A silly & heartfelt tribute to my 2015 seniors Note: this story was originally presented as an interactive speech during Senior Sendoff where seniors read quotes within this story I made up for them. It’s a typical Tuesday morning about 8:30 a.m. My mind is awake from a 55-minute cruise down not-so-easy street known as U.S. 131. The trip from GR to BR is more important to me than the distance from Grand to Big; it’s ginormous because this is where I get to do what I love, whi

My Top Ten "Feel-Good, Kick-Ass, Jam-out, Hittin' the Road" Songs by Patrick Bishop Photo: my first two cars parked outside the house I grew up in You know the feeling. It’s the end of the work week and you’re… FREE! It’s a beautiful day. The sun is out, so you slide on your rock star shades. You take a deep breath and the air somehow seems sweeter, fresher, more crisp and clean than it did this morning. You feel electricity in the air; it runs up the back of your neck and yo

Happydog Guest Blog Every month, one of my friends, colleagues or students will be a guest blogger, answering the question, "What makes you happy?" Checkout this month's guest post: Pete Amrhein, Retail Buyer and Rock Band Lead Singer Sometimes you don’t really know what makes you happy until you stumble over it. You can LOOK and CLIMB for a mountaintop and then not, like, actually DIG BEING THERE after arriving (I remember thinking that finally kissing Monica Horvath in seco

For Those About to Rock A salute to an old friend and his family I was about 12 years old when Chuck Craig moved into the neighborhood. We both just finished seventh grade and our birthdays turned out to be only one day apart. We instantly became great friends. Chuck moved from Walnut City, California (about 20 miles east of Oakland) where everything was cooler than our mid-sized, midwest town of Jackson, Michigan. While I introduced him to a few of my more mundane activities