Destination Imagination, Banana Fight, 2012

Congratulations to the Bay Village "Banana Fight" Destination Imagination team!

A great year was capped by a great performance this past Saturday, March 10, at the Northeast Ohio Regional Destination Imagination finals.

Our movie trailer, "Twisted in Time" captured a great score and some rave reviews from the judges.

In fact, our team was awarded a special award, the "Renaissance Award" given for outstanding design, engineering or performance. These awards are given only for exceptional work, and it really is a big honor to receive them. Here is what the appraisers wrote:

"This was a team of exceptional entertainers! On top of that, their trailer kept us all captivated with its flow and the team's performance abilities. Fancy footwork, music sung with verve and talent, and a flair that showed extraordinary preparation--all of these elements contributed to sharp execution that impressed the audience."Bay Village DI coordinator, piled on with praise of her own for the first-year Banana Fight team: "I thought this team showed great joy in their performance. They embody the spirit of the DI program. I hope they decide to return next year. Thanks again for your hard work and dedication."

In addition, here are some of the judge comments straight from the Post-it notes taken during the performance:

• "Funny! Clever! Very entertaining."



• "Awesome costumes and props"



• "Such enthusiasm shown even in the setting-up phase. Loved it!"



• "Cool costumes. Loved the caveman hair and togas"



• "Fantastic props. Loved the backdrop painting"



• "Your presentation was fun to watch!"



• "Very funny and entertaining"
  
  Also attached is the PDF (above: click on image to make larger) that shows the judges actual scoring sheet. It is broken down into each of the scoring topics.

Finally, here is a link to a Facebook page with lots and lots of Banana Fight photos from throughout the year: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3057318944419.2139644.1006732817&type=1&l=e7faf62c88

Great job, Banana Fighters!

Liz & Dave

Destination Imagination, Banana Fight's "rough draft" original score!

Here is the rough draft, first version of our Destination Imagination's original score, based on the popular song: "We found love in a hopeless place."
Enjoy!

Barely seen, never forgotten

Just a flash. A flash of a smile. The tips of soft hair in your face. The brush of a elbow. Something that stops the world in its tracks.
It's blurry. It's muddy, messy and just plain fuzzy.
But you know it's there. And what you never really saw, you can sense, you can feel. You feel it rising up out of nowhere, welling in your soul, pulling the corners of your mouth into a smile, as you slowly close your eyes, and tilt your head back to make the moment last just a bit longer.
You want it to last. You struggle to hold even what you barely saw. That nugget of possibility, that gleam of hope, that sense there is something bigger, better, larger than you are now, or even what you will ever be.
You can feel it, even though you've never touched it. You can't remember if it came from the future or from 100 year ago. It feels right, though. Oh, how good it feels, that flash, that wisp, that notion, that dream.
You hands have a memory: the feel of smooth skin, the feel of the cold beer, the leathery feel of a jacket hugging a barstool.
And then, there it is again. That flash of a smile that stops the world in its tracks. it's still muddy, still blurry. You can sense it. You barely saw it, but you will never forget it.

I can see clearly now

So, now, finally after nearly two years of heck, I have finally reached agreement with my soon-to-be ex-wife on a divorce settlement. This is a good thing, a very good thing. However, the bittersweet pill on this is that I never really signed up to let go of my kids. Ever. It took a lot of wrangling to ensure that I get no less than 50 percent. I still think it's a horrible tragedy that I have to spend any time at all without my children. But the unspoken deal about marriage and kids is this: when one person wants to get a divorce, then there will be divorce.
Don't remember reading anything about this in the marriage manual. Funny, the priest who married us never mentioned that. But I'm not sure it would have changed things. But even with all the badness and heartache generated in the past two years, I still think that having them made the experience a net positive.
I have been worried about my precious monkeys, struggling through this process and all.
But I was reassured Friday when explaining to them the significance of reaching the agreement, my daughter very-matter-of-factly began to interject her interpretation to help her brother understand.
"It's no big deal," she said from her seat behind me in the minivan. "It's just like it has been but with two houses."
Ok, I will take that.
She will be fine. Some distance, some long talks, lots of giggles, hugs and laughter, I know she, and her brother will be fine. I guarantee it.

We've got it all

These are the lyrics to Five for Fighting's "The Riddle,'' which to me is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard.

There was a man back in '95
Whose heart ran out of summers
But before he died, I asked him

Wait, what's the sense in life
Come over me, come over me

He said,

"Son why you got to sing that tune
Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon
Let an angel swing and make you swoon
Then you will see... You will see."

Then he said,

"Here's a riddle for you
Find the answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I..."

Picked up my kid from school today
Did you learn anything cause in the world today
You can't live in a castle far away
Now talk to me, come talk to me

He said,

"Dad I'm big but we're smaller than small
In the scheme of things, well we're nothing at all
Still every mother's child seems to know this song
So play with me, come play with me"

And hey dad
Here's a riddle for you
Find the answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I...

I said,

"Son for all I've told you
When you get right down to the
Reason for the world...
Who am I?"

There are secrets that we still have left to find
There have been mysteries from the beginning of time
There are answers we're not wise enough to see

He said... You're looking for a place I love you free...

The batter swings and the summer flies
As I look into my angel's eyes
A song plays on while the moon is high over me
Something comes over me

I guess we're big and I guess we're small
If you think about it man you know we got it all
Cause we're all we got on this bouncing ball
And I love you free
I love you freely

Here's a riddle for you
Find the answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I...

Cold-forging a life-long relationship

I was out at a father-son weekend the weekend before last - the weekend it snowed eight inches in one day - with a bunch of dads and their boys out at a rural camp on Lake Erie just on the other side of the Pennsylvania line. It generated a million memories that will last a lifetime:

• The big tall bonfire whose flames licked the dark night sky, attacking the relentless snowfall, defending its fiery turf against the hordes of white flakes that steadily emerged from the black sky only to find a quick death in the hot cylinder rising above the fire pit. It wasn't until the the night grew colder, the snow heavier and the firewood scarce, that the stubborn flames finally and reluctantly succumbed.


• The incessant and whimsical laughter of my son and a dozen of his playmates playing in the deep snow all day, inventing games, throwing snowballs, tackling each other, building snow forts. Their faces and bodies - deeply wrapped in heavy winter gear - were almost indistinguishable. But like a penguin dad that can tell the chirp of his baby among hundreds of look-alikes, I knew my son's laugh. And everytime he laughed, so did I. What a perfect day.


• The pre-lights out giggling and unrestrained playtime. Kids in Star Wars-themed jammies running around the bunks, tackling and tickling each other until their faces - bent from laughter and sore from smiling - creaked in pain. They pulled the mattresses off the bunk beds, constructed hasty forts, carved themselves up into random teams, and waged make-believe war with giggle-laden pillow fights and stuffed animals. Had mothers been present, everyone would have been in bed hours ago. But for now, a whole contingent of dads just watched, smiling and proud, unwilling to put an end to this delightful time.


• The squeal of happy boys, sitting on their dad's laps, sitting on a black rubber tube and sliding scary fast down a hilly chute through the woods and then, onto the flat part at the end of the hill. The smiles of anticipation of the boys waiting in line, the glint in their eye sensing the danger, but knowing the safety of sitting in dad's protective lap, wrapped by big arms that would never let go or let harm in.


• The quiet crunch of deep snow on the trail winding through the near-silent snowy woods, with no one around, as I walked with my boy, talking about whatever came to his mind. The snow fell all around us, and gathered in the folds of our coats and on our hats. Snowflakes gathered on his eyelashes, framing his icy blue eyes. His cheeks were rosy pink, his smile huge and undeniable. We gently lifted each foot making another sharp impression in the newly-fallen snow, and threw small rocks onto a pond to see if we could punch holes in the thin ice. Here, in places like this private and natural cathedral of sorts, is where our precious father-son relationship is forged, making it last until one of us dies.

There is so much more. So much more fun, laughter, joy, giggles, deep satisfaction in such simple things.

"Good times, good times," as my son says.

Good times, indeed.