A dollar for a good cause

So, you may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging much lately. Lots o’ stuff going on in the personal and haven’t been feeling well lately. Kind of a crappy overlap, but I’m happy to report I’ve maintained my weight loss by trying to stay active when I’ve felt up to it and being smart with my eating.

One of the things that’s been keeping me busy has been my son’s involvement in baseball. Jack just made the 11U all-star team for our town and I am so proud of him. Though he has played baseball for several years, he just started pitching last year and has become quite good at it. We are looking forward to a fun summer full of baseball and travel, with many of the families we traveled with during all-stars last summer. Jack has a great coach who is an excellent fit for his personality – the perfect blend of sensitivity and “suck it up.” I’m absolutely thrilled that he is coaching him not only for the regular season, but for all-stars as well.

You guys already know how much I love baseball. It’s my life for 6 months out of the year. For the other 6 months, I get distracted by BSU and Raiders football, and my hometown San Jose Sharks, and those things are great, but at the end of the day, it’s kind of like kissing your sister. By Christmas, I’m watching Field of Dreams and The Sandlot on DVD. I keep the TV tuned to MLB Network in January, hoping to catch any hot stove news as it breaks. I count down the days until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training. After waiting through the frosty Idaho winter, I actually get a little sad on Opening Day, because I know the clock has just started ticking and October will be here before I know it. My birthday falls right around the start of the World Series. I sometimes like to think God made me two weeks overdue so I could receive an extra little “gift” every year. (I’m sure my mother feels it was just to give her something to hold over my head for the rest of my life. “1967 was the hottest Indian summer on record, and you were two weeks late!” You’d think after 42 years, she’d be over that by now.)

At any rate, as much as I love watching my SF Giants, the A’s and Angels; as much as I love to reel off stats, extol the virtues of Mays, Clemente, Aaron, and others, and teach my son baseball’s lore; and as much as I love to hate on the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, A. J. Pierzynski, Manny, and other teams and players who think they are bigger than the game itself, what I love most of all is watching my son play. On Saturday afternoons, if he doesn’t have a game, Jack and I like to head down to the ball fields here in town and watch games, or we hang out after his game to watch whatever games are being played the rest of the day.

This is my paradise.

Sitting with my boy, watching kids learn how to throw to their cutoff, hearing the ping of aluminum bats, having giggling little sisters happily playing in the dirt, listening to youngsters yell, “Ball! Ball! BALL!” as they call off their teammates, catching up with friends and hearing how their kids are doing on their teams, and ducking every time someone calls “HEADS” as a ball is fouled out of play.

This is my paradise.

Jack and me at an all-stars tournament in 2009

And I love that I get to share it with my son. Like every parent and child, Jack and I have a special bond. He is my Pumpkin, my sweetheart, my freckle-faced boy. He knows I get lightheaded when I have to squat down on my bad ankle for an extended period of time and often feel like I’m going to black out–Jack has literally held me up on numerous occasions. He is polite, thoughtful, sensitive, and silly. He has a surprisingly subtle and clever sense of humor for a kid his age. He makes funny voices and faces that crack us up. He is extremely patient and kind toward his little sister who can be quite the pest. And like most 11 1/2 year old boys, he is all about the bodily functions when it comes to jokes and comments. Good thing he’s also polite, thoughtful, etc.

So I’ve had a lot of hectic-ness in the daily lately and have been trying to think of a way to get myself back on track with my fitness goals. And I had this idea. Jack’s team is in the middle of a fundraising drive to offset our costs to attend the state tournament. We sell drinks, sunflowers seeds, gum, and other items at ball games and keep the proceeds. For the past two days, I’ve been baking a lot of goodies to sell at games. And I love to do this, and I know people buy it. But I’m getting to a point in my life that I wonder what kind of message I’m sending by selling not-so-healthy snacks to raise funds for my kids to play sports. I look at this as “sometimes food,” and my kids do too. But I just feel like I need to do something else, something a little more “pro-health” if you will, to make sure I’m sending the right message.

So here’s my proposal. I need to make a more serious commitment to my fitness routine than I’ve been making lately. And we need to raise funds for all-stars. I am willing to take pledges of $1 per minute of treadmill time — with a cap at 90 minutes — if you’d like to contribute to a very good cause and help our boys get to the state tournament. I will hit the treadmill on Wednesday, May 26, probably around 8:30 am, MST, and you can pledge any time. Ideally, I’d like to receive all donations by June 1. To facilitate things, I will take donations by PayPal, and you can email me for that information. Please understand that this is not for my personal use. The money goes to the team and is then divided equally among the families to offset travel costs and other expenses. We are always looking for new fundraising ideas and I thought this would be a great way to show the kids that there are other, more health-conscious ways to raise money besides selling sugary treats and sodas.

Want to help? I’d be honored if you would consider it. Please leave a comment below and let me know. Thank you.