Card Sharks

Hi kids.

A much-appreciated taco/nacho bar was the spread for this evening's party.

One of our tribe's annual parties one can always count on is the big Collier Euchre Tournament, which almost always goes down during the drudgery of winter existence. 

Generally he gets like two dozen people to participate in the tournament, which lasts like ten rounds and randomizes all players into different pairings for each round. This year was somewhat smaller than the previous few years, so we only had five tables going instead of six or seven, but it went fast and so folks didn't get funned out with cards ('cause after a few hours of cards, it does tend to get boring.) In all the years we've participated in this tradition, I've never placed higher than like 6th or 7th place, and can usually be found resting smack dab in the middle of the pack.

And once or twice I've ended up kinda near the bottom. But anyway. 

Once again making an appearance: Mitch's world-class sushi rolls. 

While Euchre does require an understanding of the game and a tiny bit of skill, your success is like 95% thanks to the cards you are dealt. So if you end up with some awesome cards in your hand, you're bound to rank higher in the brackets. You can only do so much with a bunch of 9's, 10's, Queens and Kings.

Which is basically what I had all night. Again.

So, ultimately, I once again ended up right in the middle of the pack: I didn't win any money, but I also wasn't one of the bottom feeders facing ridicule from my peers. Kris didn't even participate this year - she hates card tournaments and only jumps in if she's absolutely needed - and spent the evening chatting it up with Alicia, who also wasn't playing. All in all, it was a fun way to pass an evening with the usual suspects.

Check it out. . .

Folks receive their marching orders at the beginning of the tournament.

As usual, Collier had a series of numbered tables set up throughout this house: this one here in the living room, two in the 'dining room,' and two in the basement.

Aside from the usual tribe families - about five of which weren't on hand this evening, a big reason why turnout was as low as it was this evening - Ryan supplemented the guest list with a few couples that they know from college (including the randoms shown throughout these pics you'd probably otherwise not recognize.)

Mitch and Kelli's oldest, Drew, sat in to help fill in some gaps for the tournament.

Down in the basement. . .

My luck throughout the night was consistently shitty, except for maybe one round where it was somewhat respectable.

Back upstairs as the tournament drags on. . .

I forget why Kris and Alicia were walking around with all these beers (Kris definitely doesn't drink beer.)

Steven attempts to take a nap (seriously.) 

Kris hung out here for pretty much the entirety of the night.

Checking out the scoreboard in the living room (which, like I've said before) is automatically updated as each round's table scores are submitted.

After the tournament ended, some of the dads got into some bourbon that was sitting around. I opted against this, which ended up being an incredibly smart move on my part - Mitch didn't handle it so well.

Hens, grazing around the food spread.

Kelli, Mees, and Corey doing more shots.

Congratulations, Ryan.

Mees and Ryan "I'll Never Get a Dog" Collier, showing off their brand new puppy, Winnie.

Folks starting to head home at the end of the night, ready for bed (or a toilet, in Mitch's case.)

- Brian

The Ol' States-and-SuperBowl Shebang

 'Sup, players.

Here we are at last. The culmination of Competitive Pom Season.

States.

Our hotel room for the next two days. Always fun sharing with teenagers.

It's been an insane two months, with Abby putting in more work than one would think is possible for a fourteen-year-old. Not only has she been one of her team's premiere members this season, but she hasn't gotten below an 'A' in any of her classes this year (just like last year.) The girl's been burning her candle at both ends since the beginning of the school year, but now all the hard work is finally paying off with her very first performance at pom.

. . . because you all remember how last year went down, right?

Anyway.

There was a snowstorm rolling in to Mid-Michigan early Saturday afternoon - about 5 - 6" was forecast - so the Midland JV Pom coaches decided to cancel the morning's practice (and consequent performance for parents) and let folks hit the road in order to get ahead of the nasty weather. I was totally fine with this, because I've been sick as hell with a cold since Friday morning (yes, working with teenagers all day was fun), and ended up sleeping the entire way downstate to Ypsilanti.

Like, no joke, the entire way down. Fell asleep sick in the car before we got on US-10 and woke up as we pulled into the hotel parking lot. Just like time travel.

The MMPA State Championships were taking place, once again, at Eastern Michigan University first thing in the morning, so, like last year, we came down the night before to establish headquarters in a hotel and let the girls get in some 'team bonding' before they had to get up at - get this - 4:30am for hair and make-up. At least this year the place where we were having dinner - Buffalo Wild Wings - was literally thirty feet from the hotel lobby, so we were all able to go to bed early.

Not that it helped much. Getting up at 4:30am is brutal no matter which way you slice it.

I'll walk you through the rest of the weekend - which ended with a SuperBowl party over at the Larson residence - through the following assortment of pictures and video.

Behold, dear readers - MPAA States '25. . . .

View from our hotel window. We didn't realize we had light-canceling blinds (or whatever you call those things) in our room, so the lights from this dealership were blaring into our room all night. That was cool.

Kris and Courtney - because it's Kris and Courtney, and old Girl Scout Troop co-leaders like these two never, EVER stop with this sorta shit - decided to make team goodie bags for all the pommers. Because the girl's pom routine is fire-themed, they wanted to make the team's bags all 'fiery.' Guess who they whored out for the fancy-pants lettering. . . 

We had a full-blown assembly line going in the Johnson's room for an hour or so, with Yours Truly handling the lettering, Kris coloring in the lettering, Alayna stuffing the bags with snacks, drinks, and candy, and Courtney putting on the finishing touches (fire-colored tissue paper and paper keychain-sorta thingies.) Erik, meanwhile, drank Miller Lite and watched TV.

Finished gift bags, loaded up and ready to carry to the restaurant (we'd be passing these out at the team dinner, which was quickly approaching.)

Shortly after wrapping up this gift bag nonsense, all the pommers and their parents met downstairs in the lobby and, once assembled, walked the fifty or so feet over to neighboring Buffalo Wild Wings.

They had a side area in the restaurant all set up for the girls, who splintered off into groups of 3 or 4 at various tables (like Abby, shown here with a few of her teammates), while us parents got to hang out in a different part of the restaurant and not deal with a crap-load of teenagers. It was pretty awesome.

The kids got to dig through their gift bags while they waited for their not-at-all-healthy food to arrive.

Abigail C, Ella, and Ryleigh.

Alayna got to hang out at the adult table with the cool folks.

Food was good - I feel like when you eat at BWW it's hit or miss.

Alayna creeping on her sister through a partition window. . .

Not sure what's happening here. . .

Back at the hotel, after dinner, we hung out in our room for a bit before Abby had to run off for her team-bonding activities (down in the coach's room.) Caught a rare moment of sisterly chillness while the girls doom-scrolled on their phones.

This is the sorta thing that teens post on their social media these days. In case you were curious.

Alayna stayed back in the hotel room to work on some homework, but Kris and I went down to the lobby to hang out and have a few drinks with the Johnsons.

It was pretty empty down there, with only a handful of other parents doing the same thing as us.

Meanwhile, back upstairs, Alayna slogged away at whatever the hell subject this is.

Kris and Courtney retired pretty early, but Erik and I stayed up for a few more beers before calling it a night.

Alayna made sure to get a selfie of her in front of this light-up mirror in our bathroom that she was super excited about. #priorities. 

The next morning came EARLY. Abby got up at 4am, so none of us got much sleep as we had to make sure she physically rolled out of bed, got dressed, and stumbled down to the coach's room where the team was getting hair and make-up done. The team had to start the getting ready routine at 4:30am, due to this year's styling was a little more complex than in previous years. I, fortunately, went back to bed and got another two hours of sleep in.

Like I say every time we have an event like this: I'm soooooo glad I didn't have to help out in this process.

Abby rode with the Johnsons to the event, and made sure to take one of her sped-up, selfie videos along the way.

We nabbed a better parking spot this year - not having to walk across the street to some random-ass, satellite parking lot - and so didn't have to walk far in the blustery, winter air.

Our vantage for this year's States showcase. Unfortunately we were unable to get back-row seats (that are way better on one's back, honestly), as the place was filling up quick.

Kris and Alayna, sporting a couple of the extra pairs of 'fire' glasses that were included in the pommers' goodie bags.

A loooooong day of pom ahead of us, with Abby and her squad performing like twenty teams into the championship. . .

Alayna, snapping more selfies while we wait for Midland JV to take the 'stage.'

Getting a team pic backstage while awaiting their turn to perform.

Once again, just like at the last competition, some poor kid ended up puking all over the floor of the gym during their performance and they had to pause the showcase to get someone to come clean it up. Fortunately this time around they were able to get folks out there to wipe up the mess in a timely fashion - no need to spend a half an hour hunting down a union contracted custodian or whatever.

Killing time in the stands. It was unbearably hot inside the gym and everyone was miserable.

Midland JV takes the 'stage.' This was one of those competitions where families weren't allowed to take videos or pics of the performances (without risking their child's team being disqualified), so the pic and video you have here are from the officials running the competition.

You can view the video of their performance here (again, the file size was too big to upload.)

After all the morning's teams performed, they broke for twenty minutes so the judges could finish tallying their scores. During the intermission, a couple of my students found me in the audience and requested a pic. #pomdad

They also found Abby and got a pic with her.

Circling up, as usual, for the announcement of team rankings. Abby and her team didn't care where they ended up this time around, as long as they weren't finishing in last place (they were honestly just excited to get to States in the first place.)  They were up against some pretty tough competition, so they didn't have high hopes.

They pulled out 3rd Place, which is much better than everyone expected.

According to this point breakdown, they were only a couple points shy of taking second place. They did incredibly well this time around.

Celebrating third place.

A super-pixelated team pic (that someone posted online and we screenshot - my apologies.) Abby is in the back row, second from right.

The obligatory family pic with our pommer.

Abby, Harper and Ella pose with their third place trophy.

With her coaches.

We managed to get a couple pics of Abby posing with the trophy, too.

Following the competition, we loaded back up in the van and hit the road. Yours Truly, who was still pretty sick, fell asleep (once again) for the entirety of the ride north.

Abby's snack station in the backseat of the van.

When we got home, we had like an hour or so to kill before our slotted evening activity - the tribe's annual SuperBowl Party, this time over at the Larson's.

Abby had to take a selfie of her crazy-ass hair once it was taken out of all her tight braids from States.

The usual suspects, assembled in the Larson's living room for the big game.

The girls - of course - drove over separately because they had to spend a couple hours getting ready and we didn't want to wait for them.

While adults watched the game in the living room, and the elementary and middle school kids assembled downstairs in the basement, the high schoolers - our kids, Ella, the Larsons, and Jackson's girlfriend - hung out upstairs. At one point they decided to walk up to the nearby party store, and while suiting up for a walk in the cold Abby and Jackson's girlfriend wrapped themselves up in Jackson's swim team coat (which apparently fits two teenage girls.)

Go SPORTSBALL.

Some of the usual spread.

Could've used a few more couches, probably.

Collier the Jarl holds court with his nobles.

Would've been cool to see the Lions in the Superbowl this year, but at least Kansas City was getting their whiny asses beat.

Hanging out in one of the Larson kids' rooms.

After the game, when we got back to the house, Abby went next door to stay in the Angelotti's guest bedroom with their dogs (she's taken over dog sitting duty, since Alayna doesn't need the money anymore and her unemployed self does.)

- Brian