It’s still an unusually strange feeling.
Watching and hearing the Mother’s Day ads, seeing people pick out cards at the grocery store, yet not being able to participate in the fun.
Celebrating Mother’s Day without Mom—this will be the eighth year and those who can relate, understand that it doesn’t get any easier.
The wonderful thing is Mom always sends reminders that it’s OK. In her passing as was the case in her life, she never disappoints.
I lived in the same house for nine years and didn’t see it until the first Mother’s Day after she left us. A group of small yellow flowers appeared in my backyard and I just knew it was her.
The special thing is the flowers didn’t stop there. They then changed course appearing at random times throughout the year, sometimes when I would come home from a bad day and amazingly started making a cameo at my Dad’s house when I visited him. I think they may have been visiting for awhile because after I told him about it, he now points out to me he sees them show up from time to time.
They always appear one day and are completely gone the next. Meme’s miracles.
When you lose such a special Mom you miss many things.
I miss our talks, miss her advice, miss her great hugs and miss how she would always make me feel like I could do anything.
I miss how even in my 30s and 40s she would only want me to eat sugar cereal on my birthday.
I miss the advice she would have given me on how to raise teenage girls and how she would have loved hearing about all the special and funny things they do on a daily basis.
I miss sharing desserts with her (we loved that) and miss how funny she was—now who could forget her fearless appearances every Easter.
The crazy thing is we don’t know what happened to the Bunny Suit? I think Mom took it with her to Heaven, the same place she sends those yellow flowers throughout the year to remind us all, she’s ok and we’ll be ok.
That’s not as good as giving her a Mothers’s Day card in person, but it’s a close second.
Remembering my special Mom, the most important of many stops around the Naborhood, as always thanks for stopping by.
ESPN LAYOFFS: Mom knows first hand the crazy history of her son’s TV career where layoffs are as commonplace as commercial breaks, but I’ve learned while they’re all extremely frustrating, you can never let them define you.
I was very said to see the recent and massive layoffs by ESPN to an overwhelming group of talented journalists. Yes my business is changing but the key is changing with it—not putting your head in the sand and saying there are no more options and even more troublesome—discouraging young and aspiring journalists in the process.
If you want to be in sports journalism, it’s not the same as when I graduated from college—local stations don’t pay nearly what they used to, newspapers are drowning and regional cable outlets are very shaky—but the key is finding your niche.
I was laid off when my first daughter was born and remarkably again after my second daughter was born—-but if you have a passion for this career you can’t let these roadblocks get in the way.
I’ve started a growing video production company and my own TV show. I write more and have many other projects on the burner that I’m excited about. Don’t let the layoffs win.
My take on all the ESPN layoffs– while sad, it’s not the ending for many, but only the beginning—you just have to be willing to redirect your dream. Not ever easy, but well worth it.
NEVER SURRENDER! Speaking of sticking with things–it’s my attitude when it comes to sporting events. We all have our stubborn rules in life but a big one in my family that was thankfully drilled in my head ….never ever leave a sporting event early!
Once I did a live shot at the halftime of a Monday night game back in October of 2003 between the Bucs and Colts in Tampa and saw so many fans walking out of the stadium with the Buccos up 21-0 at the half.
The Colts scored a remarkable 28 fourth quarter points to force overtime and went on to win 38-35. Lots of people woke up the next morning regretting that move and they should have.
Sticking around till the end especially applies to the game where it’s truly never over till it’s over…baseball.
I am proud to say I’ve never left a baseball game before the final out in my life, a notion that was tested recently as I went to a Rays/Royals game with a good friend of mine. The game hit the 10th inning on a Tuesday night and my buddy said he he would give it one more inning as he didn’t want to be tired for work the next day. I convinced him to stay for the 11th but then the 12th came and he had enough.
I politely said I had to stay and was prepared to fly solo even if this bad boy would go 20 innings. Deep down, I kind of wanted that to happen, would have been a great story one day.
New MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred threw out an idea this spring of ending these numerous extra inning games by putting a few runners on base in the 11th inning—-this is the worst idea since awarding a league home field advantage for winning a meaningless All-Star game.
Extra inning games are what make baseball special and the true fans appreciate that. While we’re talking baseball, I have a suggestion of speeding things up Commissioner Manfred–how about getting rid of instant replay, a new wrinkle in the game which comes close to being as bad as leaving a game in the 12th inning,—which oh by the way was how long it lasted the other night.
HERNANDEZ HUMOR? A story that really saddened me recently was the suicide of Aaron Hernandez and no I’m not remotely defending his actions or trying to be insensitive to the family of the man he murdered Odin Lloyd. Lloyd’s family will never see their son again which is the true tragedy here.
This was sad on many levels.
What saddens yet angers me is how can people and I heard many on social media and sports talk radio make fun of and express joy on someone taking their life? How this makes people feel better about themselves is something I can’t relate to, nothing about this story makes me laugh.
I had a friend call me the day Hernandez took his life to remind me of the time we interviewed the former Gator Tight end at the NFL Combine. At the time, his future was limitless and while we knew he had his troubles at Florida, no one would have predicted how troubled Hernandez really was.
While you’re saddest for the Lloyd family , I’m also sad for Hernandez’s family where a recent insightful article in Sports Illustrated chronicled how Aaron’s brother Jonathan and his mother will forever cope with the questions of why their brother and son turned into such a monster. Reading his family talk about Aaron, you could feel the love his brother had for him—those who make fun of it, should think about that.
NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT….A public service announcement and this comes from someone who doesn’t watch that much TV anymore…please do yourself a favor and watch Showtime’s sensational series Billions.
I thought the first season was great, the second was even better. If you’re not familiar the show is based somewhat on a true story as it pits U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades played by my favorite actor Paul Giamatti against hedge fund king, Bobby “Axe” Axelrod, played by the ultra believable Damian Lewis. It’s a showdown between two powerful New York heavyweights.
While the main protagonists are great, all the supporting stars are sensational too. The writing is superb and while the season finale left you eager for what’s to come, the next to last episode was so unpredictable and well done, it may have been the best thing I’ve seen on television. The writers dramatically turned the show’s theme from good versus bad to bad versus bad. You grow to dislike both main characters and then you root for them too—it’s genius.
Both Rhoades and Axelrod are flawed and that’s what makes this show unique and so good, I highly recommend it.
EXTRA POINT: Looking back at the NFL Draft, it’s always so hard to predict the success of quarterbacks but there is something special about Clemson’s Deshaun Watson. He’s just a winner and I think the Texans will find the third quarterback drafted, will end up being the charm.
UNTIL NEXT BLOG,
Mike Nabors
@mikenabors
PHOTO CREDITS: CNN Money, MLB, Daily Mall, Sports Then and Now, Showtime