What We Do For Our Kids (and loved ones)!
Many of my clients routinely ask when I’m planning a vacation or when I’m competing in my next triathlon. As you may know, my daughter Amanda is an aspiring and avid volleyball player. And all father biases aside, she’s pretty good. The reality is most of my spare time has been spent participating in and supporting her volleyball ambitions. Between Volleyball and work I have little time for much else. Over the past 7 months I have been her personal chauffeur with weekly drives to Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and to the campus of USC for practice, as well as more travel intensive venues (San Diego, Anaheim and Atlanta) for tournaments. Our recent story takes us to Reno, Nevada where we competed in the end of year tournament Junior Nationals (formerly called Junior Olympics).
My struggle began with scheduling issues before this tournament. Originally, I was scheduled (and ticketed) to fly with Myrna and Amanda out of LAX to Reno. As the date approached I realized that my broker/dealers’ annual conference began a few days prior to flying to Reno. The game plan was to drive to San Diego Wednesday at 6 am in order to attend classes at 9 am the same morning. This would allow me to attend the conference Wednesday and Thursday, but required me to drive back either Thursday night or Friday morning to catch my flight out of LAX. I was able to re-shuffle my flight and fly directly out of San Diego to meet everyone in Reno. It was a great game plan, allowing me to attend another day of classes and spare me a 2 hour commute before my flight.
Unfortunately, things don’t always goes as planned. My itinerary was set for an 8:10 pm departure from San Diego for a 9:39 pm arrival in San Francisco. I then had a connection to Reno departing at 10:38 pm. As we boarded the attendants were rushing to get everyone seated in an attempt to depart a bit before schedule. Everyone cooperated and the doors were shut by 7:55 pm. As it turned out, we were in a hurry to wait. Sometime later the Captain announced that they had not received approval to push back, but departure clearance would be granted soon. 20 minutes later (around 8:20 pm), the “click” on the intercom sounds and the Captain informs us that San Francisco was delaying due to weather issues. However, they opted to not open the doors in case they received clearance. Our new target time for departure was 9:00 pm. We finally got underway but took our sweet time getting up to San Francisco. The doors didn’t open at 10:28 pm, and as luck would have it I was seated towards the rear of the plane with 10 minutes before my scheduled connection. As I entered the terminal I performed my best football player impersonation at running through the airport. Resembling OJ (circa 1986) in an Isotoners commercial, I hurdled baby strollers and jumped over seated travelers as I rushed to the gate for my Reno flight. Struggling to catch my breath at the gate, I noticed that the seating area was empty, and the door was closed. The attendant informed me that plane had been boarded and the doors had been closed. I explained my situation to no avail. The door would be easy to reopen, but they had already given my seat away.
Things got worse. I discovered that there were no flights available until the next day. And because my missed connection wasn’t the fault of United Airline’s, they would not give me a hotel room free of charge. Even worse the best they could do was put me on a standby the next day, which couldn’t confirm me a flight until Sunday afternoon. Options??? United could fly me back to Los Angeles and put me on standby there. I could opt for another airline. The cheapest confirmed flight would get me into Reno by 2 pm the next day but would cost almost $500. I figured I’ve watched the movie “Planes, Trains and automobiles” as well as the television show “Amazing Race,” and there had to be more options. I decided to check for rental cars. The rental car kiosk was packed but I patiently waited my turn at Enterprise. The agent tells me the rental fee is only $49.95 (plus taxes and fees of course) and has unlimited miles. However, there is a one-way return in fee of $250. Further, he explains that the construction around the mountains and my sleep deprived state would make for a dangerous drive on unfamiliar roads. He recommended that I drive in the morning. I mentally vetoed the idea, as that option, like the airplane required a room for the night and was ultimately more expensive. I looked into the train, but fittingly, and indicative of my situation, the last train for the night departed at 10:30 pm. What’s left? How about a bus? That’s right a Greyhound!
When was the last time you rode a Greyhound bus? I needed to take a cab from the airport to the station in the Financial District. Luckily, the last bus to Reno didn’t depart until 1:00 am and would arrive in Reno at 6:30 am. As the cab driver nears the station I notice the area is significantly less appealing and I can tell I’m in the inner-city. As I exit the taxi and begin walking into a tunnel of the station I noticed 4 others walking in the same direction; I’m pulling my luggage and the other 4 are pushing market carts. They were going into the tunnel for the night; many of the homeless sleep on the floor and in the phone booths of the station. I went through ticketing (only $36.50 to Reno, the cab fare was more) and got a chance to sit for a bit in the waiting area. A chance long enough to ponder, “How the heck did I get into this situation?” There were approximately 20 people waiting for the bus, which meant we all got a row to ourselves. There was plenty of room as we boarded, but the bus is probably over 20 years old with seats that had most likely never been cleaned. I casually tossed a sweatshirt over the headrest of the seat so that I could sleep without worrying if my head was resting on drool or worse. I received a couple of glares, but heck I don’t plan on getting on another Greyhound bus anytime soon. We departed the station and headed over the Bay Bridge. Soon after we pulled into another station, probably no more than 5-6 miles from where we departed. Why would they have two stations so close to each other? I heard the echo and felt the vibrations of the compartments opening below. The hissing of the door sounded and in poured what looked like a parade of people boarding the bus. I thought to myself, “It’s 1:30 am and were heading to Reno. Who‘s traveling at this hour?” I was really hoping not to have to share the seat next to me. I threw my backpack on the seat, rolled and faced the seat to pretend I was asleep. It worked! The bus began to move and I noticed it was almost full, as the seat next to me was 1 of only 6 that remained empty. As 3:00am rolled in, the bus pulled into a Sacramento station, and a herd of people exited the bus. Thirty minutes later we picked up a few more early morning passengers. I woke from my sleep as the bus was turning back and forth through the mountain roads. Not too much later the sun began to rise and I get a chance to see a hint of beauty in my otherwise ugly journey. The final 30 minutes of my travels gave me a moment to think of the things that are important in life; family, health, religion and friends. It reminded me why I was sitting in this crumby seat in the very early morning. I finally get to the hotel and see my wife which immediately cracks a smile on the frowning face I had been wearing for the last 9 hours. She says “you can relax now, you’ve made it.” I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before the volleyball began.
At the Junior Nationals there are three divisions of competition; Open, National and American. It’s similar to Division 1, 2, and 3 in college athletics where D-1 is the highest caliber of play. In the Junior Nationals, Open Division is the highest caliber of play. Our team (SCVC 15 Roxy) was fortunate to qualify for Open and was seeded in the top half of the division.
The team began its tournament on Saturday at the Reno Convention center. The tournament utilizes a process to eliminate teams based on losses, called pool play. Each team is seeded in a pool of 6 teams, the teams play each other, and only the top 3 teams move on for medal contention. Pool play consists of two days of playing three matches, followed by a single pool play match on Day three and potential challenge matches depending on the ranking. Day 1- Our team had a long tough day, losing 1 match and winning 2. However, each win required going the distance of 3 games each match. The girls were in the convention center from 3:00 pm to 10:30 pm. Day 2- Was a bit easier day as the girls won all three matches without losing a single game. Day 3- Was a heartbreaker. We faced off with the number 1 seed in our pool and fought with them point after point, but eventually losing in game 3. This loss ranked us as the 3rd seed in the pool. We survived pool play but had to face a high seed for the challenge match. We found that we were paired against a familiar foe, from southern California. Our opposition boasted a couple of girls with NBA Champion fathers. This match was also a long, tough battle. We failed to capitalize on an opportunity to win game 1 and lost. We bounced back to win game 2 handily. Game 3 was a tug of war. Each team moved ahead only to be pulled back in this epic battle. When the smoke cleared it was our team that had come up short, but we held our heads high. At the end of the match Amanda was very emotional and crying in my arms. There was nothing I could do but hold her. She played her heart out and left everything on the court, but she still shed tears because she wanted to win so much but fell shy of accomplishing her goal. I couldn’t help but feel a little helpless myself. I endured all this frustration and did everything to be at that tournament for her, but in the end there was only so much I could do. If you read this far thank you, but here’s the thrust of the story. Sometimes we as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, donors, etc. do everything in our power for our loved ones. And yet sometimes we are powerless. However, I submit to you, that if it were in our powers we would do (almost) anything for our loved ones. And while we may reach a limit to what we can do, we want to know that we did all we could.
The season and tournament ended with our team finishing 9th overall in Junior Nationals. Total hours watching volleyball in 4 days, over 30 hours. Total hours slept in 4 days? Less than 24 hours. I would gladly have the (minus the bus ride from SF) experience next year! The team had an incredible season one that will be cherished and in my memories for years to come.
