Hello again. I knows it’s been a little while since I posted and for that I apologize.
I’m heading out of town this evening for a weekend in Omaha, NE. I’m traveling with my parents and my niece Ella down I80 right now.
We are going to a Berthal Hathaway shareholders conference at the new convention center in Omaha. It should be very interesting, there are going to be vendors from companies that are owned by Berthal Hathaway and Warren Buffet will be there mingling with guests as well.
Anyway, as I ride in the car down the interstate, my niece acting like a goofball, I find myself thinking about my life a little.
A coworker brought her two new borns into the office today and everyone in the office had a turn holding the little guys.
It made me think about the opportunity I have in front of me to start my own family. As I was holding my friends new born twins I started thinking about what like of father I would want to be. I want to be the best father I can be to my future children but I’m not sure if it’s totally possible to plan out how to be a good dad. You can always try to have a solid plan but I think more than likely you’re just going to end up rolling with things, adapt and overcome as they say.
However I turn out as a dad, and I surely hope I will be a good one, I know that I will try to teach my kids as much as I can and at the same time I hope my kids will be interested in some of the something I am.
Another reason I’m thinking about this kind of stuff is that my marriage to the number one woman in my life is less than a month away now and things are really coming together.
Plans for the wedding are all falling into place and I our guest list is almost complete. The starting gate to a new chapter in my life will open on June 2nd and I couldn’t be more excited right now.
But I think this is going to be the end of this entry tonight it’s time to have an intellectual conversation with my 5 year old niece about lightning and thunder.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free comment off you like as always.
Come back soon,
Shannon Brown.
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Ok, ok. So my first bike ride of the season didn’t happen. I planned on riding over break but it was simply too windy for me. 15 – 20mph winds are just not fun.
But in the meantime I was able to get my rig ready to ride. I attached my front and rear lights and also threw on a bike computer which keeps track of speed and mileage, along with lots other things on your ride too. I also put my cargo rack too.
I’m going to reschedule a ride for this weekend assuming the weather holds up.
Terri and I were at Target on Sunday and we found her a new bike! It was on sale for $89! She loved it so I bought it on the spot! I got her a new helmet too. Safety first! ( never ride without a helmet )
She said she will ride with me whenever I want but there are a few things to tighten up on her new bike first.
I recommend double checking your bike after buying because the store might tell you it’s ready to ride but that doesn’t mean it is.
I think today we might just go for a walk since I haven’t had the time to make adjustments on the new bike yet. I have my walking shoes on!
Well guys, the first ride is on the schedule! I think it may happen on Monday since I am officially on spring break. I have four days this week that I can ride. I might just do some exploring because in the Marion /Hiawatha area the trails are a mix of paved and crushed limestone. My plan is to ride a couple of times and then map a few routes on Google Maps. I’m also in search of some new hybrid tires. Right now I have your standard road tires and those don’t do too well on the gravel. I’ll let you know what I find but if any readers have suggestions, I’m open to them of coarse. It’s time for bed now, I have to go to work at the bowling alley tomorrow. Goodnight all.
Let me first start off by saying I’m sorry there is no photo with this post. I’ll explain why a little later.
This week actually wasn’t too bad. I found out that I got a B on my mid-term for Mass Media in America. I was pretty excited about that! I can only hope for the best on my Journalism exam. I kind of ran out of time on the last part of the test and know I probably got at least one multiple choice wrong. I hate how I second guess myself sometimes. But all we can do is try our best at everything we do, right?
Overall, classes were very enjoyable this week and that went hand in hand with the nice weather we’ve been having.
I wish I had more of a chance to fully enjoy the weather, I’ve been pretty much locked inside lately. It’s been hard to get free time.
I do plan on taking advantage of the weather sometime soon. I want to break out my bike and go explore the trails. I also want to build some new garden boxes so I can grow some peppers and tomatoes and maybe some herbs too. I like to make my own salsa and prefer homemade to store bought any day.
But starting my garden will have to wait since the only day off I will have is Easter Sunday and I will probably not want to wake up on. I’ll be working seven days a week until May 10 or so. Hopefully May won’t be too late of a start for a garden.
Oh yes I nearly forgot to tell you why I wasn’t able to post a picture today.
Well my fiance and I decided to take a break from the wedding planning stress on Saturday. I bought two tickets to Theater of Cedar Rapids’ production of the Wedding Singer!
It was a really fun time and the show was fantastic! They had a wonderful cast too! We enjoyed the experience so much that we have already decided to go again when TCR performs Alice in Wonderland.
I have always found 80′s references to be hilarious and the play definitely utilized them quite a bit. Nevertheless, I would have loved to post a picture of the play but you know the rules, no photography in the theater.
I will be setting loose my trail bike soon so I will take a my camera along for the first ride. We’ll see how far I make it, I am so out of shape.
Until next time readers!
Remember always try your best and you will succeed in everyone’s eyes…even your own.
This has been a very long week. Correction, this has been a very long couple of weeks.
The beginning of the week started out just like a normal week.
Wednesday I took my first first mid-term exam and I feel pretty confident about it. It was essay/short answer form which I have had a lot of success with before in the past.I’m really hoping for good grade.
Thursday and Friday I finally submitted my very first story to the MMU Times, which was an advance piece on the Presidential Lecture Series. I’m pretty excited about that story and doing the follow up story about the lecture itself.
Of course my normal Friday routine played out and it came time to bowl. I did pretty average so I can’t really complain about that. It’s hard to do your hobbies when you’re so worn out.
Being so worn out I decided to go hang out with my niece after work. She is so creative and always has ideas for things to do.
We decided to play with blocks and see what we could build! It was a lot of fun!
Sometimes it’s nice to go back to being a kid or just hang out with your loved ones to help keep your sanity.
Well I hope everyone has a great week and good luck to anyone with upcoming mid-terms!
Something made out of Keva wood blocks.
The Great Tower of Keva blocks!
-This motivational poster was found on Google. I know, I work at a bowling alley but didn’t think to take a photo.
I aim for my mark and the ball misses the pocket on the right and leaves the ten pin. I try to make a small adjustment, mistakenly pull the ball across the lane and it lands to the left of the head pin leaving a nasty split. It makes me want to hollar as loud as I can.
I don’t think screaming would help much though.
For the past few weeks I have been struggling with my performance on my Friday night league. I don’t have the slightest idea about what is going on. It’s extremely frustrating though. Typically I’m not the kind of person that shows my discontent in ways that are inappropriate or over-the-top. I’m not a big fan of that display of behavior. I normally just get quiet and I walk away from the lanes for a little bit.
But I really don’t know what is going on with my bowling. I haven’t shot a 600 series on Friday nights in weeks. More than I can count at this point. This past Friday night I had to battle it out in order to finish with a 532 series. I started off pretty good with a 194 game and then things went south after that real quick.
The second game is where I started to have problems. Just like I described earlier, nothing was working. And I mean nothing at all. If I hit my mark on the lane the ball would quickly get on track, just like it’s supposed to, then it would flatten out and careen through the right side of the pins leaving a huge split. And then I would miss the split. This went on for the entirety of the second game. I would leave pins after throwing my first ball and would completely miss what was left.
I finished the second game with a 148. Not even close to my average of 180! You can see my frustration here. The third game was a little better. I made some adjustments and changed which ball I was using. I was standing as far left as I could and throwing the ball across the lane to the right side of the lane hoping it would grab the at the right time and land in the pocket. This didn’t always work and result in strikes, but it would leave spares that I could actually pick up. I picked up everything but the ten pin. Darn ten pins!
The third game ended with a 190 so that wasn’t too bad. I suppose the only thing I can do is keep working on it. I had my bowling balls baked and resurfaced to help get some of the grim off so maybe that might help. I’ll be sure to let you know.
Recently I have found a new hobby. Or is it a new interest? Or obsession? Regardless of what you wish to call it, my new obsession seems to have become listening to National Public Radio and Iowa Public Radio as well.
It started with listening because it was something that we were asked to do in my Intro to Journalism class. It has now grown to something that I feel I can almost not have in my day. I think that last time I really listened to music was this morning with my fiance while on our way to work.
NPR is very interesting and offers information and news stories from around the world. This happens to fit right in to my personality. I’m actually listening to NPR as I write this post. I suppose I am some sort of news and fact freak.
I prefer to listen to and watch programs that are factual and educational and I’m not a huge fan of “reality t.v.” Now don’t get wrong here, I will watch “reality t.v.” and sitcoms from time to time, actually I watch sitcoms quite a bit. But my automatic default is set to hearing and seeing facts.
Sometimes people I know question why or poke fun at me because of my obsessions with things like NPR, History Channel, Discovery Channel and other documentary sources but it doesn’t bother me at all because I know they love me for who I am. Someone recently told me that I am the one keeping them updated on current events sometimes.
I wonder if I would be any good on Jeopardy someday.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the Iowa Men’s State bowling tournament for the first time. The 95th annual Iowa Men’s State Tournament is currently taking place and there are more entries than ever before. I have been interested in bowling in this tournament since it was announced last year. There are three events which include team, doubles and singles competition. I initally had a team put together and it somewhat fell apart shortly before the tournament started. I really wanted to bowl still so my boss at the bowling alley, where I work on the weekends, suggested that I put my name on the list of substitutes.
So I did. And I waited. I have been bowling for 12 years now and have been interested in bowling in more tournaments lately. I currently bowl in a Friday night league but haven’t had many opportunities to do much more than that. On Sunday just before I left work at 1 p .m. my boss answered the phone at the front desk and shortly after she turned around to me and asked if I could bowl at 4 p .m. In my head I was screaming “Yes! Yes! Yes!” But before I said yes I did the respectable thing and said I had to check with my fiance first. So my boss kept the person on the phone while I made a quick phone call. Terri, being the supportive person she is, of course said it wouldn’t disrupt anything. So I was in! I was going to bowl in the singles and doubles competition! I was excited, I’ll admit it.
I gathered my equipment before leaving Lancer Lanes for the day and headed out.
Before heading to the Cedar Rapids Bowling Center (CRBC) we stopped at Skeffingtons because I needed to pick out the tuxes for my wedding. Which was pretty easy due to my great taste in clothing. The weekend certainly wasn’t unproductive. Once that was taken care of Terri dropped me off at CRBC so I could get my equipment ready. I found the team I was supposed to bowl with and got checked in. We bowled the singles competition first and it was a slow start. I ended up finishing with a 182, 195 and 191 for a 568 scratch series. I didn’t think that was too bad considering I don’t normally bowl at CRBC. Doubles competition followed immediately after singles with out a break in between. In doubles I did a little better, finishing with a 241, 195 and 177 for a 613 scratch series.
I think my partner and I were about 200 pins out of first place, but that doesn’t matter to me. I was actually just extremely happy to get to bowl in the torunament.
It was even better because Terri arrived to pick me up after I was done bowling and gave me kudos for bowling well and said “I should bowl there more often because I did so well.” She then said she was taking me to dinner at La Camelia! Yum!
Sunday was a really good day!
Wow what a weekend! Just like anyone else feels like on a Monday, I am really tired. My weekend, just like every weekend, started on Friday night. My fiance and I went to Target after I finished bowling because she really wanted to buy a copy of the new Twilight movie on DVD. It was a midnight release and I honestly didn’t mind going at all because it made Terri, my fiance, so happy and excited. She was so beautiful with that huge smile on her face before we went. We spent about three hours in the store before the release. I got home around 1:30 a.m. and had to work at 8:00 a.m. Saturday. Saturday went off without a hitch, just like most Saturdays do. Both the youth league and the state tournament at the bowling alley had very few issues.
After I finished working, Terri and I went to the Galaxy 16 theater to see Star Wars Episode 1 in 3D. That was pretty cool, even though I may have fallen asleep a couple of times. Good thing the 3D glasses covered my eyes! I had to work the state bowling tournament again on Sunday, but only until 1 p.m. I thought I was going to be able to go straight home and take a nap but I was asked to bowl as a substitute for a team in the tournament. I’m not complaining at all because I wanted to bowl in the tournament and I did ok.
Nonetheless that was a pretty busy weekend and I still need to do homework. Sometimes things come up and you have to make adjustments in your day. And even though I bowled at 4 p.m. on Sunday, I still had time to pick the tuxes for my wedding.
Until next time. Take care.
My name is Shannon Brown. This is my first time blogging and I’m not sure what I want to blog
about yet. There are so many things to write about in life. Sometimes it feels like too much to be able
to slow down and think about what would be blog worthy. So I will start by telling a little about myself.
I am a 26 year old college student at Mount Mercy University, and I am studying for my B.A. in Public
Relations. I have a full time job at a call center as a customer service representative, and I also have a
part time job at Lancer Lanes on the weekends. It all sounds pretty monotonous already doesn’t it? But
it gets even better. With all of the school work and balancing two jobs, I am also planning my wedding
which is happening this June.
In the long run with a busy schedule and a home life developing, I think everything is running
fairly smooth. Everyone always asks me why am I so busy? Or why wouldn’t I quit working and just go to
school. Well my first answer is always I can’t afford to! My second answer is that I like to keep busy. No
don’t get me wrong I enjoy sitting and relaxing every once in a while, but I would honestly lose my mind
if I had nothing to do 24/7. With the busy schedule I am still able to set aside personal time to do the
things I enjoy doing. I like to go to the gym, cook at home, and spend time with my fiancé. I also enjoy
bowling both competitively and recreationally.
I know this is a short blog post however it has been a learning experience so far. I guess once
you take the time and examine your world you find that thoughts begin to form and you actually do
have a lot to share with others. More to come.
