Highs, Lows and Weirds

The last few weeks have been a typical, crazy whirlwind of events, one that you may have thought I’d be used to by now…but there's no getting used to chaos. The highs have been high, the lows have been low, and the weirds have been weirder than ever.

Danny and I live a relatively mundane life for the most part. We live in a small, half of a duplex when we’re in California and in an extended stay motel when we’re in St. Louis. We drive the most basic (and I mean ZERO upgrades basic, don’t even have sun-roofs basic) Nissans around, and we, without fail, always end up with middle seats on airplane rides because we solely purchase airfare through cheaptickets.com. But every once in a while I hear or see glimpses of things that remind me that eventhough we live an incredibly normal life, we are blessed to be surrounded by greatness. During a run-of-the-mill phone conversation that I with Danny last week, after telling me what he ate for breakfast he added, “Oh, and I plugged your book to Coach Belichick this morning. We pulled it up on the computer in his office.”

I'm still somewhat shocked that my novel, “Drowning in the Mainstream” is still in the running for Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel of the Year Award and is currently being picked up by independent bookstores all over the U.S. Its unexpected success has been overwhelming and I am so thankful for the support and positive feedback that I’ve been getting from my amazing family and friends. I firmly believe that here is not greater accomplishment than to earn the love and respect of those who you adore and for that I am very grateful.

To the surprise of many, Danny re-signed with the Rams a couple of weeks ago and he, frankly, couldn’t be happier. He had the opportunity to explore some other opportunities once he hit free agency, but at the end of the day he realized that his heart was still in St. Louis. His decision to stick with the Rams for another year was based solely on his desire to, in his words, "be part of something bigger than the game." To be part of a process. And to play for a team and a coaching staff who saw something in him a while back and decided to give him a long shot. If we’ve learned anything over the last few years in the Not For Long league, it’s that undrafted, no-name, Division II college ball players rarely get a second glance and that's exactly why there’s something to be said about being loyal to the people who believed in you when no one else did. He can't wait to get back to work.

On a selfish note, I really couldn’t be more excited about his decision either. The offseason has felt long enough when it comes to being away from the girlfriends I made in the Lou this last year, and to them I say...here’s to making the Midwest seem a little less Midwest-y, training camp lattes, Wednesday book club (minus the books), and mimosa game days mornings!
Ready to see what 2010 has in store for us.