Yucky Blucky Fruitcake...

If you have young kids, specifically young daughters, you may have heard of a series of books featuring Junie B. Jones. We have spent hours and hours of family reading time laughing at the silly adventures of Junie B. Unfortunately, the princess is much too cool to be caught dead reading them now. The coach and I still manage to quote some of the more humorous lines or titles in hopes of #1 being super silly and #2 embarassing the princess. One such title included Yucky Blucky Fruitcake. So now, if something is yucky or if someone is being a little yucky, we'll say... well, that's just yucky blucky fruitcake. You get the picture.

The coach, the princess and I all went a round with the yucky blucky fruitcake. I can honestly say that we are not typically yucky blucky fruitcake kind of people. Neither I, nor the coach, nor the princess are usually yucky... thus not liking it's namesake fruitcake. We are usually the happy, upbeat, good things happen to us, kind of people. This week... we each had a slice of the fruitcake.

My yucky blucky fruitcake came in the form of having to fire one of my employees. No matter the reason... blowing a .072 in an alcohol test... no matter what kind of person they are... nice, quiet guy... it is always just yucky! It was particularly yucky for me because I try to get to know each of them, at least a little bit, on a personal level, even though there are 60+ of them. Why? Well, #1 I want them to know that I'm approachable. Because, for some odd reason, I have been told that I am a little intimidating and unapproachable. What? Me? Ok, well, maybe a little bit. But, that's before you get to know me. Right? #2 I like to think that it helps me be a better manager by knowing more of what's going on with them.

Unfortunately, when this type of situation happens, that style of management backfires. I honestly think I took it harder than he did. So, I ate my yucky blucky fruitcake and hope that it is the last piece I'll have for a while.

The coach's slice came in the form of a 3-point loss to the #14 DII team in the nation, which is also the #1 team in the conference, Catawba. That is just yucky blucky fruitcake! To get that close to beating that team is an accomplishment in and of itself. But, coach being coach, this is not good enough! He nearly had in his mouth the sweetness of the the key lime pie... the peanut butter pie... the cookies... the ice cream... the... the... yucky blucky fruitcake. What? The coach and his boys hate fruitcake! Come on! So, coach just had to swallow hard and hope to get that taste out of his mouth. Eye on the prize, eye on the prize... the coach is looking forward to the sweet taste of victory after tomorrow's game against Wingate.

The princess got a heaping helping of yucky blucky fruitcake. Her helping was because of the... I'm usually a straight A student... I have a D average in science right now... I don't seem to care... I just want to watch cartoons and listen to my Ipod... Yep, that's right... huge slice coming her way! Unfortunately, ever now and then, parents must force feed their kids fruitcake for their own good. The princess got her super-sized helping via a nice long talk with coach and mrsbballref about priviledges and how they were earned, how important school is, etc. I think the princess understands now that she never, ever wants fruitcake again. She has pledged to only perform so that she can once again say, one ice cream scoop please, hold the fruitcake!

Please make a note... do not send us fruitcake for Christmas. It's just yucky blucky!