Happy Birthday Dad

Saturday has to be the best day for a birthday. You get the day off, have all day to celebrate and still get a free day immediately afterward.

Lucky me, I even had an extra-long Saturday. The Tupps decided 5:30 was a good time for breakfast so she whined me to wakefulness. Hoo-rah! But it was the start of a great day. I dozed in the recliner as we waited for the kids to wake. While I was at it, Kim snuck out some presents to taunt me. Eventually Lucas handed them over and was genuinely exited for me. Here's the haul - an Olympic cowbell, an Olympic poster (both things I wanted but was unwilling to pay for -perfect) and a WWU hockey jersey, which I wanted for a long, long time.

The plan for the day was to head to my old stompin' grounds of Everett. The prior weekend we didn't get out of the house and as a result everyone not named Kim ended up cranky. Everett High School was celebrating 100 years of adolescent molding and I wanted to go for a visit. To make the day more palatable for the boys we also planned a trip to the Amigination Children's Museum (a favorite).

We had a good time running around both. An old schoolmate had been encouraged to get the boys to run through the halls of the school, since we hadn't been allowed back in the day. Lucas took that up with aplomb. He even had me film him at it. Going back to school was an absolute hoot. Not only was there running in the halls, but I went to the library without a pass and saw a group of current students singing. They were even kind enough to repeat a song for me - I called it the Star Wars song - I'm guessing they made up the lyrics to match the plot and go with the theme music.

In the morning, on the way out of town, I stopped by the bank to grab some cash. I was hoping some enterprising student would have a T-shirt for sale. Well, they saw me coming sixty miles away. There were multiple tables chock full of goodies - T-shirts, sweatshirts, headbands, yearbooks, beanies, photos, baseball hats and I can't remember what else. I came home with a T-shirt and a baseball hat.

One of the things I fondly remember about high school was the "Spirit Keg." It was a beer keg painted in the school colors and given as an award to whichever class showed the most spirit for whatever occassion. Needless to say it was much sought-after and a trophy of no small amount of pride. I have no idea how long it was an icon at EHS but at some point during my junior or senior year the administration decided they no longer wanted to promote teen drinking so the keg was taken away. They replaced it with a stick. Ho hum. Yes a stick! It was painted blue and gold and given to the class with the most spirit. There was no contest, the spirit stick didn't garner anywhere near the desire. Big shock, no? I can understand taking away the keg, but put in a little effort, please. They could have done better than a stick.

With this in mind, I asked about the keg as I entered the school. The woman greeting us had no idea what I was talking about. I'm not surprised. I did peak through some display cases and found a spirit stick among a collection of cheer ragalia. It wasn't the same one, this was red, white and blue and may have been from some cheer camp. I will probably never know what happened to either, but I am tempted to try to find out what (if anything) is used as an award these days.

After school let out we had to hurry home (deja vu) to grab an ice-cream cake (always) and dinner before I had to work at a basketball game. Who could ask for a better birthday?