Paul Prattles On

I've been in GMEA since my first year of teaching, and have served in various capacities in several local districts, and I have been in districts 1,2,3,7,8,9 (when it included current districts 13 and 14),11, and 14 (when it was 13).  During that time, I have hosted District Honor Band/All-State tryouts, served as Vice-Chairman of a district, and, of course, judged numerous tryouts and solo/ensemble events. When I was in college, and initially heard about MENC and GMEA, I was philosophically opposed.  Why should I have to join an organization just to participate in their events?  Of course, as I left college, I saw the fallacy of my thinking and realized the reasons for this policy. However, I have a few "beefs" with GMEA over certain policies and procedures they have.  The first is easily solvable.  Many years ago, before email and the internet, it made sense to require LGPE or All-State registrations to be submitted months in advance, as everything was don...

Maybe hate is too strong a word.  Maybe one of these is better: abhor, despise, detest, loathe, disdain, disfavor, can't stand, object to, recoil from, or shudder at.  (Thank you Thesaurus.com!)  However, because I have done it so much, I often joke that I should start a moving company! I'm in the process of moving again, but it's a little different this time.  This SHOULD be my last move, but I've said that before.  Also, we are sort of taking our time with this move.  I'm stuck paying for the rental house in Hiram until the end of July, so we are moving a few boxes at a time.  Unfortunately, we are about to have the living/dining room carpet replaced, so we have had to rent a small storage unit until that's completed. The other "problem" facing us is that Eric and his friend Kevin are currently living in the house in Dahlonega.  That means we can't fully move in until they find a place and move out.  As we've discovered, there aren't ...

I'm the youngest of six children.  My two oldest brothers, John and Jack,  are 13 and 12 years older than me, my sister Lezah and brother Pete are 8 and 7 years older, and the closest in age, Phillip, is 2 1/2 years older.  Today, I want to talk about my brother Jack, who was second in line. Jack would have been 66 today, had he not been murdered back in 2002.  This is always a difficult day for me, but I want to share some of my memories of Jack, in no particular order. Since Jack was so much older than I was, we didn't have a lot in common.  Heck, he started college the year I started Kindergarten!  He always said that when he got rich he was going to buy me a Lamborghini.  He did buy me one, but it was just a model. Jack was the kind of guy who would give you anything, if you needed it, and if he had it to give to you.  When I was in college, he would give me $20 every time he saw me, which, unfortunately for me, wasn't often enough....

Now that the 6th District election is over, everyone I'm sure will be glad that we don't have to watch those campaign ads anymore.  They were getting a bit ridiculous, but I guess they must work, or they wouldn't keep airing them.  Personally, I have never decided who to vote for based on a TV ad.  The only advantage I see to political ads is name recognition, but if you didn't know who Ossoff or Handel were by now, I'm not sure anyone can help you. Speaking of political ads, I believe one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court was the one allowing unlimited donations (Citizens United) and allowing Super PACs.  This has transformed elections, and led to over $50 million being spent on this one election.  It is also leading to more half-truths and outright lies being spoken in these ads- who would you sue for libel? I wonder what the Braves will do when Freddie Freeman is available again?  Matt Adams has done a heck of a job replacing...

The last few days have been what I imagined most of retirement would be like, but they can't last.  I'll need to supplement my retirement income, which means some kind of income producing activity in the future.  (Anyone have any ideas about possible jobs for me?)  Plus, with the move coming, there is lots to do.  Then, once school starts, I'll be involved with my youngest son entering his junior year of high school.  Ah, but the last 5 days... Friday, I did a little cleaning up, because we were expecting Stephen and his father-in-law for lunch.  Karyn arrived in the early afternoon, and we attended the Braves Father/Daughter game that evening (see previous blog for my review of SunTrust Park and the game experience).  Since Karyn was so tired, Jackie ended up driving her home, which necessitated Stephen changing his plans for Saturday. Saturday, Stephen was supposed to pick up his FIL in Danielsville, then drive here, where I would grill out hambu...

I attended my first 2 Braves games at SunTrust Park yesterday and today.  It was quite an experience, both positive and negative.  Let me share a few thoughts with you, in no particular order. Friday, I went to the game with Karyn for our 4th annual Father-Daughter Game.  Getting tickets for the game was fairly easy; I simply went to the Braves website and purchased them.  However, since I had no idea of the layout of the new park, and the little diagram of the park only got blurry if I made it larger, I selected "best seats available", and was given seats in Section 152, labeled "Home Run Porch".  In the confirmation email I received, I was advised to buy parking in advance, and to use Waze to take me directly to that lot.  Sounded great!  Except I couldn't find anywhere on the site to buy parking for that date.  I contacted someone from the Braves (Celeste Mercer), and she got parking for me, in Lot 9. I was also told in that email that I ne...

Growing up, my family attended the Presbyterian Church.  My mom had been a Baptist, and my dad grew up Methodist, so I guess this was a compromise.  I did all the normal kid-at-church things: nursery, VBS, Sunday School, Wednesday Night Suppers,  acolyte, confirmation class, youth group.  I really enjoyed my time, and grew to really appreciate the time spent there. When I went to college, I intended to continue going to church, and even went a few times, but just stopped going.  A big part may have been that Sundays was the only time I could sleep past 7 am, especially in the fall (football games on Saturdays).  And once you stop going, it's easy for things to stay that way. My senior year, I met Jackie in my Educational Psychology class.  After 6 weeks of dating, I proposed, and she accepted.  We were married at her home church in Snellville, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church.  It was my first exposure to the Episcopal Church. We lived in...

When I was young, I was very skinny, and could eat whatever I wanted, as much as I wanted, and couldn't gain weight.  I weighed 125 pounds when I graduated high school.  In college, I quickly gained 15 pounds eating at the UGA cafeterias, but I pretty much stayed at 140 throughout my time at UGA. When I student taught, suddenly I was in the classroom or in my car, not spending hours walking around campus.  I began to gain weight.  By the time I married in December that same year, I weighed 165, a weight I maintained for a pretty good while, thanks to being in the Army Reserves. As the years went by, I slowly added weight, topping out at 232 early in January 2003.  Someone from school (Fitzgerald HS) told me about the Atkins Diet, so I bought the book, read it through, and decided to give it a try.  It worked! Even with a trip to Disney right in the middle, I still lost 45pounds in 6 months!  And lots of inches off my waist, chest, and neck (among o...