The Week Before High School

August 12, 1996

Dear Diary,

Today is Monday. I just got back from riding Jennifer home. It was hilarious. We stopped at Dennis'. We sat there forever trying to find a rock or piece of mulch to throw at his window. Then when we found one and threw it, he didn't even do anything.

Last night was so much fun. Yesterday was Sunday and because of volleyball it's our only day off right now. Until school starts, we have two practices a day. School starts in 8 days. this summer has flown by. I am not ready to go back. Kind of I am, but mostly I'm not. It's not just the going back to school thing that bothers me. We are going to be freshman. We're going to Central. I'm kind of scared. My dad said if I could go from Burris to Northside, I could definitely go from Northside to Central.

Last night was so much fun. Meredith, Jennifer, Nikki, Stacy, Courtney, Kelly and I all went putt-putting (in one car). We had country night, and we didn't listen to anything but country. It was so fun. Kelly broke a couple of driving rules, but hey it was worth it. Next week we're going bowling. It's gonna be "oldies night". I can't wait.

I don't know who I like. I might like Bryan, but I don't know. The other day, I went over to Meredith's. Then Bryan came over. He got there two hours later than he said he was coming. He didn't stay very long. Then we went to his house to jump on the trampoline. Then we left.

This was obviously the summer before Freshman year. I was fourteen. I really like this entry. I feel like it gives a good picture of what this summer was about. When I said I rode Jennifer home, that was on my bike. I'm not sure why that was necessary, but we spent a lot of time on our bikes that summer. A lot of people I knew lived within biking distance so that bicycle gave me a lot of independence. I'm amused by how amusing I found the Dennis' house incident. It didn't take much, I guess.

I know I was scared to go to high school. Everything scared me then. I was scared to transfer to Northside in 8th grade. I was scared if high school. It was all very scary. I thought people were going to make me smoke and drink. Seriously, this is what I was afraid of. In my defense, I did see people smoke and drink after I transferred, but nobody made me do it.

My favorite part is the part about putt-putting. This is one of the stories in this old diary that I actually remember. As many of you know, I don't have a great memory, and many of my old memories are hiding in my brain somewhere. For this reason, I guess it's good I kept a diary. Anyway, I remember this night. Meredith's older sister took us out with them. They were going to be seniors and therefore beyond cool in my mind. I don't have any recollection of the putt-putting, but I remember that car ride. It looks like there were seven of us in one car. I remember it being crowded. This was also my first exposure to country music, and the first time I'd ever heard John Michael Montgomery's "Sold". We listened to that song more than once and I loved it. I still love it, and now I know all the words. Again all I remember was that car ride, which was thrilling and involved Kelly driving the wrong way down McGalliard for a short way just west of Oakwood.

I don't have much to say about the last paragraph, except that we spent a lot of time talking about who likes whom so I needed to keep my diary abreast on such topics as well.

Big Time

I just want to tell you this story really quick. It involves a celebrity sighting, but it's not about how I saw Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert at The Cheesecake Factory, even though that was amazing and I'll tell you all about it later if you want to hear. Anyway, this is about Alec Baldwin.

Most of my family is in Orlando for the volleyball AAU Nationals. Kyle and Lindsay are coaching teams, my dad is recruiting and my mom is mostly laying by the pool. Apparently Alec Baldwin's daughter is playing in the tournament so he was down there watching. There was a rumor that Kim Basinger was also there, but that's not been confirmed. Unfortunately for my family this initial Alec sighting was grossly overshadowed by my Blake and Miranda sighting. Lucky for them, though, their story got better. Now this next part has already been retold enough times that I can't guarantee all of the facts as I heard it third- or fourth-hand. So one of my dad's players, Jaclyn Hart, was walking around the convention center wearing Purdue gear and Alec Baldwin and his buddy stopped her and asked if she played for Purdue. (She's tall and was wearing Purdue stuff so this part isn't that impressive.) Although it is cool that Jaclyn's just standing there talking to Alec Baldwin. So they ask her if Dave Shondell coaches at Purdue. Alec Baldwin and my father's name are now in the same conversation. And it's not like, "Hi, I'm Dave Shondell". Alec Baldwin has spoke my father's name. Or heard his buddy say it, but since I wasn't there I'm going to go with spoke it. So Jaclyn tells them yes and Alec's friend then tells her that his wife also played for my dad. We still don't know when or where that took place, but it was pretty cool. My dad said you know you've hit the big time when the celebrities start asking about you. So while we may be stretching this a little bit, I'd say we've hit the big time. Boiler up!

Update: I have now learned that the friend of Alec Baldwin was Alec's daughter's coach's husband. And the coach hadn't actually played for my dad, but was from Muncie and her parents ran a small volleyball club and therefore knew my dad. This is how the guy recognized Jaclyn Hart and why he knew my dad.

29

Almost a year and a half ago, I wrote about my 29th birthday.(Happy Un-birthday), and as it has come and gone I really thought I needed to write a follow up piece. My plan 17 months ago was to have everything figured out by now. Unfortunately, that hasn't quite played out the way I'd hoped. I thought I had it figured out a few times. More than a few times, probably. What I have figured out is that I may never figure it out. I'm afraid that's not how it works. I've been waiting for an aha moment that might never come. (I don't want to say for sure because who knows - and since my point here is that I don't know what's going to happen, I don't feel comfortable ruling anything out.)

So let's quickly recap the last 18 months. I will keep this extremely brief. You'll have to buy my memoir if you want all the gory details. You can expect that to be published sometime in the next 2-20 years. I quit my not so bad job, worked hard to get into ITF (Indianapolis Teaching Fellows), got into ITF, worked through summer institute, got a job (my dream job), lost that job, searched for a job, took a job as a waitress (where I was recently named employee of the month!), while I continue to look for a job. In the midst of all that, I dated a handful of guys (half of whom I legitimately thought I'd marry - most of whom, I probably won't), and I made a lot of great new friends, (whom I've unfortunately taken for granted at times - I've had a slew of excuses, a few of which were valid, but I am sorry and love you all).

So that brings us to now. All those times that I was sure I had it figured out (and I suppose this goes back further than the first blog post), I was wrong. I thought I knew who I'd spend my life with, I thought I knew what I'd do for a living, but I was wrong. I still don't know. And I can't wait around for my life to start. I'm 29 years old and my life is happening right now. All of this stuff that I thought was just filler until the good stuff starts back up again, this is part of it. So for now I'm trying to spend less time waiting on my real life to begin and more time living the one I have now.