Just like most people 2000 years ago probably didn't expect the whole "Jesus rising from the dead" thing, our Easter Sunday didn't go exactly as planned.
The plan was to go to church, and then after church they were having a huge Easter egg hunt outside for all the kids. My family in Asia was wanting pictures of Addison so we thought this would be a great opportunity.
We got Addie in her beautiful Easter dress and went to church. Because of the rain, of course, they had to move the Easter egg hunt indoors. As soon as church let out, we realized we had forgotten our camera. We sent Missy's brother Aaron home to get the camera. It's only five minutes away so we figured he'd be there in 10 minutes.
We then went to the nursery to get Addie, only to be met with some bad news. Addie had a huge blowout and had gotten poop all over her leggings and onto her Easter dress. Addison hadn't had a poop blowout in a good 6 months, but of course Easter Sunday is a great day to break that streak.
By now the camera has arrived from home. I'm really glad we had the camera so we could get pictures of a naked Addie or the poop-stained dress. One or the other.
We decided to put Addie's coat on, but other than that she was only wearing a diaper and shoes. We went to join the Easter egg hunt -- only to find that all the other kids had snatched up every single egg.
Fortunately, a mother in our church knew about Addie's plight. She had four kids of her own, so they had acquired plenty of egg plunder during their search. She took some of her kids' excess eggs and re-hid them for Addie, and Addie had a lot of fun finding them. (Thanks Karen!!)
Despite Addie's unconventional new outfit, we got some good pictures of the egg search.
Somehow, the rest of the day went pretty much as planned. We ate a great Easter dinner and took advantage of the rainy weather to take a good nap afterward.
I suppose, on a much smaller and less important scale, that our Easter was kinda like the one 2000 years ago. It wasn't at all what we expected, but it turned out pretty good in the end.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Arrested Development
I went to play at the WinStar Casino last weekend, the big one right on the Oklahoma-Texas I-35 border.
They were gettin' me pretty good, and I decided to take a break to go outside and talk to Missy.
I was kind of wandering around an empty part of the parking lot as we were talking, when all of a sudden a police car flew up and turned on its lights. The officer got out of the car and said, "I need you to hang up the phone."
I told Missy, "Honey, it looks like I'm getting arrested. I'll call you back."
The officer then said, "Do you have any weapons on you? Please put your arms out."
I'm not sure why he asked me about the weapons, because he patted me down even after I said no.
He then informed me that there was a kidnapping suspect on foot in the area. I waited about five minutes while he ran my ID, then let me go when it came back clean.
After my name was cleared, I tried to report to the officer that the poker players inside the casino were robbing me, but that didn't gain much sympathy either.
They were gettin' me pretty good, and I decided to take a break to go outside and talk to Missy.
I was kind of wandering around an empty part of the parking lot as we were talking, when all of a sudden a police car flew up and turned on its lights. The officer got out of the car and said, "I need you to hang up the phone."
I told Missy, "Honey, it looks like I'm getting arrested. I'll call you back."
The officer then said, "Do you have any weapons on you? Please put your arms out."
I'm not sure why he asked me about the weapons, because he patted me down even after I said no.
He then informed me that there was a kidnapping suspect on foot in the area. I waited about five minutes while he ran my ID, then let me go when it came back clean.
After my name was cleared, I tried to report to the officer that the poker players inside the casino were robbing me, but that didn't gain much sympathy either.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Our National Pasttime
On the eve of yet another season, I decided to write a few things about baseball. Here are a few baseball-related top fives.
My five favorite MLB games I personally attended:
1) Astros-Dodgers, 1988. My first ever MLB game, which happened to be at Dodger Stadium. Fernando Valenzuela got rocked that day, but the Dodgers went on to win the World Series that season.
2) Expos-Cubs, 1998. My high school graduation gift was a trip to Chicago with my parents to see a Cubs series. This was my first Wrigley Field experience. Once you go to Wrigley, everything else pales in comparison.
3) Cardinals-Braves, 1993. We always went to one game a year in Atlanta when we visited my grandparents, and this season we just so happened to pick the so-called "fire game," when a luxury suite at Fulton County Stadium caught on fire and the game was delayed a few hours. The Braves made a frantic late-season comeback to make the playoffs that season, thanks in large part to a trade for slugger Fred McGriff. The "fire game" was McGriff's first game as a Brave, and with the crowd already buzzing because of the trade, the fire, and the pennant race, the Crime Dog hit a grand slam to propel the home team to victory.
4) Cubs-Cardinals, 1999. I went to St. Louis with dad during the height of the steroid era. But we didn't know about the 'roids, so the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa duel was still somewhat pure. We attended a 3-game series, and Big Mac and Slammin Sammy hit three homers each.
5) Pirates-Cubs, 2002. I went on a baseball road trip with my best friends Chad and Kevin to celebrate our college graduation, but unfortunately I was afflicted with mono and was pretty sick the whole trip (I didn't know it was mono at the time). We got to Wrigley early to get front-row bleacher seats, and I snagged two balls in batting practice. Sammy Sosa hit a three-run homer late in the second game of the doubleheader to propel the Cubs to victory.
I had to leave out some great games to make this list.
My 5 favorite baseball movies:
1) Field of Dreams -- I cry at the end every single time
2) Major League -- Charlie Sheen wins
3) Eight Men Out -- I wrote a 25-page paper on the 1919 Black Sox in college.
4) A League of Their Own -- "There's no crying in baseball!"
5) The Sandlot -- "You're killing me, Smalls!"
Yes, I know everyone else likes Bull Durham. I just thought it was OK.
My 5 favorite MLB broadcasters/commentators
1) Steve Stone -- Still mad at the Cubs for getting rid of him. He's the freaking man.
2) Vin Scully -- A living legend.
3) Harold Reynolds -- He did something stupid and got canned from ESPN, but he's still bringin' it on MLB Network.
4) Dan Shulman -- The best play-by-play guy in the business today. I liked Jon Miller, but ESPN decided to dump him and Joe Morgan in favor of a team led by Shulman. Joe Morgan is an idiot, so I'm all for any change that eliminates him from the airwaves.
5) Harry Caray and Ron Santo -- Even though it's not journalistically proper, they were essentially fans on the air, voicing their joy and pain on every Cubs game. They were a big reason I became a Cubs fan. RIP boys.
My 5 favorite Opening Day Traditions:
1) I usually watch "Field of Dreams" on or around Opening Day, though I don't believe I've been able to since Addison was born.
2) Grilling hot dogs, polish sausage, etc. during the games
3) Sunflower seeds.
4) Watching all the Opening Day games, even games I don't care about in the least any other day of the year.
5) Watching every pitch of the Cubs game, then realizing how bad they will be so I don't have to watch any more the rest of the year.
Five miscellaneous baseball-related items
1) Baseball video games -- Good times, good times. There's the old-school Nintendo games (RBI takes the cake) and the ridiculously realistic new ones. Just a couple weeks ago, I was playing MLB The Show with Scott. Game tied, bottom of the ninth, me in the field, Scott with runners on first and third. He does a double steal, and while his runner is about to walk right into a tag at the plate, my catcher throws down to second base and lets the winning run score. Arghhh!!!
2) Little League baseball -- Apparently, I ran to third the first time I actually hit a baseball into play. And who didn't love getting "suicides" and Fun Dips after every game?
3) Sneaking into better seats at MLB games -- I once got into the players' wives section right behind the plate at the Ballpark in Arlington. A good view indeed.
4) College baseball -- More ping, less bling. In high school, we'd often go to the OU games after school. We'd sit right behind the dugout and harass the umps and opposing teams. Real mature.
5) Jamey Wright -- Every season, I think he'll surely be out of the big leagues, but he always finds a home. In fact, he's had a lot of homes (Colorado, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City, Colorado again, San Francisco, Texas, Kansas City again, Cleveland, and Seattle) and his career record is less than spectacular (career record of 83-118, ERA of 5.00 in 15 major league seasons). But he's a fellow graduate of Westmoore High School, and he gave my mom and I tickets to see the Rockies and Cubs at Wrigley Field one year, which he certainly didn't have to do. He's had a great spring in the Mariners camp and looks like he'll be in Seattle this season. Best of luck to him.
Feel free to post your own top fives or comment on mine. Merry Opening Day!
My five favorite MLB games I personally attended:
1) Astros-Dodgers, 1988. My first ever MLB game, which happened to be at Dodger Stadium. Fernando Valenzuela got rocked that day, but the Dodgers went on to win the World Series that season.
2) Expos-Cubs, 1998. My high school graduation gift was a trip to Chicago with my parents to see a Cubs series. This was my first Wrigley Field experience. Once you go to Wrigley, everything else pales in comparison.
3) Cardinals-Braves, 1993. We always went to one game a year in Atlanta when we visited my grandparents, and this season we just so happened to pick the so-called "fire game," when a luxury suite at Fulton County Stadium caught on fire and the game was delayed a few hours. The Braves made a frantic late-season comeback to make the playoffs that season, thanks in large part to a trade for slugger Fred McGriff. The "fire game" was McGriff's first game as a Brave, and with the crowd already buzzing because of the trade, the fire, and the pennant race, the Crime Dog hit a grand slam to propel the home team to victory.
4) Cubs-Cardinals, 1999. I went to St. Louis with dad during the height of the steroid era. But we didn't know about the 'roids, so the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa duel was still somewhat pure. We attended a 3-game series, and Big Mac and Slammin Sammy hit three homers each.
5) Pirates-Cubs, 2002. I went on a baseball road trip with my best friends Chad and Kevin to celebrate our college graduation, but unfortunately I was afflicted with mono and was pretty sick the whole trip (I didn't know it was mono at the time). We got to Wrigley early to get front-row bleacher seats, and I snagged two balls in batting practice. Sammy Sosa hit a three-run homer late in the second game of the doubleheader to propel the Cubs to victory.
I had to leave out some great games to make this list.
My 5 favorite baseball movies:
1) Field of Dreams -- I cry at the end every single time
2) Major League -- Charlie Sheen wins
3) Eight Men Out -- I wrote a 25-page paper on the 1919 Black Sox in college.
4) A League of Their Own -- "There's no crying in baseball!"
5) The Sandlot -- "You're killing me, Smalls!"
Yes, I know everyone else likes Bull Durham. I just thought it was OK.
My 5 favorite MLB broadcasters/commentators
1) Steve Stone -- Still mad at the Cubs for getting rid of him. He's the freaking man.
2) Vin Scully -- A living legend.
3) Harold Reynolds -- He did something stupid and got canned from ESPN, but he's still bringin' it on MLB Network.
4) Dan Shulman -- The best play-by-play guy in the business today. I liked Jon Miller, but ESPN decided to dump him and Joe Morgan in favor of a team led by Shulman. Joe Morgan is an idiot, so I'm all for any change that eliminates him from the airwaves.
5) Harry Caray and Ron Santo -- Even though it's not journalistically proper, they were essentially fans on the air, voicing their joy and pain on every Cubs game. They were a big reason I became a Cubs fan. RIP boys.
My 5 favorite Opening Day Traditions:
1) I usually watch "Field of Dreams" on or around Opening Day, though I don't believe I've been able to since Addison was born.
2) Grilling hot dogs, polish sausage, etc. during the games
3) Sunflower seeds.
4) Watching all the Opening Day games, even games I don't care about in the least any other day of the year.
5) Watching every pitch of the Cubs game, then realizing how bad they will be so I don't have to watch any more the rest of the year.
Five miscellaneous baseball-related items
1) Baseball video games -- Good times, good times. There's the old-school Nintendo games (RBI takes the cake) and the ridiculously realistic new ones. Just a couple weeks ago, I was playing MLB The Show with Scott. Game tied, bottom of the ninth, me in the field, Scott with runners on first and third. He does a double steal, and while his runner is about to walk right into a tag at the plate, my catcher throws down to second base and lets the winning run score. Arghhh!!!
2) Little League baseball -- Apparently, I ran to third the first time I actually hit a baseball into play. And who didn't love getting "suicides" and Fun Dips after every game?
3) Sneaking into better seats at MLB games -- I once got into the players' wives section right behind the plate at the Ballpark in Arlington. A good view indeed.
4) College baseball -- More ping, less bling. In high school, we'd often go to the OU games after school. We'd sit right behind the dugout and harass the umps and opposing teams. Real mature.
5) Jamey Wright -- Every season, I think he'll surely be out of the big leagues, but he always finds a home. In fact, he's had a lot of homes (Colorado, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City, Colorado again, San Francisco, Texas, Kansas City again, Cleveland, and Seattle) and his career record is less than spectacular (career record of 83-118, ERA of 5.00 in 15 major league seasons). But he's a fellow graduate of Westmoore High School, and he gave my mom and I tickets to see the Rockies and Cubs at Wrigley Field one year, which he certainly didn't have to do. He's had a great spring in the Mariners camp and looks like he'll be in Seattle this season. Best of luck to him.
Feel free to post your own top fives or comment on mine. Merry Opening Day!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Lucky Zone
Tomorrow I leave to go to Southern California for a week to play poker and hopefully make some money.
As I'm packing for the trip, I was reminded of a similar poker trip that didn't go so well.
This was back when we lived in Lawton. A couple of guys I played with had received a free room at the Palazzo on the Vegas strip, and there was a special airfare deal for $125 round-trip from OKC to Vegas. (Non-stop flights too. Good luck finding that these days).
These guys were both middle-aged family men, and they planned to play a lot of tournaments while I prefer the cash games. So I figured we'd sleep in the same room but otherwise wouldn't see each other a lot.
The trip started with them picking me up at home around 6 a.m. to drive to OKC for the flight. We stopped at a gas station in town, and it was there that I discovered that one of my weekend companions, who I'll call "James", was an abject racist. He made several inappropriate comments about the clientele of the convenience store and how he generally refuses to go there for that reason.
Okie dokie, then.
I didn't say a word to him all the way to Vegas. When we got there, I decided to play the first tournament that these guys were entering. It had already been running about half an hour but you were allowed to register late and they immediately gave me a seat.
I folded about 5 hands before picking up pocket aces. Before it was my turn, two people had gone all-in ahead of me! I was excited to call and see that I was up against K-J and A-Q. I have an 81 percent chance to win this hand and build a huge stack immediately. Instead, the A-Q finds a way to win and knock me out of the tournament. So I've been in the Venetian less than 15 minutes and am already down $350.
I walked over to Caesar's Palace (no short stroll) and got in a cash game there. I'll spare the details, but needless to say it was not a pleasant experience. Keep in mind, this is back when I still worked full-time at the paper. I was doing well at poker but I had a much smaller budget for it than I do now. I wasn't losing money I couldn't afford but I still felt like crap for being 2,000 miles away from Missy and dropping a fairly significant amount of money.
So I moped all the way back to the Palazzo and decided to call it a day and go to bed early. When I got back to the room, I walked in to find that my new racist friend "James" liked to sleep in the nude. Awesome.
I grabbed a pillow and slept on the sectional sofa in the other part of the room, but the sections kept slowly drifting apart like glaciers, and I would slump in the middle. Still, I never even considered going back to the naked racist. No need to discover three new things about him in one day.
The second day of our three-day trip went about like the first. Poker took a dump on me, and life wasn't much better. I remember getting ripped off at Chipotle for about $2 and being too depressed to even say anything to the cashier.
I decided I had lost enough for one weekend, which meant I was stuck in Vegas for another 36 hours with money to eat on but nothing else.
The other guy who went with us played craps and blackjack a decent amount, and he was pretty cool to me when he found out I was busto. I went to a craps table with him and he told me to roll for him. I threw the dice way up in the air because, as everyone knows, the "lucky zone" in craps is 8 to 9 feet above the table. There's no telling where the dice will end up when you throw them that high, but you're guaranteed to win.
I won several throws in a row, and soon the whole table was excited. Some had been skeptics of the "lucky zone," but now they saw it with their own eyes.
Unfortunately, casino management was not a huge fan of the "lucky zone," especially since the dice bounce all the way off the table about one in three times. They don't really like that. I won about six games in a row, but when I finally lost I was politely asked to leave the table.
That was a fun way to pass the time, but I couldn't get back to Oklahoma fast enough.
Now, I can only hope that the week I spend in California goes a little better than that.
As I'm packing for the trip, I was reminded of a similar poker trip that didn't go so well.
This was back when we lived in Lawton. A couple of guys I played with had received a free room at the Palazzo on the Vegas strip, and there was a special airfare deal for $125 round-trip from OKC to Vegas. (Non-stop flights too. Good luck finding that these days).
These guys were both middle-aged family men, and they planned to play a lot of tournaments while I prefer the cash games. So I figured we'd sleep in the same room but otherwise wouldn't see each other a lot.
The trip started with them picking me up at home around 6 a.m. to drive to OKC for the flight. We stopped at a gas station in town, and it was there that I discovered that one of my weekend companions, who I'll call "James", was an abject racist. He made several inappropriate comments about the clientele of the convenience store and how he generally refuses to go there for that reason.
Okie dokie, then.
I didn't say a word to him all the way to Vegas. When we got there, I decided to play the first tournament that these guys were entering. It had already been running about half an hour but you were allowed to register late and they immediately gave me a seat.
I folded about 5 hands before picking up pocket aces. Before it was my turn, two people had gone all-in ahead of me! I was excited to call and see that I was up against K-J and A-Q. I have an 81 percent chance to win this hand and build a huge stack immediately. Instead, the A-Q finds a way to win and knock me out of the tournament. So I've been in the Venetian less than 15 minutes and am already down $350.
I walked over to Caesar's Palace (no short stroll) and got in a cash game there. I'll spare the details, but needless to say it was not a pleasant experience. Keep in mind, this is back when I still worked full-time at the paper. I was doing well at poker but I had a much smaller budget for it than I do now. I wasn't losing money I couldn't afford but I still felt like crap for being 2,000 miles away from Missy and dropping a fairly significant amount of money.
So I moped all the way back to the Palazzo and decided to call it a day and go to bed early. When I got back to the room, I walked in to find that my new racist friend "James" liked to sleep in the nude. Awesome.
I grabbed a pillow and slept on the sectional sofa in the other part of the room, but the sections kept slowly drifting apart like glaciers, and I would slump in the middle. Still, I never even considered going back to the naked racist. No need to discover three new things about him in one day.
The second day of our three-day trip went about like the first. Poker took a dump on me, and life wasn't much better. I remember getting ripped off at Chipotle for about $2 and being too depressed to even say anything to the cashier.
I decided I had lost enough for one weekend, which meant I was stuck in Vegas for another 36 hours with money to eat on but nothing else.
The other guy who went with us played craps and blackjack a decent amount, and he was pretty cool to me when he found out I was busto. I went to a craps table with him and he told me to roll for him. I threw the dice way up in the air because, as everyone knows, the "lucky zone" in craps is 8 to 9 feet above the table. There's no telling where the dice will end up when you throw them that high, but you're guaranteed to win.
I won several throws in a row, and soon the whole table was excited. Some had been skeptics of the "lucky zone," but now they saw it with their own eyes.
Unfortunately, casino management was not a huge fan of the "lucky zone," especially since the dice bounce all the way off the table about one in three times. They don't really like that. I won about six games in a row, but when I finally lost I was politely asked to leave the table.
That was a fun way to pass the time, but I couldn't get back to Oklahoma fast enough.
Now, I can only hope that the week I spend in California goes a little better than that.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Hard Luck at the Hard Rock
Last weekend a few of us went to the Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa for the Oklahoma State Poker Championships.
I rode with my buddy Jason, and we had quite the time getting checked into our room.
We walked up to the front desk and not a soul was in line. There was one lady behind the counter, and she was on the phone.
Not once did she look up from the phone, even after one, two and three minutes passed. Jason and I exchanged a few irritated glances but we were patient for quite awhile. I was sure we would at least get a courtesy, "I'll be with you in a minute." In fairness, it was obvious that whoever was on the phone was wearing her out pretty good, and it was obviously a customer calling, as opposed to her boyfriend or whatever.
Soon another lady walked up to the counter, but when she did she picked up her phone and started talking to another customer. I was getting pretty annoyed, so I made sure not to use my inside voice when I said, "I guess maybe I should call in."
That was ignored, and after another minute the second lady got off the phone. But instead of acknowledging us, she picked up her walky-talky and started chatting it up. After a couple of exchanges on the walky-talky, she comes back over and says, "How are you guys doing tonight?"
I said, "Pretty good, we're about ready to check in," but by the time I got past the "pretty good" she had already turned her back and walked out the door.
I'm sure my face was pretty red by this point, and I remember sharing some sort of sarcastic comment with Jason.
Then the lady walked back into the vicinity and I loudly mentioned that it would be great to get checked in. About this time the first lady got off the phone, apologized, and helped us get checked in.
The whole check-in experience was just a bad start to a bad weekend, as I left with less money than I came with. It seems like a simple, "I'm sorry, I'll be with you in a minute," would have been the correct play. After all, as George Costanza would say, "We're living in a society here!!!"
I rode with my buddy Jason, and we had quite the time getting checked into our room.
We walked up to the front desk and not a soul was in line. There was one lady behind the counter, and she was on the phone.
Not once did she look up from the phone, even after one, two and three minutes passed. Jason and I exchanged a few irritated glances but we were patient for quite awhile. I was sure we would at least get a courtesy, "I'll be with you in a minute." In fairness, it was obvious that whoever was on the phone was wearing her out pretty good, and it was obviously a customer calling, as opposed to her boyfriend or whatever.
Soon another lady walked up to the counter, but when she did she picked up her phone and started talking to another customer. I was getting pretty annoyed, so I made sure not to use my inside voice when I said, "I guess maybe I should call in."
That was ignored, and after another minute the second lady got off the phone. But instead of acknowledging us, she picked up her walky-talky and started chatting it up. After a couple of exchanges on the walky-talky, she comes back over and says, "How are you guys doing tonight?"
I said, "Pretty good, we're about ready to check in," but by the time I got past the "pretty good" she had already turned her back and walked out the door.
I'm sure my face was pretty red by this point, and I remember sharing some sort of sarcastic comment with Jason.
Then the lady walked back into the vicinity and I loudly mentioned that it would be great to get checked in. About this time the first lady got off the phone, apologized, and helped us get checked in.
The whole check-in experience was just a bad start to a bad weekend, as I left with less money than I came with. It seems like a simple, "I'm sorry, I'll be with you in a minute," would have been the correct play. After all, as George Costanza would say, "We're living in a society here!!!"
Monday, February 7, 2011
Maple syrup, anyone?
Addison had quite the field day on Super Bowl Sunday.
When I woke up, I came downstairs to find Missy cleaning up a massive amount of Hungry Jack maple syrup that was all over the dining room.
Evidently, while I was asleep and Missy was tending to her grandpa in the other room, Addie snagged an unopened bottle of the syrup from out of the pantry. She then opened the top and tore off that little safety tab before really going to work.
Her big Christmas present this year was a little play kitchen with a sink, some drawers, a microwave, a fridge, etc. Well, she poured the entire bottle of syrup all over her kitchen, mainly in the sink, which was overflowing with syrup. That little sink alone probably held 6 or 8 oz., and the rest of it went on the floor all around the kitchen.
So I rush to help Missy clean it up, and after a minute I call out for Addie because she's in the living room. She didn't immediately answer so I got up and went in there. Now, Addie's clothes had syrup all over them so Missy had taken them off. Addie was wearing only her diaper.
I went to the living room to find Addie's chest, belly and right leg marked up and down with a dry erase marker. We have a dry erase board over by grandpa's chair so we can write on it and tell him where we are going if we happen to leave for a minute so he won't panic. Addison had never even tried to go grab that marker before, even though she loves coloring, but this time she went to town with it.
When she saw me, she said, "Daddy! Draw tummy! Draw leg!"
We've got a picture on Missy's cellphone, so if you want it just let us know.
When I woke up, I came downstairs to find Missy cleaning up a massive amount of Hungry Jack maple syrup that was all over the dining room.
Evidently, while I was asleep and Missy was tending to her grandpa in the other room, Addie snagged an unopened bottle of the syrup from out of the pantry. She then opened the top and tore off that little safety tab before really going to work.
Her big Christmas present this year was a little play kitchen with a sink, some drawers, a microwave, a fridge, etc. Well, she poured the entire bottle of syrup all over her kitchen, mainly in the sink, which was overflowing with syrup. That little sink alone probably held 6 or 8 oz., and the rest of it went on the floor all around the kitchen.
So I rush to help Missy clean it up, and after a minute I call out for Addie because she's in the living room. She didn't immediately answer so I got up and went in there. Now, Addie's clothes had syrup all over them so Missy had taken them off. Addie was wearing only her diaper.
I went to the living room to find Addie's chest, belly and right leg marked up and down with a dry erase marker. We have a dry erase board over by grandpa's chair so we can write on it and tell him where we are going if we happen to leave for a minute so he won't panic. Addison had never even tried to go grab that marker before, even though she loves coloring, but this time she went to town with it.
When she saw me, she said, "Daddy! Draw tummy! Draw leg!"
We've got a picture on Missy's cellphone, so if you want it just let us know.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Demanding Beggar
Something came up the other day that reminded me of an incident several years ago in Lawton.
Back in the day, my schedule used to look something like this: Go to work at the newspaper at 4 p.m., work til midnight, go the casino and play poker til 3 a.m., go to Whataburger with my friend Spike (big winner had to pay), go to bed. I still don't know how I gained 25 pounds down there.
Anyway, one night we go in there and the restaurant was empty except for one dude. As soon as we walk in, he comes up and asks for $20 to take a cab to the other side of town.
I said, "I can't do that for you, but I'll buy your dinner. Order whatever you want."
Without hesitating, he stepped up and to the counter. "I'll have the double cheeseburger meal, supersized, with Coke, and a large strawberry shake on the side."
When our orders came out, Spike and I went and sat down, and this dude went to the polar opposite end of the restaurant, sat down and ate his meal.
As we were about to leave, he comes back over and again asks me for $20. I said, "Sorry man, I did what I could for you."
He shook his finger at me and said, "I know what you're doing. You're pre-judging me because I'm black. You think I'm going to go buy drugs or booze. You need to quit pre-judging me."
I said, "I'm not judging you. I gave you what I could." But I was thinking, "How can you be giving ME this speech when Spike is standing right there?" Seems like Spike deserved to get solicited before he called me a racist, since I bought him $8 worth of Whataburger.
But this guy wasn't through with me yet.
"Yes, I know what you're thinking! You're prejudging me!"
I found the nearest door and got the heck out of there. As I reached for the door, I heard this guy ask Spike for money. Spike said, "I think I have 50 cents or a dollar in my pocket," and pulled it out and gave it to the guy.
"Appreciate you man," he told Spike. "God bless."
Back in the day, my schedule used to look something like this: Go to work at the newspaper at 4 p.m., work til midnight, go the casino and play poker til 3 a.m., go to Whataburger with my friend Spike (big winner had to pay), go to bed. I still don't know how I gained 25 pounds down there.
Anyway, one night we go in there and the restaurant was empty except for one dude. As soon as we walk in, he comes up and asks for $20 to take a cab to the other side of town.
I said, "I can't do that for you, but I'll buy your dinner. Order whatever you want."
Without hesitating, he stepped up and to the counter. "I'll have the double cheeseburger meal, supersized, with Coke, and a large strawberry shake on the side."
When our orders came out, Spike and I went and sat down, and this dude went to the polar opposite end of the restaurant, sat down and ate his meal.
As we were about to leave, he comes back over and again asks me for $20. I said, "Sorry man, I did what I could for you."
He shook his finger at me and said, "I know what you're doing. You're pre-judging me because I'm black. You think I'm going to go buy drugs or booze. You need to quit pre-judging me."
I said, "I'm not judging you. I gave you what I could." But I was thinking, "How can you be giving ME this speech when Spike is standing right there?" Seems like Spike deserved to get solicited before he called me a racist, since I bought him $8 worth of Whataburger.
But this guy wasn't through with me yet.
"Yes, I know what you're thinking! You're prejudging me!"
I found the nearest door and got the heck out of there. As I reached for the door, I heard this guy ask Spike for money. Spike said, "I think I have 50 cents or a dollar in my pocket," and pulled it out and gave it to the guy.
"Appreciate you man," he told Spike. "God bless."
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