I Lost A Friend

David Stanley Lost a Friend

David Stanley

I Lost a Friend is a guest post by David Stanley. David is a fellow dad blogger whose work I greatly enjoy for its wisdom and distinct voice. He blogs at DadsRoundtable and on his personal blog Rants & Mutters.

He blogs on the oddities and banalities of life, lifecycle events, Judaism, sports (usually bicycle racing and soccer and golf; unless something grabs my attention), kids and education and cancer. Usually. Unless something grabs my attention.

As someone who finds nearly everything interesting, it’s no surprise, David is involved in a wide variety of things. He is a musician, teacher & science geek.  He’s a serious bike racer. He’s also a cancer survivor. He’s also a voice-over actor at My Voice-over Masters.com and a freelance writer. Follow him on Twitter, @dstan58

A friend of mine died Wednesday evening. He was diagnosed with an inoperable glioblastoma nearly one year ago. He leaves behind two adult children from his first marriage; a son and daughter, and twin adult stepdaughters from his second marriage to one of my wife’s closest friends.

Sad, indeed, yet, most of us have a similar story somewhere in our lives. This is not a story of grief. It is the story of friendship. Until my friend’s last few months of life, we were not friends.

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I Miss the Tree

Tree Stump

The remains of the tree.

It’s always hard to return home from vacation. There’s mail to sort through. Suitcases to be unpacked. Laundry to be washed.  Upon returning home from Disney World last week, my family and I discovered something that made our landing back to reality more difficult.

The tree was gone. Yes, the tree that straddled our property was now a stump. Just after we moved in – 7 years ago – the tree directly in front of our house was removed.  Now, there were two trees gone.

I miss the trees.

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A New Dream: Grades, Friends, and Florida

Grades, Friends, and Florida.

Old Fashioned Grading Book

Grading is done on computers these days. Well, that’s one thing that is easier about grading.

The fall term has ended and with the conclusion of the term comes grading.

Grading is a lot of work. However, the most difficult part for me is when it’s time to actually put the grade in.

I’m troubled by those students who straddle the border of pass/fail like a circus performer on a high wire. I have an internal debate and never feel great about it when I’m done.

Anyway, I’m done grading now and am happy to leave it behind.

So, what’s been going on? Well, the frigid weather seems to be a topic which continues to dominate the news and conversations.  And not for good reason.

Most conversations go something like this:

It is cold out there.

Yup.

I can’t wait till this winter is over.

Me too.

Both participants of said conversation stare off and sigh. Clearly, they are both dreaming warm weather thoughts.

As I was putting on my third layer (you know what they say about layers. So are onions warm?) of clothing one morning, a thought ran through my head.

Actually, my mind wandered to the Friends episode when Joey puts on all of Chandler’s clothes. The two friends were having an argument and Chandler took Joey’s underwear. So, in retaliation, Joey put on all of Chandler’s clothes sans underwear and starts doing lunges.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUxOnXWJkDQ

Anyway, that’s what I feel like every morning is like.

  1. Get up.
  2. Put on as much clothes as I can fit under my jacket
  3. Leave house while calculating how many days are left till Spring.
  4. Chant Sand, Sun, Beaches, Oh My while shielding face from wind.

You may remember my chant from an earlier post. I am still using this trick despite the mixed results.  Anyway, when I posted this blog entry, I asked for additions to my kind of crazy cold’ list.

A number of people gave me some great and funny response, and I recommend you check them out on the post (SandSunBeachesPost) or on my Facebook Page. My favorite came from my colleague Maria M.

Here it is: It’s so cold that politicians have their hands in their OWN pockets!

By the way, Maria also teaches English and as you can see from her snarky comment (a word that she uses to describe herself), we Brooklyn High School English teachers are witty.

So, you’ve got Grades. You’ve got Friends. What about Florida?

Calm down Fox. We’re getting to your home state.

By now, regular readers are familiar with my desire to move to Florida upon retirement. A glorious warm place is the essential criteria. Well, this desire has changed.

And I bet I am not the only one who has had a change of mind.

Check out this article I wrote that appeared in the paper recently and find out how the dream has changed: The New Dream.

 

photo credit:

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriabernal/2289482819/”>victoriabernal</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>cc</a>

 

 

 

 

 

Missed Moment: Have You Seen My Child?

Child gone missing in the suburbs

Stay on the premises!!

“Come on. Have another,” I encouraged my house guest. It was as if someone had turned the clock back, and we were pledges in a fraternity.

It was a year and a half after my family and I had moved into our new home. The transition from city to suburban living was challenging. My wife and I missed life in New York City. Though my wife and I were rarely able to enjoy the happenings around the city as we were too busy looking after our young children, we missed the business, the culture, and the nightlife. But we needed a yard, a garage and good schools, so the suburbs were where my young family and I belonged.

I thought meeting people in the suburbs would be easy. You have a 5-year-old? Well, I also have a 5-year-old. Let’s have a barbeque in the backyard.

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