My Officiating Experience

Posted inColumns, Sports, Wrestling

When I first got out of college 20 years ago, I wanted to find ways to stay involved with wrestling.
I couldn’t decide between officiating and coaching so I did the sensible thing – I did both. That lasted for two seasons when work and life made it clear that I had to give up one or the other.

Coaching won for a number of reasons. I thought many times about getting back into officiating, especially after I stopped coaching in 2001, but I always found a reason to stay away for one more year.

That all changed last fall. I took the officiating test and started working some local matches at the elementary and junior high levels.

A New Holiday

Posted inBasketball, Columns, March Madness

We have a crisis on our hands in America, people. We need to rise up together and make things right.
Everywhere I look, I see people arguing about all sorts of things. No one can agree on health care or national defense or how to deal with our economic problems. Everyone thinks they have the solution, but they don’t want to even think about listening to someone else’s ideas.

Far too often, we turn a blind eye to the many things that can unite us instead of tear us apart. One of those opportunities is staring us right in the face.

The NCAA Basketball Tournament starts on Thursday.

Our government gives us so many opportunities to honor our past. We get off for Independence Day and Memorial Day and Labor Day.

I don’t think we need to stop celebrating those days, but I wish we could find a way to focus on the future. Like giving everyone off on the first two afternoons of the big tournament.

Breaking the Law

Posted inColumns

I just wanted to get home. I didn’t have any crazy expectations. Fortune let me down, however.
The week after all the snow fell, my commute to Baltimore got a little more cumbersome than usual.

First of all, some roads still had snow covering part of the travel lanes. That really didn’t bother me too much. I understood those delays.

Then I had to deal with the various and sundry plans which municipalities and counties had to remove some of the huge piles of snow. That slowed me down a little bit, but not enough to make me too upset.

I had the biggest problem with other drivers, some of whom seemed better off staying home and waiting until spring. When there’s no snow on the road and no plows on the road, we should all agree to drive at a normal speed without causing undue harm to others.

That philosophy apparently didn’t work for a lot of people so as I got close to home two weeks ago, I just wanted to make the final few turns, park the car and sit on the couch.

Then I saw him. I started to pray when I noticed the lights on top of the car. I hoped God would spare me just two blocks from my house. I wanted this particular officer to somehow not notice the burned out headlight on my car, something I had only recently noticed.

God didn’t answer my prayers.

Pay Attention

Posted inColumns, Movies

We had one of those special opportunities to go see a movie over Valentine’s Day weekend. I really looked forward to sitting down and enjoying a pleasant little film.

In the end, that did happen. However, I feel like my ADD got in the way a little bit. I blame it on the much-worse ADD of other people.

We found nice seats a few rows up in the upper part of the movie theater. We settled in, chatted through the previews and then dug into our snacks when the main feature started.

That’s when it happened. A light here, a light there, a light almost everywhere. Cell phones.

Enjoy the Snow

Posted inColumns

One of my favorite comedians, Louis CK, has a wonderful bit which pretty much sums up the way this crazy world seems to go these days.

He outlines all the wonderful advances we have achieved as humans, then points out how we seem to do nothing except complain. Everything is great; nobody’s happy, he exclaims.

I thought of this last week while I sat inside watching two massive snowstorms turn the week into one long vacation for so many people.

Maybe I am just spoiled because I work in higher education and have the opportunity to get some free days off when we have some crazy weather event like we just had.

Loving the ‘Lympics

Posted inColumns, Olympics

The world has come to Vancouver as the Winter Olympics are under way.

I usually just sit back and cheer for the Americans, but I have a different rooting interest this time around.

I traveled to Vancouver for work last November and shared a plane back with a bunch of athletes from around the world who will compete in bobsled, luge and skeleton over the next few weeks. In fact, I was one of the few people on the plane who did not voluntarily hurtle themselves down a sheet of ice for a living.

About five years ago, as we prepared for the last Winter Olympics, I wrote a column about how I thought I would fit in perfectly on the bobsled team. The only problem was that the guys who usually did that sort of thing were world-class athletes.

Missing the Shore

Posted inAmerica, Columns, Jersey Shore

We all lost a national treasure recently. Some of you may not have noticed, but you can trust me when I say many of us feel terrible about what happened.

“Jersey Shore” finished its short season on MTV.

I can’t believe we only got to know The Situation, Snookie and the gang a couple of months ago. They already seem like old friends. I don’t know how much fun I will have with them gone.

Good Luck Finding ‘Groundhog Day’ Today

Posted inAmerica, Columns, Movies

Pennsylvania has a very special celebration today. With Groundhog Day, we not only find out when spring is coming, we also get a chance to have a little party. Well, at least in places like Punxsutawney.

Not all of us can get up to Gobbler’s Knob and see the world’s most famous groundhog weatherman – you know, Phil – give us his prediction so we have to find other ways to mark the occasion.

We like to take some time today to watch “Groundhog Day,” one of our favorite movies. Sounds like a natural thing to do on this day, right?

Apparently someone has forgotten to tell that to the television networks.

I don’t think anyone will broadcast the Bill Murray comedy today. I have a couple of hundred channels. One network showed it last weekend. Another will show it next weekend. But no one will actually show it on Groundhog Day. That’s just plain wrong.

All Hopped Up

Posted inColumns

The other weekend, I had to officiate a youth wrestling event. The action got started around noon, and I walked up to the high school kids working the table for my mat and asked them a very simple question.

“Are we ready to have some fun?”

They laughed or grunted as sleepy teenagers do (I used to communicate solely that way), letting me know that my enthusiasm would not be reciprocated. One told me he was almost out of his energy drink. Another said he had finished his. The third said nothing as he guarded a monster-size can of another brand.

I wondered how three cups of coffee that morning could get me so wound up while they had almost the same amount of these new-fangled drinks and just wanted to go back to sleep.

A Really Big Nightlight

Posted inColumns, Holidays

I come from a long line of couch sleepers. Like my father before me, I appreciate the bliss of sawing logs on the living room sofa.

Sometimes it’s because I can’t fall asleep in bed for some reason or another. Other times, it’s because I just feel like drifting off while watching a game on the television.

Either way, I can’t resist the temptation of lying on the couch and letting the hum and glow of the TV lull me into slumber.

I especially enjoy my couch time during the Christmas season because I can turn on the Christmas tree lights to serve as a sort of nightlight. They just make sleeping in the living room a little more special.

As the holidays started to wind down, I had what I thought was a wonderful idea. Why don’t we keep the tree up all year?