365 Days of Impacts

(Post for 4/1) On April 1st, 1991 my bonus daughter Caroline was born. While I did not become a part of Caroline's life until 13 years later, I celebrate her on this day as it has new significance to me. One of the best stories I have about Caroline is when Smeagol got attacked by the family dog Zelda, I took Smeagol in to get her out of the crowded apartment with the dog, Caroline, Kate and Dennis. It was very traumatic for Caroline to come home from school to the scene of an injured and in pain Smeagol huddled behind the commode and Zelda hiding in the closet in shame after attacking her. I felt bad that she had to be the one to find them in this traumatic scene. Also, I feared that Smeagol would not make it if left in the apartment with Zelda, which is why I took her back to my house to take care of her in a controlled environment. Caroline thanked me profusely for taking Smeagol in and taking care of her. Both animals were part of their early childhoods growing up - and I didn...

(March 31st Post) March 31st is one day that will go down in history for me as one of the most magical days of my life. This is the day in 2002 that my cousin, (nephew) and godson John Andrew Poteete was born. I was lucky enough to be invited by his mother Mandi to witness his birth along with her, Katie Murphy and Kent. This was the most amazing thing I have ever been able to witness, and to this day I cherish this memory. Partly because I myself never had a child, so it was amazing to bear witness to this. I will never forget sleeping on the floor in between her contractions, and not understanding that a baby's head comes out first - I was afraid to say anyting because I didn't understand what was going on and did not want to alarm anyone by asking questions. Until half his head was out, I did not realize this. Plus, he was bluish until he came out (duh) because babies don't get oxygen until they are out. Drew was so pink when he came out! This entire experience was a ...

(March 30th Post) So March 30 is the birthday of one of my closest friends, Jill Golod. In college, we ran in the same circles of friends but I did not become close friends with her until right out of college. We've known each other for 30+ years. This is a pic of me/Jill and friends during the time that she helped me out when I was at Moxie. We used to call her "Jill the Jew". This was a college nickname. There was also a Sue the Jew. Yes, she is Jewish, and I credit her with teaching me the most about the jewish religion, holidays and culture. But that is not what makes Jill a great impact on my life. Jill taught me what a mensch is. That is because she is one. Jill is the type of friend that you can count on in your worst of times. She just seems to show up in support at the most opportune times. My best story about Jill is that when I was at Moxie the first time, I was working CRAZY hours to the point where it was causing me mental stress that was affecting m...

MAY 10. Today I celebrate Katie Murphy for being a huge impact on my life. I met Katie through my cousin's wife. They were best friends and Katie and I were in the wedding party. It was a catholic wedding. We high fived on the "stage" when the priest annouced 'I now pronounce you man and wife'. I call her my evile twin and jokingly always say she is the evile one. I don't even know what year that was, but it was one of the best days in my life adding her as a friend. Katie and I have been great friends ever since through thick and thin. She throws a huge Easter party every year - and she has 11 total siblings, so the family could just show up and you'd have a party - but no less than 100 people are there every year. Her family is one of the most incredible family ecosystems that I have ever known. That many siblings, her parents, although divorced can be around each other with no drama which is amazing in today's day and age. She and I witn...

My highschool Biology Teacher was Mr. Heethuis (said Heat-House). He was duch. He used to say - 'yer not much if yer not Dutch'. Mr. Heethuis was one of my favorite teachers - not just because he used to look the other way when we would skip class to go hang out at Buschemis on the corner during 3rd period class, but because he was that teacher that yanked your chain and made you think when you might be doing something that was a stupid choice. He had that ying and yang quality of giving you the rope to hang yourself, but leaving enough slack to still let you have a little fun before doing it. He would lay out the consequences - but never tell you what to do. Besides that he was a really kick butt science teacher too. I loved his class. He was also the chaperone for most school dances. I have never been a parent or a teacher, but if I were, I imagine that I would provide this same type of service to my kids. Thanks Mr. Heethuis!

So I was that rare kid in High School that LOVED High School - I was involved in everything. The more activities, the better. National Honor Society, Student Government, Choir, Art, Theater, I was class Vice President, Cheerleading and Track. Not only was I voted class clown, but I was voted Most Spirited. So was Christy! (True Story) Perhaps it was because our school colors were red and white, and we drove a red and white Dodge Aspen, complete with crank sunroof. It really looked good when we were in our cheerleading uniforms! To be voted most spirited, people realized that you are motivational and positive. I credit this to my parents. They taught us to give everyting 100% even when you don't want to. No pain, no gain. Fake it till you make it!

(March 27th) For Senior Superlatives, I was voted class clown (for the female). Chris Knechtel was voted class clown for the male in our class. We were constantly cutting up in the halls - we had grown up together and were always goofing around. I always felt bad that I beat out my friend Ellen Scully for this because she truly was funnier than me. I believe to this day this is why I did not get more dates in High School - because I was always cutting up and never serious. Boys were afraid of me. My sense of humor is one of the qualities I am most proud of. And thank God I have a sense of humor. I am one of the most self deprecating people I know. How many people do you know that are super serious or negative all the time? They are kind of a bummer to be around right?!?! But the one thing that being the jokester doesn't get you is to be taken seriously. It is a double edged sword. I always joked that Christy got voted most likely to succeed, and I got voted class clown(True Story...

One of the teachers who impacted my life in middle school was an unlikely teacher named Mrs. Balch. Mrs. Balch was probably in her late 40s when I was in her 8th grade literature class. She was a quirky lady. I'm pretty sure she was a wine drinker, and probably was at Woodstock in her heyday. One of the assignments she gave us in 1979 was to take an album that we were into (yes all you millenials, back in the day of vinyl) and to analyze the meaning of the lyrics to the songs on the entire album. Not only was this one of the coolest assignments I ever got, but nowadays, kids don't listen to the total album. This was the dawn of NEW WAVE music. She was expecting us to pick something classic like Rolling Stones, or Beatles. But not me, I had to go for something cutting edge at the time. Most artists today are lucky they get even one hit single off a 10 song collection.Kids don't collect and cherish music like we did back in the day. The album I chose to analyze was self title...

When I was in middle school, this is where I really started to thrive in choir. I knew I could sing from an early age, but this is where I really got into choir. So, the funniest story I have about singing in middle school is that we were doing a medley of Grease songs and there were only 4 guys in my choir. Many of their voices had not changed yet, and thus, we had none that could really sing super low. EXCEPT FOR ME. So, the choir teacher paired me with the boys on "A wella wella wella wella UH, tell me more, tell me more..." in the grease medley singing the baritone part with the boys. Lower than some of the boys. But I was doing the choreography for the girls. We figured it out one day - I had roughly a 4 octave range. My voice lesson teacher swore I was a soprano, and I could sing this high, but I was most comfortable singing in the alto range. I really liked singing with tenors actually. The impact of this on my life is that I liked helping others out, I liked remaining...

(Post from March 24th) I have a friend that I affectionately call Pamalama. Sometimes Pamalamadingo. Her real name is Pam Kennedy. Pam and I had many classes together in College in Marketing and Advertising. I knew her as most of my college friends through Appleby. Pam and I became closer after college, but I hold her friendship dear. She did a reading at my wedding, and after I wiped the tears away from my eyes, I realized she was athe PERFECT person to do a reading at my wedding. She specialized in corporate communications when we got out of college, and her attention to detail and knowing me as a person made this one of the most special moments of my life. Another really special moment in my life was when Pam asked me to sing at her mother's funeral. She had asked me to sing a Patti Smith song that I was not familar with. It would become one of my favorite songs I ever learned and ever sang for someone. It's title is Memorial Tribute, but it's subtitle is L...

Whistle while you work... I realize that you all are missing my blogs. I am missing writing them! Over the next few weeks, I will be posting up to 3 blogs daily as I catch up from my Scotland Trip. I will be putting the date that the blog should have dropped so you all are aware of what day it is for. March 23 Hi, I'm BOB. Bob White By now you know how much singing and choir was a part of my life. So many things impacted me and choir and all the teachers, friends, songs and places I went to sing made HUGE impacts on my life. My choir teacher in High School was Mr.Skiba. Or 'Skeebs' as we called him. He was the groovy hip kind of guy that was a total choir geek, and we loved him! His nickname for me was Snow (white) or sometimes Bob (White). While I had plenty of friends in HS, my dating life was pretty much non-existent. Skeebs managed to always make me feel better that I was dating challenged in HS. I was not socially awkward, but I was not someone ...

I know some of you have wondered if I am blowing off the blogging.  Not true!  I am re-entering the blogosphere on today, May 6 to say that I am BACK.  It may take 2 posts a day to catch up to where I left off, but the Scotland trip was a good reason to fall off the blog wagon. That said, I saw this on the way in to work Wednesday.  Now, some of you may just see a truck, but I see a smiley face.  Some would call that seeing the world as a glass half full.  Always looking at things positively.  And to this point, I wanted to bring up a situation that happened to me a few years back.  I got written up at work for having a glass half empty attitude.  I refused  to sign this assessment by my boss at the time.  Ultimately, I quit the job over this. Number one,  he could give me NO concrete situation or issue reported by anyone, it was just something he "noticed". Worse, there was no way to correct or stop whatever behavior he wa...