Monday, October 15, 2007

Aaaahhhh Football (Act II)

Well, as I mentioned earlier, football season in full swing. Cassidy has had some great games. As with most 14 year old boys, there have been emotional ups and downs in the season. 3 weeks ago he had an amazing game against Smoky Hill, making 5-7 tackles, 2 sacks, and maybe a batted pass. He played well on both offense and defense and (most importantly had fun). Of course all games are fun when you win! The next 2 weeks were vastly different for him. 2 weeks ago, his team trounced the Boulder freshman team 40-13. Now, I have a tendency to brag about my boy’s impressive stature, but I am not the only person awed by it. Cassidy was double and triple teamed all game, in addition to receiving his fair share of low blocks (some legal, some illegal). He was disappointed that he didn’t get any sacks, I told him (as if any father’s condolences are sufficient) that if it took 2-3 people to stop him, then 2 or 3 of his teammates went unblocked. While his voice appreciated the sentiment, his eyes still said he was disappointed to “not be the man!”
On Saturday, due to some ridiculous scheduling, Cassidy’s team was coached by the Varsity coaches. Hmmmm, a talented group of players coached by coaches who have never worked with them, what could possibly go wrong? I might be a little harsh, but I totally blame this loss on the coaches. {RANT ON} It seems that whenever a high school doesn’t plan for an event, the only people who suffer are the kids. Well, our kids suffered plenty. The game went pretty much as scheduled, except for a lower halftime score than we would have liked (13-7 us). Overland hit big, but we played up to their level. Despite a 9 man punt return team (coaches fault for not knowing who was supposed to be where), a 10 man PAT block team (see above), no water for time-outs or on the sidelines (we were even the home team), and a pre-game warm-up that was disorganized (to say the least), we up until the middle of the 4th quarter. With just a few minutes left, our boys drove the ball to the 2 yard line. A handoff up the middle lost 2 yards, twice. So we sit 3rd and goal at the 5 yard line, down by one point. What should have happened, even to the novice football mind: run to the middle of the field to center the ball for a field goal. Kick a field goal of 20-22 yards (our kicker can hit from 35 pretty consistently), go ahead by 2, and hold them defensively for less than 2 minutes. What happened, the coaches call a fade route to the end-zone, which is of course (all together now) intercepted. Luckily, the Ref blew an inadvertent whistle on the run back and prevented a touchdown for the opposition. But our kicker and our team, she doesn’t even get to attempt a game winner, and the boys feel like the have been kicked when they were down. To be fair, the game could have been a bigger loss, but to lose when EVERY player on the field (and every observer on the sideline) knows to kick the field goal, is just heart wrenching. {RANT OFF}
Those who say that it is just a game, have never had to look a hard working group of boys in the eyes, and try to explain why a coach wouldn’t go for the win.

{RE-RANT} To the Overland mom in the pink shirt yelling "GO HOME CREEK" at the end of the game, a couple of suggestions:
1) We were home, you obviously don't know the significance of the white jersey being the "away" jersey. Buy a book, get a map, do something, but learn which team is the "home" team.
2) I may yell about the game, I may yell at the Officials, I may even yell that a player did something illegal...I will never yell a discouraging comment to the players. They work hard, play hard, and shake hands at the end of the game regardless of score. It's called "sportsmanship." I am pretty sure that you could look it up in a dictionary or on-line.
3) If you are going to insist on acting like an a$$, don't wear radically obvious clothing. Someone will be able to tell it's you and say something to you; yeah that was me, and no, I don't care if your husband is there, he rolled his eyes too.

On the flip side, the Colorado Rockies just made it to the World Series! Cassidy will be happy, but he’d still rather win every game he plays…maybe next year.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Great Big Swirling Mass of Murphy

Well, if you have been reading the ancient posts of mine, you will know that I was in the midst of not being accepted for a police position with my current employer and waffling between that and a job that had been dangled under my nose for the last 3 years and change.
Murphy’s Law says that anything that can go wrong will. Contextually, nothing is “wrong” but it sure isn’t easy. In mid-August, my esteemed employer the Veteran’s Administration opened a Police Officer position. This time, thanks to some added expertise on how to write an effective “government” resume, I made the certification list and was interviewed for the job. I won’t go into too much detail, but a co-worker of mine also applied. There was one opening and based on a number of circumstances, I was not initially selected. The problem my supervisors faced was that they wanted both of us as officers. By the time all was said and done, an applicant from a previous certification who had not yet arrived for work, gave-up his position and I was selected for the position. So I will be sent to the academy in January for 5 weeks and learn to be a VA cop. For the trivia buff, the VA has had a police {instead of security} force since 1971; and since the VA is a truly unique branch, they have a specific academy.
Here’s the rub – about a week after I was told that I was hired, I was notified that my “former dream job” was going to be going public before the end of the month. Ironically, the position posted the day before my birthday. I was emailed by two former co-workers, who really wanted me to apply for the job. Now, if you have not worked for the Federal Government you have never experienced the true and unadulterated joy that is their hiring process. The bottom line is that after you are offered the job, there is a battery of tests, evaluations, and other things to make sure you are a qualified candidate…but nothing is final until everything is finalized and sent BACK to HR for final approval. So, when I was told in September that I was approved as an officer, the final approval didn’t come until well after the closing of the “other” job. Not wanting to count all my chickens at night on the back of a truck, I applied for the “other” job.
Fat forward to today…I FINALLY got notified that I will be a VA Police Officer. After 3 weeks of training, I guess that my supervisors were supremely confident, I got the call!!
So here I sit, waiting to hear from the other guys. Unless the other guys can get me a substantial pay increase, closer to what I will make with OT at the VA, my decision will be made for me. Outside of pay, the jobs are comparable in benefits. It really boils down to where I will be happier.