Neyland Stadium

I'm pulling out all the stops to try and convince/persuade/coerce J.P. into becoming a Tennessee Volunteer fan, like me, and deserting the Vanderbilt Commodores.  So far, I've not had much luck. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures, though, as you can see from the photo below.

Jude had a presentation to make in Knoxville last Friday, so we decided to drive up Thursday night, and I would spend the morning with the boys while she was giving her presentation.

One of our stops was at Neyland Stadium where, as luck would have it, a guy working in the "Vol shop" let us into look at the stadium.  Notice J.P. is wearing a Vanderbilt sweatshirt.

Athlete

J.P., on New Year's Day, wearing his spring baseball cap (Indians) and his Jeffrey Taylor Vanderbilt basketball jersey, while we threw the football in the front yard.

Christmas 2013

It's New Years Day and I'm sitting at PM w/Sleeping Joe by my side, drinking a Czann's Blonde and watching people walk, run and bicycle up and down Belmont Boulevard on what has turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon.  Classic rock-n-roll is playing in the background (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc.) - the songs of my youth, literally.  Now playing is Steve Miller Band's "the Joker," which was on the second album I ever purchased (Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits).

I'm feeling mellow and a little nostalgic today, as it feels like several parts of my life are coming to a  end.  2013, certainly, is gone.  My favorite time of the year, October 1 - January 1 is over.  The Christmas season is over.  My boys are growing up, too quickly it seems.  J.P. starts school next fall, which officially marks the end of innocence for him.  My weekend afternoon interludes w/Sleeping Joe are almost over.  In all likelihood, we'll move in 2014, leaving behind a house and a neighborhood that has enriched my life beyond belief for the last 11 years.  Hell, I'm 47 years old, so the end of my 40's is staring me right in the face.

All right, enough nostalgia.  On to Christmas 2013.

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(One of my favorite Stones' songs of all time is playing now - "Wild Horses."  What a fantastic song. So rich and soulful, like molasses.  Mick Jagger at his finest.)

This was pretty close to a perfect Christmas in our household, given the boys' ages - J.P. (5 1/2) and Joe (22 months).  Joe didn't quite get Santa Claus, but he's close.  Next year will be a big,  big Christmas for him.  

Now, for the highlights of Christmas 2013:

- Elf on the Shelf.  Without question, Elf on the Shelf was the #1 highlight of the Christmas season.  Although he was a little late in arriving (I didn't find him in the basement until December 4 or 5), the boys were absolutely enthralled by his appearance every morning through Christmas Eve.  It was a race to find him every morning until, finally, J.P. would yell at the top of his lungs, "Daddy!  Come look!  I found him!"

- Cheekwood, where the boys sat in Santa's lap and, more importantly, got to watch the trains run on an electric train exhibit set up outside that included, much to Joe's delight, a "Thomas the Train" train.  The look of unbridled joy on Joe's face every time Thomas the Train made his way around the track was priceless.  He couldn't stop smiling. That may well have been my personal favorite highlight of the Christmas season.

- 45th Anniversary dinner w/Jude's folks, Jane and Jim (aka "Jimdad") at "blvd.," one of my haunts on Belmont Boulevard.  The boys were a little wild that night, as boys tend to be, but we had a great meal.  Jude's folks have been such a tremendous help to us this fall and winter.  When our nanny, Carley, missed six weeks or so to deal with an illness, they stepped in and took care of Joe and, in the afternoons, J.P.  It would be impossible to thank them enough for helping us hold down the fort when Carley was out.

- Picking out a Christmas tree at Santa's Trees on 12th Avenue, always a highlight of the Christmas season.  Watching J.P. and Joe run through the "forest" of Christmas trees, laughing, was a delight.

- Christmas morning, of course, was memorable.  J.P. was completely jacked about Santa Claus coming.  Joe isn't quite there, yet, as evidenced by the fact he was more interested in climbing on the futon in the playroom to watch the birds in our backyard than seeing what Santa brought him.  Big hits for J.P. were the iPad mini (hard to believe), bracelet loom form Jane and Jim and the Nerf walkie talkies from James and Megan.

- Attending the Vandy-Ga. Tech basketball game with Russ Allen and his son, Cooper.  J.P. is a diehard Vanderbilt fan, which I have mixed emotions about, for obvious reasons.  I wish he was a Tennessee fan, like me, but I'm glad he loves sports enough to commit himself to one team.  Also, I can't deny the fact that I was a huge Vanderbilt fan as a child, too.  The Vandy-Ga. Tech basketball game was a blast, as the 'Dores rallied to win in the second half.  Afterwards, Russ and I took the boys to dinner at San Antonio Taco Company ("SATCO"), then for ice cream at Ben & Jerry's.  A perfect night with the boys in "Guytown," as I like to call it.

- A night out with James and Megan, while they were in town for Christmas.  We finally got to Patterson House with them, which was awesome.  Dinner at the Southern was only okay, unfortunately.  We really didn't have many options for dinner, as it was a Monday night and most of the happening restaurants were closed or already booked.

- Christmas dinner at my mom's house.  It's so much fun to watch all of the kids playing together.  Almost as soon as we arrived, they headed outside to play football in the backyard.  My sister's children - Kaitlyn and Matthew - are so good with J.P. 

- Watching, in horror, as the long promised renovation project began in earnest at Bongo Java with the demolition of the front deck.  Okay, that's a lowlight, not a highlight and deserving of a post all its own.  Our friends at Bongo Java treated us like family throughout the Christmas season, as they always do.  I dropped off a Christmas card, a couple jars of "Phil's Manly Pickles" a few loaves of pumpkin Jude and J.P. baked. 

It was a nice Christmas.  We're blessed, no doubt.  Now, if I can just get through the next 8 months until October 1 gets here again.

 

Trampled By Turtles

I love music.  I can't play a lick, but I love to listen to music.  All kinds of music.  I've always been that way and, thankfully, my boys appear to share my love of music.

The first real band - and by "real" band, I mean non-children's music artist or band - J.P. fell for was the Avett Brothers.  I can vividly recall circling around my neighborhood with J.P. riding in the back, as I played "Left on Laura, Left on Lisa" (by the Avett Brothers) over and over again.  Every time the song would end, J.P. said, "play that again, Da-da."  And I did.  I had just discovered the Avett Brothers and I was tickled to death that he loved them as much as I did.  J.P. was almost 2 years old, to the best of my recollection.

Over the next several months, we continued to listen to the Avett Brothers together.  Different songs of theirs caught our ear and became our favorites for a while ("Die, Die, Die," "I and Love and You," etc.).

As time passed, J.P. and I listened to (and continue to listen to) a lot of other music - Neil Young, the Band, the Drive By Truckers, Cowboy Junkies, Emmylou Harris, Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket, to name just a few.  Still, the Avett Brothers have always been "our" band - the band that reminded me the most of him.  I think it will always be that way, even though he doesn't know it.  The Avett Brothers, J.P. and me, driving around Waverly-Belmont and 12South, a snapshot in time in my life.

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Joe and I have a different band we love, which is really, really cool - Trampled by Turtles.

That's right, Trampled By Turtles (TBT).  They're a bluegrass influenced band from Duluth, MN (not unlike early Avett Brothers' music).  TBT features the violin, mandolin and, especially, the banjo.  5 piece band, with a guitar and bass, as well.  Occasionally, they throw in a cello for good measure.  I love TBT's versatility and the band members' musicianship.  Every band member can flat out get after it on fast songs, but their slow songs can pierce your heart.  Check this song out ("Wait So Long").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjdkc14-zwQ

I'm not really sure, at this point, how I stumbled upon Trampled By Turtles, because they're not a new band by any means.  As I recall, I was listening to Spotify at work a few months ago when TBT showed up as a band Spotify thought I might like.  Through the miracle of modern technology, I played their latest album in its entirety - "Stars and Satellites" - and fell stone it love with the band.  It's a cool feeling to hear a band for the first time and immediately realize you're hooked, that you've "discovered" music that just might change your life.

Again, through the miracle of modern technology, I began listening to Trampled By Turtles all the time.  At work I listened through Spotify, on my computer.  When I was walking home from Bongo Java at night after a run, I listened to TBT through Spotify, on my iPhone.  At home, especially when I was eating breakfast with the J.P. and Joe, I listened through Spotify, on my iPhone with my Jawbone (Bluetooth speaker).

Shortly thereafter, Joe (maybe 18 months old) began saying "tuuutles" every morning until I cued TBT up on my iPhone and played them for him.  Right now, I'm smiling, thinking about him sitting in the kitchen, in his high chair eating mini-pancakes and cheerios, listening contentedly to one or another of TBT's songs.  On several occasions at breakfast, J.P. and I played "jug band," a game we invented where we played pretend instruments and sang along with the band.  We used an old fraternity paddle for a guitar, a knife sharpener and mixing spoon for a violin and I actually blew into different sized jugs, all sort of in time to the music.  Generally, when Jude walked into the kitchen, she looked at the three of us like we were nuts, smiled and shook her head.

In mid-October, as we left Gentry Farm in Franklin after a Saturday morning visit to buy pumpkins, I videotaped Joe singing along to his favorite Trampled By Turtles song, "Alone."  The video is so cute it will absolutely break your heart.  Here's a link to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejfMrZQU3Eo

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, this fall and winter, I've taken Joe out with me so he could nap in the stroller while I drank coffee at Bongo Java and worked or read or, occasionally, ate a late lunch at Edley's or P.M. and had a beer or a glass of wine.  When it's time to go, no matter what Joe is doing, I say, "Joe, want to go hear some Turtles?"  Without fail, he stops what he is doing, tells Jude and J.P. "bye bye," and we walk out the front door together.  He doesn't fuss, whine or cry.  Off we go.  It's fantastic.

After I buckle him in his car seat and start my truck, I play Trampled By Turtles' "Stars and Satellites."  He talks quietly to himself during the first song - "Late Night on the Interstate," sings along to "Alone," then settles down during "Walt Whitman," the third song on the album.  By the beginning of the fourth song, he's fast asleep.  Every single time.  Amazing!  I stop at our destination, transfer him from the car seat the stroller and we're all set.  It's really a beautiful thing.

I actually went to see Trampled by Turtles play a couple of months ago at Marathon Musicworks, a relatively new music venue in Nashville.  It was the first live show for me in quite a while.  Although I was probably one of the 10 oldest people at the sold out show and my back and hip ached from standing on a concrete floor for 2 1/2 hours, I was really glad I went.  When Joe is older and read this or talks to me about Trampled By Turtles, I want to be able to tell him I saw them play live and to describe what the show was like.

Music does have the power to change your life.  I felt that way about the Avett Brothers and I feel that way about Trampled By Turtles, mostly because I've shared those bands with my boys.  The songs they play will always remind me of J.P. and Joe, of the special, special times we shared together when they were young, even after they're grown, off to college and beyond.  And that's a good thing.  

A Moment

A couple of weeks ago, Jude, J.P. and I went to visit University School of Nashville (USN), a private school near our house that's on our list of possible schools for him to attend next year for kindergarten.  It would be a comfortable place for him, I think, as Jude and I know a few people who work at USN and J.P. has several friends in school there.  He'd need to be accepted, of course, which we won't know about until the first of the year.

Anyway, as we were touring the school and looking at the kindergarten classrooms and cubbies, J.P. suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.  "That's Victoria's cubbie," he said.  I looked inside it and, sure enough, there was a photograph of Victoria stuck on the wall inside the cubbie, above a girls' coat, books, etc.

(By way of explanation, Victoria was J.P.'s best friend at Children's House last year.  They played together on the playground every morning and afternoon.  For the most part, they were inseparable.  At times, they were like an old married couple.  In a argument one day, then back together the next day.  Victoria matriculated to USN this fall and J.P., who is a year younger, stayed at Children's House for K-Club.)

As J.P. stared into Victoria's cubbie, I saw a kindergarten class approaching in an orderly line.  I noticed Victoria walking in the line, so I called her name.  She looked up at me, then saw J.P. as he turned around.  Without saying a word, Victoria bolted from her place in line, ran to J.P., and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly.  J.P. didn't know what to do, but he hugged back.

Still without saying a word, Victoria let J.P. go and ran back to her place in line.  J.P. just stood there, stunned, and watched her bet back in line and walk into her classroom.  Jude and I exchanged a look and watched J.P. as he slowly came out of his reverie. 

It was "a moment." 

As we watched Victoria and J.P. hugging, time stood still, just briefly.  Everything else melted away and it was just Victoria and J.P.  In life, "moments" like that don't come along very often.  I'm not sure I knew a 5 1/2 year old could have a "moment," but J.P. sure did.  And I was there to witness it.

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A couple of days later, Jude picked up J.P. at Children's House after school.  When he got in her Honda Pilot, she asked him how his day went.  By the way he was acting, Jude could tell he hadn't had a good day. 

"What's wrong?" Jude asked.

"Alice said she won't be my friend anymore," J.P. replied.  "Why," Jude inquired?

Apparently, Alice came up to J.P. on the playground earlier that day and announced to him that he was going to marry her.  If he refused, she wasn't going to be his friend anymore. 

"I can't," J.P. said.  "I'm going to marry Victoria."  Continuing, J.P. said "you can be a bridesmaid."  That didn't sit well with Alice, of course, and she stormed off.  Women start this kind of stuff early, don't they?

Later, the children were lined up, waiting to go back inside the building, when Alice walked angrily up to J.P.

"John Patrick," Alice said, "you've got two choices.  Marry me (first choice) or my great grandfather will kill you." (second choice)  Again, women start this kind of stuff early.

J.P. took Alice literally, as is his way.  He was scared.  When Jude asked him if he really believed Alice's great grandfather would kill him, he responded "yes."  "Why?" Jude asked.  "Because he was in the war," J.P. explained.

Priceless.

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I am going to tell that story at J.P.'s rehearsal dinner, the night before he gets married.  And I am going to laugh as hard then as I did the night Jude told it to me.



Leaf Party Photos

The White family (or part of it).  

Jimdad, Joe and Great.

Matthew, Kaitlyn and J.P.

David Walker and Baby Margaret.

Baby Margaret, in action.

Finn Baines, loving the leaves.

Roseann and Jordan Maikis.  Roseann delivered J.P. and Joe, and Jude and I will be forever grateful to her for that.  As good of a doctor as she is (and she's damn good), she's a better person.

J.P.

Finn.

Joe.

The World Famous Leaf Party

It came and it went, too quickly as always.  The World Famous Leaf Party.

Troy, Cyndi and the kids (Wolf, Scout and Finn) arrived mid-afternoon Friday from Neptune Beach, Florida (by way of Atlanta).  I was tied up at work, but Jude, J.P. and Joe took them to the Nashville Zoo, where the highlight of the afternoon was petting the kangaroos.

Friday night, Cyndi and Scout drove down to Franklin to see friends.  Troy and I picked up dinner at Edley's Barbecue for the gang, then Troy left to pick up Wolf at the airport.  Wolf flew in from Jacksonville, as he was part of the homecoming court at his middle school Friday evening (as if I didn't already feel old enough).  Troy and Wolf drove to Franklin, as well, and Jude and I put J.P. and Finn to bed together on the floor in J.P.'s room on a pile of blankets, sleeping bags and pillows.  They loved it.

Saturday morning, we all went to J.P.'s basketball game at First Presbyterian Church.  He scored the first basket of his nascent basketball career on the first play of the game.  It was pretty awesome, except for the fact he somehow managed to poke himself in the eye in the process of hitting the bucket.  So, as I was clapping and cheering, he was crying.  It was kind of like when it starts to rain while the sun is shining.  In the end, the "Green Lightning Machine" won it's third game of the season to push our record to 3-0, as I remained undefeated in my career as a basketball coach.

We ran errands, rushed home and completed last minute preparations for the World Famous Leaf Party.  Our home was a beehive of activity, as Jude and Cyndi directed the rest of us in setting out the food, chairs, tables, etc.  Soon our friends and family (and their kids) arrived and the Leaf Party began in earnest.  As the kids waded into the giant pile of leaves in our front yard, the adults watched and chatted amiably.  The weather was exquisite and the Leaf Party went off without a hitch.

Late Saturday afternoon, Troy and I took the kids (sans Joe) to Rose Park.  As late afternoon turned to early evening, we played soccer and threw the frisbee.  It was especially fun when we played soccer with a large blue exercise ball that's been bouncing around my yard and garage for close to a decade (I literally don't know where it came from).  After we got home, Cyndi and I picked up dinner from Chago's Cantina and after we ate, we called in an early night and went to bed.

This morning, Cyndi and I went for a 3-mile punishment run/walk, finishing at Bongo Java, as is our custom.  Jude and Troy brought the kids down and we had a family breakfast together at my home away from home.  We went back to Rose Park for more soccer, frisbee and playground playing (for Joe), then returned home so the Baines could pack and prepare to leave.

As always, we all were a bit melancholy as I took the traditional Baines family photograph on our front porch.  J.P. and Finn, in particular, were sad and shed tears as we said our goodbyes.  Cyndi texted us a few minutes after they left, just to let us know Finn was crying and said she wanted to move here and live with us.  We felt the same way.

Another Leaf Party Weekend in the books.  It passed too quickly, but it reminded us how lucky we are to have such old and dear friends as Troy, Cyndi, Wolf, Scout and Finn.