Month: April 2018

Pete, the ball-buster, humor, and the gratitude dance

My inspiration for this article came from my friend, Candace, who responded to my last post about my husband’s silliness. She’s the one who sent me this picture of the gorillas and said it was of two females enjoying a silly secret that only the two of them understand. She knows laughter is the best medicine. It is my friend, Pete, however, who is responsible for me writing this. He laid out a ball-buster project for me and I reluctantly agreed to do it. Ball-buster is defined as an arduous task. Ballbuster, on the other hand, is a person who is relentlessly aggressive, intimidating, or domineering. See the difference? Pete is definitely not the latter. But he does hold my feet to the fire. He knows I can procrastinate and challenged me to write four articles in April. Make them spontaneous and short and just get them out there. Then write four more in May. One must be a video of you talking. Good grief! My coach had suggested the same video assignment, but I knew Pete wasn’t going …

More silliness, less stress

We were on the water last week, finishing our rowing drills in the San Francisco Bay, when our coach announced that we were about to compete in a practice race for the first time. Our novice team had been learning the basics of rowing for the last six months, but it was just in the last month that we had managed to put all eight oars in the water at the same time, at least for several strokes. Some teammates were away for the holiday weekend and with only seven people present, our coach joined us in the stroke seat, setting the pace. His presence eased my mind as we got ready to row against a more experienced team. Their coach pulled up in the launch ready to start the race. There was no time to be nervous. She raised her megaphone. Attention! Row! We lost the first 500 meter race, and then were told that another one was about to start. We would rally to win the next four races and pumped ourselves up …