Little 500

It was Little 500 at IU this weekend and Meg took full advantage of all that the event had to offer.  On Thursday night, she and her friends spent the evening at Kilroy's Sports Bar for Miley Cyrus night.  She had a lot of fun dancing and sharing some drinks with her friends.  She didn't know a lot of the songs, since she didn't really watch Hannah Montana much.  That didn't stop her from enjoying the night anyway.

On Friday Meg went with Maddie and Evan to the women's Little 500 race.  She liked it more than she thought she would and could understand why it was such a big deal to the riders.  Nick arrived for her nighttime activity, the musical "Jersey Boys".  She had learned quite a bit about Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons in her History of Rock N Roll class, so I knew that she would really appreciate seeing the musical.  I was right as Meg and Nick had a great time listening to the story of the band's life and all of their top songs.  

Saturday was spent at the Men's Little 500 with Maddie and Evan once again.  Meg definitely got some sun at that race.  She also saw some spectacular crashes.  Unfortunately, her least favorite team won, but that didn't stop the fun.  After the races they stopped at a few parties before doing some shopping, walking on Kirkwood and getting dinner at Culver's.  

There was some disturbing this year during the Little 500 weekend.  On Friday night there was a shooting outside of the nightclub, Kaola.  Three people were shot and several suspects were arrested after a police chase.  Kaola was right across the street from the bar Meg was at on Thursday.  It scared Meg and her friends enough that they decided not to go out again the rest of the weekend.  I don't blame them for that.  

Fry Day

Today was the Bethany Fish Fry and the first one that the junior class was in charge of running.  Cameron was a section head, which he explained as an overall supervisor.  He had shadowed the position for the past two years and felt like he was ready for the responsibility.  He was happy to report when he arrived home that all had run smoothly.  The favorite part of his job was shuttling others around in the golf cart and missing an entire day of school helping set up.  I was glad to hear that the fund raiser was a success, but even happier to hear that he had a lot of fun during the event as well.  Cameron also reported that he had sold at least 30 tickets.  That was twenty more than we thought that he would be able to sell and lessened the amount that we owed overall.    

Cameron wasn't the only one that enjoyed the fish fry.  Grandma and Grandpa were in line early for their meals.  They loved the food, especially the pies from Rise N Roll.  Doug and I also made our way through the fish fry line, but waited until closer to 7 p.m.  Doug knew from experience that arriving later in the evening would mean for a shorter line.  He was right as there were only four cars ahead of us when we arrived.  We only saw Cameron briefly as he drove off with a cart full of juniors, but did see many of his friends working the tents.  It was a great night for the fish fry and we appreciated how hard everyone worked.  It is the only fundraiser at Bethany and in the end was pretty easy to support.  

Bent Oak

The Bethany Bruins were back in action tonight playing Elkhart and Goshen in a three way match at Bent Oak Golf Club.  Cameron was extremely excited for the match.  He had been hitting the ball well and was thankful that the weather had warmed up enough for him to wear short sleeves.  

Cameron started off this evening on the second hole.  He was pleased to have parred it and was hoping for a similar score on the next one.  Unfortunately, an errant drive and some standing water changed his plans He soon found himself with a seven on number 3.  Cameron decided on the next tee that he wouldn't let a triple bogey get the best of him.  He told himself to play better and that's exactly what he did.  He played the next seven holes two over finishing with a 41.  He had the third best score of the night.

Cameron was extremely proud of his round tonight, but even more pleased that the rest of the Bruin team also played well.  They easily broke 200 with a total team score of 192.  They lost to Goshen, but were within seven strokes of Elkhart.  Their goal for their next match was to break 190 and to beat at least one of their next two opponents.  They're definitely on the right track.  

BRCA 1 Gene

Last night Doug met with Dr. Freeze virtually.  She had run some tests recently and one of them discovered the BRCA 1 gene mutation in his DNA.  Doug and I weren't really surprised by the news.  There was a high incident of cancer on the Brucker side of the family and both Doug's mom and his brother Phil had tested positive for the mutation.  From the results today, we learned that Doug was at a slightly higher risk of male breast cancer and prostate cancer.  The scary one that she mentioned was an increase in pancreatic cancer as well.  The good news was that no one in Doug's family had ever had pancreatic cancer, so it may not be a concern at all.

In the end we talked with her about the next steps for Doug.  She said that she would contact a cancer surgeon in Goshen and get his recommendations.  Dr. Freeze was most concerned about Meg as the BRCA 1 gene increased her risk for breast and ovarian cancer up to 60 percent.  Thankfully, Meg and I had already met with a breast cancer doctor and had made tentative plans with her in case Doug did test positive for the gene.  We're still holding out that Meg will test negative for BRCA 1, but right now we're skeptical of that.  This wasn't quite the news we wanted to hear yesterday, but at least we all came up with a plan on how to move forward with the information.  

The Disney and DeSanto Feud

About a month ago Ron DeSanto signed a law that became nicknamed the "Don't Say Gay" bill.  It caused a lot of confusion and controversy as the LGBTQ community felt that it was an anti-homosexual bill that would stop schools from supporting children from that group.  The Republican party in Florida argued that the bill was actually aimed at stopping sex education in the early elementary grades.  I decided not to have an opinion.  As a former teacher I definitely didn't like having the responsibility of counseling children in the early teenage groups.  I know that some teachers did.  I was just glad that I was done teacher and that our own children were almost all out of high school.

Because the Walt Disney corporation had backed the pro-business Republican party in Florida for several years, Disney World had also received a lot of backlash after the bill was passed.  Their employees even staged a walkout to protest the treatment of the LGBTQ community.  That led the CEO of Disney to withdraw support of the Florida governor.  Shortly after that announcement, DeSanto signed a bill into law that would dissolve the township that Disney had governed surrounding its Florida theme parks.  They would also lose their tax break in Orange County.  

None of this really affects any of us.  There's a lot of posts on social media claiming that this will raise the taxes of those living in that area, but I doubt it.  Someone even said without the tax break that Disney will take their theme parks to another state.  That was a stupid comment.  Ultimately, the best part of all of this happening is that Brett has absolutely enjoyed the backlash that Disney has gotten over the news.  He sent me several memes about it and said that he and Sean planned to play Disco Inferno over the weekend as they talked about the "burning of the Disney corporation."  Brett still loves the Disney movies and theme parks, just not their political stance.  From what I have read, he's not alone.  

Snow, Snow, Snow

Cameron told us yesterday that it would snow in Northern Indiana today.  Unfortunately, he was right.  It wasn't enough to delay or cancel school, but it did need to be cleaned off of cars this morning.  The snow also closed Maxwelton today and forced Coach Shenk to cancel golf practice.  Cameron was bummed about that, but not surprised.  

Cameron wasn't the only one disappointed with the weather.  Cal texted me first thing to let me know that he was sick and tired of snow.  I couldn't blame him.  This has been one of the crummiest springs that I could remember.  March was miserable at times with cold temperatures, wind and storms.  April hasn't started off that great either and now snow.  As much as I love the movie White Christmas, I'm definitely tired of winter.  Everyone keeps saying that it will be in the 70s this weekend in Northern Indiana.  I hope that they are correct.  Right now, I'd just be happy with temperatures in the 50s with no rain and lots of sun. 

Happy Easter

Cameron, Doug and I arrived last night in Bloomington in order to celebrate the Easter weekend with Meg and Brett.  We stopped at Meg's first to check in with her and Nick.  Meg was busy getting ready to go out to dinner with Carson for her 22nd birthday.  Nick decided that he'd rather hang out with us.  While they were getting ready, we met Brett at his apartment as soon as he got home from work.  We wanted to get in a round of Ticket to Ride Germany before dinner.  Once the game ended we headed to Cafe Pizzeria.  Nick had joined us by then and Meg showed up just as we were getting ready to order.  The birthday party had been down the street at Buffalouie's, so she was able to walk over when it ended.  Dinner was entertaining although Cameron may not have agreed as he developed a bloody nose in the middle of it.  Thankfully, it stopped in time for all of us to play Chameleon back at Brett's.  

We had talked about going to 8:30 a.m. mass this morning, but after staying up late last night, we thought that 10:30 a.m. would work a lot better.  It was crowed, but we were able to find a parking spot and a pew before the service began.  We enjoyed the mass very much, especially the homily by Father Patrick.  It was very apparent to Doug and I that Meg and Brett were well known in the church.  They were greeted by several of the priests and members of the Hoosier Catholic group.  

After mass everyone wanted to open their Easter gifts.  Grandma Jane had given them all Easter candy along with some spending money.  I had picked out t-shirts for our gifts to the Heinisch children.  Cal had already received his new Steeler's shirt when he was home in March.  Brett got a kick out of his M & M one and Cameron absolutely loved his Juice Wrld screen print.  Meg decided that she wanted a mug instead of a shirt this year and appreciated her new one from the movie Tangled.  We gave Nick the perfect shirt for him complete with Snoopy on it drinking Root Beer.  

Our Easter lunch was spent at Crazy Horse.  Meg tried a Mimosa for the first time and enjoyed it.  Afterward we walked down Kirkwood and through campus to the IMU and Showwalter Fountain.  It was chilly today, but at least the sun was out.  We didn't have a lot of time after our walk, but we did get in a few rounds of Exploding Kittens before Nick and Cameron left.  Nick took Cameron to Wabash to meet Grandma Jane and Grandpa Cutes.  We appreciated that very much as it allowed me to travel with Doug to Ocala this week.

Meg began to studying for her Cost Accounting test after they left.  Brett, Doug and I had just enough time to play one more game of Ticket to Ride before we had to leave.  It was a wonderful Easter celebration.  The only thing missing was Cal.  He had to stay in Chicago this weekend as he had to work this weekend.