Ultimate Relaxation

The next installment in the relaxation and meditation series, presented by me, performed by others:

It's moving day!!!!

The time has finally come to say good-bye to Philadelphia, the place that has home to Catherine and I for over 30 years.  It is the place where four out-of-five of our children have been raised for two through eight plus years.

We will not be moving too far away, but seeing as how things have changed drastically over 30 years, I wanted a better place for my family to live.

So long Philadelphia.  Go Phillies!!!!!!

Philadelphia 1979 to the present

October 25, 1979: I was born.  I lived in Kensington until I was 1.

June 2, 1980: Catherine was born.

1981 - 1997: I lived in Juniata, attended Holy Innocents Elementary School and Northeast Catholic High School.  Life was pretty good in Juniata when I was a kid.  You could walk through the Carl Mackley apartment's courtyard without fear of being shot.  You can go to the playgrounds without much fear either.  Piccoli Pool was clean and not filled with kids with foul mouths and a fighting attitude.  Things started to change.....

January 1997 - June 1997: In January, we started practicing for North Catholic's Spring play: Man of La Mancha.  I would hold the role of Padre Perez.  I would meet Catherine for the first time.  She played one of the prisoners and a knight.  June 7, 1997, Catherine and I started dating.

1997-2002: I lived part-time in Philadelphia, but mostly in West Chester at West Chester University.  I had to escape city life. 

August 30, 2001: Our first child, Cailin was born.  She was Baptized at Holy Innocents Church.

June 8, 2002: Catherine and I got married at Holy Innocents Church.  We had both gone to Holy Innocents School and lived in Juniata for 16 years, but had never met before North's play.  Catherine and I moved in with my in-laws.

June 2003: Catherine and I lived in our first house as a family.  It was Catherine's grandmother's house.  Catherine Persner, had passed away and we rented the house from my in-laws.

October 2003:  I began working at Lincoln High School in Mayfair.

November 15, 2003: Alexa was born.

2004: Alexa was baptized at St. Martin's of Tours Church.  The neighborhood, Summerdale, changed.  You could smell weed quite often.  Most of the neighbors were rude and that's putting it lightly.  I am going to keep my language clean here.  Our house was infested with mice thanks to one of our next door neighbors who always left their house trashy.  The mice traveled through the walls of our rowhome.  It was disgusting.  Those neighbors at one point just abandoned the house they were renting.  The owner of the house said that it looked like the family just got up from the dinner table and left.  Food was left on the dining room table.  The house was a big trashy mess.

June 2004: Catherine and I purchase our first house in Lawndale.  A twin!  No more row homes.  All of our neighbors, except for one house, were great.  The one house: the parents had moved out and left all of their children, the oldest being 18, in the house.  The 18 year old was wanted for armed robbery.  I didn't find this out until after we moved in.  They eventually were evicted.

April 6, 2005: Ryan is born.  He was later baptized at St. William's Church

September 2005: Cailin starts Kindergarten at Presentation BVM on the border of Philadelphia and Cheltenham.

August 27, 2007: Erin is born.  She was later at baptized at Presentation BVM.

September 2009: Alexa starts Kindergarten at Presentation BVM.

2004-2010: Lawndale changes.  Neighbors moved away.  Five houses on our block are abandoned.  Two of those five gets a new resident.  The other three are still empty.  Our block still holds strong until one family moves onto the block.  They hold summer parties until the early morning hours.  Sometimes two sometimes three in the morning.  Cops are slow to respond.  Those neighbors are never caught breaking the noise ordinance. 

July 29, 2010: The last night we spend in Philadelphia as residents of the city.

I do want to thank Philadelphia for being the city I grew up in.  I did not have a privileged life in Philadelphia as far as money goes.  But as far as family, friends, and school, Philadelphia, I feel very privileged.  The neighborhoods I grew up in went from great to horrible. 

I am very thankful that we are able to move outside of the city.  I live Philadelphia with a sense of content in my life.  I wish Philadelphia the best, and hopefully one day, it will no longer be violent, trashy, and obscene. 

Good-bye, Philadelphia.

Hello, Warminster!

Happy Anniversary Jeff and Nicole

It is a day early because I have another post for tomorrow...

But Happy Anniversary to my brother, Jeff and my sister-in-law, Nicole!!!

What has it been two or three years now?

Anyway: Enjoy your trip out West!!!!  Make sure you take lots of pics!

A Tribute to Police Officers

 

A POLICE OFFICER'S PRAYER

Lord I ask for courage

Courage to face and
Conquer my own fears...

Courage to take me
Where others will not go...

I ask for strength

Strength of body to protect others
And strength of spirit to lead others...

I ask for dedication

Dedication to my job, to do it well
Dedication to my community
To keep it safe...

Give me Lord, concern
For others who trust me
And compassion for those who need me...

And please Lord

Through it all
Be at my side...

--Author Unknown
 

Les Miserables: Do You Hear the People Sing? with International Flavor

This was a 10th Anniversary special performance, where the part Jean ValJean was sung by men from several different countries, in their native tongue.

National Liberty Museum

This is one of my favorite places to visit.  Just click here and you will see why....

Here is a snippet of what the museum is about:

"The National Liberty Museum is dedicated to preserving freedom and democracy by fostering good character and understanding for all people through education. We invite you to explore our exhibits of glass art and heroes from around the world that illuminate the strength and fragility of democracy and recognize the role each person plays in safeguarding our freedom."

Alzheimer's Association

My family has been affected by the disease more than once, and so this Charity is near and dear to my heart.  For more information, click here.

Thank you for your support.  The Alzheimer's Memory Walk is November 14th this year....

Cheerleading

Is cheerleading a sport?

A federal judge ruled that competitive cheerleading is not an official sport that colleges can use to meet gender-equity requirements.

My question is, how can it not be a sport?  Gymnastics is a sport, right?  If so, than cheerleading, which has a lot of gymnastic-type moves in it, has to be a sport.

How ridiculous!

 

The mysterious Roanoke colony

On July 22, 1587, an English colony fated to vanish under mysterious circumstances was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina.

For stories of the colony that seemingly vanished without a trace, click here.

How the Earth Was Made: Iceland

I love this History Channel series:

In this episode, they discuss how Iceland was created:

How the Earth Was Made: Iceland

Happy Moon Landing Day!!!

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts landed on the moon.  Or did they?  Was it real or was it faked?

Will anyone ever really know?

I will admit it......

The first thing I am going to admit is something that guys are not supposed to admit.

The second thing I am going to admit is something that no one is supposed to admit.

At least that is what I grew up with.  With friends making fun of anybody who would admit that they watched either, but why should anyone be embarrassed by either of them?  They are both entertaining, and one is not a sport, but is scripted entertainment "posing" as a sport.

The first show is "Young and the Restless".  I started dating my wife as we were heading into the summer of 1997.  It was my summer before college and I had never watched a day time Soap Opera, although, I did grow up watching "Dallas" with my family.  And that's probably where it got started.  As we were hanging out, 12:30 came around and Catherine said that she was going to watch "Young and the Restless", and I protested.  By I stuck around and have loved the show ever since.

The second show, actually a series of shows, is WWE Monday Night Raw and it's other shows.  I remember the first wrestling show I ever watched: Wrestle Mania.  The very first one.  I was just five years old.  I remember loving everything about it.  The wrestling, the entertainment.  And at that age I thought it was real.  As I grew up, I realized that it was all scripted, and one of my friends would never let me believe otherwise.  He was convinced that I believed wrestling was real.  I disagreed with his assessment.

So, there it is.  I admitted something you may have not known about me.  And I am not afraid to admit it.

So, do you have anything similar to share with the world?

If you were given ten wishes......

A genie pops out of a bottle and grants you ten wishes. 

The genie then says, "You can only use three of the wishes on yourself and that includes your family and your friends.  The other seven wishes must come from each of the categories:

1. You can only cure one disease or disability.  No human would ever suffer through this disease again.
2. You can help the environment, but only one environment.  Oil spill?  Drought?  Famine? 
   Once you fix the environmental issue of your choosing, that environmental problem can never happen again.
3. You can change a social issue.  Abortion?  Poverty?  Gun rights?  Once you change this social issue, every human on Earth will always think the way you do about that social issue.
4. You can bring someone back from the dead.  This person cannot be someone in your family from the last three generations before you or one of your friends.  Once this person comes back to life, you are responsible for teaching them about our current ways.  They will back to life at an age of your choosing.
5. You can bring to life an idea that you have always wanted to create or invent, but never had the resources to do so.
6. You can "hang out with" any person currently alive for 24 hours.  Who would be that one person?  
7. You can spend 24 hours in 8 places, spending 3 hours in each place, which 8 places would you visit.  Once each set of 3 hours at one place is over, you would automatically appear in the next place.  You would not be tired during any of these 24 hours.

Make your wishes, but choose carefully.

Relax and Meditate

From time to time, I will be posting my favorite relaxation and meditation videos.  Here's the first installment, my favorite video:

The Ocean Conservancy

Another charity I support when I can is the Ocean Conservancy.

A quote from their page:

"Here at Ocean Conservancy, we believe it's time to look beneath the surface to see where the health of our planet really begins. It’s time to recognize the source that sustains us day to day with the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe...to discover that all living things are connected to the ocean. It’s time to understand that going green starts with living blue. It’s time to start a sea change."
It's time to start a sea change.

Click here to make a donation.

Go Phillies

This is just a shout-out for my favorite Baseball Team, no, Favorite Sports Team ever:

GO PHILLIES!!!!!!

Billy Joel's River of Dreams

I thought I would just share with you today, one of my favorite performers and one of my favorite songs ever:

River of Dreams by Billy Joel

Remembering my "Good Ole Days"

When I was a kid, we watched shows like He-man, GI Joe, Transformers, Go Bots, Punky Brewster, Mr. Belvedere, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, and the list goes on.

Our families didn't think twice about allowing us to watch those shows.

Today, though, Catherine and I monitor everything.  I never thought that I would have to do that, monitor everything.

Of course there are kid friendly channels, but there are channels that should be family channels, where the word "ass" is used explicitly.  Times have definitely changed.

What are your thoughts? 

World's Oldest Person

A woman in the European country of Georgia and her family claims that she is 130 years old, born on July 8, 1880.

Here is the article. 

My question is, would you want to live to be that old?

What is your favorite restaurant?

I was passing a Friendly's close to the new house a few weeks ago and it reminded me of when Catherine and I started dating.

I miss that restaurant being around in Northeast Philadelphia.

But I also enjoy Olive Garden and Applebee's, and Joseph's on Oxford.

What are some of your favorites?

Old Spice commercials....

Does anyone actually find these Old Spice commercials entertaining or even relevant?

Old Spice Commercial. Click Here.

Help support Alex's Lemonade Stand

I have opened up an Alex's Lemonade Stand page, and I am collecting funds for this important foundation.  Please watch the Alex's Lemonade Stand video by clicking here.


To read the story and donate online, you can click here.

Thank you for your support!

In your face....

On Sunday night, I watched four comics perform.  They were all acts I had seen before, but hadn't seen in a while.

The first one up, may just be the funniest comedian out there right now, Gabriel Iglesias.  You can check out some of his routines by clicking here.

This then led into watching Sinbad's, "Where U Been" special.  It has been a while, but what a great comedian.  No matter he has been doing, he still kept his timing and his comedy.  For a snippet of that act, click here.

Lewis Black was up next.  He's hilarious, too.  From his time on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to his Comedy Central specials, Lewis Black keeps me entertained.  Click here, foul language warning!

To end the night, Comedy Central went with the Queen of Insult, Lisa Lampanelli.  I am not sure what to say about her.  I would definitely not any of her clips around kids: click here.

So who, are some of your favorite comedians?  Enjoy.....

Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday to my OLDEST sister, Melissa....

Happy Birthday to you,
You arer are old, not new.
Watch those wrinkles and gray hairs,
And I still love you, too!

Gay Marriage

Marriage, to me is a right and not a privilege.  If it were a privilege, the government would be able to end any marriage it wanted for whatever reason it wanted.

Gay and lesbian people deserve the right to be as happy or as miserable as straight people.

You may not want to ever marry someone that is the same sex as you, but what gives you the right to deny someone else that right?  Why are you so special?

I will raise my glass and celebrate everywhere that promotes civil liberties for gay and lesbian people all over the world!

My view on how history education should change

Let's take a look at Social Studies education and rewrite the curriculum. 


So, what would I do?  I would require every student to have World History and United States History in their first two years. I would make sure that World History is covered without U.S. History in mind. There is so much World History that World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and other similar topics can just be covered in U.S. History with a Global perspective. History needs to be kept at a survey level in high school, and students can go into detail with a research project and more when they take history-specific classes in college or as electives in high school. Why can’t students take a half year or Holocaust history, U.S. Military history, African-American History, Latin American History, European history, American religions, etc. Just as electives.

From there, I would require two years of the Social Sciences. In the Juniors level class, students would take Geography and Government as one full year course. Students do not know basic geography. Cultural Geography could also be taught as individual teachers decide which cultures (The Mayans, African tribes, etc.) they want to teach. In Government, there would be an emphasis on the U.S. Government, but students would also study world governments.

In their Senior year, students would take a half year of Sociology and Psychology. Students would enjoy studying U.S. culture and would focus on Sociological topics like Abortion, Gun Control, Drug Policy, etc. Also, learning about Psychology would be an excellent way for students to understand their own brains and personalities.

Welcome

Welcome to L's Lounge, the place where you can see what's on Bobby L's mind. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Haha. Just kidding. Enjoy and join in the conversation.