A little bit over a year ago, on April 9, 2007, during the evening my cell phone rang. As I answered it I saw that it was Tony, my youth group leader from church. I figured it was him calling to remind me of some event coming up or to ask me a question, boy was I wrong. When the phone connected and I heard him on the other end, I could tell by his voice something was wrong. That’s when he told me that one of my good friends, Aaron, had just died in a tragic car accident. He said that Aaron had been on his way home to change clothes and head to the hospital to see his brother and sister-in law, who were there having a baby, when for some reason he hit a tree and the vehicle caught on fire. I immediately burst into tears and told Tony he was lying, which I knew he would never lie about something like that, but I just could not believe it. This news hit our town very hard, as he was known by many and today would have been his 21st birthday, so I just wanted to take the time and share some of my best memories with him. Aaron was a popular, good looking guy who always knew how to smile and have a good time. He could play the guitar and drums like no body’s business and he was the lead guitar player for a local band Addora Lush, that played at several hometown place as well as up at Radford and even at Alley Katz. One of my first memories with him was from when we were younger and we were camping out and I had to use the bathroom in a Porter-John. Well he thought it would be hilarious to ride his bike into the side of it while I was in there. Then there is the time another girl and I tried to put toothpaste on him and a friend while they were asleep at a church lock-in. Or how bout him almost getting us kicked out of Subway when we were in Canada. Or seeing him walk into Sunday school, late (as usual) with those aviator sunglasses on. Or the time him and I tried to figure out how to use the phone while we were in Mexico, by asking the manager at the front desk who didn’t speak any English. Or when him and the boys decided to go swimming in the river in Canada and us girls took their clothes. These are just a few memories, I could sit here all day writing them down. We love you and miss you Aaron, Happy Birthday!
Swing Batter Batter, Swing April 24, 2008
Baseball is one sure fire way to know that spring has sprung. There are kids on every field as you drive through southern Virginia, some practicing their little hearts out and others trying to win that game. While I love watching baseball being played out on the field, what I really love watching and observing even more are the parents. My boyfriend umpires baseball during the spring and summer, so I go to a right good amount of games and no matter where we are the parents never cease to amuse me. They are so busy yelling at their kid, or yelling at the coach, or yelling at the umpire. No matter how much or how little they know about baseball, they yell and in turn I get a good laugh. Like just yesterday, my boyfriend had a middle school baseball game to umpire and the middle school I attended was playing against Powhatan Middle School, so I figured it would be a nice game to watch. There were a few parents there that I recognized, whether it being just from around the town or parents of friends that have younger siblings. Well during one of the innings, Powhatan was up to bat and there was a runner on second. The batter hit the ball to the outfield and the runner on second, began to advance and head towards home. The outfielder, fielded the ball and instead of throwing it into second baseball like he should have, he tried to throw it all the way home. However, the throw was a little short and the run still scored. Well two of the moms sitting behind the fence who happen to be sister-in-laws, both with kids on the team started to yell at the fielder. Mom # 1: “Way to get that ball in!”, while Mom # 2 (the mother of the fielder) proceeded to yell: “What are you doing? You know better than that! Why didn’t you hit your cut-off-man?” Then she turned to the other mother and proceeded to yell “Don’t tell my kid that he did good! He should have hit his cut-off-man!” I found this highly amusing, especially since my old middle school baseball team lost by slaughter rule, 10-0 in the 5th inning. I’m sure that as the baseball season progresses I will have several more amusing moments, all thanks to those baseball parents.
Hello world! April 22, 2008
Hi Everyone! Ya’ll are probably wondering while all of a sudden out of the blue, a girl would just get an idea to start a blog. Well I did not get the idea just out of the blue, let me explain. I am Amber and I live in a small town in south, central Virginia. I am taking classes through Mary Baldwin College and am currently a Junior. I am majoring in Health Care Administration. I am finishing up a course currently on Epidemiology and Women’s Health Care along with a few other classes. I have the same professor for both of those classes and she also teaches Chemistry at Virginia Military Institute (which happens to be where my boyfriend attends). Women’s Health Care is a writing emphasis class and as a result we have to write 3-5 paged papers every week on different topics and issues and a research paper on something related to women’s health. I wrote several papers that my professor throughly enjoyed and that I received good grades on, including one on obesity and one on tobacco contol. Well as this semester is drawing to an end, she told me I should consider writing a blog. So needless to say, I have considered it and am now taking my best whack at it. I hope it all goes well.
