Day 2 started out interestingly enough. I woke up feeling ill from obviously drinking way to much the night previously. I was up at I believe 730am, I was amazed that I had not thrown up, felt like it though, but I kept it down. Took a quick shower and was going out to find something to eat. Staggered downstairs, still feeling hung over and decided that I should find something to eat that was not going to cost me much. I decided, with great failure, to choose the breakfast buffet at TI. Yes, cheap it was not, $27 later I was sitting down with George and his fiance.

Ate 3/4 of a plate of food (if I ate any more I would have yacked every where). Walked out and someone was smiling at me from the Starbucks Coffee line, actually two women, one tall with dark hair, the other shorter with a blondish red kind of hair. The taller girl asked, “Are you doing alright?” At first I thought that I was walking around with my junk hanging out, but soon I put two and two together and figured out that she was making reference to my drunken hug fest the previous night at Kahunaville. I honestly could not think of her name, she knew me obviously, but I had no clue who I was taking with. I said I was well and we conversed for another minute or so as I inched away without asking her name.

I wandered upstairs and decided that I should go and hit the pool. It was around 1030am. I applied my SPF 45 and headed downstairs. It was a bit warm to say the least, the pool was nice and cool, I wandered around inside of it, got out laid down on the beach chair, then went back in the pool, then went upstairs and took a little nap.

Went to the Venetian to see if I could find affordable food and found myself at the food court and pounded down two dogs and some fries for $10. Accidentally put Cocktail sauce on one of the dogs thinking that it was ketchup. Interesting flavor, but it went down without issue. I then headed back to the hotel room and decided to head down to the pool once again. They were playing loud music and there were people there this time around.

As one of my friends said after the fact, it was more of an MTV Spring Break episode than it was a family friendly pool. It was filled to the hilt with dirty dirties all dancing and drinking. It was very pleasing to the eye, pool was so packed that the once cool water was actually warm. I wandered around in the pool to keep from boiling, when I noticed something that looked to be like a ooze of white slime floating around. I quickly left the pool and headed back to the room, where I took a nap.

The dinner was set for tonight, I got my rest, then headed down to meet up with Ivan and Kim at the pool tavern. Good times ensued. I met a few other folks as well whose names are a blur. I then headed up to the room to get ready for the dinner.

I showed up about an hour before it was to open and noticed that the name of the school had been misspelled on the sign. Took a picture of that and wandered around for another 15 minutes or so. I then came back and Marie and Jenny were there, along with a face of a person that I had seen for many years and also have heard a lot about, Ron Lundy. After introducing myself to him he told me stories of the old man and him back at Baumholder that I had not heard before, brought back good memories.

The event got underway and I met some other folks that I had met the previous night as well, just did not remember. Sam Weinke, Theresa Senne, Monique Manuel, and some other quality people. Dinner was nice, the open bar lasted all of about 15 minutes. Saw Ivan and Kim one last time before they had to go back home to prepare to go back to Sweet Home Alabama. Met up with some other people, party started to die out, so a group of us went down to Kahunaville to continue.

I got tired at around midnight 1am and decided to go up stairs and rest. Then it dawned on me, I had not seen these people in twenty some years, might as well make the most of it, so I went back downstairs and found Ken slumped in a corner, he told me that everyone went over to a country western bar, he staggered behind me, then disappeared as I got there.

Everyone was there, and they had a giant mechanical bull! Needless to say I jumped on that sucker without issue. Lasted the 8 seconds in an unconventional manner, but I lasted before being bucked off. After a few more drinks and hugs goodbye, wandered back up to the room and proceeded to go to sleep. I think it was around 4am. It was a stellar day that I really enjoyed. It was great getting together with people that I had known, or met online through FB that were all graduates of Baumholder American High School.

4th grade for me was Smith Elementary in Baumholder, Germany. My first teacher in Baumholder was an older lady, she reminded me a lot of Mrs. Garret from Facts of Life. Her name was Mrs. Howlett, in all honesty, she is really the first teacher that I remember a lot about. My third grade teacher in Incirlik, Ms. Snyder I vaguely remember, only because I learned Algebra under her and hated it. But Mrs. Howlett really had an affect on me.

I was a horrific student in elementary school. I mean they would hand out report cards based on your grades, if you did well you got your report card handed to you first. Without exception every year I would be getting my report card last. I did not care much about school obviously, but I did learn a lot of things. I absorbed information, i just did not know how to use it, which was my problem.

4th grade was also the year that I met my best friend in Mike Diclementi. We met while playing football down the hill from the school right next to a housing building. We were basically inseparable from that day forward. 4th grade was the year that I joined the Baumholder Bullets PeeWee soccer league. We went undefeated.

I remember our last game, the championship game, against Wetzel. I remember their uniforms, they wore gold tops with black stripes down the arm with blue shorts. We had problems scoring against them because they kept their entire team near the goal. They never moved towards our net, they just sat in front of the goal the entire game. I remember hearing the parents saying, what are they doing?

4th grade is when I walked up the hill by our house to go to school. By myself, a walk of maybe a third of a mile. I would walk up the hill, stop off at a house that had like a push button intercom system. I would always stop there and press the button and run by. I am sure the guy that lived there was a bit pissed off, because I would do it for the next three years.

I cannot believe that my little girl is at the stage that I was at. Who knows what adventures are going to come up. Who knows what life is going to hold for her. Who knows how much of fourth grade she is going to remember when she turns 38. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for her, but remembering the 4th grade for me is all the thanks that I need. I truly will be happy to see the life in her eyes tomorrow as she runs to school to start the 4th grade.

And Mrs. Howlett, where ever you are in this world, just remember that kid that did not pay much attention in class, that kid that did not really do what was told, still remembers you.

This is also why are country is so screwed up at the moment. I spent four amazing days two weeks ago at ComicCon, yes, you could label us as “Dorks”, “Nerds”, “Fanboys”, “Trekkies”, or what ever you want to. At the convention, we were all people, we enjoyed what we were around and had a good time. Last weekend I spent 4 days at my High School Reunion. I knew a lot of them would call themselves “Conservatives” and some of them were “Progressives” but all in all, we were “Baumholder Bucs” and we were people that had a good time with each other. In both cases, religion was never interjected, politics were not interjected, we were a group of individuals, enjoying ourselves.

I listen to the news and without a doubt you hear the term “Conservative” and depending on your flavor, it is either used in a negative or positive tone. The issue here is not the terminology, it is the fact that we have created buckets for people to discount others. Conservatives HATE Obama, Conservatives HATE anything that does not fit into the Conservative ideology which is pretty laid out and easy to follow. Progressives LOVE Obama. Progressives HATE anything that would even come close to being considered Conservative Ideology.

Had a really good talk with a friend of mine at the reunion. He summed it up best from a Conservatives ideology. There are true Conservatives that live by the Conservative creedo outlined by Reagan and taken to further extremes by the talking heads on the radio and FOX News. Basically anything that is NOT Conservative is labeled Liberal/Progressive. This is a very Black and White view of the world. It is a Good vs Bad concept. It is a Right vs. Wrong concept. This is NOT the way the world works. This is NOT the way people are and it is frightening. He made mention of a guy that was running for a state seat in Georgia. He had some conservative views, but also some views that were NOT conservative. That guy was labeled a Liberal. Liberal is Georgia is almost like labeling someone in Germany a Nazi.

The worst thing that could have happened to this country was the conservative movement. I am not decrying the politics, I agree with a lot of the politics in some cases. The fact that you had a very charismatic leader in Ronald Reagan that did what he needed to do is great. But the minute you created the term conservative and created a movement of conservatives, you knew immediately that there would be a balance forged, another group would appear, the Liberals/Progressives appeared. Here is the irony, the Conservative movement created the Liberals, not because a group got together and called themselves Liberals or Progressives. The Conservatives created the group by labeling people that did not follow the conservative creedo. It would be like going out on a playground and playing with a group of people that had the same likes as you and created a club, then started running around pointing fingers at people that did not want to join that club a name. It is not like these people were in a group, but now this group was created out of thin air because the original group created the secondary group.

As time grew on, people saw the Conservative movement and started to join. It is almost like someone that becomes a born again Christian. They embrace it with both hands and believe it and any time they are questioned, they try and out Christian the next guy. The guy that grew up in a Christian household is not as devote as the Born Again. So you have people basically trying to out conservative each other to be part of this group. To one end of the spectrum you have the Rush Limbaugh’s, the Michael Savage’s, to the other end of the Spectrum (in a black and white world) you have the John McCain’s.

The Right wing has done an exemplary job in regards to making sure that their ideology is pushed forward. They do this by not agreeing with anything that is brought forward by someone that is not part of their group. When nothing gets done, they blame the other side. When something gets done without their input, which was asked for, they say that they were shut out and it is entirely liberals pushing stuff down our throat. Believe me, this is done on both sides. The perfect example of this is the health care bill. It was brought forth by Liberals in congress when the democrats had control of congress and it was pushed through. The only real issue here is, and I am not sure how much to believe on this, that they asked for Republican input and support, they made some concessions, but still got -0- support from that party.

Why is our government not working? Our government is not working because you have two polar opposites fighting against each other that only see black versus white, they only see a right versus wrong. There will always be conservatives, there will always be liberals/progressives, what this government and what this country is missing, are the moderates. We as a nation are missing that third group that can work with the far left and can work with the far right. I have a lot of respect for people that go over the aisle. Ben Nelson, Olympia Snow, John McCain (until he went all conservative to get the republican nod in the previous election), Scott Brown are people that we need more of. If nobody works together, then nothing is going to get done.

I am disgusted by both parties. I am disgusted by the fact that our government can’t freaking agree to get anything done because of ideology of right vs. wrong, black vs. white. The sad fact is that we as a country are doing this to ourselves, our own people are only voting for the truest of true Conservatives or truest of true liberals. During primaries for party nods, you have moderates forsaking moderate beliefs, just to score points to win their parties nomination, then turn around and try to be what they probably are when it is for the general populice. I cannot trust those people, because in all honesty, I have no idea what they really stand for. Are they standing for me and my beliefs, or are they standing for their party and their parties beliefs?

We as Americans need to stand up and start having these people work with each other. In our jobs, we have team members that we have to work with. We may not agree with how they do things, or what they propose, but we work with it, we have to work with it, if not then the company itself breaks apart. Our government has not been working with each other since the early 90′s. The California State government has not been working for us since the late 80′s. The people that we are electing are not people that really should even be in government, they are NOT representing you nor I, they are representing a concept and right now that concept is flawed, on both sides of the table, the reason it is flawed is because the middle ground has dried up and is being run out of office.

People like Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Michael Savage are killing this country. MSNBC, FOX News are both taking knives and stabbing this great country in the heart. It is sickening. Unless there is an ideological change in this country to start putting people into office that are willing to work, and really work with everyone, and not just people within their own party, there will be a bigger split, a bigger break down of our government until it really stops working. Right now it is broken down on the side of the road, but the engine is still good, it just needs to get fixed so that all of the pieces work with each other to get it running again.

Got online catted around a bit, then got a call from Marie to come by her room and hang out. Met Marie finally, Jenny and Sheila, drank rum straight and then after 20 years, there was a knock on the door. The minute it opened up, I saw someone that I honestly recognized right off. Megan Fletcher walked in. Last time I saw Megan was outside of the bookstore in Baumholder, December 29, 1993. She looked almost the same, it was really nice to see her again. After talking with her for about an hour or so I headed back downstairs to meet up with another old friend.

Went downstairs and got together with Ivan Maxfield and his wife Kim. From there it was pretty much a blur. I remember seeing people Like Amy Mason, Ken Shields and a slew of others at Kahunaville, but names and faces were lost. Apparently, I am a hugger, I hugged everyone from what people have told me. I do recall leaving Kahunaville after the bartender told me that I had been cut off. I wandered around looking for the elevator that would take me to my floor. Somehow I ended up on I want to say the 32nd floor (My room was on 14), four guys in suits stopped me and asked me I was a guest on that floor. Since all of the rooms and hallways look alike I said yes and pointed down the hall to where I thought my room was.

They quickly pushed me back into the elevator and told me to go downstairs. Which I did.

Got into the right elevator this time and hit what I thought was floor 14 and got out, staggered down the hall to what I thought was room 14089 and started inserting my keycard and the door would not open. So I kept doing it, getting frustrated until I heard an ominous voice behind the door say, “Dude, you got the wrong room drunkass.” I looked up and the room number read 12089. I staggered down the hallway till I got to the elevator again and got to my floor and into my room and proceeded to crash out.

Apparently I called Jocelyn and told her what was going on and how pissed off I was at security. I do not recall that phone call.

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Hope you enjoy… I know that I had a really good time. If you want to see the 300+ pics from comicon that I took join me over at facebook.

Once on the floor we searched out the TokiDoki booth and bought some stuff for Molly and also for Jocelyn. I headed over to the COH booth and got my Ghoul card and then wandered around the rest of the convention floor as time was passing by too quickly. Molly and I left shortly after that.

There are two kinds of people at the Con, people that are there to get stuff, and people like myself who are there for the experience and enjoy the people. I could spend all day long just sitting there taking pictures of people dressed up, or sitting and watching panel after panel. Not spending a single dime on buying anything. I enjoy the convention floor, but could spend all day on the second level with the panels and where the people dressed up hang out. Thursday will be a fun filled day and I will enjoy myself to no end.

Saw Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis at the star trek booth where they were signing autographs, saw a place card for Brent Spiner, but he was not there. I am sure that I will run across him eventually. Got some solid video that I will eventually post, but right now just tired and the informaiton overload is just way too high.

I do not know Dan Gilbert personally, I have met him a grand total of one time while he was out here in San Diego a year or so ago. He talked to me directly, seemed like a really nice guy. He had a charisma about him that I would assume billionaires would have. After his “letter” yesterday after Lebron decided to trash the city of Cleveland in a prime time hour long train wreck. I have gained much more respect for the man. I am proud to work for someone that has the fire and the passion that he exhibited in the “letter.” I am use to the comic sans emails that he sends out every now and then to the family of companies, he is a solid motivational writer and I must admit, I have drank the Kool Aid. I am fired up by it. It almost makes me want to shed the Clipper fan moniker and jump over to be a Cavs fan.

What was Lebron thinking? Actually, what was anyone thinking in regards to this live one hour special? ESPN loved it, they were not going to get much bad press (even though they basically mortgaged their credibility) over it. This was all going to be on Lebron and his marketing group. How can one of the most likable guys in the NBA fall so flat on his face. He fell so hard that his face went through the ground and he buried himself. This had nothing but bad written all over it.

I can understand him leaving Cleveland. I totally can understand it. He is 25, all he really knows about living is in the Cleveland area. He wanted to spread his wings a little bit, live in a new environment, taste what was out there. That is totally understandable. I did it when i was 21, I moved from Los Angeles and went to San Diego, away from the thumb of my family. All I can say, it was the worst decision of my life, it probably set me back a number of years, cost me finishing off my education, just for the perks of partying hard and learning that people are really out for themselves.

Will that happen to Lebron? Probably not, but I do think in retrospect, in about 10-12 years after he has left the NBA he will look back and say that it was probably not a good choice. He has basically villified himself to the people that adored him. His relationship to his home town will never be the same. He is going to be seen as the straw that broke the camels back. He was Cleveland. He made the people of Cleveland believe in something. He gave that region something to hold on to. Now they are not back to where they use to be, but they are far worse off.

It is not that he left Cleveland, it is how he left Cleveland. He basically created a 60 minute infomercial where if Cleveland were a woman, that stayed by his side through thick and thin, may not have been the prettiest, but she would look past your faults and be there whenever you needed her, dragged out in front of the nation, if not the world and was basically told, you are not good enough for me and got replaced by some hot big titted woman wearing a tube dress that could probably be on the cover of any magazine cover. It was just so public, it was just so damning. It was the worst possible way to do that, especially to the people that had followed him for so long, to people that adored him to no end. It was just downright disrespectful.

If Lebron just held a press conference in Miami and said that he signed with the Heat and left it at that. The backlash that he is getting right now would not be so horrific. It would be understandable, it would be something people could swallow. It would have been painful, but not as horrific as what he actually did.

I live in San Diego, the Chargers had a player that was beloved, #55, an Oceanside product that went up to USC to play college football, drafted by the Chargers in 1990. Junior Seau, one of the best linebackers in history. He stayed in San Diego, he probably could have gone off and got more money going somewhere else, but he stayed true to his city, to his fans. He lives here today, even though he did not end his career as a Charger. The difference between him and Lebron. The Chargers traded him away. It stung, it really hurt losing him, but it was a decision by management and he went on to play in the super bowl with the Patriots. He is still loved and endeared in the community. Lebron will NEVER be loved in the great lakes region ever again.

Lebron will win titles, I am almost positive of it. But his name will never be mentioned along the greats. He is never going to be thought of as being able to play in the same stratosphere as Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan. He has in affect signed away his legacy to be the Scotty Pippen to Dwayne Wades Michael Jordan. He is Pau Gasol to Kobe Bryant. He will not be the billionaire that he has wanted to become. He has proven that he can’t do it on his own. He needs someone that can carry him over the top. Sadly the people that will carry him over the top are just better than he is.

He has in essence become Dwayne Wade’s Robin. He will most likely not get any Finals MVP’s, he will most likely not get any regular season MVP’s. Dwayne Wade is the leader of that team and if he really thinks that Dwayne Wade is going to step aside to appease a meglomaniac, I seriously think Lebron has another thing coming.

He went to Miami to play with the dream team. The only problem is that they are not going to be beating up on Angola every few days. When one of them start to see their numbers dropping, that will eventually create tension between the big three. It may be all good for a season or two, but by the third year, when they are starting to look at a possible contract again in two years, you will see some serious issues with those three.

Bye bye Lebron, I really hope you grow up and start being what you were meant to be, a damn good basketball player, but I am not sure that will ever happen with the decision that you made.

As I write this, Ghana is up 1:0, but I know, we’ll be back. USA, USA, USA, USA!

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