Karrick

a Day for Mary

01/05/2011

A Great Day Downtown

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Wednesday I had a day off and used my day off wisely...on me! I made my way to the

ellehomme spa for my monthly laser hair removal. I may suffer from some unwanted facial hair....alright, I'd grow a beard if I ever lapsed into a coma...whatever, I'm not perfect....I just play one in real life. Actually I bought a Groupon well 2 Groupons. 6 treatments for $150 which is like free in the laser hair removal world. After the 1st treatment there was such a difference. I am a huge supporter of the Groupon. Tim and I have gotten many $99 fancy downtown hotel rooms, a sailing trip, many many restaurant 1/2 price meals.

After my laser treatment, I had a 60min massage scheduled...not a Groupon but a $100 gift certificate for $50 from the spa website.

This was my changing room, I just snapped 2 quick pics and they don't do justice...all the amenities including toiletries, robes and slippers

After you get on your robe and slippers you enter the Zen room...a dark candle lit soothing waiting room. I didn't take a picture cause that wouldn't be very Zen like and who am I to disrupt the Zen Gods.

I had a wonder 60 minute deep tissue, aromatherapy massage.

Since I was in the West Loop, I jumped on over to the financial district to meet my man for lunch. Tim's office(E*TRADE Captial Markets) is now located in my old building. Oh, and I need at amend a earlier blog error. Tim is not a "systems administrator" he is a "System Engineer" my bad. I guess my faux pas is like comparing a physical theripist to a Neurosurgeon .
 Who knew?
  We had a nice, but quick lunch and I got a tour of Tim's office.
Small world that I parked in the lot across the street that I used to park in 100 years ago. The same old man still works there and gave me a giant hug. He then asks "How old is TJ now" He remembered! TJ started going religiously to the CBOE (Chicago Board of Options Exchange) with me at 4 weeks old until age 3. He was the only baby in a sea of 1000's of traders. TJ's personality was well developed, not to mention he was the cutest baby EVER! He was quite popular to say the least.
All good things must come to an end, so at 1:30 I hoped back on 290 west did a little shopping before getting my Karrick from school


A lovely day I must say

The life of a high school athlete

It hit me like a freight train or maybe more like a bullet between the eyes as I lay on my teenagers floor,  head first, waist deep under his bed at 5:00 am...AM people! I have completely lost my mind. I must of still been asleep as I crawled under TJ's bed to look for his gloves.
 A simple "mom, while I get ready (translation: fix my hair just so...) would you grab my glove from under my bed?" 

What seemed like a simple request was really a calculated trick
"I'll get her before she's had her coffee...hehehe"

"I may sleep on that bed, but I'm not stupid..."

I momentarily pause as I get on my knees as a wall of teenager stench hits me, I move one leg in side out dirty jeans, yesterday's damp towel, a few AXE soaked shirts just so I can get to the underside of the bed. Once down, I enter the abyss of dirty socks, food wrappers, cords...so many random cords, dust covered books, baseballs, a stuffed jaguar, pens, pencils, crumpled papers, sticky this and sticky that, dust balls the size of hamsters...the list goes on

What am I looking for?...Oh, batting gloves

As my right sinus starts to burn and my right eye tears up the freight train hits

Hell Fucking No!

 not sure if it's my voice or my therapists voice screaming back at me.

I bang my head trying to navigate backwards out of Satan's den.

 "TJ, are you kidding me, I can't find gloves in that Hell Hole"

"No mom my mitt, it's right here...sorry"

Guess what? It's high school baseball conditioning time..YAY

Every Tuesday and Thursday  from 5:30 - 7am. No joke

Why in the morning?

 Because we are still football conditioning Mon-Thur 2:45-4pm for NEXT YEARS FALL FOOTBALL SEASON! 

Duh! Makes perfect sense

Driving down Main street at 5:20 am in the dark frozen 10 degree morning, I see the random car add to what looks like a ghost town. By the time we reach Glenbard East HS there is a line of cars dropping of their future stars. We all nod at each other with the implied  "Are we out of our minds?"  That same line of cars heads back to Main street...some head south, me and my group head north...slowly losing a car every couple of blocks until I'm back where I started...that lone car driving down Main street at 5:20 am in the dark frozen 10 degree morning...except it is 5:35 am 

So I write this at 6am while the house is still asleep, coffee next to me. Just an fyi...my right sinus is still burning as I wipe a tear from my eye...not the nostalgic tear

The tear of an irritated sinus clogged with teenager dust balls.

The life of a high school athlete should read "The life of a parent of a high school athlete"

Hockey picure

Group hockey shot. Missy just emailed it to me...you can see my camera around my neck. Missy has the same camera and put it n the tripod with the timer...YAY

I want to play again

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Well, 2010 is gone. Over-all 2010 was a good year in the McGinty house. The good outweighed the not-so-good. We are all happy, healthy and employed. Karrick learned to read in 2010, by the skin of his teeth, but 2010 is 2010. Karrick also learned to swim. TJ started high school, loves it and excelled at a new sport, football. Callahan entered middle school and is not bored for the first time ever in school. He at this moment in time has straight A's...never saw that before, Callahan was allergic to homework, but has stepped up to the plate determined to attend IL Math and Science Academy for high school. He will be taking the SAT's next year at age 12

Tim and I logged countless hours of fun dates together and I believe our relationship has become much stronger because of it.. Thank's Tim...great idea!!

Casa McGinty flooded with the neighborhoods fecal matter...a good 3 ft of raw sewage, nasty toilet paper that the village power washed off our lawn. 

We also bought a new boat

I took some cool pictures in the last 2 days

Today, I woke up at 2pm...crazy I know. TJ and I went to the park and met our friends the Cardotts to play hockey. Yes, I played too and it was super fun...COLD! The dark photos above were taken as we left

  Lombard sure has some spectacular parks

  Check out TJ's red cheeks
After hockey the McGinty clan went out for a nice dinner before dropping TJ off at a buddies for the night

Last night we were invited to ring in the new year with our friends, the Cardotts. It was a fun time of eating, catching up and dancing with Wii Dance 2. Karrick is pretty good at that and I think I need to buy it. I have video of him dancing that I will post later

Happy New Year everyone!

My visual art debut

 Yesterday I headed downtown to be part of a visual art film project being shot at the

Tri-beca Flashpoint Media Arts academy. Can I just start out by saying....this six story film/art/music/animation school is so freakin cool, decorated with breathtaking and interesting artwork. I almost wish I was super artsy so I can go here. I want to go back and take photos of it all. I loved the vibe I got while being there. I'm usually on the waiting room end of all things artistic.

My kids agency Lily's Talent Agency gets requests for the non-actor/model...the real life person. Finally one came along that was made for me. An artist had an idea to do a visual art piece using real moms. The piece   

"It is meant to grant a sense of well-being and kindness ie. a corrective emotional experience"

The goal is to have this film displayed in Contemporary Art Museums .

I was brought to the studio and put in front of a green screen for a good 30-40 min. I spoke and I even sang a song....YES I DID! 

My kids would be mortified. When I was done the artist/director "Tim" told me I did great and even used the word "excellent". Then Tim walked me out (from the 6th floor to the first) uh huh,  sure did! okay he was going on a break, but whatever...

While we were walking, he of course mentioned my kids very unique and cool names AND he complimented me on my "wonderful smile that just LIT UP THE SCREEN!"  Lit up the screen, people...yeah, ME!

All I'm sayin is, "Julia Roberts, watch your back!"

I drove home with my box of chocolates, small monetary wage and parking fee paid for...on Cloud 9.

Hopefully this man's dream becomes a reality and I don't end up on the "cutting room floor" see I even have the lingo down.

It was fun and I was nervous as HELL. When I got to work this morning I received an email from the

 cinematographer that I originally set up the appointment with. I will copy and paste his email

"thank you for helping us out on this film.  I heard your warm Irish smile lit up the screen.  much appreciate your time."

A STAR IS BORN people....just sayin

Christmas week

 The McGinty's made it through another Merry Christmas. I'm loving my new boots and Christmas sweater from Tim. Tim and I as always had a lot of fun shopping together. I feel like I won the lotto with a husband that loves to shop, but isn't gay...I just don't have any use being married to a gay man...thats all....just sayin

Moivng on, it was wonderful to spend time with family and just hanging out with the kids. It is a gift that TJ isn't playing a sport now....so much free time. That being said,  he'll NEVER go without playing a sport again. Holy Mother Mary of Jesus! TJ needs an outlet from his competitive nature. Thank God baseball training starts in 2 weeks

Moving on...

 TJ was very excited to receive an acoustic guitar. Uncle Casper gave him his 1st lesson

 Callahan scored his own tool set, complete with power tools from grandma and grandpa McGinty. Must nurture that creative mind. Callahan will go in the garage or basement and just build...build from scratch a working trebuchet and motorized airplane

 A little boy warms cold sledding fingers by the fire

 Xbox kinect was under the tree, can I say that it is just amazing! We also own the Wii, but this blows it away. I am pretty sore from boxing and I am incapable of jumping hurdles. One would think with my extra long legs it would be a breeze...not so much

 Karrick has some secret that allows him to win at boxing every time...I even bribed him with Lego's to tell me. He is not budging 

 doing the TKO dance

 When Santa leaves an 11 year old a hatchet, one must allow him to chop things up

 best buddies 

 lots of snow boarding down the deck steps and up the snow covered bike ramp

last, but certainly not least is my Android 10 in Archos tablet. What else would I expect from my anti-Apple system administrator computer genius of a husband?

It is super cool and will serve me well during my 8 hr days of baseball  in the summer 

God created firemen so policemen have someone to look up to

 Each and every time I hear of a fallen firefighter I cry. Yesterday's news was no different

The family phone tree goes into effect as we ask ourselves "was Patrick working" a call to my dad, a retired  Chicago Fire Dept Captain, put our fears to rest. "He has a daily day today" meaning he was suppose to work but every 3rd scheduled work day he gets off.

This is the life of a "fireman family".You know that at anytime something bad can happen.

I didn't know these 2 brave men, but I cried just the same. To not think twice about running into an unstable environment, an environment that has everyone else running the opposite way speaks volumes of what it takes to be one of this country's finest. It wasn't my brother, but it was someone's brother, father, son or husband. I saw the 1st picture this morning while sitting at work and tears flowed again. When FF Stringer put his coat on that morning, did it cross his mind that it would be the last time? I don't know, but if he did know, I doubt it would of changed his actions.

Growing up in a family of firemen (Dad, grandpa, step-grandfather, uncle and now my brother Patrick), I always had a sense of pride of being a fireman's daughter. Growing up in Beverly my 4 closest girlfriends fathers were all fireman too. The fireman family is like none-other, when you spend 24 hr shifts together you are brothers.

I remember countless Christmas's spent at the firehouse climbing on the trucks and Santa always visited. I remember being really mad that my 2 brother's got to spend nights with my dad at the firehouse, but not us girls..."not a woman's job" at that time. I remember countless late night phone calls saying my dad was injured or so and so died. I remember the "uniform" hanging in the front closet, the immaculate, clean, pressed official CFD dress coat, always in dry cleaning wrap with the white hat on the shelf. I remember my dad wearing that uniform too many times going to a fallen firefighter's wake/funeral. I remember my dad walking through the front door after a 24 hr shift, donuts in one hand and his overnight bag in the other. The entire laundry chute would smell like a bonfire, except it wasn't from a bonfire. I remember holding my dads dirty work shirts and just smelling them...I loved the smell...I was too young to really grasp the reality of that smell

My brother Patrick will be working (with a heavy heart I'm sure) on Christmas, so I won't get to see him, but I will be thinking of him and all the other firemen and all they do for us.

I love you Pat, I don't say that often enough and Thank you!

God Bless the families of FF Ankum and FF Stringer for the world lost 2 of the good guys

Merry Christmas to all

A surprise showed up on my computer

I found no less than 20 short video clips on my computer. It appears that Callahan wrote, directed, acted and filmed all these short gems. What tickles me, is I just stumble on them, so they took me by surprise. I stitched some together to form a little demo.

Rated 'R' for adult theme and language

                                

                                               callahan from mary mcginty on Vimeo.

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