Minutes to Memories

Overall, it's been a great day.

I'm on the road right now, staying in a cheap hotel in Jackson, Mississippi (this is not the great part).

I left Ocean Springs mid-morning and drove to Hattiesburg, where I had lunch at O'Charley's with my daughter. I had some sort of Tex-Mex sirloin steak sandwich, and she had some sort of chicken alfredo thing, but the best part was spending an hour or so with just me and my daughter. I got an update on school and life, and I got to hear her dreams a bit. That made for a great day all by itself.

After lunch, I drove up to Jackson to watch a women's college basketball game.

I met Marianne when she was a 7th grader playing Junior Varsity volleyball with my daughter. She was a great athletic talent even then, but more than that, she was full of life and energy! Erica and Marianne got to be good buddies, and in so doing, she and I did, too. We took Marianne with us to Dallas when I helped Erica stalk international soccer star, Landon Donovan, for a birthday present. It was there, from my nephew Joseph, that she began calling me Uncle Owl. We also took Marianne for Erica's surprise 16th birthday trip from me to Orlando, where we watched some Spring Training baseball and went to a mystery dinner theater.

My wife and I fell in love with the entire family. We evacuated to our church's building together for a tropical storm. We went to their house that horrible morning Marianne's brother, Matthew, was killed in a tragic automobile accident. We went to big sister, Bethany's, wedding. We simply love them all.

I also became a Marianne basketball fan along the way. We played several games of H-O-R-S-E along the way, and I take every opportunity to point out that I always win. But she has a special basketball talent, and I always did my best to go watch her play for the Lady Greyhounds throughout her high school career.

Marianne is a freshman in college now, and tonight was her first game for the Millsaps Lady Majors. Marianne started at point guard, and helped her team get out to a 9-o lead, scoring her first two points in the first few minutes of the game. Then, her coach took her out of the game (why do coaches do that when things are going well?), and the game never got under control again. Marianne ended up playing a lot of minutes, and playing well, but they ended up losing 42-40 when all was said and done.

But I was glad to get to see her play her first college game and score her first college points tonight! The picture above is of Marianne with all of her family that showed up to watch.

It has been a good day. And I plan on tomorrow being a good one as well, when I make the rest of my trip over to Starkville to watch the #5 Arkansas Razorbacks take on the Mississippi State University Bulldogs. The Hawgs and the Dawgs. I can't wait...