Tag: life

Childhood Memories, Life

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

I remember a song we used to sing in kindergarten at Porter Elementary School. It was in my afternoon class and every so often Mrs. Rapp would gather a gaggle of us five-year olds together around this lime green, out of tune upright piano.

We had just finished eating our vanilla wafer cookies and half pint cartons of milk and were settling in to a nice sugar coma when she would begin to play a little diddy that went something like this:

“♫ What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to beeeeeeeee?”♫…

Then she’d go around the class and ask us to yell out what we wanted to be. I was confused. To a five-year old being a grown up felt like a million years away and even then I knew that I’d probably change my mind about it at least a million times before it actually arrived.

But as my turn approached my confusion turned into stress. I always wanted to say something cool that wasn’t the typical fireman, doctor or astronaut that everyone else in the gaggle was saying. And it certainly wouldn’t look right to be a copy-cat of someone else. But in the end I chose the fireman and to this day still don’t really know why (maybe it was the cool red truck).

What do I want to be?

One of the earliest things I remember was wanting to be Spiderman when I grew up. I wasn’t too keen on getting bit by a radioactive spider mind you, but a kid’s gotta do what a kid’s gotta do.

You can even ask my brother if you don’t believe me. He caught me many a time climbing the walls in my sleep yelling out that I was indeed the wall crawler. And on warm summer mornings after a rain storm I remember walking past spider webs shimmering  in the sunlight off of my front porch and saying to myself: “someday…..someday”.

I think the superhero theme was something I always aspired to be. I was very introverted growing up and some how could relate with those guys having a “secret”. Maybe it was the feeling of being able to put a mask on and suddenly become someone larger than life. Someone people admired.

That’s who I wanted to be…then.

Over the years I’ve gone through phases of who I want to be. A fireman, a doctor, a rock star, an electrician, an actor. Strangely, I wound up being a Clinical Systems Analyst (something that looking back would have floored Mrs. Rapp if I had told her) but in many ways I’ve been all of the other occupations at one point or another:

– I was a fireman who put out the ultimate pierogie fire that you can read about in a previous blog.

– I’m a physician whenever my daughter trips and falls on the sidewalk.

– I’ve been a rock star (albeit not professional, yet) for perish the thought, 25 years now.

– I can change a light bulb and swap out a light fixture with the best of them.

– I’m a great actor. Just ask me when a user calls me at work because they keep locking themselves out of their computer.  I play the role of “Happy, Helpful Jim” to a tee.

I may not have become Spiderman but I think it’s safe to say that in some ways I’ve even achieved being a superhero too. I can see it in my daughter’s eyes with simple things like when I’m helping her with her homework or when she watches me teach the dog how to sit and shake hands.

But I don’t think I’m finished. I’ve been wanting to be a writer for quite a while too. Oh sure, I’ve gotten a letter written to a fictional vampire published in Dynamite magazine at age eleven. And I’ve also been featured in the Letters to the Editor in a Conan the Barbarian comic book. But I want more. And I think everyone feels that way because there’s just an endless amount of things to experience. There’s nothing we can’t do. The sky is the limit as they say and there’s always some thing else to “be”.

So if Mrs. Rapp gathered me around that lime green out of tune piano right now and asked me the question again, I’d probably still be confused. But this time I think I’d have to tell her the truth –  that I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

Thought and Opinion

Feeling Like Number 2

Most of the time I abide by the creed that I’m number one but for some reason I feel like number two today. I’m not really sure what I did to deserve this either. I mean, I woke up in a pretty good mood. I had the day off from work (always a good thing), the sun was shining on a cold, crisp day in mid January and I had just cleaned the Keurig the night before so I knew the coffee was going to be fresh. I anticipated a quiet day of doing absolutely nothing but being in my nice warm jammies and socks, drinking coffee and watching TV. Sadly, things just went down hill from there.

Although my initial thoughts were to spend the entire day on the couch my wife had other plans. Today, in addition to it being a holiday for her and a vacation day for me it was also garbage day and since I had the day off she I had decided that before coffee I should quickly go out into the yard and gather up the number two my Boston Terriers had deposited in the yard over the past week. Not a pleasant job mind you but one that needs to be done regularly before the mole-hills becomes mountains if you catch my drift. Number two is also not something you want lying around in your garage for another week until trash day rolls around again.

So, as the Keurig started to percolate I slipped on my best pair of sneakers, coat and rubber examination gloves, grabbed a large plastic bag and made my way out onto the frozen frontier.  A man on a mission.

As I made haste around the perimeter of my yard extracting and being extra careful not to step into any stray number two I couldn’t help but think about the number one reason I hurried along: the fresh coffee that awaited me. The reward I’d receive for collecting number two.

Having finished the job I tied the bag of number two up and placed it into the garage. Feeling victorious, I quickly went upstairs to remove my sneakers and get back into full “day-off” mode. But just as I placed my sneaker on the bed to adjust my sock a disturbing aroma began to fill my nose. It was number two… but from where? I hastily looked to where my sneaker now sat and confirmed that even though I thought I was careful, number two had somehow made it onto my sneaker. And now, not just on my sneaker but also on my bed as well. And to make matters even worse, it was the side of the bed that I sleep on.

So I went into the bathroom and cleaned the number two off of my number one sneakers. Once finished, and with stage one of caffeine headache (or lack there of) beginning to set in, I tore the bed linen off, put it in the laundry basket and hastily made my way down to the laundry room to clean the number two linen.

As the hot wash cycle began I made my way to the powder room to wash up and finally partake in cup of coffee number one. I began to wash the last remnants of number two off of me and at that moment I heard my daughter yelling from the other side of the door. “DAD…Are you almost done?” Now I don’t know about you, but from my experience when someone is standing outside of the bathroom door asking if you are almost finished it usually only means one thing. Yup, number two.

“I’ll be out in a second”, I said as I finished rinsing my hands. But number two waits for no one and apparently she decided to go upstairs and use another bathroom instead. So, with number two now gone from the yard, my sneakers, and in the process of being cleaned off the linen I finally made my way to the kitchen to my awaiting coffee.

I slowly raised the coffee cup up to my lips fully anticipating heaven and the angels to start trumpeting but instead heard the heart wrenching call coming from upstairs:

“DAD, the toilet won’t flush!”… Yep, as if you haven’t already guessed, more number two.

Without even taking the time to enjoy the first sip I put down my #1 Dad coffee mug, grabbed the plunger from under the sink and made my way upstairs.

So that’s how my day has been so far and why I feel like number two. Oh, did I tell you that I had to take the dogs to the vet today too? And you’ll never guess what the vet wanted to do while we were there? I’ll  give you a hint: It has to do with number two.

I sure hope my day gets better.

I hope yours does too.