Day 22- Two mentors and The Big City

FREE PRETZEL #22

 May 22nd- Day 22- As you can clearly see, in the picture above, we are through the second line on the punch card and only a week or so left of this May fun. Who is still hungry? I know that many of you have asked about getting a FREE PRETZEL and although even some of my closest friends and relatives have not had one yet, I can assure you that I am not trying to slight anyone.  Sometimes, on this journey, I have to go with logistics and make the best of it.

Today I honored two people who have been instrumental in my coaching career.  Tony Mitchell is the AD at Paul VI and Donna Camardo is his assistant.  Tony handles the day-today operations and Donna handles any thing that the coaches need to do, remember and take care of.  They are both great people, who do their best to tell it like it is.  They are usually fine with me because golf is not on school grounds and my teams have not caused them any trouble or given them headaches. 

Donna said she loves pretzels and was excited to enjoy your afternoon snack

Donna is also the girl's basketball coach and a teacher at the school.  She has a lot of hats to wear at PVI, but she never seems to get upset and I always see her smiling.  Her smile got even bigger when I gave her the FREE PRETZEL.    

Tony said he doesn't pose for pictures, so I nabbed a quick candid

Tony gave up the head baseball coaching job at PVI to become AD.  He hired me and has been nothing but supportive and understanding.  It's always nice to exchange witty banter with him and to hear his stories.  I really enjoy them.  Donna and Tony are called upon to please many people, because, as we all know, sports tends to be bigger than it should to some people.  They have to deal with students, parents, coaches, teachers, administrators and each other.  It's amazing how well they do it on a daily basis.  I hope that I was able to provide them with a little break from it all with the FREE PRETZEL.  I would like to thank them for all they have done for me as a coach and especially for the opportunity.  I think I tell them that a lot, but hey, I really like what I do and I might as well thank those that are supportive and instrumental in my growth.  Thanks

For those of you that are close to me, you may know this already, but I will be having spinal surgery next Thursday. Apparently a few vertebrae in my neck are pushing on my spinal column and the surgeon needs to go in and relieve that pressure.

Today I needed to go into Philadelphia for pre-operation testing.  I had to go through a series of tests in 3 different buildings in Philadelphia, all within a block of each other within the Rothman Institute.  It was interesting to see the hustle and bustle of Philly during he day.  I guess I really had not seen it on a work day and it was funny to me.

A few sights and observations from my day:
1) The man that took my blood, Randy, was amazing.  I did not even feel it.  It was the best blood taking I have ever had. We had some fun banter for a few minutes.  After I told him that it was the easiest time ever getting my blood taken, he said this "Nurses are trained and taught how to put things IN people.  I was trained and taught how to take things OUT of people."  It made sense at the time and since nurses are the only people that have ever taken my blood.

Before he took my blood he said "Do you have any problems with your blood being taken?"  I replied, "I don't like it." To which he quickly responded "You don't have problems, you have issues."  He may have been the best part of my day.

3) The girl in radiology that took my chest X-ray was either having a really good day or she loves her job.  She was happy, bubbly and my X-ray only took 2 minutes.  Since it was the last thing I did, I was relieved and pleased to be done.

The day was filled with interesting sights and sounds, that would not be done justice by my explanation.  If you live or work in a city then you know what I am talking about.  If not then you need to go in just once.  Crazy.

Since I got a few extra pretzels yesterday, I happened to have one left over.  I was cooking burgers last night, so I decided to try something:

PRETZEL BURGER!

Ta-da! It was actually pretty good.  I probably should have tried to warm up the pretzel in the microwave, because it was a little hard, but I topped it with, cheese, mustard, ketchup and pickles and it was tasty.  It helps that I made a pretty good burger too.  All on the skillet.  It's the only way I do burgers anymore.  They are amazing and easy.

Shout-outs:
Melissa Tacey- fellow ND alum and former dorm president turned Resident Assistant (just like me) celebrated her 35th birthday yesterday.  I am pretty sure she had a good time.  She usually does.  Hope you had a great birthday! Will I see you soon?

-To the PVI golf team who closed out our season with a win over Cherry Hill East.  Our final record was 12-7, which is not too shabby and one of our best seasons ever.  Congrats!

What will tomorrow bring?  Who knows?  I've stopped wondering and tried to just see what happens.

Until tomorrow...