November 1st Bennett's Curse

The night started with me showing up at Jayden’s home. We spent a few minutes there as we watched a video review of the haunted house we were about to endure. While he was changing into warmer clothes, I suddenly realized that I was possibly going to be terrified. I was used to going through these haunted excursions with people my age so I didn’t have to be the “strong” one. Now, it was time for me to man up and be strong for the little one.

As we are driving up to the haunted house, we end up on this windy road that led to the middle of nowhere. This was the perfect set up for a place that sole purpose was to freak you out immensely. I must say it was really neat inside. There were three stages. The first stage was in the dark and all our group of six were provided was a flashlight. While walking through it, we would be spooked by zombies and vampires. At times, Jayden would get so frightened that he would use me as a human shield and put me in between the demon and himself. Honestly, I don’t know what I even did to him, I meant I mentor him for Christ sake and he puts me in harm’s way? That’s pretty disloyal.

The next stage was when we were provided 3D glasses and they had everything lit up in black lights and clowns took over the area. It was fun, but very trippy. Highly recommended. The final stage was when they took our 3D glasses and then our group’s flashlight. We enter the next stage and it’s completely dark where we have to feel our way around to get out of there. That was an intense few minutes. We did see light at the end of the tunnel, but to play to the theme, it wasn’t a regular light, it was a strobe light. We were trapped in a prison with bars everywhere and loose mental patients screaming. It was a nightmare. We finally found our way out, only to be hunted down by men with chainsaws. Jayden was trapped and was forced to use his foot work (from football) to escape their wrath.

We were emotionally exhausted but physically hungry. We needed to grab some dinner so we utilized our available budget and went to Chic Fil-a. I ended up seeing my roommate’s son’s girlfriend there. We sat down and enjoyed a nice meal and I brought him home. It was a successful trip.

Wrestling Practice 10/28/2013

After getting a little taste of his wrestling abilities last time, I decided that it would be great to see him in action again. This practice was marked the last practice for the Orange Crush program. So it was bit less drills and a bit more “live” action. They started off playing some practice game called “dead ant” where you have to pull your opposing team members out of this giant circle. That seemed fun for Jayden as he felt free to express himself by screaming at the top of his lungs as his opponents dragged him across the mats.

After that, he was able to show off his wrestling skills in groups of five. This is one-on-one matches and then the winner would take on the next opponent. Generally, these wrestlers were different shapes and sizes and had different wrestling styles. Jayden was not only the biggest in size, but also the most experienced and possibly the oldest in this group of five, so it was nice to see how he addressed each challenger. Once he stepped onto the mat he minimal trouble pinning each of his opponents three to four times. This is credited a larger part to his strength and attributes, but I’d also like to point out his technique. I’m not a wrestler and probably know nothing about it, but I did like his approach. He took more of a passive/defensive approach and allowed his opponents to make the first move for him to then counter properly and dominate. He kept his focus on the opponents’ hips and watched which direction they were moving. He didn’t utilize any leg tactics in his matches, but that was merely due to lack of necessity.

To conclude the practice, the coach sat the athletes down and provided an inspirational speech and advising them to continue to practice and focus on not only wrestling but the other important things in life.

His first tournament or set of matches is on 11/18/2013, so I might be able to attend that and see him in action.

No smoothies this time around.

Wrestling Practice 10/14/2013

We were going to hang out on Sunday and watch football, but since Jayden was spending time with his dad at a football party, we decided that Monday would be better. I arrived at his apartment at around 6pm and we caught up on that Friday’s WWE Smackdown for a bit. Then we ventured off to Oakland Mills High School so I could watch him at his wrestling practice.

This was an interesting session because the class consists of about forty boys at different age and weight levels. They would tussle for a bit then the coaches and trainers would show some more moves for them to practice. This went on for the almost the full hour of practice. During this time, Jayden was partnered with a kid that was three years younger than him. He decided to assist him and coach him. While this was an admirable quality, it wasn’t so productive for him because he wasn’t focusing on sharpening his skills so much as assisting someone that lacks a lot of skills (due to inexperience).

The practice ended with a brief “Live” session which is where the kids can freestyle and wrestle. It was at this time where Jayden was able to flaunt his abilities and run his mouth a bit. He even shoved a kid to the ground. I was impressed to see that he was using a bit of legs in his sparring which helped put his opponent to the ground.

While there, Jayden introduced me to his Aunt Tyra. She was nice and she was there picking up his cousin, who I didn’t meet. After the practice we went out to get some smoothies as a post-game snack. He really enjoyed the smoothie he got (the Hulk minus the weight gain additive).

Maryland vs. West Virginia game at M & T Bank Stadium

It was a race against the clock to get Jayden to the game in time for kick off. We had to make a pit stop at the Tropical Smoothie Café so we could enjoy some treats on the way to the game. We arrived at the parking lot with about 20 minutes to spare but we needed to walk a little over a mile to get to the stadium. I used the Parkwhiz to buy set parking in the nearby parking garage for $15.00 which would have been more at the stadium. We avoided the rain for the most part on the walk in listening to all of the amped up WVU fans drinking and chanting “The Terps have the Herp.”

When we got to the stadium we were led to the club section behind a pair of closed doors. This was both of our first times in the M & T Bank Stadium and the first times for us being in a club section. They had restaurants and bars and couches for people to escape the outside and enjoy the warmth and dryness. We sat in our seats (or at least our section) and we saw other Bigs and Littles there watching the game. It was nice to see people taking advantage of the seats. However, not before long it started to rain heavily. So we naturally moved seats more under the concrete awning.

The game itself was not much of an exciting game. The Maryland Terrapins had no trouble beating up the Mountaineers 38-0. It was not a game that kept our interest, but it was nice nonetheless. We picked up pretzels for a snack to hold us over until the end of the game. We avoided the game the whole game, but then couldn’t hide from the fierce rain walking back to the car. We ended up making great time and headed back to Columbia for dinner. We went to Chik-fil-a and then I took him home.

It was a great chance for him to experience a live football game, but like me, he was slightly bored. Also, we didn’t make it in time for opening kickoff and since we walked around the stadium during halftime, we ended up missing the second half opening kickoff as well.

Bumper Bowling

AMF Bowling 8/24/2013

After not seeing each other for a little over three weeks, we went a couple of rounds of bumper bowling. We had enjoyed a few battles on the Kinect Sports where bowling was a sport. He would usually blow me out of the room. So I thought it would smart to challenge each other on the “big boy” lanes. We decided that we would eat after the activity so before I picked him to go to, I had been holding a delightfully refreshing Health Nut Smoothie from the Tropical Smoothie Café. He was less than pleased, but I told him I’d take him next time. We headed out to Pikesville to the AMF Bowling alley as we are allowed two free games a person being a part of BBBS. All we had to do is pay for the shoe rental. There was a slight issue because they didn’t take credit cards, so I had to use the ATM there and accept the fees. Nonetheless, we each bowled and didn’t do very well in the first game. He bowled a 74 and I bowled a 117. However, there was slight improvement in the second game as he got a few spares and landed on 101 and I had three strikes and ended up with 128.

On the plus side, unrelated to showing off our terrible bumper bowling abilities, Jayden showed signs of maturation. He was allotted $15.00 for spending today and he spent five on renting the shoes. He was told he could get a snack at the bowling alley, so he decided to get mozzarella sticks along with a Gatorade. Adding those two items together was going to bring him really close to his budget. After purchasing the Gatorade, before he opened it, he started rationalizing his decision. He realized that he was only left with a small amount of money and that maybe he didn’t need to spend the $2.59 on the Gatorade after all. After coming to his decision, he decided he would go ahead and return the Gatorade and keep the extra money. He enjoyed his mozzarella sticks and then he remembered that the cashier gave him $2.60 back. He thought about it and added up his money and noticed that the cashier gave him back an extra penny. He tried giving it back to the cashier but he was told he didn’t owe him any money back. After J-Fresh returned, I explained how the whole take-a-penny, leave-a-penny thing worked and I think he was okay with it.

On the ride home he was telling me how he had Gatorade at home and that he didn’t need to buy one out. I told him that he made a rational and responsible decision and really put thought into his purchases. I was proud of him because he wasn’t spending money freely like he did with the movies and that shows me that he recognized what he was doing. He is a very smart kid and that makes me happy. He still is terrible at bowling…

The Wolverine 8/2/2013

Today was an easy hang as I was going to be away for a few weekends in a row. I thought we would squeeze in a quick meeting. Since we are both fans of super hero movies (for the most part) I thought we’d enjoy Hugh Jackman’s latest installment as Logan in The Wolverine. Of course before we went to the movies, it was important to eat dinner first. I decided that we would go to Subway because it was quick, easy, and provided healthy options. It turns out Jayden was able to discover to make Subway a not so healthy selection as he added bacon and extra cheese and threw three cookies into the mix. Nonetheless, we had a nice dinner (fast, but nice). Time was of the essence as we rushed from the restaurant to the movie theater. We purchased the tickets and then went on the snack line as Jayden proceeded to order nachos and cheese, Snickers bites, and a medium Icee. We walked into the theater while the previews were still playing so we had not missed a beat. The night was a success and all that was left was to enjoy the three-blade healer slay through bad guys.

Although it was fun and easy, this particular meeting raised my awareness on a couple of issues. The first being that Jayden is not necessarily eating healthy when he is with me. His mother, Christy, allows him to have a cheat day if she knows about it in advance, but I don’t completely want him to believe he’s on vacation while he’s with me. It seems he gets a lot of enjoyment out of eating unhealthy foods due to his celebratory comments “this is the best day” “yes, I can get whatever I want.” So I feel that although we’re supposed to focus on having fun, I should guide him on a healthier path and show him that healthy foods can be fun too. I feel if I don’t make an effort in that regard that I would be letting him and his mother down.

The second issue is budgeting his money. He spent well over the $25.00 that he was permitted by his mother. While I had no real issue spotting him the remaining balance, I shouldn’t continue to allow him to go on a spending frenzy. He should learn to utilize the money that he was given and make decisions on what he is spending his money on. Being 11 years old, he is at the age where learning these tools are harmless and very educational. Again, this isn’t really his fault as he doesn’t completely realize that money isn’t expendable because he is still a kid, but incorporating the word “no” in our time together can really benefit him and teach him those boundaries.

Earthtreks - Rock Climbing

7/28/2013 was Jayden and my fifth event. This one was a BBBS organized event with BB&T bank. It was an event for rock climbing at Earthtreks in Timonium. They had rock climbing for two hours along with hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, cupcakes, and candy. Unfortunately, they didn’t have veggie burgers for those who don’t eat meat.

I showed up at Jayden’s place at around 4:15pm as we hung out and played video games for a couple of hours before heading to the event. We left on time and arrived on time. However, silly me, I didn’t have the proper paperwork for us to be able to rock climb. Luckily, we were able to have the form filled out online by his mother Christy so we could both start the climb. This was a fun experience. Although you have support from someone holding the other end of the rope, you still have to work your way up the wall. It’s kind of like chess in that you have to plan out your next move strategically so you can have your feet planted on the proper holds and your hands are resting on a hold with a nice grip for support.

Although it was exhausting physically, both of us were able to climb three walls each. Jayden had struggled on one wall because his feet were too big for him to get strong support on the holds. There was another wall that he was struggling with, but with internal encouragement (the voice inside his head) kept pushing him to go further. He reached the top on all three walls successfully and it was really neat to see. I was also able to climb the walls successfully, but only struggled on one wall because it was difficult finding the best holds. Luckily the anchor man below was helping me with guiding my feet and arms, letting me know where they were (it’s hard to notice them sometimes when you are exhausting your energy and are worried about falling).