Happy 20th Birthday Cameron

Last summer when I was in Bloomington, I noticed that a banner for the play “Clue” was hanging up at the IU auditorium.  I was super excited about that as the 1980s movie was always a favorite of our family’s.  Even better news followed when I saw that it was at IU on Cameron’s birthday.  He and I made plans for me to return so that we could celebrate his big day and see the play together hoping that others would be able to join us as well.

I arrived late night with a few changes to our original summer plans.  First, we weren’t quite able to get the entire Heinisch family to join us as most had to work on Cameron’s birthday.  Second, we had to buy tickets to Clue for the day after Cameron’s 20th since he had a meeting tonight.  Lastly, none of us realized that we would be having this celebration during a frigid week with temperatures in Bloomington well below zero. Thankfully, we were able to navigate the changes and weather well and Cameron had a wonderful day.

First, I picked Cameron up around noon so that we could make a few stops before Cora’s class ended including one at the record store where Cameron found both a vintage Beatles album and one from the Supremes.  Cameron next chose Big Woods for lunch, and I enjoyed getting to know Cora while we ate.  She was just as Cameron described her and I was glad that they were so compatible.  We stayed there talking longer than I planned, which was ok with me since none of us were excited about going back outside.  We did make it to Kirkwood afterward to shop at a few of the IU stores. We didn’t find anything but had fun window shopping and fortunately didn’t freeze to death either.  

Before I dropped them off for the afternoon, we ran to the College Mall so that Cameron could get a free "birthday" smoothie. I then went to Brett's apartment for the evening where I enjoyed the warmth and worked on several projects.  Brett picked up Crumbl cookie for Cameron's birthday on his way home from work and still made it back to the apartment with enough time to change clothes before Cameron and Cora arrived.  We enjoyed Pizza X together and watched Cameron open his gifts.  He received a cute Lions shirt and keychain from Cora, a Swamp Head flannel from Doug, a Red Hot Chili Peppers vinyl from me and even a Bob Dylan biography from Robert Zimmerman. Cameron loved all of his gifts with the biggest surprise of the night, a 1970s fight song vinyl from Brett featuring the top forty marching band school songs.  Afterward, we played Sorry and introduced Cora to Bluey before they left for the evening ending a wonderful day celebrating Cameron's 20th.  

We’re #3

Tonight’s National Championship Football game was played between Notre Dame and Ohio State.  The majority of our family was hoping for a Buckeye win with Brett being the lone supporter of the Irish.  It may seem strange to those on the outside as to why there was such anti-Notre Dame animosity coming from so many of us, especially since we are Catholic.  When asked, I try to explain how tired I was of hearing about them when I was growing up.  Even our local television was named WNDU.  That never bothered me as much of the fans, however.  Most were just loud mouth locals still talking about the glory days of Lou Holtz.

I watched the game on the plane while flying to Indianapolis this evening.  I thought that it would be a nice distraction from the turbulence on the flight.  Instead, the plane was filled with obnoxious Notre Dame fans, one of whom screamed loudly in the beginning when they drove down the field eighty-five yards for a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Thankfully, Ohio State took control from there and ended up winning 31-23 in the end.

Now that the College Football Playoffs are over and there is talk about the seasons that were, my thought would be that the Hoosiers ended the year #3 in the nation.  The only two teams that beat us were playing tonight.  Plus, we beat Michigan in the regular season who was one of only two teams that handed Ohio State a loss this year.  I realize that most sportscaster might not agree with me, but I ran my theory past both Parce and Cameron and they agreed 100%.  It may have been a biased audience, but I felt it was enough support for me to shout “We’re Number Three!”

Wedding Planning

Brett and Karen had a fantastic weekend in New Albany. A lot of of it revolved around wedding planning, but they did still get to go out to their favorite local brewery and even saw the movies sonic the hedgehog three. I talk to them multiple times and enjoyed hearing about all that they accomplished.

Yesterday, they met with their mentor a couple from the church. They had a wonderful dinner with them and really enjoyed all of the advice that they were given. Brett and Karen also made time to go over the wedding party list and who all would need tuxes for the big event. They looked at their photography request and talked about the music that they would like played at their reception.

Today was the part that I was sad that I missed out on as they got to try multiple types of cakes from a local bakery. They loved several of the flavors and surprise me when they both said that they really didn’t like white cake. I sent them pictures of the cake from my wedding and awesome megs. They felt pretty good about what they wanted, but thought they would try one more bakery in February when they go out and also do a little wine tasting then to choose the wines for the reception hall. I was really happy that all had gone welland was happy to know that wedding plans were moving forward smoothly. June will be here before we know it.

Why Enough is Never Enough

Several months ago, I was working in the church gift shop during a particularly slow time.  I spent the hour looking through all that they had for sale with most of my interest going to the bookshelf.  Several of the books looked intriguing, but the one I decided to take home with me was "Why Enough is Never Enough:  Overcoming Worries about Money - a Catholic Perspective."  I was interested in it as our family was dealing with a situation concerning someone else's greed and I thought that this book would help me understand better why some people hoard all of their money.

I had a few other books to finish before I started my new book, but once the New Year rang in, I decided that I wanted to make it a priority.  In the end I was incredibly glad that I did.  The book not only explained greed, but also almsgiving, generosity and envy.  It didn't just help me understand better the issue our family was having but also made me give a lot more thought to my own ideas about money and giving.  Doug and I believed a lot of the author's perspective, especially on helping those in need and giving to our own family when they could use the help instead of accumulating great wealth to pass on to them once we have died.  According to the book, having a million dollars when you die just means that you didn't do enough for others in your lifetime.  That was our attitude as well.

Finishing the book this week couldn't have been better timing.  Meg called me to let me know that a family member asked her a tax question about getting the most out of what they had given to the church this year.  The question fit perfectly into the chapter "generosity and virtue" which explained that giving was supposed to be about the joy of helping someone else not about what you could get out of it.  Scamming the system and trying to get more than your share wasn't actually part of God's plan.  Thankfully, Meg already understood that and said that she wouldn't be available to help.  

Teaching Assistant

When Cameron finished all of his classes in December, one of his professors asked him if he would like to be a teaching assistant for the stats class next semester. He told her that he would think about it and would get back to her soon. When he first talked to me about it, he said that he really wasn’t very interested because it wasn’t his favorite math class. After giving it more thought, he came back and said that he was going to go ahead and contact the professor as he had been wanting to get a job, he was good at stats, and it would look great on his résumé. I couldn’t have agreed more and was happy to hear that he was pursuing the opportunity.

Over Christmas break, Cameron heard from the director of teaching assistance for statistics. He had Cameron fill out a few forms and give times that he would be available to work. He also told him that he would let him know if they would be able to use him. Just after the New Year, Cameron got the confirmation that there was a position for him and that he was looking forward to the new challenge. He began his orientation videos, filled out his I-9 and even found a copy of his birth certificate to turn in so that he could get paid.

Cameron‘s class started this week, and he really enjoyed it. He was able to help some students, do some studying on his own, and set up office hours on Sundays. I was super happy to hear that all had gone well, and was glad that he would have a little bit of spending money this semester that he had earned himself. His older siblings are worked while they were in college, so I was especially glad that he decided to follow in everyone else’s footsteps. Being independent financially is such an important part of a young adult’s life. Plus, He will really appreciate the extra cash when he takes Cora out for Valentine’s Day.

Colonoscopy Part 2

Doug first had a colonoscopy three and a half years ago when we still lived in Syracuse.  Overall, it went well, but the doctor did find several benign polyps. Because of that and Doug's family history of cancer, Dr. Gerig recommended having another one in five years.  Fast forward to last spring when Doug was in the imaging office having an x-ray for his chronic cough.  The radiologist saw a concerning spot near his duodenum and recommended MRI.  We thought that was a great idea because it would also scan his abdominal area.  Doug was also at high risk of pancreatic cancer and that would take care of that test for the year.  Of course, we weren't done then.  The radiologist saw another concerning spot that led to a CT scan.  That one was the most worrisome as it showed something in the colon.  Once the gastroenterologist here recommended a colonoscopy, we hesitated.  We knew that the chance of having cancer only three years after a colonoscopy was less than 1% plus Doug really didn't want to go through the procedure early unless absolutely necessary.  I couldn't blame him for that.

Because Doug was switching jobs and insurance in October, the billing office suggested that we wait and have the colonoscopy until after the new year.  That way we wouldn't meet our deductible the last three months of the year and then start over in January.  That sounded good to us, and we rescheduled for January 16th.  As today drew closer, Doug and I both started to question if the procedure was worth his time, the money and all of the prep that it took to have a colonoscopy.  Doug called our family doctor to see if he could just redo the original CT scan.  Because the radiologist had written that there was a significant concern about the spot, she felt better with the colonoscopy.  We trusted her and Doug started the prep Tuesday night.

I must have been having "sympathy pains" for Doug yesterday as I really didn't eat much or maybe it was just because I didn't want him to feel bad when I ate.  Either way, it was a lite food day in our house.  Thankfully, I wasn't on the high laxative, only liquid diet that Doug was.  I am sure that it was miserable, but he didn't complain.  The nice part of the process was that Doug and I got to spend a lot of time together as he did his prep while working at home.  Once he was done with SI Goldman for the day, we played Ticket to Ride and watched the 1982 movie "Deathtrap", a favorite of mine and now Cal's.

Today was a tough one for Doug as he couldn't drink anything after 8 a.m. for his 2:15 procedure.  We got to the surgery center early, and then had to wait well over an hour to be called back for surgery.  I was happy to be asked back when it was over but was appalled at the facility.  There were no rooms, only curtains.  As soon as Doug was dressed, they moved him to a chair by the utility sink to wait for the doctor.  He wasn't offered a drink, food or even water.  We waited over 40 minutes next to two other patients in chairs for the doctor to violate every HPAA rule that I had ever read when he announced each person's results in front of everyone.  

The good news for us was that Doug's colonoscopy was clear and that there were no areas of concern.  We were both very glad to hear that.  We also learned from the procedure that Doug absolutely hated being put under and likened it to the final scene of the Blair Witch project when the boy gets "wacked" in the corner.  I laughed about that all night.  

Yellowstone and The Old Man

Last week I finally caught up on to the current episode of Chicago Fire.  It took me quite a bit longer to get through than Chicago PD.  There were a lot of episodes each season and more seasons to watch.  I did like the series, just not as much as PD.  I think it was because I like crime shows such as Law & Order.  Chicago Fire was more of a nighttime soap opera.  

Once I finished Fire, I decided to take a break from all of the rest of the Chicago series and watch a few other series that I hadn't watched yet.  The first one was Yellowstone.  It had been almost two years since I last watched the first half of season five of the cowboy series and wanted to see how it all would end.  It was strange at first without Kevin Costner, since he played the main character, but once I got over that, I really liked it.  It was definitely sad, but thankfully didn't have the violence of the previous seasons.  I loved that they tied up each characters' story, even the minor ones, and that there were no questions to be answered when the series ended, except for "I wonder who is in the spin off series."

The Old Man was a lot different than Yellowstone.  It ended on a cliffhanger with a major character missing.  Since the series will not be picked up for a third season, I guess I'll never know what happens to him.  Even with the ending leaving me wondering what's next, overall, I did enjoy it.  The story was intriguing, and the characters were complex.  Even with that said, I wouldn't probably recommend it to anyone unless they really liked the first one and wanted to see what happened when Jeff Bridges' daughter went missing.  It's just too good of a show to know that there will not be an official end to it.