Hopefully you all had a great Thanksgiving Day and were able to spend the time with family and/or friends. I am on a plane right now doing what I do… work. I am in my 5th year at Whitworth and I am spent yet another Thanksgiving on the road. If you include my times with Northern Colorado, I’ve been in my home town three in the last 8 years: Greeley twice and Spokane once. People, including myself, cringe at that fact because holidays are supposed to be spent with family and friends. However, I have been blessed with friends all over the US so I actually have been able to at least see family or friends on over the last 8 years. As I reminisce over the last 8 years out of Whitworth I have vivid memories of each Thanksgiving. I’ll start with my first one out of Whitworth.
Year 1: Elisha Cusumano and I were both new to G town and had spent the majority of our new lives as GA’s working or studying. That didn’t leave much time to make friends. Besides, most of the people we knew didn’t have to stick around for the break because they didn’t work in athletics. We both planned on studying and made plans to meet for dinner at the Chilli’s. Little did we know that most places close down in Greeley on Thanksgiving. I’m pretty sure we tried two or three restaurants before figuring out that none of the “nicer” restaurants (Chilli’s, Red Lobster, Panda Express) were going to be open. We ended up at IHOP. I had French toast, eggs and bacon for my Thanksgiving dinner. Elisha and I laughed at our fortune. It was a valuable lesson to learn, yet one I didn’t seem to apply in later years.
Year 2: My second year out had me on the road with the women’s basketball team. We were somewhere in Montana and had traveled most of the day. We had practice and then went in search of food. Once again, there were no restaurants open except a JB’s that had a thanksgiving buffet waiting for us. Only problem was that we arrived right before they were going to close and they had no turkey goodness left. My parents and Gma had driven up to see me. We ended up ordering off the regular menu. By process of elimination (evidently they were out of a lot of things) I had chicken strips and my Gma had a hot dog. I wonder how long it is going to take me to learn that nothing is open on a Thanksgiving. At least I was with family for that one.
Year 3- This year I was working with the women’s soccer team and the season had just ended. I traveled down to Broomfield with my friend Tracy to have a real meal with some of her friends. It was here I experienced my first fried turkey Thanksgiving. It was amazing. Juicy, well flavored and plenty of turkey for 4 or 5 of us. I also had an amazing homemade sausage stuffing. My mouth still waters when I think of it.
Year 4- My first year in Spokane. To be honest, I have no idea what I did for this one. I think I was in Spokane, but was working and ended up just doing my own thing. Evidently it wasn't nearly as exciting as other years.
Year 5- Once again work had taken me to the east coast for some games. This consisted of a trip to Washington DC followed with a direct flight to LA for a few games. One of my students Christina, who is an athletic trainer for a dance company, came to see me. It was great to catch up over dinner one night. This was an eventful Thanksgiving for me as we traveled from Baltimore to LA with a layover in Denver. The morning started out great. Facebook allowed me to know that Amy Helms was driving up from Nashville to see he parents just outside of Washington DC. She was crazy enough to come and have breakfast with me even after driving all night. It was by far the best part of my day. As some of you know, Hayford had some weird travel things going on. I traveled under a few different names. Don’t ask me why just read the story J. In Denver, as we were catching our next flight, TSA decided to check ID’s at the gate. Who has ever seen TSA check ID’s not at security checkpoints. I haven’t and neither had Jim. I’ve never seen him so scared. Craig Fortier and I were making plans to be interrogated by the FBI and then calculating how long it would have taken us to drive from Denver to LA. We would have arrived just in time for the games. Somehow (Thanks God) they let us on anyway. As we were sitting and getting ready to take off, the jokes were flying about how we were headed to Cuba now or that as we taxied, police lights were going to come on and stop the plane. Neither Craig nor I breathed a sigh of relief until we were in our rental cars in LA.
Year 6: The only time I’ve been in Spokane. I’m pretty sure we had two games the following two days so I was unable to travel home or to my brothers in Tacoma. Instead I spent it with Matt Knoll and his girlfriend at the time (I’m glad Bekah’s around now). Pretty sure we had enough food for 25 people and there were only 3 of us there. It was excellent though because it had been a few years since I had eaten a proper Thanksgiving meal with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and a Jell-O salad (reminded me of home). After dinner it was all about Football and practice later that night……
Year 7: When people found out I was going to have to be in Hawaii for Thanksgiving they felt really sorry for me. When I told them we were staying right down on the beach and had numerous hours of freedom, they even volunteered to take my place so I could be around Spokane and friends. Good thing Kurt Kagawa lives in Hawaii or I just might have taken them up on that offer…. (Hopefully you caught my sarcasm) The team had plans to eat dinner at the hotel and it was $50 a plate. Instead, I opted to go with Kurt who took me first to his girlfriend’s family’s celebration then his family’s celebration. Nothing like stuffing myself with two HUGE meals to make up for missing previous Thanksgiving meals. If you know Hawaiians, they like to eat and they make really good food so needless to say, it was excellent. That week was great. I hadn’t see Kurt for a while so getting to hang out with him and finally meet Joanna was a huge bonus of the trip. Kurt took the coaches and I to a not so touristy beach and we got destroyed by a few waves. It was fun while it lasted.
Year 8: New coaching staff, same travel ideas. This year I was in the Bay area for Thanksgiving. Instead of eating in the airport like a few years ago, the coaches have a meal being catered to us at the hotel. It much better than I had anticipated. Had all the traditional turkey and potato goodness including some sweet potatoes. Just to make up for years past I had another meal at the home of the Callaway family. It was even better than the first one of the day. The house we ate at was amazing. I was late so they had a leftover plate waiting for me. Then it was out to the man cave for football, beer and cigars. This place was awesome. Made me want to drop lots of money on something similar. Yep, Law and Bosh reunite once again!!! I was fortunate enough to spend some good time with Law before he got married this summer. I’m excited to see how things are going for him as he will become a father in February. Guess I’ll be flying back down sometime in the spring to see the new kid (Hoping for a boy and Liz’s height).
As much as I enjoyed spending time with Law, I think my favorite part of the trip was listening to the basketball team talk about what they were thankful for. Matt asked them for something they were truly grateful for, knowing we were all grateful for family and friends. Most still said family, but they elaborated as to why. The guys on my basketball team surprised me with their responses of understanding the sacrifice their parents made to put them in the position they are today. All know Whitworth is not cheap and for some, it’s a struggle to be here, but all and I mean all show extreme gratitude for their parents. Make me like them even more J
My prayer that night was one of only thanksgiving to God for the life I live, the family that supports me, the friends that lift me up when I’m struggling, the staff I work with who show the true meaning of servant leadership, and most important the grace and love of a God who will always be by my side. I take true joy in knowing that God’s grace will always be free and there is nothing better in life. Enjoy your holiday season.
Blessings.
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