7:37 p.m. - April 16, 2006
Smed Is Spelled S-U-C-K-E-R
I must have S-U-C-K-E-R tattooed on the back of my neck.
Because I can�t seem to stop volunteering to do stuff.
This morning, I was the liturgist at Easter Sunday. Now that is all well and good. I like being the liturgist, well, because I get to be in front of a microphone, with people hearing me. (Yessss!) But on Easter, we also have a Sunrise Service.
What time does that start?
6:30.
In the morning (duh � it�s a SUNRISE service).
So the alarm went off at�5:15.
Wowser.
So I�m pretty fried right now. And it�s my own damn fault.
Oh, that�s not the only thing that I�ve volunteered for.
A long, long time ago (1986), I started being the PA announcer for Wabash football, on a volunteer basis. I was a junior in college at the time. The next year, Flack said that I would be a great stat crew leader for the football team, so I took on that job for a couple of years, and then I became the defensive statistician. Later, Sid asked me to do player participation and help in spotting.
So on football Saturdays, I�m doing about three or four things at once in the press box, all the while making sure I pronounce the names correctly.
That�s not the only volunteering I�ve done at the college. For a while, I helped at swim meets when I could, and at some basketball games. I had planned to take it easy during basketball season, and watch some games with Katie.
However, Sid asked me to run the computer for a couple of games when he was shorthanded, and well, I enjoyed doing it so much I did the computer for almost all of the basketball home games this year.
Liz and Katie didn�t mind � Katie would rather watch girls play ball and Wabash doesn�t exactly have a woman�s basketball team (though I bet the student body would support any woman�s team that would play at Wabash�heh�)
This year, after moving back into town, I was asked to serve on the local Alumni Association board. (Yes, I know I work at the College, but this is a separate group and there�s no conflict of interest, because all the local association does is plan some events for the local alums. We don�t get to spend thousands of dollars on junkets to Bermuda. Well not yet anyway�)
Also, I�m the coach of the Faculty / Staff IM basketball team. Last year, we won the title, but this year we weren�t as lucky. At times, we had 13 players show up for a game, and that was hard trying to fit everyone into the game.
The softball team I play on also needs someone to write out a lineup and try to call people to tell them schedule changes, and that someone is me. I try not play that much (you know, we�re trying to win here, or at least not look like total mo-rons). But last year I did have to play some, and it wasn�t quite as spectacular a comeback as you would help. In fact, I wouldn�t call it a comeback either LL Cool J, but that�s not because I walk like a panther. It�s because I stunk before, and I still stink.
For a few years, I was the official scorer of the Indianapolis Ice, a former minor league hockey team here in the Heartland. Now, I went to almost every game: preseason, regular season and playoffs. I managed a 12 person stats crew and showed up an hour before each game and left an hour after (or more, depending on how much leftover beer there was).
I prided myself on us being the best damn stats crew in all of minor league hockey, and I think we were. But that was a lot of work, and the only pay was about $100 worth of merch a year at Christmas. Oh, and free beer and good pre-game food, though I rather much over-gorged myself on Hooters� wings a time or five. (Note: the Hooters� girls delivered the wings, and then they went downstairs to mingle with the season ticket holders. That�s OK by me � because I preferred the chicken to silicon anyway.)
I have volunteered a lot for work organizations as well. I am the track team coordinator for our software product at the Datatel User�s group, so I work hard at setting the agenda for the annual conference, and I have about two conference calls a month for about six months while working on this.
I had been leading the regional user�s group for a while, and planned that whole thing. I burned out on that a little bit, but I still am going to help out this year and plan one of the tracks and am a co-door prize wrangler.
And I�ve given presentations at other conferences as well. Now yeah, I get to talk in front of a lot of people again, which I like doing (I�m a sick, sick, twisted man, I know) and share my knowledge with others, but that also takes time and travel.
This upcoming conference in Baltimore, I�ve volunteered to lead a breakfast roundtable session. And at conferences, I like to stay up late and share some �fellowship� with my colleagues. So those breakfast roundtables can be a bit, uh, dicey, but there I am, opening my big mouth again and telling people I do something, even as the Merlot from the night before is cascading down my armpits and out of my forehead. (Nice visual, eh? I thought you�d like it!)
Alas.
Actually, I really like doing this. I can�t be passive � I have to be active. Yes, two darling little girls do keep me a man on the go at home, and work does keep me occupied a bit. Plus there�s this little daily (well, mostly daily) writing exercise.
Sure, there are days when I basically just fold up for a while and want to just chill out to my current book (I�m still working on that History of the Middle East during and after World War I � it�s fascinating stuff, really) or watch some mindless TV. There�s nothing like laughing at the idiocies of celebrities on Best Week Ever or The Showbiz Show. It makes your life seem a lot richer even though you are poorer.
One day, I think I will slow down. Oh, Liz has said that forever, but I always come up with another way of getting involved. I guess I think if I don�t do it, no one else will or no one else can do it with the love and care that I put into it, so I may as well do it.
But in the meantime, I sometimes get frazzled and fried and burn the candle at both ends and also tried to light the middle.
Sleep! I think it�s for weenies!
