Life As It Stands...And the COTY Announcement

Big goings on in the Coats realm today. Lets see if I can recall everything.

· My grandmother is doing well. Her surgery went great. My mom went by this morning and she was awake and “mostly coherent.” The doctors say she should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. She will then spend a few weeks in rehab. I know she’ll be glad to get out of the hospital. I just hope the rehab people get her out of bed and make her move around. If not, she’ll drive them and herself nuts.

· Today is my son’s birthday. He’s 13. I can’t believe he is a teenager. I’ve shared my many misgivings about his teenage years before. Now that it is reality, though… Well it kind of hit me in the face this morning. I am the father of a teenager. Crap!

I’ve said it before, but most of my fears and suspicions are because of my teenage years. I was a relatively good kid, but I had my moments. I wrote about one such story a few weeks ago, around the start of school. There are many other stories of my idiocy/teenagedness. Stories that involve girls, alcohol, and the police; though never all at the same time. (I’m sure I’ll write about them sooner or later.) But they are stories that make me cringe when I think of my kids as teenagers. I’ll just have to get over it.

· Life has taken a bit of a surreal turn lately. First my son got a Twitter account. Then some of his friends did also. Then they all began following me on Twitter. I usually put up a notice of my blog updates on Twitter. I’m not sure I want my son, or his friends for that matter, reading this stuff. Some of it is no big deal, other stuff…well there’s a certain maturity level needed to fully understand some of my thinking.

Then yesterday I got another shock. I got a Face Book friend request from my Dad. What the hell??? Really? Seems like no big deal, right? Well, not so fast. Again, the blog becomes a problem. I’ve written a couple of things on here that he might not find flattering and, well, honestly it might hurt his feelings to read them. I post updates to Face Book. Plus it’s just weird to get a Face Book invite from your dad! Not sure what I’m going to do with that one.

These two together lead me to think I should make this thing “invite only.” I hate to do that. What do you guys think? Is it worth the hassle of making people sign in to read? Or maybe I should ask, is reading this stuff worth the hassle of having to sign in?

· Saturday is my birthday. Apparently I will no longer be a Young Adult. I learned this weekend that some people define Young Adult as 18-35. Apparently as of Sunday I will be a Plain Ol’ Adult. Maybe then I will finally start to feel like an adult instead of a stupid kid. I doubt it.

· The weather is crazy this week. The temp is not supposed to get out of the 30s until Sunday. Tomorrow we’re supposed to get some snow.

And I get to drive to Opelika! Yep, tomorrow I get to make the 8-hour round trip drive to Opelika, AL. And I’ll be going again next week. Yay!

· OK, here it is. The long awaited announcement for Commenter of the Year. After much reading and debate (with myself) I narrowed my choices down to 5 finalists. After much deliberation (again with myself) and pontification (and a little bribery) I’ve come to a decision. I’m going to give 4 awards.

1. The 1^st Annual Frequent Commenter Award goes to Matt Miller. Matt leaves comments like Elizabeth Taylor leaves husbands. Quickly and consistently.
2. The 2009 Comment of the Year Award goes to Bryan Miller. Thanks Bryan for this gem left on the entry G.O.S.:

G.O.S I love it.

I feel ya on the heavy burden and G.O.S dumping on your life.. I've been there lately also...But a friend of mine wrote a song about that.. about living free.. you should listen to it!

3. The Award for Great Comments Better Cake goes to Laura Senecal. Coconut. Yum!

I will contact the three of you via email concerning your prize. Congratulations to both of you.

FYI – Based on quantity and quality the other 2 finalists were Eric Bagwell and Nancy Bagwell. Sorry guys, you should have offered baked goods. Or referred to one of my songs.

I guess that’s it for today. Stay warm. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. Actually, maybe you should start by reaching for the moon. It’s closer.