"Student of the Month" 2008

The games were over and all of us reconvened at home for dinner. I guess we can call these meals dinner since they occur at dinner time but with all the activities getting sustenance is the main thing!!! My son is always famished and my daughter is always something less than famished so between the two of them lays one normal child! Only joking but their eating habits are very different in terms of how much they eat but quite similar in the quality or lack thereof. Anyhow dinner was had and homework finished which left enough time for a sorry before the children retired for the evening. This is all part of the acceleration of time and any plans I have in the evening always seem to fall by the wayside.

Ever since I was release over 7 ½ months ago I have communicated with my sponsor at least weekly. Usually these conversations take place over the weekend but ever since my family has returned the frequency of these conversations have tapered. I have turned to the email as part of our communication and I have tried (not very well by the way!) to set aside some time in the evening to make the simple phone call but there always seems to be something.

Thankfully email is a way to correspond and my sponsor appears to understand. I owe so much to my sponsor who has now moved away to another state and lives in a different time zone. I had no idea an hour ahead actually makes a difference but with the way these evenings fly by the hour does make a difference. Okay I am just making excuses and I will do better over the coming weeks.

As I mentioned my sponsor has been there for me ever since day one when I entered Gamblers Anonymous. He sat across from me at that first meeting and I will never forget the genuine empathy and sympathy I felt as I told my story. Now three plus years later things have changed but the premise remains the same; recovery. My sponsor continues to help me and so many others who walk into the rooms. I can only hope to be half as helpful as my sponsor has been to me; I am surrounded with incredible people and my sponsor is certainly one of them.

This morning I attempted and accomplished something different; getting to the gym like I used to; very early. I needed to get there because there was a very special ceremony I needed to attend. I made my way to the gym at the very early hour and returned to running. I have heard people getting burned out from running or any other exercise but I am far from being burnt at and finding out the other day that I only missed qualifying for the Boston Marathon by one minute and thirty seconds. I thought the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon was 3:20 and below; it is not it is 3:20:59 and below. My official finishing time was 3:22:36 so I am there. I have printed out another training schedule and will attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon in January either in Phoenix or here in Southern California.

I returned home in time to get everyone out of bed and make our way to school as a family. Yes, everyone went to school this morning because there was a special event about to take place. Earlier this week my wife received a telephone call from my son’s teacher informing her that my son was selected as “Student of the Month” for his “Outstanding Citizenship”. This was a surprise to my son and we kissed him good bye but made our way to the auditorium for the ceremony. We sat in the rear and most of the second grade classes were in attendance; each class had their own “Students of the Month”.

First up was my son’s class and his teacher announced the awards. My son did earn Student of the Month for his Citizenship and his teacher stated that my son is known for his honesty, congeniality and big smile. This was wonderful to hear and my son was so proud showing off his big beautiful smile. I remember being in attendance some three year s ago when my daughter earned a similar award in her second grade class. The school does such a wonderful job making school fun and it was such a fun event even the children who didn’t earn awards were very interested in the entire ceremony.

I was able to take a few photos commemorating the experience and I won’t soon forget (probably never!!) the look on my son’s face because he was so happy. He showed us the certificate and let us know how proud he was. He was able to select his own dinner as a reward and I would like to say my wife and I suggested this but the suggestion came from my son. He chose spaghetti because he had a homework assignment which required him to use chopsticks and my son thought eating spaghetti would be easy with the chopsticks. He was correct eating two bowls of spaghetti without any problems. He is a tornado when he eats with regular utensils so the chopsticks weren’t any worse and may have been even better with less mess!!! Yes, it was a very special day filled with very special moments and thank God I was able to take them all in.

Happy Birthday Sis!!!! Don't worry it is just a number and life does improve with each passing year!!