Blogging From A to Z - D is for Dad, Dreams, Dance

Welcome to the It's A Wonderful Blog's Blogging From A to Z April (2015) Challenge. For this challenge, I will post every day in April (except for Sundays) about topics related to the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart film, It's a Wonderful Life.

Dad:
Dads rock. They can fix anything...even flowers. They know the answers to life's most difficult questions. They listen rationally to your crazy ideas, and sometimes even agree with them. At least mine does.

Dreams:

Source: http://bedfordfallssentinel.blogspot.com/2012/02/
travel-like-george-bailey-or-at-least.html

Everybody has dreams. We fight for them, we plan for them. We yearn for them. We...DREAM about them.

George Bailey had dreams. They involved anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles. They involved Venezuelan oil fields and working across on a cattle boat. None of those dreams happened.

In time, George came to realize that you don't have to leave Bedford Falls to find adventure.

Dance:
Oyes Oyes Oyes! It was the Charleston contest that allowed George and Mary to reconnect. We hadn't seen Mary since she was a little girl, professing her love for George over the soda shop counter. As adults and high school graduates, if they want to chat, they have to dance together.

Both Mary and George admitted that they couldn't dance. Yet they still gave it the ole' college try and got jiggy with it. And somehow, they managed to win the competition.

The question is, why did they win? Were they better than they thought? Or did they win because they were oblivious to the world around them, which caused them to take an unplanned swim and inspired an entire gym full of teens and adults to jump in the drink, as well?

What do you think?

How cool is your dad? Tell us about him.

What is your dream?

Did they really win, or did they win because they were good sports?

So much for all that hard work

I didn't get the dispatching job that I really wanted. Back to the drawing board.

What goes up must come down

Have you ever noticed that things can go TOO well and somebody ends up pissing in your Wheaties just so that everything stays in perspective?

Allow me to start from the beginning. I won tickets and meet-and-greet passes (back stage passes) from the local radio station, 104.7, WIOT, for the Bret Michaels concert at the Omni in Toledo Wednesday night.

I followed the directions and did what I was supposed to do (be at the sound board after the show to go back stage). I showed up at the sound board and nobody knew anything. Jenn and I spent an hour and a half walking around asking Omni employees, security, Bret's personal security, even Bret's personal body guard Big John if they knew anything about it. Nobody knew anything at all. And although there was a WIOT van parked in the lot, there wasn't an employee to be found ANYWHERE.

SO, I didn't get to do the meet and greet because apparently nobody communicates at the bar, in the security detail, or at the radio station. I didn't really care because I had met him Tuesday night at the Mud Hens game. But Jenn was really looking forward to it, and she didn't go on Tuesday.

So that's one hose-down, courtesy of WIOT. I sent them a respectful e-mail about it today, but they didn't bother to reply and explain themselves. Just more proof to support my opinion that they give away these "meet and greet passes" as a public relations prank and have no clue -- or no intention -- of following through. As long as they get their listeners to think they are cool.

It wasn't even a great concert. It was a bunch of drunk 20-something blondes girls trying to push their way to the front to try to make out with Bret. One gal even tried to push past me. I stood my ground and wouldn't let her past me. She said "I'm just trying to get to the stage." My response was "you and 2000 other jack-holes in this bar. You can go behind me if you want."

She called me a name. It starts with an F and rhymes with "trucker." I smiled. Maybe I am. But I'm not going to let a pretty face, skimpy shirt or short skirt convince me that someone can push their way in front of me. Solly Cholly.

Photos of the concert appear above. I also posted video on YouTube of songs that I either have never seen Bret perform or only seen him perform a couple of times. No, I don't have any of the WAY overplayed songs like "Every Rose" or "Something to Believe In." To find my videos, search YouTube for the username "iawlfan." That's me. I hope to add more video soon.

On the up-side, Evan "graduated" from pre-school tonight. That was fun, even though I think the entire idea is a little ridiculous. Evan looked handsome in his graduation cap. He was funny to watch as he kept smacking the "tassel" out of his face with his diploma. His mom cried. His grandmothers cried. I had fun. Photos of that also appear above.

And then I got home and got hosed again. My old boss called me around 9 p.m. to chat. I have caller ID and I answered the phone expecting a discussion that started "can you come back to work on Monday." Instead, I got "I decided to hire the old part-time guy who left for another newspaper instead. I thought he would be a better fit in the Perrysburg office. I didn't think anyone in the newsroom would fit up there." He said it had nothing to do with my ability, but everything to do with personality fit.

I asked him if he was legally allowed to hire someone from the outside instead of bringing back an employee who had been laid off. He said he didn't ask for a legal opinion but thought this was the better choice. I was nice. But I intend to ask for a legal opinion of my own.

I could say more, but I'll save it so I don't get in trouble in case this has a legal course of action available.

For now, I'm a proud papa who is pissed off and pissed on. In the meantime, I'm keeping my hopes up (but not so high they will be dashed again!) for the second interview.

What does it all mean?

I'm bored.

Not really. I was laid off from my job as a writer for the local newspaper on Feb. 17. I had been there for 10 1/2 years. It was my first job out of college, and my first career. I planned to stay there and retire.

I had an inkling that it may be coming, so I e-mailed myself all of my contact numbers and e-mail addresses about three weeks before the axe fell. I thought maybe I was safe, but there is no such thing, come to find out.

I'm not bitter. I'm mad, frustrated, scared and flat-out broke, but not bitter.

And tonight I feel optimistic. That usually isn't a word that is in a journalist's vocabulary. You can only report on so many murders and assaults and drug busts and lies before you get a little jaded and stop believing in and trusting people.

This layoff has been a blessing in that way. I have had the opportunity to get to know my five-month-old son, Kaleb and what all of his cries and funny sounds mean. I have been able to spend more time with my 5-year-old son, Evan, who recently earned his yellow belt with a stripe in karate. I have had a chance to argue, cry, be afraid, learn, establish a plan, and truly reconnect with my wife, Jenn.

I have fought with job and family services at both the local and state level. I have been frustrated by the incapacity of the people at the Child Support Enforcement Agency to have a heart or to allow me to look out for the son who lives with me. I have accused a credit card "counselor" of being a heartless, uncompassionate liar, and I have told more people than I can count that you can't squeeze blood from a stone.

At the same time, I have seen unbelievable acts of kindness, from unwavering multi-pronged support from my parents, a surprise hug from my brother (unheard of!), support from my in-laws, a surprise phone call from a former co-worker, constant e-mails from one co-worker and two colleagues, numerous visits from a close friend who has seen me deal with a lot of emotional baggage through the years, an unbelievable act of kindness from my Internet Service Provider, and hundreds of dollars in reduced fees from another creditor.

It is these acts of kindness that are helping to eliminate that jaded state of my soul and make me a better husband, father, son, and overall person.

So now, I take care of Kaleb 3 days a week. During the other two days, I run around madly trying to find a new job. Every other weekend and on Wednesday nights we add Evan to the fray. At all times, I am doing housework; searching for the Bigger, Better Job; and reading a variety of hints and tips on how to survive this crisis we currently are in.

Last night, Jenn and I watched the 1983 movie Mr. Mom. Jenn and I both noticed that it pretty much describes us to a T. I just haven't become addicted to the soaps...yet.

So this all leads me to reason this blog is titled "Stronger Now" and has the phrase "rise fall rise again" in the address.

Those are references to two songs that are appropriate to current events and previous events in my life. While the specifics of the songs do not always directly coincide with those events, the sentiments of the songs remain the same. I have included the lyrics here:

Broken Beat and Scarred
By Metallica
(Listen to it here)

You rise, you fall, you're down, then you rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong
You rise, you fall, youre down, then you rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong

Rise, fall, down, rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong
Rise, fall, down, rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong

Through black days
Through black nights
Through pitch black insights

Breaking your teeth on the hard life coming
Show your scars
Cutting your feet on the hard earth running
Show your scars
Breaking your life
Broken, beat and scarred
But we die hard

The dawn, the death, the fight to the final breath
What don't kill you make you more strong
The dawn, the death, the fight to the final breath
What don't kill you make you more strong

Dawn, death, fight, final breath
What don't kill you make you more strong
Dawn, death, fight, final breath
What don't kill you make you more strong

They scratched me
They scraped me
They cut and rape me

Breaking your teeth on the hard life coming
Show your scars
Cutting your feet on the hard earth running
Show your scars
Breaking your life
Broken, beat and scarred
But we die hard

Breaking your teeth on the hard life coming
Show your scars
Cutting your feet on the hard earth running
Show your scars
Braiding your soul in a hard luck story
Show your scars
Spilling your blood in a hot suns foray
Show your scars
Breaking your life
Broken, beat and scarred
We die hard

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stronger Now
By Warrant
(Listen to it here)

I held you for a moment in my hands
The moment with you slipped away like sand
Through my fingers now
In front of me a choice I have to make
To carry on or simply fade away
I lose you either way
I'd like to say that it was easy, it was hard
To say goodbye, I thought that I would die
Chorus
Letting go of you, was so hard to
And I thought that it would kill me but I made
It through somehow, and I'm so much stronger now
I gave to you my love and my respect
But I could never make you love me back
I denied it so
I grew bitter watching you grow cold
My life became your prison, took it's toll
I decided
Like a bird that's trapped
Inside a gilded cage
It's right to set it free,
Hurts to watch it
Fly away
Letting go of you, was so hard to
And I thought that it would kill me but I made
It through somehow, and I¹m so much stronger now

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The themes of those two songs embody what life and this blog are all about: We rise, fall, get down, then we rise again. What doesn't kill us makes us more strong, and I AM stronger now. But I know I will fall again. We all have our days. It's how we come out on the other side that counts.

As Andy Dufresne said in the movie The Shawshank Redemption, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."