Thanksgiving

We are at the time of year when everyone talks about what they are thankful for. Personally, I am thankful for a job that allows me to be home for the holiday season. Granted, I do miss Easter every year, but I am home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I first got into this profession I had dreams of pro basketball. That would have meant work in the winter. I enjoy having the winter off and spending time with my wonderful family. Have a happy Thanksgiving!!

Job Status

I had a job offer at the University of New Mexico to be an assistant athletic trainer and be in charge of baseball. It looked like I was finally going to have a job at home. We went through the whole application/interview process and we were just waiting to get final approval so I could start. We were so close. In the end they weren't able to come up with the salary that I was expecting which threw a curve ball into the plans. Luckily, the Rangers were accepting of me talking to UNM about that job and told me if it didn't work out, I would still have a job with them. After MUCH deliberating and back and forth conversation about pros and cons of both jobs, we decided it was going to be a better situation to return to the Rangers. This has basically been almost 2 months of waiting, but I guess in the end I'm meant to be a Ranger. The blog almost turned into "The Life of a D-1 College Assistant Athletic Trainer". I don't think it would have been as entertaining......

Home Alone

This weekend my wife and daughter took a trip to California to visit her cousin and son who is around the same age as Mia. During the days leading up the them leaving, I got to thinking.....I have never been at our home alone.

It sounds weird.

I have been alone in plenty of other places around the country. I'm alone during spring training every year with the exception of a week this past year, I'm alone for the majority of any fall leagues that I have done other than short visits, I'm alone for the beginning of every season, and I'm alone for the end of every season. Doing some quick calculations gets me to being without my family for about 3-4 months total in any given year. I've had the house to myself in Vero Beach, Jacksonville, Albany, Columbus, Great Falls, Peoria, Surprise, and Spokane. I have also spent time by myself in hotels in at least half of the states in USA.

This is the first time that I have been alone in my own home. What the heck am I going to do?

Offseason

I know it has been awhile since I posted. I am just enjoying the offseason. Being an athletic trainer in professional baseball is great, but I work pretty much every single day for at least about 10 hours a day. A lot of that 10 hours is hanging out in the athletic training room. I obviously don't have a constant 10 hours of work a day, so I have a lot of down time. That is how this blog started. It was a great way to fill in some of my down time and to let everyone know exactly what I did every day. Now that I am home, my daytime schedule has changed. I watch my daughter every day and she is a handful. The only time I can even get on the computer is when she is taking a nap. Unfortunately, that is the only time I have to do anything, so a lot gets smashed into that 2 hours. Also, there is really nothing interesting going on.....it's the offseason. Right now mostly everyone is sitting at home, thinking and doing anything except for baseball. There are some guys that are in Surprise for Instructional League, but that is a small number. I'll try to put something up every so often, but, to be honest, nothing is happening. Hope you are all enjoying your time as much as I am.

Travel Home - Day 4

We got up and left the hotel at check out time, which was 11:00. Today the drive was going to be from Vegas to Phoenix. My brother was set to graduate from UTI, an automotive school, on Friday. The rest of my family was driving in from NM the same day, so we were just planning on getting there around the same time. Pretty easy day.

We left the hotel and headed south down Las Vegas Blvd (The Strip) to a place in Vegas that I had never been in all the trips I made to Sin City.....the sign.




I always thought that it was in some faraway place when you first arrive in LV driving in. Little did I know that it was right down the street this whole time!

After taking a couple of pics there, we hit the road. I had heard that crossing the Hoover Dam might take over an hour because of the new bridge construction being so close to finished. I've been over that dam plenty, so we went a different route down through California and across I-10. This plan didn't sound so bad because our hotel happened to be right off of I-10. We stopped for a quick lunch at Quizno's and were off. Not too far into the drive we stopped for some gas, hit some construction, thankfully no traffic, and then this....


I guess it was cool to be in California for a bit. Just added to the states I drove through. We didn't stop until a quick drink/pee break right before turning onto I-10. I think we were on 10 for about 2 miles until....


A few more hours of that road and we were there! Finally a mini-break from driving. My mom and the rest of the crew got to the hotel about 10 minutes before us, so it was perfect timing. The kids and even my sister were excited to be in a hotel. I'm over hotels, so it wasn't anything special for me, but it was fun to be in the vacation atmosphere with them. My sister and I hit up Wal-Mart for some beers and wine for the next few nights. When we got back, it was time for dinner. My mom is an In-n-Out Burger freak, so I conveniently got the hotel right across the street. Of course, we all walked across for some food. It was delicicious. I went into new territory and got a 3x3. Good stuff.
Funny story....my nephew Adrian was done with his food and being a good boy, went to throw the fries he didn't eat in the trash. Nobody really noticed, but then we all heard my mom scream "No!!". All of us turned, freaked out that Adrian was about to hurt himself. Nope. My mom was just mad that he wasted the fries. She might be part crazy.

After dinner, we gathered up a few drinks and hit the hotel pool. It was the perfect time to do it, too. It was probably 8:30 at night, but still in the 90 degree range. Just the kids and I actually got in, but we all hung out outside for a few hours.

Tomorrow....Diego's graduation day!!