The Daily Review: The Week in Review: 2015 Holiday Season

Source: This piece was originally posted at The Daily Review: The Week in Review: 2015 Holiday Season

My 2015 holiday season other than not seeing the sun at all until really my last day in Port Ludlow, Washington which is about an hour or so outside of Seattle in Kitsap County just off of Bainbridge Island, was by in large positive. I don’t see my family other than my parents that much to begin with. My family for the most part is now in California, while I’m in Maryland just outside of Washington. So we’re three-thousand miles apart physically, as well as miles apart personally as far as being very different people. I’m talking about my two brothers really. Who both are now married with their own families. So I don’t go out-of-my-way to stay in touch with them.

I haven’t seen my brothers and sister in-laws, their wives for three years before we saw each other last week. My choice really. I’m fine with my older brother who generally speaking is a great guy with a great and really cute and friendly wife, my older sister in-law. And they have three great kids. My nephew and two of my nieces. But he rarely speaks unless spoken to. He’s pretty aloof, at least in my experience with him. How his wife communicates with him I may never know. Perhaps they just talk about what’s for dinner and whose picking up the kids, some weather we’re having and that sort of thing. But I had a great time with them and the two days I had with them last week. Especially my nephew Nicholas, who reminds me of me as far as his interest in sports and history.

My little brother, is sort of the opposite of Alex, but we don’t get along very well. He’s got an opinion about everything and we’re almost complete opposites when it comes to personality. He can be bit a judgemental prick and that might be an off day for him. As a Liberal, I’m a live and let live person. My attitude on life is basically, “its your life pal, as long as you’re not hurting someone.” And I could care less how someone eats their spaghetti and how they comb their hair. Plus, he can be very stupid, but in an insulting way. Ask really dumb questions as if they’re legitimate, or state the obvious as if he’s being informative. Our father, is very similar, but Kit is much worst and at least Dad won’t be really sensitive when I call him out on his insulting stupidity. Kit, will act like he’s completely not at fault. He and his wife, are perfect for San Francisco and that yuppie snobby universe.

But, it’s not as if I don’t love my family, including my in-laws. It’s just that I don’t feel the need to see and talk to them on a regular basis. But it was three-years and my little brother and his wife, just had their first baby in late 2014, so I was thinking this would be a good opportunity to meet my new niece. And catch up with my other nieces and nephew, as well as my brothers and sister in-laws. Even if it meant spending a week in the Seattle area, where you have a better chance of drowning in a flood, than ever seeing the sun while you are there. Which is why I went out there to hang out with them and see if I could get along with my little brother and little sister in-law. Perhaps hear my baby niece’s first words and try to have a good time.

Another reason why I don’t go to Seattle where my parents have a second home in Port Ludlow, is because it’s basically like flying to Alaska from the East Coast. You literally spend the whole first day traveling, or waiting for your plane, ferry, or ride. I tend to leave early in the morning East Coast time and finally get to the house late at night ECT. So that tends to wear me out. But the first three days that I had with my parents, little bother, sister in-law and brand new niece, were fairly positive. We saw Goodfellas together as a family. A movie the whole family likes. One of my parents friends from that area joined us for Christmas and she’s great and we had a good time with her. We managed to not get on each others nerves. Which is a hell of an accomplishment for the Schneider Family when we’re all together. I took a couple of hikes in between rain storms up there.

The next two days were with my older brother Alex and his wife my older sister in-law Sandra. Had dinner with them their first night in town. Played basketball, hung out with them at their second home in Port Townsend. Threw the football with my nephew Nicholas and talked NFL history. Think about that for a minute. I’m talking about NFL history and the history of the San Francisco 49ers, with a nine-year old boy. Hanging out with him was not like hanging out with a kid. We played basketball together. he knocked down a couple of three-pointers, we played pool together, threw the football around and talked football history. This is a nine-year old boy, who lives in the San Francisco area, that might know more about the Washington Redskins than a lot of Redskins fans. Hanging out with Nick, was like hanging out with myself, or grown man. He’s just a lot more advanced than a lot of kids his age. This coming from his uncle, but its true.

Coming back from Seattle, is really a blog in itself. Seattle, a little more than half the size of the Washington, DC area, is a fairly large community with a lot of tourist attractions, but they only have one big city airport, which is SeaTac. Which might be the worst big city airport in America. The Washington area in contrast, has three great major airports. So getting through SeaTac, plus dealing with TSA, is not fun. And by the time I get to my gate to go to Minneapolis, my stop before Washington, I find out my flight has not only been delayed, but by two-hours. So no I know my trip home has been screwed and what do I do once I get to Minneapolis. Delta, whatever you think of them, are very customer friendly and don’t like losing customers. They put me up for one night at the Raddison in Bloomington, Minnesota. Which is near their airport.

By in large, this was a very positive trip. Still not crazy about going to Seattle especially during their rainy season, which is only twelve months a year and every time I go out there the weather is Washington tends to be warm and beautiful, which makes the experience even worst getting local weather reports back home. But I will make bigger effort in the future to see my brothers and their beautiful families more often and would like to go to San Francisco to visit them. Where they all live now and perhaps avoid Seattle instead.

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President Barack Obama: ‘Happy Father’s Day from First Lady Michelle Obama’

Source:President Barack Obama– spending some time with someone else’s baby, but I’m quite sure it’s not his.

Source:The Daily Press

“First Lady Michelle Obama wishes a happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there and shares why President Obama is a great dad.

Every solution the President puts forward is inspired by a desire all parents share: the need to build a better world for his kids.

In President Obama’s words:

“What I think about is what kind of world am I leaving my two little girls. And what I realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children, all of our children, a better world. Even if it’s difficult. Even in the work seems great. That’s our responsibility as fathers and as parents.”

From President Barack Obama

To start off I want to say Happy Father’s Day to all the father’s out there, especially my own big guy and to all the father’s that may read this post, like my older brother, the father of my two nieces and nephew, who I’m sure is giving their dad a great day.

To add one not so positive note, I just wanted to add, that I was checking my daily email, to check today’s news and I only saw one article mentioning anything about Father’s Day, as if today wasn’t even a holiday or anything. I saw plenty of articles celebrating Mother’s Day last month as there should be, but Father’s Days barely mentioned at all. Like it’s some invisible holiday, not even worth mentioning, which is a shame to me, because father’s are just as important. We don’t exist as people without them, we are never born without them.

To me at least father’s are equally important. I couldn’t imagine life without my own dad, as I imagine a lot of people couldn’t and they not only deserve their own holiday but they deserve to be recognized for it as well. This is their day, their own holiday, that we celebrate, for giving us life and at least doing their part to raise us up and be there when we need them.

I guess we all can talk about the importance of having our father’s in our life and what they mean to us and so-forth. But for me when I think of dads, especially my own, I think of the person who provides the discipline in the family and is the rock that keeps us together. My family being an excellent example of that, the guy you knew always loved you, which is why you didn’t want to piss him off.

To me mother’s and father’s, are equally important, but their roles are somewhat different. Mom, is there to provide the loving support, to make you feel better. That whatever problem you might be going through, it’s not the end of the world and we’ll get through it together. Where dad comes in and lays it all out for you, whether you want to hear it or not. Because he believes you have to hear it for your own good and then tells you how you can fix the problem. Gets on you when you mess up and embraces you when you do well.

To describe my own dad personally: he’s a Teddy Bear, big tall guy physically, but personally as well. The Teddy is just as important as the Bear to describe my dad. Very sweet loving guy, who could crack your ribs with a hug, that’s how much love he can put into it. But someone you don’t want to piss off.

My dad has the old tough love approach when it comes to fathering. He’ll let you know when you are doing well and when you are not and need to correct whatever behavior is the problem. My dad and I don’t have a lot in common personally and look at the world differently. Perhaps that’s because we are a couple of generations apart or something. My parents had kids late in life, but what we do have in common, like football, baseball, cars, movies to a certain extent, politics and current affairs. Even though we don’t always agree on everything, like certain aspects of health care reform, we really have in common and can talk for hours about any of these subjects. To give you an example of my dad and here’s both the Teddy and Bear side of him.

The day of my high school graduation, June 1994. I graduated at Constitution Hall in Washington, one of the advantages of Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and going to high school in the Washington area. First the Bear: I was running late for my graduation, if you know me well, that shouldn’t be much of a surprise and my dad who drove us down there, was getting on me the whole time about running late. I eventually got there on time, but it was a rush. “This is a very important day, you shouldn’t have ran late and need to be more responsible.” Etc. Which is what dad was telling me, after we all graduated and received our diplomas.

My whole class and I leave the building together and go back outside. Now here’s the Teddy part: who’s the first person I see as I’m walking down those steps, my father being the first one to greet me, reaching out and giving me a big hug for graduating and showing his love. My dad is a great guy, but don’t piss him off.

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