Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts

Blurry Season

This time of year is normally filled with Christmas carols, white snow and massive amounts of anything edible. Snowman are out and in full swing making many winter wonderland appearances while Christmas presents are being bought and ripped open at a rapid pace. Smiles, alcohol and a good amount of laughs are passed around like a peace pipe on an Indian reservation. Overall it’s a good time to be around friends and family and catch up on some of the happenings of the past year, regardless of how far you have to travel to see some of them.


Christmas time or even winter time is a good time for the winter advocate or the closet skier to get out and enjoy. Hopefully you live in the northern hemisphere and get to enjoy the winter sensations but even if you don’t you can still feel that “Christmas feeling” in the air.

I just wanted to make a quick note and I hope everyone got to feel that special feeling and got to see everyone they wanted to see during their few mandatory days off this winter.
*raises glass quickly*

Cheers to Christmas time… can’t wait for your drinking buddy “New Years Eve” to come along next. Shit, what to drink? Guess I have to go shopping again, but this time to the liquor store, haha…

Ciao-

Posted in: , , , , , , , , on Monday, December 28, 2009 at at 9:11 AM 2 comments  

Swiss Lacrosse Part 2

August 9th, 2009.


My first game with the team since I took over coaching Herzogenbuchsee Lacrosse in Switzerland. It was the first real test my boys were going up against since I had tried to teach them the basics of this sport and the basics of team play and camaraderie. It was the the first test for me as a trainer, the game had a whole bunch of meanings for me. I was filled with a whole bunch of different emotions as we took the field and started to warm up before the game. Technically we had been at the field for 3 hours already setting everything up, but now people were starting to show up and I was starting to feel the butterflies in my stomach and the anticipation growing from within.

Was a cool feeling overall and nothing like what I had previously felt before. I mean I had never been a "full-time coach" before. I had simply been a helper and an assistant, someone who could help teach but more or less be there to support the coaches wishes. So to me this day had a completely different feel, a feeling of a true reflections on what I had taught the boys over the last 1.5 months or so that we had to prepare for this game.

-I hoped everything I taught them sunk in?
-I hope they remembered everything and didn't let their own emotions get the best of them?
-How was this game going to turn out?

Lots of questions were going to be answered by the end of the day, that was for sure. I half wondered if the boys even knew how to win? I mean they had experienced 2 seasons worth of games without a single win. I mean, sure they had scored some goals, but mostly they had been slaughtered by the other teams in the league. Basically if you had a coach and could throw and catch the ball with a little bit of togetherness and understood some plays, then you could beat the Herzogenbuchsee Lacrosse team.

Either way there was nothing more I could do about it now, it was game day, they needed to do it on their own and win for themselves. Just had to apply some of the basics I taught them and they would be alright. Or so I hoped?

Basically the pregame warm up went well and the pre-game prep talk went like this below, however I had to say it in my half-German-half-Swiss slang that I had acquired as there was very few English speakers on the team...

I have a few goals for us guys:
1) Hustle, 110% always
2) Mentality, "Win every ground ball.."
3) Have some fun and play as team, watch each others backs.

And with those three points being said it was already time for the opening faceoffs...

...was I ready?

(To be continued...)

Posted in: , , , , , , , , , on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at at 2:02 PM 6 comments  

The Nickname



















You ever thought about 'nicknames' before?

Like what's in a nickname or where do they come from or why do we give them to people?

When I start to think back to some of the nicknames we games to people alot of them were indicative of the type of person that we, we being his friends, perceived him as. My group of friends would pick names that were quite obvious most of the time and it was pretty easy for an outsider to figure out why we called someone "Stoney." Or why we called someone else "Whiskey."

But then you have those names which really don't make any sense to an outsider. They are names like "E" or "Turtle" or maybe even "Sally" for another friend. At first you might guess that the first guy likes drugs and the second guy is always slow or late. While the second nickname does hold true, these are actually nicknames from a hip HBO TV series 'Entourage'. (BTW if you haven't seen it, you are missin ' out)

So you have your 'quite clear' nicknames that are self explanatory, then you have your nicknames that are only explainable through a story, but then you also have your third kind which are the ones that are extensions of existing names. (Kind of like Bamer for me, as my last name is Bame) Outside of these three reasons there aren't too many other explanations for nicknames, unless they are pet names from girlfriends or your mom still likes to call you 'peanut' or something, even though you are 6'2'' and weigh in at over 200lbs. :)

Now that we know where they come from a bit, I want to ask the question, "why do we give them to people?"

I think it could be because we want to personalize these important people in our lives and in our inner circles. We want to make them 'ours' so-to-speak. I think we name our friends and family member differently because it places them in a higher status in our own lives. I mean lets be honest, you aren't going to call some friend "flipper" unless you know him really well and you would do anything for him, and vice versa. These silly little names we use stand for more than just some cheap amusement, but they stand for a symbol of some sorts. A symbol that says that they belong in our circle and that they are our friends. And they show that you have a good bond with that person.

What do you think? Why do you think we give people nicknames? Just for fun or for some other subliminal reasons.

Posted in: , , , , , , , , on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at at 10:24 AM 11 comments  

Knockin it out of the park

You ever get that feeling of ecstasy, that moment when you know you just rocked out at something. Maybe you just scored the game winning goal for your hockey team or you just aced an exam? Or maybe you just cooked a kick-ass meal and everyone i s congratulating you on a wonderful meal? Who knows, but either way you get an immediate 'high' following these moments. A feeling that you just killed it, and knowing that there was no one else who could have done it the way you just did.


These feelings are great and a bit empowering. You get overtaken with emotion and it feels good. You want to share your test score with your friends and let them know how proud of yourself you are, and if they care they will be ecstatic with you and be overjoyed right next to you. And this just only intensifies the 'high'.

When you know you did something to the max and it feels good, then share it with the people around you and remember how it feels so you can visit that feeling again soon. Pat yourself on the back and let yourself know that it was a good day. And most of all smile, because these moments don't come along often. That is of course unless you simply kick-ass all the time.

Just a quick note, keep rockin out..!
Caio~

Posted in: , , , , , , , , , , on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at at 8:44 AM 6 comments  

Friend Dynamic

So sorry guys, I have been traveling from Europe to the states over the past 5 days and will be on the go for the next 2 weeks as well.. (too much awesomeness, haha) But I will try and get on here to write a bit about whats going on and how cool it is. :) (The trip is from Minnesota to New York and hitting every cool city in-between)

So I wanted to write about the friend dynamic. I got 3 buddies from Switzerland with me on this trip combined with some local friends and it's great! It's amazing how new people that don't know each other nor speak the same language all too well can get along so seemlessly just because they have a common friend. It's really cool to know how much trust your friends have in you, because they trust your judgement in people so much, that your friends that they don't know previously, instantly become their friends as well.

The power of networking at it's finest. Bringing the world together a few people at a time. :)

Friends are also awesome because you realize how much you can lean and count on them for anything. You don't have an extra 10 bucks for a slurpie and funyans late at night, they got you covered. You are feeling like shjt and are not sure you can make it to the game tonight, so they change the plans and do something that will allow you to come and just postpone the plans you had for another night. Friends like this are great and they have your back no matter what, but at the same time they are the first ones to hit you on the head when you need it. (I have been hit like 4 times on this current trip so far..) haha...

Friends make life simplier. It shouldn't be a chore to have your friends, you don't need to be a babysitter for real friends, they don't want that anyways. They should be there to make it better, they are like enhancement pills for the daily life that you call your own. Sidekicks at times, and leading you up the stairs and tucking you in at other times. Either way they make it more simple for you, and both parties are getting enjoyment. (most the time.. :P)

A few things you need to have when it comes to friends are trust, this is paramount to anything else you have with your friends because this becomes the basis for all relationships and how far they will go. You also need to be able to be generally happy with one another. Good times shouldn't be something that are few and far between in occurances. Enjoying each others company should be something that you don't have to think about. And when you get a group of guys are girls that falls into this.. thats something special. And don't ever lose these people, because you will need them as much as they need you through life.

Have a good Wednesday guys.. just some random thoughts, hope to bring you more soon...

Caio-

Posted in: , , , , , , on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at at 7:01 PM 6 comments  

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