Crush White Rules!!

I am FINALLY at a point where I can write about something other than work, so I will! :)

This past weekend we traveled to Charlotte, NC to take Kennedy to her soccer tournament and visit Jill and Bobby Roeder, who moved there in December from Holly Springs. This was Passover weekend, and usually we spend the Jewish holidays with our adoptive Jewish family here in Holly Springs. But, this year, Passover was the same weekend as the Annual Julian Brown soccer tournament, and we couldn't be in two places at once.

It turns out that Jill and Bobby's house was only 15 minutes from the soccer fields, so we were able to enjoy soccer AND Passover! :) Mark took a half day on Friday and we were able to get to the Roeder's before dark. We spent the evening eating burgers and hot dogs and catching up with everything Roeder. Bobby's parents were also there for the weekend--they are wonderful people, too!

Saturday morning was spent visiting and gearing up for soccer. Kennedy's first game was at noon, and the girls played really hard, but lost 3-2. The low number of goals was indicative of how hard both teams played. Our 4:30 game was a bit different, tho! Our girls won 6-1, and Kennedy scored 3 goals!! The wide goal margin put our team in first place going into the semi-finals on Sunday morning. After dinner with the White squad, the kids all went back to the hotel and had an ice cream party. Kennedy spent the night in the hotel with her teammates while Mark and I went back to Jill and Bobby's to share Passover with them.

Sunday morning's semi-final game was a heartbreaker. Down 3-0 halfway through the second period, Kennedy's team rallied and ended up tying the score before the game ended. After TWO overtime periods, the other team scored (the ref gave them 5 penalty shots in the last 15 minutes of the game). Our girls were exhausted from playing 3 games in 2 days with only 1 sub, while the other teams had 3-4 subs each. The girls were very upset that they lost, but several of us took our kids out for ice cream before we headed home and their spirits were much improved after that! I think they realize that they kicked some soccer butt against some very aggressive teams and have nothing to be ashamed of.

Kennedy is upset because some of her teammates don't seem to want to work very hard, but that's a hard lesson in life and part of being a leader is encouraging your peers to play with the same determination that you have! Kennedy's response to her disappointment is that she intends to try out for U11 in May so she can move up and play with girls who really WANT to play!

Hopefully the trend of replacing personal disappointment with new personal goals instead of wanting to give up will continue! :)

Thank you!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who responded to my last-minute plea and donated to Serena's March for Babies! She made her original goal of $350 about 2 weeks ago, and then just made her $500 goal this week.

It's such a wonderful organization to support, and I appreciate that several of you tossed some additional bucks into the hat for the walk this weekend.

I am hyperventilating this evening as I desperately try to finish TWO projects before we leave for Charlotte tomorrow for Kennedy's annual Julian Brown Soccer Tournament. It is beginning to look like I'll have to work while I'm down there, which I was really trying to avoid.
However, I won't be able to post here for a few more days....

I'll be back, tho!! :)

March for Babies is THIS WEEK!!

Introducing Sadie ---->

We have a family friend whose son and daughter-in-law just had their first child. Born with Down's Syndrome and a host of other congenital abnormalities that had to be corrected surgically within a few hours of her birth, Sadie has made remarkable progress in the last 6 weeks.

The annual March for Babies event is taking place this Friday. My daughter, Serena, is very involved in the NCState chapter of March of Dimes and has walked in this event for the last 3 years! Her goal this year for sponsorships is $500 and she is just $85 shy!

Even just a $10 donation will help! Please take a moment, click on the link to the right of this posting, and share a donation to help the fight to prevent infant mortality and birth defects. The United States is 27th in the world for infant mortality -- that's the lowest of all the developed countries! Surely the unaware young mothers in our society are worth a donation to this cause!

Thank you!

Have a Mate!

Today was "unwind" day -- our Argentinian visitors are off on the next leg of their whirlwind tour of Central NC, and today was spent visiting friends and playing soccer in the rain. Kennedy and Mark also went to a Father-Daughter Dance tonight that was organized by the Girl Scouts. They had a great time and Kennedy got a patch for her vest! They had formal photos taken again this year, and I can't wait to see them!

Last night we took three of our Argentinians bowling -- one had an invitation to have dinner with friends in Apex and one was taken to a jazz concert by her host family. The other three wanted to go bowling, so we took them. We got a late start and didn't get to the bowling alley until almost 8pm, but we took Kennedy and met everyone there. Several members of our Rotary club joined us and we ALL bowled. Nadia, Mariana, and Alicia had never bowled before, so we had the bumpers on both lanes, but everyone had a GREAT time and the girls went out with one of their hosts afterwards to find a pizza place. The rest of us "old folks" limped home and passed out, however! :)

Today they went to the state's Peace Conference in Chapel Hill and their host families drove them there, so I didn't need to chauffer them anywhere for the first time in 3 days... it seemed strange to just drive my own family around for a change! :)

This week I get back to work and work, and more work... I think I will probably attend a couple of social events in other Rotary areas over the next 2 weeks to check in and see how the team is doing. I really enjoyed getting to know them and would like to share some more Mate with them and discuss what they have learned in other areas. I am purchasing my own Mate and gourd from a place online tomorrow -- it's an infusion drink that is served hot, and it's very good! The team introduced it to us while they were here and it has many benefits for the drinker, including increased metabolism! I've included a photo here so you can see what it looks like. It's a very common drink in Latin America that is shared among people in social gatherings -- especially university environments.

More soon...!

Whirlwind Week!!

Wow!
My feet hurt and my head is spinning, but this week has been so much more rewarding than I thought it would be. For the last 2 1/2 days, I've been chauffering 5 Argentinian women around our area, visiting businesses and introducing them to American culture as much as I can in between events.

Part of their commitment to the Rotary Foundation is to make presentations to Rotary Clubs in the different areas they tour. So after picking them up on Wednesday, we went to the Angier Rotary Club, which holds its meetings in an old, renovated train depot in downtown Angier (about 30 miles south of Holly Springs). After enjoying good Southern hospitality there, we loaded into the van and headed to Raven's Rock State Park, where the ladies enjoyed a presentation about the state park system and statewide efforts to preserve as much land as possible in the face of increasing development. The ladies hiked to the rock with another member of our club (Willem) while I raced home to get Kennedy and Mark!

After the state park trip, we all met back at Tollan Wade's farm for a cookout -- hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, cole slaw, chili for the dogs, and chocolate kalhua cake!! All the host families were there and everyone had a chance to relax and get to know one another. Tollan is our resident author of adventure books who is from South Africa originally.

The kids (some of the adults included) played soccer on the lawn, and I think Kennedy has a crush on Tollan's 8-year old son. She said to me in a quiet moment: "Mom, I think I REALLY like him! He said he has no friends because they all say he's boring!" I asked "Why do they think he's boring?" And Kennedy's reply was, "Just because he has a rock collection and wants to be an archeologist when he grows up... why would anyone think that was boring! I mean, I want to be a geologist when I grow up (news to us!) and that's almost the same thing!" :)
Alex Wade is a walking encyclopaedia at age 8, and Kennedy thinks he is fascinating. I think we'll be visiting the chicken farm a LOT this summer!! :)

Yesterday (Thursday), we started at Willem's house for coffee and tea, then went to a presentation at Wake Tech's Business and Industry Center. It was fascinating and I think the team is pretty jazzed up about the idea of instituting a "workforce development" program in Argentina after listening to what we do in the States. After the presentation, we had an hour to kill, so Vitaliy (the van driver, also a member of our club, originally from Russia) and I introduced them to a coffee house in Apex. They had never had lattes before, or bagels, so that was fun to watch! :)

The team presented at the Apex Rotary Club at 1pm at a Carrabas Italian Grill restaurant and then we headed to Cary to visit the publisher of Cary Magazine and Triangle East magazine. They got a tour, heard a presentation of the publishing business, and the house photographer took their picture -- it will be in an upcoming issue of Triangle East magazine and the ladies are VERY excited about that!

After the magazine publisher, we found an hour to stop at the mall! You might think that was a bit frivolous, but they don't have malls in Argentina like we do here, so it was definitely a stop they wanted to make. :) After a stop at Rainbow Lanes (bowling alley) Clayton to present at the Rotary Club there, we all headed home for the evening.

Today (Friday) they are spending the day in Raleigh, and the Raleigh West club has a full day of activities for them -- tonight we pick them back up at a social hour the Raleigh Club has planned for them, and will be taking them bowling! Serena joined us this morning for breakfast and they have invited her to go out "clubbing" with them tomorrow night. The GSE team from this district that will be going TO Argentina in May is also a group of young women just a little older than Serena, and the two teams are going out tomorrow night together. Serena is hoping to get an invitation to travel to Argentina and stay with members of the team, who are very receptive to the idea, so we'll see what happens.

As for me, I am going to spend the rest of the day getting some much neglected work done and taking a quick nap before I have to go back and pick the team up. It looks like we will be taking them to the beach at the end of the month before they fly back to Argentina, so we will get to see them again before they leave!

It's been exhausting, but a lot of fun, and I think I've learned as much from them as they have been learning from us! :) I'll post some photos in a couple of days...

Viva Argentina!

This week, in addition to editing almost around the clock to make several deadlines, I have been putting the final touches on 3 days of activities for a group of 5 business women from Cordoba, Argentina. They are here on a Rotary District-sponsored Group Study Exchange (GSE), and will be visiting all 8 Areas of District 7710, of which my Fuquay-Varina Rotary Club is a member.

It has been exhausting but fun, and my only regret is how few of our club members were willing to do ANYTHING to help out. The lack of energy in my club is truly discouraging, and although I am scheduled to be the President in another year, I'm seriously reconsidering it.

ANYWAY, for the next three days, I will be a tour guide in southern and western Wake County. We are scheduled to visit three other clubs -- Angier, Apex, and Clayton -- where the team will give a presentation about their country. In addition, we are planning to visit the new Kraft YMCA in Apex, the Wake Technical College's Business and Industry Center in Apex, the publisher of Cary Magazine, and the new Wake County SPCA facility in Garner. We're having a cookout for them tonight to share the American cookout experience, and we're taking them "clubbing" one night, and out to dinner and a movie on the third night.

I am really excited to meet the 5 ladies, but I know that I'll be absolutely wiped out by Saturday night. I have to remember to get film for the camera! :)

I love the international feel that the club is incubating! I may have to stick around just for that!! :)

A Dark Day in Carolina

Today is a dark day in our neck of the woods -- yes its dark because its been raining off and on for the last week, but it's also dark in a figurative sense because our two brightest hopes for springtime glory were set back on their heels this weekend (no pun intended)!

The Carolina Hurricanes (and it's no secret I'm a huge fan!) were division leaders all season -- only fell from first place for 14 days out of a 6 month run -- and were whomped in the final 2 weeks of play by a team that flew from last place in the division to division champs in 2 months!
It was SO HARD to watch the Canes slide from an 8-2-0 "last 10" record to a 5-4-1 "last 10" in the last 2-3 weeks, but it just happened.

Then, to make it worse, we watched the Capitals beat the Panthers last night (not sure why we put ourselves through that, but I guess we had some slight hope that the Panthers could be a spoiler), and when it was over, we quickly switched to the Kansas-UNC Final Four game to cheer ourselves up. Well, for those of you who followed THAT game, you know that we weren't any happier! Kansas handed UNC their worst loss of the season! We didn't even watch the game after we saw the score in the first half -- switched the channel to America's Most Wanted, where we actually win sometimes !! :)

But there's always a "But..."

You know, I think it's human nature to live vicariously through people or groups of people who can do something we don't have a prayer of doing. AND, I think it's also human nature (for some people, anyway) to be attracted to people or events that rise above a significant challenge or two to put the nay-sayers to shame. That's the way I feel about the Canes! The year I lost my job to a bunch of idiots who took control of my destiny away from me was the year the Canes won the Stanley Cup. After wallowing in self-pity for a couple of months, I was bouyed up by the adrenaline of the race for a large shiny (ugly) trophy that was called a "Cup" but didn't look anything like one -- by a group of guys that were paid a lot of money to beat each other up on an ice rink in June! I had never watched hockey much, but the fire and grit of that team as they thumbed their collective noses at the NHL (who has always behaved as if southern hockey was a mistake) by proving all the pundits wrong was intoxicating in so many ways!

I really credit that 2-month period with getting me out of the funk I was in that spring, and as a result, I will always believe the Canes are special, regardless of how poorly they might do. Do I hate the fact that they are out of the playoffs for the second year in a row after winning the Stanley Cup? Of course! Do I hate the fact that all their hard work after months of injuries and two long rounds of the flu came down to one game that they couldn't win?? Absolutely!

But, I am a "forever fan" (FF), and I'm already looking forward to July 1 when training starts and I am already getting caught up in the talk of trades and acquisitions and the makeup of the 2008-09 team. For me, the Carolina Hurricanes are a constantly evolving story of guys trying to beat the odds in a league that thinks their division is a joke, and I hope those guys enjoy a much-deserved vacation while they heal and get ready for the next round! And whoever's on the team in the Fall will be my champions for the entire season -- hell, I can hardly skate, let alone play 60 minutes of hockey at that speed!! They certainly have my respect, and they most definitely have my appreciation, and win or lose, they give me something to root for when the rest of my life seems very ordinary and stressful.

Let's go, Canes!!!