Cult Collaboration

#31 Ben McCrory           

 My nephew Ben plays competitive baseball for the Mustangs! (Go #31!!) Well, this past weekend we all went to Ridgeland, MS to watch my him play for the state championship. Well, the Mustangs didn't win a single game, but we all had a fun and comical trip. Love making memories with those crazy kids!

    Side Note: When I say 'we' I mean ALL of us. (and here's where the cult comes back into play. And for those of you who do not know what I'm talking about...refer to my previous post) I'd say we had about 30 cult family members down there. It was more of a convention than a meeting. Several chapters were present... We had Southaven, Durant, Madison, and Kosciusko. Can you imagine all of us out cheering for ONE little 7 year old? Well, we were. God bless those we sat by. 

           Now we know that when we all get together SOMETHING is gonna happen. We will never have a normal, event free trip. Never. At least ONE bad or exciting thing is going to happen to one of us. We all know this and pray to God that it isn't us this time.   

    Here's how the weekend started off. (And please, Shu Shu, do NOT kill me for this, it is written out of humor, not hate) 

Mikey, me, Benji and the kids all leave with the team Thursday afternoon. We get to the hotel around 4:00p or so. Shu Shu had reserved all of our rooms together so that we could be next door to each other. I tell the man that we are to be 2 of the 3 rooms reserved under Shu's name.  We check in and go directly to our rooms. No problem. The boys get ready and we go eat a quick dinner and then head straight to the ball fields for game number one. Shu Shu and the other half of the family had to work, and couldn't leave until 4 or so. They arrived in Ridgeland and went directly to the ball fields... just in time to see the last 30 seconds of the game...that the Mustangs lost. After the game we head back to the hotel. (Shu and them still have to check in b/c they came straight to the ball fields.) Mikey, me, Benji, and the kids are up in our rooms showering and getting ready for dinner when Mikey gets a call from Kim. It went something like this. "Mikey come down here. They gave our room away and Momma is going off on the man. Do y'all want to leave and stay at the Holiday Inn across the street with us?"

And here we go. We go downstairs to the lobby and see Shu Shu at the reception desk, red in the face, telling the man that she needs to speak to the manager. Apparently the man did give their room away and lied about it. He said she didn't have an assigned room to begin with. Well...that may have worked had she not had a conformation number for all 3 rooms she reserved. She demanded a room with 2 beds (there were 3 adults and a child...that makes sense) but the man told her the only room he had available had a king sized bed with a cot. I thought, well, this is an easy fix. Mikey and I could just swap rooms. There's only 2 of us and our room had 2 queen sized beds. So I go up to the counter, a bit optimistic, and tell Shu, quietly, that it's not a problem. "Why can't we can take the room with 1 bed and y'all can have the room 2." We hadn't unpacked yet, so it wasn't a hassle for anyone. Dear God in Heaven above. You would've thought I asked her to kill her first born. She said, firmly holding that pen in her hand that was about to snap, "because at 7:17 I got a call and they asked if I still wanted my room with 2 queen sized beds. I said yes, we're running late. Do not give my room away." I tried to reason with her. Hell, everyone did. Security came to the reception desk. Shu ended up calling every number she could find and it got her nowhere. She unwillingly took the room with 1 bed and a cot for one night an hour later, and (Thankfully!) got another room the next morning.

    Whew! Thank God that was over! The next few days were fun. Terribly hot, but fun. All of our McCrory Chapters came to support Ben and the Mustangs. We played 3 games in 3 days. Now, at the fields, we all cheer for ALL  the kids, we gripe about all the kids..even our own, and we help all the kids. That's just how it works.... so we thought. One of our star players took a while to warm up in one of the games...he was missing the ground balls, fumbling with the ball and glove.... just petty stuff. And Really, they all took a bit to warm up. Well after the kid misses the ball a few times, Shu YELLS "Get your head in the game..!" Well, that's not really a big deal to us. If anyone ever said that to Ben, well he probably needed to get his head in the game. I don't think this other family agreed. From that point on, we got dirty looks and the cheers from the other tent began to fade. The temperature went from about 97 degrees to 200 in a matter of minutes. Mike got Shu's attention and told her to watch what she said about that one kid. We later find out that that particular family doesn't really like constructive criticism. Huh. Well, F them. She didn't mean anything by it..... And I say that out of love.

    Other than those two instances, I think the rest of the trip was pretty enjoyable. We did a little shopping at the mall...and we met Gail Pittman at her store! (Kim was more excited than I) We ate at some wonderful restaurants. Cock of the Walk was delicious!!! Awful name, Awesome food! Mikey acquired a new nick name while we were down there. "PawPaw". He's 33 and one of Ben's team mates said "Look y'all, there's Ben's grandpa!" hahahaha And it stuck! lol The hotel had a free happy hour! So of course, we made it every day! :) And 3 of the nights we spent just hanging out with family...real family and our ball team family. Kids were running the halls at midnight and up at 8 am. It is always so much fun to hang out with such great people. We left without a win, but I think it's safe to say that we all had fun   
 We left Sunday morning and headed to Durant to see some of the family. Aunt Macel made us all lunch. Home made fresh creamed corn, corn bread, fresh shelly beans, and fresh home grown tomatoes.  Slap yo momma it was good!! We left her house as full as a tick and went just around the corner to Uncle Bubba's house. He is THE Head Master (pictured to the left) of our cult family. We visited with him for a little and then got back on the road. Finally made it home about 4:30 Sunday evening.

That's our weekend in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed....and Shu's expense :)