The Proof is in the PEZ!

I am sure many of you are wondering how many Pez I have, and what they look like all together living in Pez harmony! I would be happy to allow you a peek into my PEZ ROOM!

If you are planning a visit to my Pez Room in the future, I would suggest that you do not look at the link I am about to post. It is better to see it without having had a "pez peek!"

If you go to Ron's Pez Room Tour 2008, you will see that I do indeed collect PEZ! It may take some time for it to load up, but it is worth the wait. I would love to hear your thoughts on this wild display of Pez fun!

Enjoy!

"The Ron Hood Special" at Marco's Italiano Restaurant

I bet you are wondering why I would have a picture of a plate of food on my blog. Well, an interesting thing happened to me yesterday and I thought it might be worth sharing.

I was at an appointment and as I was leaving, I saw an elderly woman approaching the door, so when I went out the door, I held it open for her. She was moving slowly, but I waited patiently. After all, it was raining. One of those raw days.

As she approached the doorway, she stopped and said, "Well, look at you, there is a gentleman still among us." She noticed I had my work name tag on, and she read it aloud, "Ron Hood." She paused to tell me that her name rhymed, and she repeated it several times and chuckled to herself. As she walked into the door, she stopped half-way through and said, "Ron Hood? Are you the fellow that has a dish named after him at Marco's?" I laughed and said, "Yes, that is my dish." She said, "I had no idea the gentleman who would be so kind would be the same Ron Hood. I had that dish and it was delicious, really delicious." I thanked her and we both went on our way.

Interesting that you never know what will happen during the course of a day.

The Ron Hood Special is Grilled Chicken with dijon sauce, angel hair pasta with garlic and butter oil, and a small amount of dijon sauce for additional dipping. If you are bothered by too much garlic, there is the Ron Hood Special with veggies, which is the same as the "original," but you remove the pasta and get carrots & potato rounds. Either way, YUMMY!

OMG...People Are Reading My Blog!

I received a call today from "The Boss." He has been sick all week, so when he said to me, "Ron, I just wanted to call to see how your sister is," I just figured he had gotten word from someone at work. As I began to tell him how I felt, he said, "I know, I read about it on your blog." My reaction was, "Oh My Goodness, I never thought anyone was REALLY reading my blog. No one knows about it." He laughed a bit and said, "Well, I know 2 or 3 people that know about it."

In my warped little world, no one was reading it, or they would comment, right? Hahaha! What A fool I can be! I knew Megin and Rob had commented, but i thought they stopped reading it since life is busy. After all, it is Valentine's Day in their house everyday, so why would they choose to come here to read my blogs. No Pressure.

So for the one or thousands of you out there who could be reading my blog...or not...I apologize for my lengthy character. Sorry, it is a part of what makes me; ME! Gotta love me!

I did begin my 365 List on a separate blog, and I am enjoying that a lot. Check it out. Only 44 words for each entry!

By the way, my sister is now home, and she is scared, but who wouldn't be. This is not a death sentence for her, but more of a wake-up call, but I can understand how scared she must be. I would rather have her scared and alive than scared to death.

And Rob, thanks for caring and asking. I hope you get better and get back at work soon.

Take care to all my friends!

The Pez Nurse Watches...

I was at work today discussing the future of next year's Big Brothers Big Sisters Program with one of my school representatives. I had the normal comments about how high gas and oil prices are, which keeps people at home, which means people do not volunteer anymore, and people do not "give" anymore.

I was trying to tell this person that we need to stimulate volunteers because staying home is not doing them any good. They end up dwelling in the negative, and maybe we need to focus on how volunteering can actually improve our health. We discussed how attitudes are so important, and we had to follow this up with action.

I was having a great time as we swapped success stories, how we each change lives or at least improve them, when my cell phone rings. I take it out of my pocket, upset that I had not either left it in the car or put it on silence. The screen had my mothers name on it. I hit the "ignore" button since I was at a lunch meeting. (TIP: Never hit the ignore button when it is your Mother. They know!).

As I was changing the cell phone to silent, the phone rang again..you got it; Mom. I decided to take the call. I said hello and told her that I was in a meeting and that I would like to call her back when I finished. She said in an emotional voice, "OK. I just called to let you know that your sister had a heart attack a few moments ago. There is nothing you can do now, we are just waiting. Call me when you are done. Or maybe I will call you when I hear something; anything. I just want to be sure that you get your daughter because she will get off the school bus and come to my house with the door locked. I need to know you can get her ok." I tell her that I can get her and she should not worry. I then hear a muffled sobbing cry. I was speechless. Did she say my sister had a heart attack? MY SISTER? She is only 48. MY SISTER?

I asked Mom if she was alone with my sister. She said that she had my brother-in-law, my other sister, and my brother with her. I told her that I would finish my meeting, and then call her up. She said that was fine.

The woman I am with says, "Are you ok?" I said, "Yes, yes, I am. Just give me a moment to collect myself." There was a silence that was deafening. My mind was running so fast; faster than normal. I had to prepare my big celebration in that town, then I had to go pick up the items for my awards banquet later this week, and I had to go to yet another town to hold an end of the year celebration at an after-school program. "Did Mom say she had a REAL heart attack?"

I look up at the woman I am with, and with all seriousness, I said, "My sister had a heart attack. She is safe and under medical care. There is nothing I can do for now, so I am going to continue our lunch, go to the elementary school to pick up my items, then I will go get my daughter. I only have to figure out the end of year party in the next town at 3:30pm today. I can handle this. I can." The woman looks at me with watery eyes and says, "We can get our food to go. Really." I quickly replied, "No. She will be ok. She is under care, and there is nothing I can do to help if I was there. My mother will call if things change. She will call again."

I looked at the woman and said, "This kinda ruined the mood." She said, "Yeah, but I tell you what, I am going to go home tonight and hug my husband and call my daughter and tell her that I love her." I said, "You know the brealfast celebration we are having tomorrow morning at your school?" She replied, "Yes, but do not worry about that!" I said, "It was my sister who was preparing the breakfast items for that party." "Oh my goodness," replied the woman, "we can cancel the party if need be." I immediately replied to her, "Oh no! I will pull myself together to get through this party. I will make other arrangements for the food, and this party WILL occur. I got a donation of a bus and the bus will roll. If I need to fall apart for any reason, I will do so after the party."

As our food was delivered, we had light conversation about the important things in life. Surface stuff. It was nice. I think this woman and I had a tightening of our working relationship today. I think this will keep us closer in the future because we invested emotion, personal emotion, into each other today.

I went to the other schools and finished picking up my items, listened to some complaints, which seemed so trivial and minor today. I responded accordingly, but wanted to yell, "Shut Up, my sister had a heart attack you fool!"

When I got home to pick my daughter up from the bus, I decided to check my work e-mail messages. I got an e-mail from a co-worker that insinuated I was acting in a manner that I was not. I shot off an e-mail to her telling her my true intentions and that she actually read my e-mail incorrectly. I used caps for some words, which showed my anger, but I did not care.

My daughter and I sat in the car as I told her the news. Her face looked how I felt. It made me want to cry. I explained all that I knew and told her there was nothing we could do but support her. I told her I had a party to attend to and I wished she would come with me. I did not tell her, but having her with me made me able to hold it all together.

She helped me lug in the party items, and we were both very quiet. I think in many ways we each had a job to do emotionally and we did it.

I held the party...and no one knew the real pain that was inside my daughter and myself. I talked in front of a group of children, had them sign thank you cards for our Big Brothers Big Sisters supporters, and took photos. I passed out my Pez gift packs, and made everything perfect. As i passed out the packs, I noticed that one of the Pez was a nurse. I wanted to cry right there. I held onto it.

When I got to the car after the party, I asked my daughter if we should give this to Aunt Debbie. She shook her head yes uttering no sound. Her emotions were loud, however.

At the hospital, I took the elevator to the 3rd floor. I got out and the sign said "Birthing Center" and "Lactating Room." I just stood there in disbelief, then I started to laugh. We went back to the main entrance and found the right set of elevators.

Once in the room, my sister was as alert and said hello. Her first words to Alexandra were, "I am going to be fine, and we will be walking the beach on vacation, don't you worry." Alexandra broke down in tears and hugged me as she cried. I kept kissing her head to assure her that I was here for her. Her face was red and her mascara had run onto my white shirt. It would not come off. I said, "Good qualtiy mascara because it runs but never goes away." We laughed. I took my Big Brothers Big Sisters name tag and covered the area, which got a few more chuckles.

My mother was sitting on the window seat with my pregnant niece, and in a recliner type chair was my brother. The chair was right next to the hospital bed. I looked at the site and it was sad. I know my mother was thinking that she did not want to lose her daughter before herself. My mother lost her mother, her husband, and her twin sister within a year and a half or so, and she did not want to have one of her children pass away before she did. My niece was wiping away the tears as she watched Alexandra, and I am sure she was thinking a lot about the life she is bringing into the world, and how things can change in an instant. My brother was sitting there and you could tell he had no intention on moving. He became the support for my brother-in-law and he was not leaving until he felt they were ok, and they were not ok.

All the machines hooked up top her reminded me of a transformer. Alexandra and I had just watched that movie over the weekend. She could not move one leg and one arm, and if she did, an alarm went off. She had several "drips" going into her body, and even though she was smiling and saying she was fine, our hearts were telling another story. She said that all the pain she had been experiencing was now gone, and at least she now knows what is going on.

She was right. She could do nothing but let the doctors do their job and she had to cooperate to get her body back to normal.

I got restless, and I am not one to just do nothing, so I began to pace the room, I began to read all the signs: "CODE BLUE - Hit button and then call 9-1-1" "Guest services offers many options..." "Restrooms are for patients only...see a nurse for more information." As I looked at everything my eyes could absorb, I kept clutching the Pez Nurse that was in my front pocket.

I decided that I could not just stand around and wait for nothing. And since no one offered me a seat, I had to think about leaving. I was emotional, and becoming weak in the knees. I saw a bulletin board hanging on the wall opposite my sister's bed. It had a wide lip along the bottom to accommodate write-on/Wipe-Off erasers and pens. I quietly took the Pez nurse out of my pocket and stood her on this lip. I stood in front of it. Then my daughter and I said our good-byes. We left.

It was a quiet ride home to her mother's house. I certainly tried to tell her how lucky her Aunt Debbie was, and we are lucky to be able to see for ourselves that she is in good spirits. I think my daughter just needed to be with her mother to express her emotion because Alexandra is smart enough to seethe emotions in that hospital room. He Aunt Debbie is a mother, but she is also someone's daughter and someone's sister. I think Alexandra needed to have a moment with her own mother. To be able to express whatever she needs to express, to share whatever comes out naturally. Alexandra needs to be her own person with her emotions, which I know she will handle well.

My cell phone went off again as I pulled into the driveway of my home. I sat alone in the vehicle and spoke to my mother, who said, "Did you leave the Pez Nurse for Debbie?" I said, "Yes, someone has to always be watching, even if it is just a Pez." My mother said nothing for a moment, and then said, "I knew it was you, I just knew it." I could hear the other family members laughing. My mother said, "OK, I had to call and ask. I knew it was you. I just knew it." I thought to myself, "There is power in Pez....Really."

I sat in the driveway and as rain began to slowly tap the glass and distort the clear vision through the glass, I began to cry. My sister had a heart attack. Oh My God.

I know this sounds silly, but with that Pez in her room, I feel like I am there; attached. The Pez Nurse is watching...really...and she is very, very sweet.

A Morning Ritual...

I have been divorced now for 7+ years. Being an involved Father, I thought I wouldn't be able to see my children enough. As luck would have it, I have my daughter Wednesday night through Monday each week, and she is dropped off at my home each morning to take the bus to school from my house. I am lucky. I am fortunate. I am rich. I could cry.

So for the last few years, my daughter comes into the house for a few minutes before I drive her to the bus stop several streets away. We have some great morning chats, or other times we don't say much of anything.

If you read my post yesterday (which was really earlier this morning), you knew I had a hard time getting to sleep with all the emotions I had going on. I was tired. Very tired. I went to bed at 1:45am and my clock goes off at 5:30am, but I usually roll out of bed 5 or 10 minutes after that.

This morning, however, I slept through the alarm. And when I looked at the clock, it said 5:50am. I awoke in a panic and my first thought was that I did not hear the upstairs shower running, so my daughter was not up yet. Oh my goodness...she is going to be late because I am late. It takes her over an hour to get ready in the morning, and it is so quiet in the house. All of these thoughts are racing through my head. To save time of going to the bottom of the stairs yelling to her, I decide to call her cell phone because we all know it is still on and not charging!

As I hear the first ring of the phone, I realize. IT'S TUESDAY. I hang up. She is not even IN my house. She is at her mothers. I laugh at myself, and as I think, "Man, Ron, are you tired and out of it.." the phone rings. I jump. And I did NOT yell like a girl. I answer the phone and it is the tired voice of my daughter. "Dad, did you call me?" I said, "Yes, but never mind. My bad." She chuckles and says, "See you later."

When I hear the car door outside slam shut, I know my daughter is here. She comes in and I begin my usual welcoming greeting. "Froo Froos is here! I missed you! Did you miss me?" She looks at me smiling slightly and says, "Dad, it's early." I tell her that I called her so early because I thought she was in my house and we were late. She laughs.

Then an amazing thing happened. She came over to me and just rested her head on my shoulder. We stood there in the kitchen and she just rested herself. She is 14 and at an age where it is not cool to hug your parents, so this one moment was very special to me. It reminded me of when she was a baby and she would fall fast asleep in my arms. I didn't move and only said that I loved her and that she was the best daughter in the world. She quickly said, "Umm, Dad, I am your only daughter." I quickly said, "How do you know that for sure?" She then laughed and said, "Yeah. Right." I said, "It could have happened!" She says, "Ok, Dad, OK!"

Time for the bus! I love the morning ritual at my house. And I do have the best daughter in the whole world.

The Emotions of Making A Difference...

STOP! Emotions are in the roadway! Please take a moment to reflect on how you made a difference today and the emotions you felt.

I had a very long day today at work. Nothing went the way I thought it would, but overall, in retrospect, it went rather well. Just not as I had anticipated. Life is funny like that.

I held some end of the year celebrations for my mentoring programs. It was a lot of lugging of party items, setting things up, being the emcee for the party, making sure I thanked everyone, blah blah blah.

At my first party, I had over 60 people in the room. It was amazing! Each person in that room was involved in some way, shape, or manner with my mentoring program. When I talked about how special mentoring is, and how proud they should be to be involved, there was no emotion. But when I had goodies to give to them to remember their special place in my mentoring programs that was different. When I had them come up to get their own packets, it reminded me of the days when cabbage patch kids were the "Hot Toy." The emotion was frantic.

"I saw your Pez Tie and I knew we were getting Pez!" ... "I think its cool they call you the Pez Man." ... "I hope you have a chewbacca Pez for me!" .... "I love Pez; just like you!" .... "Can I take two?" ... "This is better than Pizza!" ... "Do people think you're weird for collecting Pez?" ... "What happens to your Pez when you aren't here anymore?" and my favorite (from the principal): "Pez is something so wonderful and universal, isn't it? Everyone likes Pez. Do I get one?"

After that, more lugging, cleaning up, etc.... I then do the same thing for another party an hour or so later. Except this time there were only 15 people in the room. And the emotions were rather bland in comparison. No frantic emotions, no excitement. It was as if they were in slow motion. Kinda crazy! I wondered if it was all worth it. And would it be the same without Pez? Without me?

I had worked all day long with no lunch and no supper. To busy to stop for today. I then head to an awards banquet at a local high school. I am presenting awards to 3 students for their dedication to Big Brothers Big Sisters. We are meeting in the gym and there are lots of seats to sit in. The crowd gathers and it is made up of a huge cross-section of the community. Parents, grandparents, students, professionals, kids, etc.

The speeches were very quick and the awards were given out quickly. I began to have an internal panic attack because I am giving out 3 awards and my speech is 6 pages....typed! Oh My Goodness, I say to myself...I am going to bore them to pieces! I am really panicked.

I begin to get nervous as my name is called to present. I walk up to the microphone and I was immediately intimidated for some reason. I stumbled on my first words, but quickly corrected myself and began my speech. For some reason I lost total touch with the audience and never really focused on one or two people, like I usually do. YIKES! I scanned the audience at appropriate times during the speech. Other times i just concentrated on the paper in front of me. I was sure I sounded and looked nervous.

As I presented my first two awards, the crowd was quiet and respectful, and when I announced the names of the first two winners, I heard great applause. Maybe they were glad I was done, but yet I had one more presentation and it was many pages long! Uh-Oh!

I then realized that I am here talking about young adults who make a difference in their community, and I was going to complete my speech as planned. We never hear about the good deeds that students do to better their communities, so I just went for it, albeit nervously.

I began to talk about the "Big Sister of the Year" and I could tell the audience got very quiet. As a few moments passed, I felt a bit of a panic and thoughts of "taking too long" danced in my head. How many internal voices can one have? I felt like all my voices were fighting. My reaction was to stick to my typed words, but I picked up the pace. I expressed the emotions of how one person literally changed the life of another person. I then got lost in my own words and totally got into the emotion of the speech. I choked up at one point, but then quickly got back on professional track. I didn't care what I was saying as long as I was saying it. It is important. People need to know "Big Sisters of the Year" actually exist.

When I got to the end of my speech, and introduced the Big Sister of the Year, the young woman stepped up from the sea of people in front of me. She walked swiftly towards me. She was totally red faced from crying. When I saw her emotion, it stunned me. The Emotions of Making A Difference vary so much. This young lady is really just beginning her life, and she has already saved one. Amazing. Freakin' Amazing!

She came up to me and before even reaching for her award, she just hugged me and thanked me. I gave her the awards and said, "You deserve this moment so much, you really do." She turned from me, still full of emotion, and headed back into the sea of people from which she came. She blended back in, and I, too, went back to my seat and blended in as well. And so the show goes on.

When I sat down, a friend said to me, "You pulled the heart strings of every mother in this room with your speech." I replied, "I hope I wasn't too long, that is all." My friend said to me, "Ron, the audience was totally captivated by your words. They hung onto each word you said. A speech is never too long when everyone is engaged in it. I am surprised that mentor didn't get a standing ovation." All I thought was, "Wow!"

I looked around the room, and I saw many faces looking at me. Some would look away when our eyes would meet, while others smiled slightly. The woman sitting next to my friend said, "I don't even know this Big Sister of the Year, and I am crying. My son is a senior, and he should have mentored. I missed that one!"

Later in the evening, when my friend and I stopped to get a bite to eat because I was totally famished, my former supervisor saw me and said, "Great job at the award ceremony, you actually made me cry. Good Job!" My friend said, "See...you made an impact. I saw how many people were captivated by your story of the success of this one mentor and her Little. It was Amazing."

It really was amazing to me that a room full of 60 people in the morning can be so different from 15 in the afternoon and 100+ in the evening. All the environments were different, yet all the people who were at these celebrations were there for the purpose to celebrate the difference people make, or the difference they make.

All people have passion, and I think it is great when we see it, when it is respected, and it is celebrated. When have you told someone who makes a difference in your life that they deserve to be celebrated? That you notice their passion. Do you have local awards that honor those people? Have you nominated those people for awards in your area? Have you written a letter expressing your emotion?

Share your emotion. Share your story. Share the success. We will all be captivated by it in the right circumstances. There is no denying that people make a difference in our daily lives. Why deny them the right to be celebrated. Share. And Share often.

I am hoping by doing this blog, I can finally get some sleep. Very long and emotional day.
And yet so satisfying.

Say What You Mean To Say...

We all know that communication can be difficult. Our current emotions can make us filter another person's message incorrectly. So I guess we have to learn to say what we really mean to say. Here is an example.

My Friend (In a Pierced Lip tone):
Where the heck have you been all day? (The Look).

Me:
Well, I have been doing....umm, Hey, are you mad at me because I am here so late? Or have you had a bad day? or did you just miss me? (Me, Smiling Brightly).

My Friend (Smiling):
I guess I just missed you and wished I had seen you earlier, that is all.

Me (Smiling):
I missed you, too, and wish I had been here earlier too!

Interesting isn't it? My friend wasn't mad at me, she was just communicating that she wished I was there earlier. This was all about Love and kindness, not anger and hatred!

So next time someone treats you like this, just ask...Is this what you mean to say?
It can cut through a lot of non-verbal wondering and get right to the meat of the subject. Communicating is difficult with the busyness and business of life, so make it as simple as you can.