Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/seanco/public_html/wp-config.php on line 27
Lubbock – Instant Sean

Instant Sean

Tag: Lubbock

  • New Project Growing Fast

    New Project Growing Fast

    You know when I said “Any topic / guest is welcome, but you need to tell a story & must go ‘Beyond the Mic,’ ” about that…
     
    In the next five days I have interviews scheduled with :
     
    Lead singer of a band sued out of their record deal.
     
    An up and comer on the country music scene who had her wedding at the Southfork Ranch
     
    and two bands
     
    First one whose entire reputation built on MySpace & lead singer of a band who rides around in a blow up Pegasus
     
    Time to start burning the midnight oil… Beyond the Mic has work to do!
  • A Sad Trip Around The Sun

    A Sad Trip Around The Sun

    On my birthday I found out about an old friend of mine from a divorce care counseling group I belonged to, passing on from a lengthy illness. I was sad but glad, for the pain he had been under had been excruciating, and he need not suffer anymore.

    When I first got divorced we were paired to talk about our experiences, praying for each other and trying our best supportive act for each other. We would talk about our kids in our one on one sessions, we both had a daughter and a son, his older than mine, as he was 20 years my senior.

    When it was time for his daughter wedding, she chose her mom’s new husband to walk her down the aisle to my friends dismay. When the speeches came, everyone spoke but my friend and he was further humiliated by not given a solo father daughter dance.

    His daughter split the dance, giving him the first half of the dance and then giving an extended dance with her step father.

    My friend, paid for the honeymoon and for moving expenses closer to a job which would put her closer to Waco and him.

    But shortly after the honeymoon, her “plans changed,” and she isolated her father even more. She joined her step dad’s company, she moved to a house provided by her step dad and mom and slowly stopped talking to her dad. She had country club tastes but she would tell anyone that her dad was just “a bum.”

    I feel that pain every day when I don’t get to see my kids, and I can only imagine how he felt.

    Though he never married again, Steven put a foot forward doing whatever it took to be available for his daughter and he died a broken man never reconciling with her.

    Now this afternoon, the executor read the will and his daughter was left a picture of Steven and her where she’s looked up to him with loving wonder.

    His son Tony moved to California for a job  a long time ago. But he sent his dad a card for every holiday, birthday and special occasion. Though separated early in his life just like his older sister, he still treated his father like the man who gave him unconditional love.

    In the end Steven died alone but he knew he was loved.

    His daughter got a photo.

    Tony got everything else.

    God bless you Steven and may you Rest In Peace my friend.

  • Words, Just words

    Words, Just words

    There are many lessons in life fathers teach their children. But only one necessary lesson. I bring this up because I failed in teaching this lesson and it hurts my soul.

    My friends and family know of the torment I suffered at the loss of my sister Tara. I never said goodbye or that I loved her and those lack of finality still haunt me to this day, lesser now than in the past.

    But I learned my lesson and make an effort each time to wish people as I leave their presence, my fond wishes of them. When my brother died in 2006 in a car accident, the last words I said to him was “I love you.” When he died, I had closure and peace. I am horrible at hand writing but my wonderful wife is very specific about thank you notes. She sends them like leaves in the wind in the fall.

    Give thanks. It seems simple and easy but millennial’s bristle at the thought of thanking anybody. They think they deserve everything. I once had an intern who at the end of his internship ask me where his office would be when he got a job with our company. I told him offices weren’t handed out to starting employees and earned from hard work. He quit because he wasn’t getting an office.

    Give me a break.

    I try to tell my kids, my friends and even my family how much I care about them every chance I get. I never know if that one chance I fail to say it will be the one time they need it the most.

    Simple words, but they have power and meaning. I Love You.

    I Love You Joanna. I tell her it every day because my life without her had no meaning.

    I Love You Shelby & Ryan. I tell them it every time we speak because I never know how long I will be on this earth.

    I Love You Mom & Dad. Because as they are in their golden years, I’m not sure how many times I will get to tell them those words.

    They are just words Sean, they don’t have any power.

    Tell that to a son who wishes he could tell his dad Happy Father’s Day one more time.

    Tell that to a daughter who wishes she could hold her mom tight one more time.

    Words you say. They have more power than any hateful words you can think of. I can ignore hate, I can shuffle hate to ignorance. But you can’t ignore love. In your darkest days, in your miserable nights, love will always shine through.

    Love means I understand you are eighteen and scared. It means I’ve been there too and I want you to learn from the mistakes I made so you don’t have to have the pain that I have. Your heart won’t hurt from being as broken as my has been.

    Love is forever, so when you have determined my punishment is over I will be here.

    Because I love you forever, that’s what father’s do.

  • Not easy being divorced…

    Not easy being divorced…

     
    For years I have told my friends that living as a divorced dad isn’t easy. With my daughter and son being across the country from where I live, I couldn’t come over and fix the problems they encountered in their lives. It wasn’t easy. I also did not make it easy on them with living arrangements. It was either their mom’s place or mine! There were no bouncing around like a super ball in an enclosed glass space.
     
    I was a jerk. I had to be. If I made life easy on them, I would be doing them a disservice. I have always told them “life isn’t fair, you have to fight for what you believe in.”
     
    So I was completely blown away when my daughter told me of her decision not to go to Ball State. She decided her goals could succeed at Indiana University – Southeast. Part of me pained, definitely my wallet as I had found different things with Ball State Cardinals on it. But I digress.
     
    She was afraid to tell me because she thought I would be mad. She didn’t want to hurt my feelings. That’s how considerate my daughter is. There are plenty of words in this world describing my Shelby. I am not sure I can articulate them all in one post. Every time I look at her with the feeling of failure, because I wasn’t there every day, from her first bike ride to her first dance. I was wrong. Somehow by osmosis, by some miracle, I have no idea, my daughter got it right. She thinks of others and not her own happiness and somehow, by a miracle, I get it.
     
    All the sacrifices we make as parents, are mere pittance, to the ones we fail to see.
     
    I told Joanna I failed as a father, and yet somehow tripped into a wonderful woman. I have to give her mother and stepfather credit. They did a good job.
     
    This week a friend of mine was having issues with his kids. He does anything and everything to make them happy. But yet his kids treat him with anger and pain.
     
    He asked me what the secret of being a divorced dad was.
     
    I shrugged my shoulders and said, “taking it one day at a time. Somehow, by some miracle, my daughter that was learning to walk a mere blink ago, is graduating from high school. Grab those moments, forget about the bad ones, laugh, love and keep moving forward.”
     
    One day you will trip and realize in your effort to do everything right, that somehow, you survived. And that my friends is what being a long distance parent is all about.
     
     
     
     
     
  • A Wonderful Life

    A Wonderful Life

    Dear Credit Card Companies,
    Thanks for sending me the 4th reissued card for my wife and I in the last year. It’s so reassuring you are so security aware, wanting to keep me and my family’s finances safe.
    But wait, what’s this? A $150 charge on my account from Houston is a shocker. I was actually in Orlando Florida, (even notified you that I was traveling to Florida). Yet this charge still litters my bill. That must be why you sent me another set of cards. I’m thinking if I actually saved all the cards that you give me in a year, I could start tiling a bathroom with them. Instead of using them as tile, I shred them. I don’t have the problem like Joanna had when she forgot the new card and tried using the old card at your business. That sure didn’t work out as well as she expected. So instead of using your card, giving you a chance to earn your pennies, she paid cash. I’m sure this was a mistake, a typographical mistake. You’ll credit the $150 on my account as soon as you sent out those cards.
     
    What do you mean how could this be a fraudulent charge? How can my card be used in multiple places at the same time? It has to be a mistake, you’ll be crediting my account any day now.
     
    14 days later and oh, the $150 charge? That’s still on my account. You know it’s fraud but you still haven’t credited it back to me. Racking up that interest that you will hit me with at the end of the month! Ah tragedy, what more should I expect from the friendly folks who lend me money from the “Potter bank”? They get mad when I pay you in full at the end of the month. I must be a nightmare for you. I borrow your money and then don’t give you a chance to make more than a couple of cents on the dollar.
    I’m not the customer you want. I know it, but I’ll try harder next time.