Man on a Mission
Determination n. 7. The mental quality, habit, or power of deciding definitely and firmly; decision of character.
Stupid adj. 3. Resulting from, or showing, mental dullness; foolish; witless
Thought I would share our family adventure Monday night as I took the kids to see the Creighton vs Kentucky basketball game in Omaha in the second round of the NIT tournament. My actions that night can be defined by one of the two words listed above. I'll let you decide which. I was able to score 4 tickets to the game. This was a historical game for many reasons; first, we actually got a BCS school to come to our gym and play us. Second, it was Kentucky, the all time winningist basketball program in NCAA history; third the last time Kentucky played in Omaha was during the Truman administration; fourth it was a postseason game that if we won we'd get a chance to play Notre Dame at home and show the second best Catholic school in the country how to play basketball. So you can see I was motivated. Psyched. Pumped up.
There were a few complications to the evening; my wife was nine months pregnant and could deliver at any time. I would be going alone with my three kids. And finally the fact that by 4:30 PM when we were pulling out of the driveway the I-80 corridor between Lincoln and Omaha had 3 tornado WARNINGS going on. And yet I decided to go the game anyway. (See either determination or stupid above). So many things could go wrong that I choose to ignore them all, picked out the classic "Ice Age II" DVD, packed some PBnJ sandwiches and we hit the road for Omaha in our best Blue Jay gear. Except for our 3 year old girl who refused to wear her Blue Jay jersey because it "wasn't pink."
We drove north on 84th street to hook up with I-80. I was giving myself an hour and a half, way more than enough time to handle traffic, tornadoes and whatever else Mother Nature could throw at us. Well Mother Nature landed the first punch right in the gut by knocking down a power line across 84th street. Traffic came to a halt. CRAP! Detour time. I popped in "Ice Age II" and passed out the sandwiches early. And I still needed cash for parking. The detour around the power line took a 25 minute chomp out of our schedule. I pulled into the gas station with my bank ATM and opened the door. Mother Nature landed her second punch when I was met with a 40 mph gust of wind that knocked off my Creighton hat into an ankle deep pool of water. Double CRAP! Trash flew around me as fished my hat out of the water and ran into the gas station to get my cash.
We finally got onto I-80. The rain started to lighten up. "This isn't so bad," I thought. I also thought I really should be listening to the radio instead of Ray Ramano playing a wooly mammoth. But I didn't dare mess with the DVD. Everyone was getting along and laughing at the movie. We continued on and suddenly the sky got darker. Ok, it was black. Whatever the opposite of light is, that's what color the sky was. My cell phone rang. OH NO! My wife was in labor! I answered the phone, "Are you in labor?" She responded in a panicked voice, "WHERE ARE YOU?" "I don't know, just outside Waverly." "THERE'S A TORNADO HEADING FOR WAVERLY RIGHT NOW." I tried to reassure my wife that it was ok, even as the hail began to fall all over the place. "IS THAT HAIL I HEAR???" "No, no. It's just the movie the kids are watching. Is there really a tornado heading for Waverly?' "YES! THE WHOLE AREA OF I-80 BETWEEN LINCOLN AND OMAHA IS LIT UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE ON THE TV. THE WEATHER GUY IS THROWING A FIT! ARE YOU OK?" I tried to calm her down and tell her if I saw a tornado or if it got bad I'd turn around. She somehow bought it and we hung up. I wondered if the phone conversation put her into labor.
Then it got bad. The hail continued and the wind picked up. The rain was coming in sheets and I had to slow down to about 45 mph. Then Mother Nature landed her third punch. The car ahead of me decided to spin out and take 3-4 years off my life. It spun from the left lane across to the right lane. I had my first flashback. Fourth grade. I told a girl in my class during out loud reading time that she couldn't read. Not nice. I'm really sorry about that whatever your name was. The car spun from the right lane back across to the left lane. I have my second flashback. Sophomore year of high school. I had to play the "Rocky" theme on my trumpet in the middle of a packed lunchroom as part of a quest for my Shakespeare Lit class. Stupid trumpet. I should have learned to play the guitar. And what did that have to do with Shakespeare anyway? The car continued spinning right into the ditch. I had a flash-forward to my funeral where my wife is stomping up and down on my grave and all my family and friends are fighting over whether I was the most determined man ever, or most stupid. I snapped out of the flash-forward and sailed by the car in the ditch. I was now going about 15 mph with a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, eyes bugged out, looking for a twister to come down from the sky.
No twister. The rain started to let up as we approached Omaha. The cell phone rang again. "Are you in labor?" "NO YOU IDIOT! THE CELL PHONE COVERAGE GOT LOST AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE ALL DEAD!! ARE YOU DEAD???" "No we're fine. We'll be at the Quest Center in about 25 minutes. "CALL ME WHEN YOU GET THERE! I AM WORRIED SICK!!!" That definitely put her in labor. Then a little voice from the backseat called out, "Daddy, I have to go potty." "ARE YOU SURE???" "Yes." It was the three year old, which meant we had about a 2 minute window to find a toilet. I roared off the Interstate into a Quick Trip station, grabbed my daughter, sprinted her into the bathroom and bless her heart she performed her fastest potty time ever. We sprinted back out the door and I hardly noticed the tornado sirens going off outside. Back on the road and the Qwest Center was in sight. We parked the car, I called my wife to tell her we made it. I grabbed the kids and got inside.
We entered the arena at the tip-off. YES! We made it! The crowd was rockin and the game and atmosphere was electric. Totally worth it. The kids had a great time and paid attention for the first 5 minutes. Then my 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter started asking for food. I stalled them with the promise of a halftime food break. Somehow they consented and we made it to halftime. Not before we had another potty break for the 3 year old. Then at halftime we crashed a concession stand, I made an order, and reached for my wallet. No wallet. @#$!$%!!! I was in deep, deep trouble. I herd the kids over to some open space and broke the news to their confused faces. "Kids, daddy left his wallet in the car." The 5 year old answered, "Well go get it." "I can't, they won't let anybody out of the game and then back in. We're going to have to wait." "I WANT SOME POPCORN AND LEMONADE NOW!!!" I had a mutiny on my hands. I tried to calm them down with promises of ice cream after the game and let them blow off some steam by running around. They somehow rallied and we went back to our seats.
The second half was more electric than the first. The kids were as good as could be under the circumstances. My daughter took two more potty breaks. The 5 year old let out a few thousand "I'm bored. Let's go home" until he and his sister started wrestling in their seats. Luckily the game was so crazy the people around us didn't notice. The game went down to the wire and we end up losing on a missed 3 pointer by our best shooter. Why, why, why, why, why can't we win a big post-season game???? Voices gone and devastated by the loss, we joined the crowd for the exits. I had to carry my daughter on my shoulders and the boys and I had to hold hands to avoid losing each other in the crowd. Then we got into the car only to sit still and wait 35 minutes to get out of the parking garage. Luckily "Ice Age II" still had about a half hour left.
We finally got out of the garage and headed for home. Thankfully the tornados had stopped and the weather was fine. I made good on my promise and stopped for ice cream. Cones and lemonades for everyone. It only took 10 minutes before the three year old spilled her entire lemonade all over the place. I heard something, turned on the light and her chocolate ice cream covered face looked guilty. No worries. We had smooth sailing home and the boys passed out in the back. My wife was still pregnant when we got home. So much for the barometric pressure drop theory.
Go Blue Jays.
Stupid adj. 3. Resulting from, or showing, mental dullness; foolish; witless
Thought I would share our family adventure Monday night as I took the kids to see the Creighton vs Kentucky basketball game in Omaha in the second round of the NIT tournament. My actions that night can be defined by one of the two words listed above. I'll let you decide which. I was able to score 4 tickets to the game. This was a historical game for many reasons; first, we actually got a BCS school to come to our gym and play us. Second, it was Kentucky, the all time winningist basketball program in NCAA history; third the last time Kentucky played in Omaha was during the Truman administration; fourth it was a postseason game that if we won we'd get a chance to play Notre Dame at home and show the second best Catholic school in the country how to play basketball. So you can see I was motivated. Psyched. Pumped up.
There were a few complications to the evening; my wife was nine months pregnant and could deliver at any time. I would be going alone with my three kids. And finally the fact that by 4:30 PM when we were pulling out of the driveway the I-80 corridor between Lincoln and Omaha had 3 tornado WARNINGS going on. And yet I decided to go the game anyway. (See either determination or stupid above). So many things could go wrong that I choose to ignore them all, picked out the classic "Ice Age II" DVD, packed some PBnJ sandwiches and we hit the road for Omaha in our best Blue Jay gear. Except for our 3 year old girl who refused to wear her Blue Jay jersey because it "wasn't pink."
We drove north on 84th street to hook up with I-80. I was giving myself an hour and a half, way more than enough time to handle traffic, tornadoes and whatever else Mother Nature could throw at us. Well Mother Nature landed the first punch right in the gut by knocking down a power line across 84th street. Traffic came to a halt. CRAP! Detour time. I popped in "Ice Age II" and passed out the sandwiches early. And I still needed cash for parking. The detour around the power line took a 25 minute chomp out of our schedule. I pulled into the gas station with my bank ATM and opened the door. Mother Nature landed her second punch when I was met with a 40 mph gust of wind that knocked off my Creighton hat into an ankle deep pool of water. Double CRAP! Trash flew around me as fished my hat out of the water and ran into the gas station to get my cash.
We finally got onto I-80. The rain started to lighten up. "This isn't so bad," I thought. I also thought I really should be listening to the radio instead of Ray Ramano playing a wooly mammoth. But I didn't dare mess with the DVD. Everyone was getting along and laughing at the movie. We continued on and suddenly the sky got darker. Ok, it was black. Whatever the opposite of light is, that's what color the sky was. My cell phone rang. OH NO! My wife was in labor! I answered the phone, "Are you in labor?" She responded in a panicked voice, "WHERE ARE YOU?" "I don't know, just outside Waverly." "THERE'S A TORNADO HEADING FOR WAVERLY RIGHT NOW." I tried to reassure my wife that it was ok, even as the hail began to fall all over the place. "IS THAT HAIL I HEAR???" "No, no. It's just the movie the kids are watching. Is there really a tornado heading for Waverly?' "YES! THE WHOLE AREA OF I-80 BETWEEN LINCOLN AND OMAHA IS LIT UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE ON THE TV. THE WEATHER GUY IS THROWING A FIT! ARE YOU OK?" I tried to calm her down and tell her if I saw a tornado or if it got bad I'd turn around. She somehow bought it and we hung up. I wondered if the phone conversation put her into labor.
Then it got bad. The hail continued and the wind picked up. The rain was coming in sheets and I had to slow down to about 45 mph. Then Mother Nature landed her third punch. The car ahead of me decided to spin out and take 3-4 years off my life. It spun from the left lane across to the right lane. I had my first flashback. Fourth grade. I told a girl in my class during out loud reading time that she couldn't read. Not nice. I'm really sorry about that whatever your name was. The car spun from the right lane back across to the left lane. I have my second flashback. Sophomore year of high school. I had to play the "Rocky" theme on my trumpet in the middle of a packed lunchroom as part of a quest for my Shakespeare Lit class. Stupid trumpet. I should have learned to play the guitar. And what did that have to do with Shakespeare anyway? The car continued spinning right into the ditch. I had a flash-forward to my funeral where my wife is stomping up and down on my grave and all my family and friends are fighting over whether I was the most determined man ever, or most stupid. I snapped out of the flash-forward and sailed by the car in the ditch. I was now going about 15 mph with a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, eyes bugged out, looking for a twister to come down from the sky.
No twister. The rain started to let up as we approached Omaha. The cell phone rang again. "Are you in labor?" "NO YOU IDIOT! THE CELL PHONE COVERAGE GOT LOST AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE ALL DEAD!! ARE YOU DEAD???" "No we're fine. We'll be at the Quest Center in about 25 minutes. "CALL ME WHEN YOU GET THERE! I AM WORRIED SICK!!!" That definitely put her in labor. Then a little voice from the backseat called out, "Daddy, I have to go potty." "ARE YOU SURE???" "Yes." It was the three year old, which meant we had about a 2 minute window to find a toilet. I roared off the Interstate into a Quick Trip station, grabbed my daughter, sprinted her into the bathroom and bless her heart she performed her fastest potty time ever. We sprinted back out the door and I hardly noticed the tornado sirens going off outside. Back on the road and the Qwest Center was in sight. We parked the car, I called my wife to tell her we made it. I grabbed the kids and got inside.
We entered the arena at the tip-off. YES! We made it! The crowd was rockin and the game and atmosphere was electric. Totally worth it. The kids had a great time and paid attention for the first 5 minutes. Then my 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter started asking for food. I stalled them with the promise of a halftime food break. Somehow they consented and we made it to halftime. Not before we had another potty break for the 3 year old. Then at halftime we crashed a concession stand, I made an order, and reached for my wallet. No wallet. @#$!$%!!! I was in deep, deep trouble. I herd the kids over to some open space and broke the news to their confused faces. "Kids, daddy left his wallet in the car." The 5 year old answered, "Well go get it." "I can't, they won't let anybody out of the game and then back in. We're going to have to wait." "I WANT SOME POPCORN AND LEMONADE NOW!!!" I had a mutiny on my hands. I tried to calm them down with promises of ice cream after the game and let them blow off some steam by running around. They somehow rallied and we went back to our seats.
The second half was more electric than the first. The kids were as good as could be under the circumstances. My daughter took two more potty breaks. The 5 year old let out a few thousand "I'm bored. Let's go home" until he and his sister started wrestling in their seats. Luckily the game was so crazy the people around us didn't notice. The game went down to the wire and we end up losing on a missed 3 pointer by our best shooter. Why, why, why, why, why can't we win a big post-season game???? Voices gone and devastated by the loss, we joined the crowd for the exits. I had to carry my daughter on my shoulders and the boys and I had to hold hands to avoid losing each other in the crowd. Then we got into the car only to sit still and wait 35 minutes to get out of the parking garage. Luckily "Ice Age II" still had about a half hour left.
We finally got out of the garage and headed for home. Thankfully the tornados had stopped and the weather was fine. I made good on my promise and stopped for ice cream. Cones and lemonades for everyone. It only took 10 minutes before the three year old spilled her entire lemonade all over the place. I heard something, turned on the light and her chocolate ice cream covered face looked guilty. No worries. We had smooth sailing home and the boys passed out in the back. My wife was still pregnant when we got home. So much for the barometric pressure drop theory.
Go Blue Jays.
posted by Hank Louis Tierney at 7:29 AM
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