Hopefully, this post will serve as a bit of therapy to close out a horrible week.

My wife and I are having our first child in January. A baby boy. My big sis is having her first child in February. A little baby girl. Both would be my mom's first grandchildren. You can't imagine how excited she has been. She'd been wanting grandchildren for so long, and now, two in two months! Imagine the excitement. So much so that, even on her limited budget, she decided that she would be the one to throw the tandem shower for both my wife and my sister. She planned everything, with a little assistance from my Aunt Jean (her little sister) and my little sister, Courtney. It was set to be amazing, and the festivities would take place on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 11 am. I figured I'd take in the UCLA vs. Washington football game since I was in town while the women were at the shower pinning things on the pregnant bellies!

Let me rewind a bit to explain why my mom's planning seemed so amazing to me. On July 29, 2001, I found my 52-year old mom sitting in her car in a Ralph's parking lot (local grocery store) in 90 degree weather, baking under the hot Northridge sun. My father, ever the clairvoyant, felt that it was taking my mom a bit too long to return from the store after having worked an overnight shift at the hospital (she was an R.N. nurse). He just knew that something wasn't right. "Go retrace her steps and see if you see her car. Check the store first." I pulled into the parking lot and drove around a bit, and sure enough, there was her car. "She's in the store", I thought, without any worries. But when I got out of the car and stepped into the hot sun, there she was in the car, sleep. I quickly opened the door and noticed she was drenched in sweat. I shook her to wake her. After a while, she awoke, but was extremely groggy. I called my dad and my older sister down to help me, and when they arrived, we placed her in my car and drove home. We did not know what was wrong. After we got her home, her condition quickly deteriorated and we realized how serious the situation had become. We rushed her to the hospital (we were home no more than 5 minutes) and found out that she had suffered a major stroke in the Basal Ganglia region of her brain. The nurse said that her prognosis was grim and that we should get in touch with our minister as soon as possible.

Long story short, she somehow made a miraculous recovery from the stroke. She never returned to her previous state, but she was alive and well, and that's all that mattered. She remained disabled, but, she was here with us. She went through therapy and gained a portion of her strength, and embarked on her new journey as a retired nurse. She was grateful to be alive, and we were thankful to have her back.

Fast forward to 2009. My mom was ecstatic to find out that she was going to have two grandchildren coming into the world! Since I lived in Phoenix and my sister in L.A., we worked out a hectic shared custody plan in which she would be in Phoenix for half of the year taking care of our son and in L.A. the other half, taking care of my niece. It felt good to see her this excited, because the previous year, she was anything but. In February of 2008, my father, her husband of 36 years passed away from brain cancer. The family was devestated. She was strong and made it through. Now, we were bringing joy into all of our lives with the soon-to-be new additions.

October 31, 2009, 2:04 a.m. My little sister Courtney calls me in a very calm but panicked voice (I know, that doesn't seem to make sense) to tell me that she found my mom in the livingroom not breathing and no heartbeat. The paramedics were working on her now, and would soon transport her to the hospital. I could not believe it. In just an instant, my world came crashing down...again. I paced the house calling relatives to rush by her side, waiting for one of my sisters to call me back with an update. Erika did. At 2:35 a.m. and cried into the phone with the two words that continue to echo in my head. "She's gone."

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Hello fellow BNers.  A few of my friends were planning on attending tomorrow's game with me, but backed out at the last minute.  Their loss is your gain.  If anyone would like to join me in Tucson to catch the game and hopefully root our boys to victory, speak now!  Free tickets!  Come on, what are you waiting for?!  If you are interested, email me at misterstarling@yahoo.com.  See you at the game!

Crossposted on my blog Sports Talk with Rob & Leo: A Westcoast Bias.

Photo Credit: snipestreet dot com for that priceless screen cap

College football starts in less than a week! I can't wait! I was out in LA a few weekends ago visiting family and hanging out at some of my old stomping grounds, including the mighty University of California at Los Angeles (First off, please forgive me if this reads as impersonal.  I wrote this on my blog and decided to share it with you all.  On with the show)! 

As I stood there reminiscing on Bruin Walk at about 9pm on a Friday night, with the Bruin Bear in front of me, Ackerman Student Union behind, and the Wooden Center to my right, a nice wonderful breeeze came through - you've got to understand, living in Phoenix, I haven't felt one of those in a while- and Rod, if you're reading, I still hold that the Valley is just as miserable heatwise as Phoenix; a few degrees here or there doesn't make much of a difference! I digress. Ahem (clearing my throat), where was I? Yes, the breeze. Standing on that beautiful campus had me wondering how this school wasn't a powerhouse in ... everything! Lets see. Undergrad education? Check. Graduate schools? Check. School of Engineering? Check. Anderson Business School of Management? Check. School of Law? Check. School of Medicine and the UCLA Medical Center? Check. Perinnial contenders in Softball, Baseball, Track, Golf, Tennis, Gymnastics, Soccer, Rowing, Water Polo, Volleyball, Swimming, Cross Country? Hey, first university to 100 championships- a definite check. Basketball? Check. Football? Che- uh, wait a second, you said football, right? Well, hmm, not really, not anymore. But we used to be dominant, always in the National Championship hunt every year, right? So what happened-or didn't happen? Or better yet, lets look at the flipside of that coin.

How did a "University" that was nestled in the heart of one of LA's worst crime ridden, drug infested areas (was a vibrant area throughout the history of Los Angeles, but since the 70's, has been the poster child for urban decay. The 80's crack epidemic did little to help the situation. Back to my rant.) become such a powerhouse in football, when a University steeped in tradition, offering one of the best educations in the world, sandwiched between some of the best neighborhoods in world- Bel Air, Beverly Hills, West LA, & Brentwood (Even OJ, the most notorious Trojan in the world, made it out to that side of town eventually!) did not. What makes recruits want to go there instead of here? How did the University of South Central, er, that is, the University of Second Choice, oops I did it again, sorry, The University of Spoiled Children (sorry, I couldn't resist!- for those who are not natives and do not know, USC is a private school whose tuition is somewhere in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars has an interesting student body mixture, comprised of rich kids whose parents money was able to get them into schools when their grades could not, smart kids there on scholarship, and athletes), how did USC become such a powerhouse? The answer to that question is quite loaded, so lets just stick to the sports side of things. In short, the answer would seem to be Pete Carroll (more on that in a minute).   Watch out for the jump!

Poll

Fill in the blank. Pete Carroll is a ________________

7%

great coach

23 votes

19%

great recruiter

58 votes

72%

steaming pile of ... (and a cheater)

216 votes

297 votes | Poll has closed

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Okay, now that I have your attention, and have lost all credibility in your eyes, let me withdraw that previous statement. No, they will not win the championship THIS year, but they won't be nearly as bad as most prognosticators project. Of course, as a Bruin, my viewpoint may be a little skewed, but just for kicks and giggles, humor me for a second.

Let me also add that most are reviewing this upcoming UCLA football season from a worst case scenario (of course, I understand everyone's reason for being cautiously optimistic, but caution was one of the numerous undoings of Dorrell), which I am not. Definitely, best case scenario here! Afterall, look at the circumstances surrounding last season - a new coaching staff, a gimpy running back, a Junior transfer at QB with a month of experience in the system, working with a patchwork O-line constructed from converted tight ends, defensive tackles, bubble gum, and left over scrap metal from the set of Robocop 3! Wasn't winning 4 games (with 3 of those coming at home) a best-case scenario? Here is a peek at the upcoming schedule:

2009 Schedule

vs. SDSU
@Tennessee
vs. Kansas State
@ Stanford
vs. Oregon
vs. Cal
@ Arizona
@ Oregon State
vs. Washington
@ Washington State
vs. Arizona State
@ USC

Follow me after the jump for a season breakdown, game by game...

 

 

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