AO: Future-a-rama
July 21st, 2022
76 degrees, clear sky, half moon in the eastern sky. Light breeze
PAX- Hipster, Cyclone, Mac and Cheese, Rooster, Pippen, Convoy, Side Dish, Merit Badge, Spreadsheet, Dollface, Rice a Roni, Joe Buck, No Cry, Smashmouth, Toys R Us, Black Jack, Hoser, Fester, Two Step, Ranch, Othello
Q: Roadhouse
The phone call came months ago and boy was it unexpected. “Mr. Mainelli, I have Sheryl Crow for you on the phone. Do you have a minute to talk?” Sheryl Crow?? For me. Geez. What could she want this time?
The last time she called it was to remake the song, Picture, with her because Kid Rock had become such a f’ing douchebag. Sadly, our schedules never matched up. The time before that she wanted to know what it was like to be with someone not juiced up and with two balls… It was always something with her.
I took her call, out of curiosity, and she had one simple request; Will I open for her at the Memorial park concert this year? I will do you one better I told her, I will lead a group of amazing men around the park in an epic beatdown that will impregnate the earth. Making for a perfect venue for her show. She agreed and said she hoped to see me after the show…
Cut to a few months later…
It had been a while since I Q’d and it was my first Q at Future so needless to say I did not sleep at all. When my alarm went off at 4:30, I was already wide awake. I hopped out of bed and headed to Memorial. The drive was peaceful and the morning was beautiful.
As I pulled into the circle drive there were barely any cars there. But there was one I recognized. My man Convoy! It had been weeks since I saw my great friend. He was on the shelf for a few weeks after trying a triple lindy in the bedroom… Amateur…
I grabbed my wienkes and headed down the hill to get set up. My brother Othello had given me a heads up that the park was already set up for the big concert that night so I had to make some adjustments to the fencing that was put up around the hill. It was going to work out just fine.
By 5:30, there were 22 of ready for the morning. Many were faces I didn’t know or hardly knew and I was excited to get weird with them and sweat next to them. I stumbled through the F3 intro: 3Fs, five core principles, the mission statement. And with that, we moseyed down the stairs to the landing for some Warm-a-rama.
WARM-A-RAMA:
SSH’s (Jumping Jacks) 15 IC
Big Ones 10 each leg
Tappy Taps 10 IC
Imperial Walkers 15 IC
Cherry Pickers 15 IC
Goof Balls 15 IC
Since I had never Q’d at Future, I felt like I had to bring the sexy back here in Midtown and get this group feeling like men again. It was time for my sexy pre-thang. I introduced it to the group and strongly encouraged eye contact with the man next to you. This suggestion was met with some odd looks and some groans. Once we started, those groans got louder…
SEXY PRE-THANG:
20 Pickle Pushers
20 Pickle Pointers
20 Oh Yeahs
20 Monkey Humpers
20 Slow Pitches
After the sexy pre-thang, I had the group partner up. We were going to grind this morning.
THE THANG:
We’re going to do a 2-man tag team grinder today.
Partner up. One guy will do exercises while the other guy runs up the hill and does set of 20 core exercises
20 Flutter Kicks
20 Star Fish Crunches
20 Freddy Mercuries
20 LBCs
20 Box Cutters
The other guy will do the list of exercises in AMRAP until the other guy returns
Carolina Dry Docks
Copperhead squats
Cherry Pickers
Bonnie Blairs
Air Presses
Sumo Squats
Merkins
Jump Squats
There were a few highlights during the thang I would like to discuss. The first happened when the PAX partnered up and I asked if anyone needed a partner. A voice responded and I saw the face of Smashmouth looking at me. How did I get this lucky? Smashmouth is quite simply one of the best human beings I know and always pushes me to be better. He was the perfect partner for this morning.
There was lots of mumblechatter in the gloom and I loved listening to the conversations happening. Lots of laughter and encouragement. I met some new guys as well. Toys R Us has a great story and I was inspired by him. Thank you, brother! And then in the most humbling moment of my F3 tenure, I was running next to Fester and asked what he does… Well, he is an oncologist at UNMC and studied at Harvard…. My mid-level manager job at a franchise company suddenly felt very disappointing… but in true Fester fashion, he was interested and engaged the whole time. Thank you, Fester!
Finally Omaha was called and we headed back to the landing for some Mary.
MARY:
American Hammer Rancid Style 22
At 6:10 the men were moist and the beatdown was over.
Name-a-rama went off without a hitch.
Announcements:
Last Canyon at Gallup
Flag pass at the Pit
Prayer Requests:
Blackjack
Hipster’s Sister Marilyn
COT:
I have always been very focused on getting better in my life. Better at work. Better as a dad. Better as everything I do. Sometimes I have been successful. Other times, I have not. But one way that I try to get better is to reflect. Once I am done with something I ask myself some questions.
What did I do right?
What did I do wrong?
What can I do next time to be better?
This habit of reflection has been very helpful for me on my journey to be better tomorrow. BUT, I recently had a conversation with someone and by someone I mean my therapist and she challenged me on this reflection. We were specifically talking about my feelings of insecurity around being a dad and how I was using this reflection after my time with Bodhi but how I found myself focusing more on what I was doing wrong. After four great days together, I would be focusing on the meltdowns and my poor reactions as opposed to all the good times we had.
This was leading to a lack of confidence as a dad and feelings of disappointment and not being enough. My therapist asked me two simple questions upon hearing this; Why are you rating yourself? Why don’t you enjoy your time with your son?
Well goddamit! That was a frying pan to the face for me. You see while I think reflection is key to getting better and growing in any area of your life, what I was doing was getting paralyzed in grading myself and I was missing out on this precious time with Bodhi. Yes I can get better but not at the sacrifice of being in the moment.
This gave me permission to just be and enjoy the best moments with my favorite person in the world. And it has made all the difference.
So, my challenge to you is this: think about where you might be so busy rating yourself that you are missing things. And allow yourself to just be there and enjoy it.
Two Step took us out in prayer
I love you guys!
Roadhouse
PS. Sheryl says hi…