfather spent most of his time talking about football stories, but then he actually switched gears to talk about my dad's senior year in basketball and one game in particular. I never heard that much about my dad in basketball. I liked it; it was the one sport that I actually thought I was better at than he was, so it gave me a little bragging rights whenever I would come home.

Pappaw then began by talking about how integration had occurred during his high school years and that while the majority of my dad's friends stayed playing football and baseball, 'the blacks' took over basketball. My dad was the only white person on the team, and I almost got the feeling that my grandfather took more pride in the fact that he wasn't scared to compete against 'the blacks'. But then paused, and said, "Hunter, you're Dad was always the most popular kid on the team to be honest. Can you imagine that he actually served as the Team Captain. Bruce (my father) never saw color. I think that's what I always admired about him, because I was just raised so differently. Your daddy would play with whoever was out there; he just loved to play and he loved other people that loved to play. That's one of the biggest characteristics that I see in you. You never see color."

I love my dad. If this was a professional paper, I think I would close this differently; but I really don't think I have anything else to say about the matter. I just like my dad a lot.

Summer Part Deux

So I figured I'd make my next blog commenting on how I thought the summer went. I remember last year feeling constantly tired. I remember being able to fall asleep at any given time. I'd have 30 minutes until we got back to Oxford from Holly Springs......why not a nap? I could turn it on and off. I also remember last year having my two second years give me so much help that I really never felt overwhelmed with lesson planning. I wonder if my first years felt the same. I feel like I'm really bad at gauging how much help certain people need, so I hope that none of my first years felt lost at sea.

Ummm, this blog isn't flowing well. Alright, I'm going to switch gears and making this a lot more conversational. I thought summer school went well. I especially liked the whole idea of adding clubs to get more interaction between teachers and students; a lot of students seemed to like that. My club started off awesome, but I think ended up turning into a B.S. gym class. It definitely turned into a participate if you want to or chill in the bleachers if you want to time. I just felt that high schoolers who are in summer school should have a little more freedom, but now I'm starting to regret it a little bit. I really liked getting to teach with Mary. I think evaluations would've gotten really boring had I not had someone fun to be in the classroom with me. I also loved my first-years. All of them had a great sense of humor which made the interaction very easy. I feel like we all bonded; maybe we should have some kind of reunion or something....probably not. I also forgot how much I enjoy the people in this program. During the year, everyone gets so bogged down by their own lives that we lose that camaraderie. We regained it this summer; it was awesome. Plus, the new people were equally as fun, so it almost felt a little bit like summer camp.

As far as our graduate classes go, I thought the law class was actually challenging. It was weird to have to spend a lot of time studying for something again. Ah, it was probably good for us. I did like our professor too; he was so chill. You could tell he was definitely not an education professor. He wasn't as Ann Monroe-ish. He didn't simplify everything and he kind of put all the pressure on us to perform. I miss Ann though.

Alright, what else can I talk about. I'm not one to complain but I would put the first years in Northgate and the second years in Campus Walk. I'm just going to throw that out there. Plus, I would think that you would want the first-years on campus more than the second-years. I'm fine with the computers. I understand that; I would change the housing though. I love how volleyball was the big sport this summer rather than ultimate frisbee. I love me some frisbee, but volleyball was so much more fun I thought. Plus, there were some studs on the sand. I gave a few "sack-lunches" myself.

Finally, I didn't get any Doc Mullins time; that needs to be changed. The Godfather himself needs to grace us with his presence and impart his knowledge on all things Mississippi and all things fratty. That was a joke, but I really am looking forward to some Mullins time this fall. Overall, the summer was awesome. I'm definitely enjoying the break though. I'm out.