Random Thoughts with Will

     Last year, after rebooting the blog, my first post centered around Thanksgiving, about how it is often that forgotten holiday tucked in between Halloween and Christmas. Thanksgiving is a great holiday in its own right - food, family, fall weather, football, and...giving thanks, of course! It's pretty cool that there is a holiday carved out to giving thanks (pun intended).      When you're a kid, odds are you were always told to say "please" and "thank you". And if you grew up in the south, you were also taught to say "yes sir/no sir" and "yes ma'am/no ma'am". The thing about "thanks" and "thank you" is that they get said and used so much, I think we sometimes forget the importance of them. Saying "thanks'" or "thank you" becomes so routine that it's probably a good thing that we have a holiday to remind ourselves of the importance of giving thanks. Gratitude goes a long way - ...

     This upcoming week will be a cool personal milestone for me: it will mark the 1-year anniversary of  resurrecting this blog! It all started on a Thursday afternoon at work when I was board and was trying to find things to do on the side. When having a blog came to mind, I was reminded that I made one my freshman year of high school, where I did a few posts about song parodies and some college football predictions. That blog was called "Bringing the Wheat". Needless to say, this blog is a lot different than it was 9 years ago (wow!) - then again, so am I.      With all of that in mind, I thought that I would do a special post about some random stories I've had in the past. Another way to put it: stuff that belongs in this blog. After all, if you're going to have a blog with the word "Random" in the title, shouldn't you at least do something like have some random, untold stories in it? Without further ado, here you go: Wheat Goodfellow ...

     Ever since the pilot of Spongebob Squarepants , Spongebob's eternally optimistic attitude can best be described by his catchphrase: "I'm ready". Whether Spongebob is applying for a job at the Krusty Krab or about to take his boating exam for the umpteenth time, he confidently shouts "I'm ready" a few times. As it turns out, Spongebob was ready for the job at the Krusty Krab - but to this day, he's still never fully ready for that boating exam, no matter how many times he says "I'm ready".      Sometimes in life, we may say or believe that we're ready for something...only to realize that we weren't ready. We may have been overconfident, we may have underestimated what was in store, we may not have fully understood what was in store, or there simply was no way to fully be ready. As a nod to old Nationwide commercials (pre-Peyton Manning and Brad Paisely, of course), life comes at you fast. Life doesn't wait until you...

     When I was in high school, I ran cross country all four years. One year, at the end of practice, we were talking about t-shirt ideas for our team. One idea that our coach suggested was "'Walk' is a four-letter word".  We didn't fully understand it in the moment, but his rationale was that it was a bad word like other four-letter words. You know, in a sport that's about running, walking is a bad thing.      In cross country, walking is the last thing that you want do during a race. However, outside of the cross country course, walking isn't so bad. Over the years, walking is something that I've come to really enjoy. There's just something simple yet relaxing about walking. It's a way to get in some exercise, but also a way to take in the sights and sounds of the area. Walking provides that peaceful, soothing feeling that allows one to get lost in one's thoughts. Come to think of it, I've also found walking to be a good stress-reli...

     When most people hear the name "Ringo Starr", the first thing that comes to mind (if they know who that is) is that he was the drummer for The Beatles. For me, the first thing that comes to mind is that he was the first narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and even starred (no pun intended) as Mr. Conductor on the PBS show Shining Time Station at one point, a role that later went on to...George Carlin. That's pretty incredible - the first two narrators for a little kid's show were a member of the Beatles and a comedian most famous for 7 words that can't  be said on television, let alone a little kid's show. But I digress...      Going back to Ringo Starr the drummer, while John Lennon and Paul McCartney did most of the singing for the Beatles, there are a few songs that Starr was the lead vocals on. One of those songs "With A Little Help from My Friends". The title explains the song pretty well - Ringo sings about how he gets by wi...

     There's an old saying that "You win some, you lose some". Truth is, not all "wins" and "losses" are created equal. Sometimes, one win be a little more sweeter than another or one loss will sting a little more than another. For instance, winning the lottery and winning a key chain are both wins, but most people would prefer winning the former. Likewise, losing a stapler and losing a phone are both losses, but losing a phone hurts a lot more than losing a stapler.      Two weeks ago, I went up to Wisconsin and got to do something that I always wanted to do: watched the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers play. Going in to the Badgers game, I was pretty pumped. They were coming off of a 13-win season, were ranked in the Top 10 in the polls, and were considered a College Football Playoff contender. I arrived in Madison that morning and had the fun of exploring the campus and pumped for the game, one that I fully expected them to win.     ...

     Last weekend, I went up to Wisconsin for a few days. I got to cross two big items off my bucket list - going to a Wisconsin Badgers game at Camp Randall (not to mentioning jumping around) and going to a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field. While those were the two main reasons for the trip, there was one other thing that I ended up doing that I really enjoyed: grocery shopping.      Last fall, my parents went to Wisconsin for a wedding. While there, they came across a grocery store named Woodman's, a supermarket chain with locations in Wisconsin and Illinois. Two things that parents mentioned to me about Woodman's was the sheer size of it and the incredible amount of selection in the store. When I checked it out this past Sunday night, it turns out they were right on both counts - and then some!      Going to Woodman's truly was quite the experience. Never in my life had I seen such a wide selection of ice cream, frozen pizzas, s...