Keepin' Busy

When I was a counselor at summer camp, they always taught us that the best way to cure homesickness is to keep busy.  Being busy provides distraction and helps your brain "let go."  Homesickness, or missing a person for that matter, is really just this psychological dependency your brain has fabricated.  Often its not healthy because it really can incapacitate you.  We all have known a person who wanted to be near another so much, that they couldn't live their own life.  They also were so smothering that they drove the other person away.  Its not healthy.  Or we have known a person who cant leave their hometown.  They just get so attached that the thoughts of leaving make them sweat.  They will never enjoy the rest of the world, which has so much to offer.  The remedy is to help the brain to move on.  You gotta redirect its attention.  I ended up having a lot of seemingly strange conversations with kids that went something like this:

Me:  why you crying?
Kid:  i miss my mommy.
Me:  understood.  whats your name?
Kid: Kid.
Me:  What was your favorite activity today?
Kid: sock war. 
Me:  yeah.  that sock war is awesome.  you brush your teeth yet?
Kid:  No.
Me:  okay.  well, go brush your teeth.  then get read for bed.  then get in bed and close your eyes.
Kid:  Ok.

Worked like a charm every time.  Of course, its much harder to self-inflict this kind of jedi mind-trickery.  So, for curing your own heartache induced ailments, you gotta actually physically remain busy.  Luckily I am able to do this.  An expert is a person who can do one thing a thousand times so that they perfect it.  I prefer to try and do a thousand things.  This means i will likely never be an expert, but i sure as heck am going to get a lot done.  I often remark about my results..."well, it ain't pretty, but it will work."  And that's how it is.  I get stuff done....which actually is sort of the de facto motto of NCCC. 

So, what have I been doing?  read on my inquisitive friend....

1) Tuesday night I played soccer in a league.  Did terrible in goal this week.  I usually play the first half.  I mean really sucked it up.  Had a goal go between my legs.  Had a rebound stop on the line until a girl came and bumped it in.  Really ate it hard.  Came out in the second half though and played well on the field.  Almost scored a few goals.  Kept the pressure on.  But in the end we lost.  Then someone told me we were a player down.  Didn't realize that.  Well crap.  No wonder we struggled on defense.  Still though....sucked in goalie.  really really bad.

2) Wednesday night I went go-karting with my little brother.  Quicken Loans was nice enough to rent out the place, open it to the public, do some PR with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and let us kart for free.  They even brought in some real pro NASCAR drivers (Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart) and let some special people they picked out race against them, while the rest of stood in line for the film production they were putting together to no doubt put on their website to talk about how much they were involved with the community.  Ironically, most of the kids who need a Big didn't have any idea who those guys were.  Ironically, many of the Big Bros and Sisses also didn't know who they were. 

Unironically, my little bro, who is in 9th grade, doesn't know how many months are in a year.  I kind of want to strangle everyone who has ever taught him something, because I feel like we all should have taught him that by now.

Stay tuned for more fun descriptions of antics i have been perpetrating...

DAlen




3) string
4) runnin'  in 5 weeks!
5) magic erraser
6) raise the roof!