Quote of the Day “No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.” –Julius Caesar
Through the years there have often been times TB has found himself in a strange place doing something off the life script. I’ll never forget the out of body experience I had around 2 a.m. in the middle of a cotton field in the back seat of a small carload of strangers wedged between a girl I never knew went to my high school who had become a really hot model and some dude that was trying to block my intentions regarding her. (Neither of us had a chance it turned out.) Nevertheless, I remember pausing between beers to consider, “how did I get to this exact pinpoint of life?”
I had a similar revelation one day in Palestine, Texas, as I sat on the floor above an air vent with a paper plate full of cookies and pigs in a blanket in the crumbling trailer of a mesothelioma victim I was deposing along with about a dozen other lawyers. Law school does not prepare you for such a moment.
TB’s long time readers have probably noticed I don’t discuss my family. That’s because I feel like the blog is my waiver of privacy and not theirs. But I believe I can relate to you without crossing that boundary the increasingly common moments that come with having a family which I never thought would be part of my life.
It still comes as a shock to me that I can endure, much less watch and handicap, Project Runway. There was a time in my life when I could not conceive of missing New Year’s Day college football and even less a chance of missing a Mississippi State bowl game, but that’s exactly what happened in 2007. If you’d said I’d one day learn to sleep on a postage stamp sized area of my bed I’d have called you crazy. And today I found myself standing at the zoo holding a soggy graham cracker, sippy cup of water, twenty-five pounds of pure determination and talking on the phone about settlement negotiations and motions to dismiss. I found myself wondering as I hung up the phone just how I managed to take all the right turns in the past to bring me to that pinpoint on the map of life. Just one misstep back in 1990 or 2004 or any other time and these things would probably have never come to pass. How’s that for some philosobaen?
And finally, I never thought the dark day would come that I’d consider buying a mini-van–oh wait, I am NOT considering a mini-van. Yet. I’ll leave that to the Ed’s and Larry’s of the world.
Travellinbaen 
TB,
You’ll have to excuse me while I ramble a bit, since I’m not quite the literary genious as yourself. I am left handed you know!
Back in Moss Point in 1996 I had similar thoughts. I was single, working at a shipyard, sweating bullets, making $10 per hour, and my dad was in a coma. Will I ever make it out of this place? This sucks! Cirrusly!
One day after work a friend and I decided to play some twilight golf in Hurley and try as get in as many holes of golf as we could get in before it got dark. I had a decent front nine. I was probably playing bogie golf, but after the turn I birdied 10 & 11, parred 12, EAGLED 13 and then after another birdie on 14 it was too dark and we got run off the course. I thought “I’m having a pretty darn good day”, despite not being able to finish one of the best rounds of my life. We decided to go home, get changed and head to Mobile and celebrate. To cut a long story short, I ended up meeting my future wife who was going to Spring Hill College. She then graduated and moved back to her home in Houston, TX and I was able to get transferred to Houston to be close to her. Shortly after I got here the work ran out and I got laid off. I again thought This sucks! I had some connections and I was able to find a job at a local Engineering company, doing something I had always wanted to do.
So, here I am today married, two daughters, nice home, nice cars, nice job, and I’m in better shape than ever. I go to ballet lessons, swim lessons, gymnastic lessons, watch “My Little Pony” non-stop, and read books and say prayers with my kids every night. I never thought I’d be doing that! I’ve run a marathon, in which I raised thousands of dollars for the Jolly McCarty Foundation. I ride in various long distance bike rides, which benefit Multiple Sclerosis, Cancer, Mentally Challenged kids, and many others, and I don’t quite know how I got here. Would I be where I am today if I had gotten selected for All Stars during Little League and my first years of Dizzy Dean or if some of my teammates hadn’t told me to slow down I was making them look bad?
I could very, very easily still be working at the shipyard today, deaf, with black lungs and nostrils, and drinking my 9-pack every night.
PS- Goula lost their first game yesterday afternoon to Texarkana, TX, then beat Texarkana, LA in the night cap. They are now in the championship today and must beat Texarkana, TX twice.
I could write an essay on this topic now that I find myself with 2 wonderful children and being happily, unhappily, happily, unhappily, etc., married for almost 10 years. When Ole Miss made it to the Cotton Bowl, the high water mark for my lifetime (what a sad statement), I watched part of the game, but spent most of the time outside playing with my oldest daughter.
Twenty years ago, at 3 a.m., as I was zooming down a water slide at a waterpark that we’d broken into, I never thought I would one day enjoy sitting at home on a Saturday night reading books to children. Yet here I am.
As my children get older, I will teach them to enjoy life, do some things that can only be described as “crazy shit,” but don’t kill yourself b/c the really, really good stuff is yet to come.