remember passion?

So here's what was rattling around in my head yesterday as I drove to my Dr. appt. I got to thinking back to teenage years and remembering how cool it was to be passionate about something. You know, the kind of love for something that made you eat, sleep and breathe only for it, your whole life revolved around it. For some it was sports, others it might have been animals. For me it was Drum Corps and later marching band.

I hung out with my Drum Corps and band friends. We passed around scratchy cassette tapes of corps shows and music. No Top 40 on our radios thank you--we listened to concertos and symphonies set to horns and drumlines. MAN! What fun we could have had if the internet had been around! We could have had video clips of competitors' shows and just loads of wonderful stuff to download. As it was, we manged to spend hours practicing and creating a life around our passion.

We did that because, we were kids. We didn't have dinner to cook, jobs to be at Monday through Friday, sick babies to take care of, various household chores to attend to and don't forget that monthly task called paying the bills. We had summer . . . . . and endless expanse of days stretched out ahead . . . . . . and we had a love for our sport (Yes, it is a sport - don't make me trot out the study IU did with heart monitors etc. strapped to a drumline and a football frontline!)

Anyway I miss that. And I'm sad a little too that I don't see that passion in any of the kids around me. Not my three, not the neices and nephews, not really the neighbors, although one is a swimmer and devotes a lot of AM time to practicing. But she doesn't go online and follow a swimming idol or subscribe to a swimming magazine (Yes, there was, and still is, a Drum Corps International publication, thank you very much!) The only thing I see a passion for is electronic games, and it's just not the same.

By some weird quirk, the Dr. brought this up too. He has a son, about 3rd grade, who loves football. Watches it on TV - whatever is on, even reruns of games from 3 years ago! Throws up to 100 passes every evening with dad. Follows his favorite team and roots for them feverishly. Simply put, he has passion. Dr's wife is "over the football thing", and truly, Dr. is a little worn out by it. But, sees the value in a kid loving something and being committed. I think many of our kids are missing that, and I wish there was a way to turn them onto this fullfilling and I think, important part of growing up.

And the thing is, if they miss this window of opportunity, it will be gone. They'll be grownups with jobs and responsibilities and they just won't have the time to devote to a silly pastime. Oh sure, there are those who are grown ups and do that, just catch an episode of Dr. Phil here and there. But for the most part, the time for this pursuit is before you "Grow Up". And I'm not sure it's going to happen for the kids around me, and that's really unfortunate. They'll never know what a wonderful thing they missed out on!

Grandma goes home

Last night we took Grandma back to her house. The appointment with the Endocronologist went well. He agrees that it was most likely a stroke, but for unknown reasons, testing can not find the usual signs. He made some changes in her diet, and added one Rx, restricted her from driving or babysitting the grands, and pronounced her fit to return to life on her own! We decided that we'd wait one more night, since by the time we got home from the Dr. the day was slipping away from us anyway (and rumors are that our driver returned to her desk at work, put her head down and fell asleep until time to go home for the day . . . . LOL! - let me take this moment to remind Auntie Karin that you can not drink sleep from a bottle, you must actually SLEEP!)

I think Gr'ma was glad to get back home and in her comfy surroundings. We are still planning to descend on her in a week and paint, clean, fix her house too! The $6 mistint paint I got from Lowe's Monday is a perfect match for her bathroom too! Yeah, I rock!!

And after we returned home from returning Gr'ma to her home, about 7:30 pm, I went to bed. 'Course, a neighbor came over about 8:30 pm knocking on the door to borrow a tool. Then Marci came in about 9 pm wanting something. By 9:45 pm Tim was getting up and getting dressed for work. . . . . . Gee, Aunt Karin, pass me some of that energy drink for work, I'm gonna need it ;0)

Today's my last day of work this week, then it's home to ready the house for visitors! Ellen's Godparents, Sharon & Robb are coming with their girls for the first visit in almost a decade! We are so excited!!! But the girls have work to do to get their rooms ready ;) Luckily, having Gr'ma around kept me on my toes with the first floor - it's in pretty good shape. I also need to work on my quilt for the county fair. Monday afternoon is the time to go enter your projects and I need to have something in there so some new customers might find me. Well, yeah, and I do like the possibility of a ribbon too, LOL!