Birthday Blog

Happy birthday to me! Yeah, I know.. sometimes its hard to admit to becoming a year older. But I'm not afraid of it! So today, I am another year older. Wiser.... well, that is debatable..

I must say that this birthday was one of the more odd birthdays I have had, sImply because of scheduling. There is just a lot going on right now with volleyball, school starting, busy work schedules, film productions, marathon training, etc. So the fact that we were able to carve any time out to celebrate me, was a miracle.

My birthday actually began yesterday (Monday). It was Labor Day, a day off of work... a day home with the kids... a day to not have to film (yeah right... I am filming every day). But this was my best chance to have a few free hours. So in the middle of the day the family treated me to several games of bowling. The kids did great (bumpers always help!) and I... well... I bowled.. eh... oh... ok, I stunk.. But that's not the point. the point is spending quality family time. We then ate lunch at my favorite restaurant, the Olive Garden, before heading to the High School to, of course... do more filming..

Today, however, was my real birthday.. and was rather interesting. Why? Because after a year of vowed paybacks for the birthday madness (and desk trashing) that I have caused to others in the office.. I managed to get through the entire day without a mention of it being my birthday. No one even remembered. Which was highly amusing... and depressing all at the same time.

Due to a crazy volleyball schedule, I did get to spend a large part of my day in the gym. Tonight, it was two preseason games for the girls. One against LaSalle, a team from Portland, who typically gives us a run for our money at State. And North Bend, who last season was the second place team at state. In other words, why start the season with easy wins against other local teams when we can bring in 2 of the top teams to really push us into gear. And that is what they did!

So rather than spend the evening at the movies, or eating cake and ice cream, or wearing party hats.. I spent it in the gym.... filming volleyball games. Now don't get me wrong.. I am not complaining.. I always enjoy the team, I enjoy the games, and I enjoy filming. It was just a different way to spend a birthday. And there were still some surprises to be had. We had just finished the first match of the night and I was heading out of the gym. That's when I got mobbed by the team, all singing happy birthday to me... I instinctively flipped the camera on, but only got the latter half of the song by the time it engaged. They then handed me a bag of birthday presents and a bouquet of flowers... yes, a bouquet of flowers (Little Calvin insisted that I get flowers for my birthday). I don't think I have ever received flowers before... very different experience! And so, I opened my birthday presents there... in the hall outside of the gym: new pirate toys, new ducks shirt, a running head lamp (I'll save that story for another blog) and a speaker system for my iPod. All in all.. very cool.

As for tonight's games.. welllllllll, it's early in the season. And it's better to push ourselves against really tough teams than to find easy teams to play that provide easy victories. That said, we ALMOST beat LaSalle.. most game were within 2 points. And North Bend... well, they have an amazing power hitter that just dominates. They are amazing to watch and I would be surprised to see them quickly ranked number one in the state. They beat us pretty heavily, but again.. this is only the pre-season. At this point I just have to think in Denver Bronco terms. It always seemed while growing up a fan of the Broncos that the years they had an awesome pre-season were the years that they did the worst, and vice-versa, a terrible pre-season gave us a great regular season. I can only hope for the same thing here.

And Thursday night, we are playing Siuslaw in Florence.. the team that beat us out of our League Championship last year. So it will be payback time.

If you'd like to watch my happy birthday serenade, click here for the video.