If I were an outsider looking in at this whole "little girl in a coma" and seeing the thousands of people praying for her, news stories, hashtags, candlelight vigils, whole schools wearing purple for a day in support of her, etc. I might start to think to myself "what makes THIS little girl so special?"

Well, as her uncle who has watched her grow up over the years and developed a unique bond with her I can tell you it's the love she pours out on everyone she meets. She's never met a stranger and she tries her best to show the world how much she cares for each and every person in her life every day.

I turned 50 recently and one would think a 50-year old man wouldn't need a 12-year old niece to make him feel better when he's feeling down but JayFay does it all the time. And ironically, she does it by being crazy and silly and acting just like her Uncle Nick.

It's hard to describe the joy I feel when I see another Snapchat come in from her mom's phone which JayFay uses to send her Uncle Nick funny snaps since she's not quite old enough to have her own account yet. It's like she just KNOWS when I need a little pick-me-up in my day and sends me a snap to make me feel better.

And I'm not the only one. She does this for everyone. Putting the needs of others before your own is not something most people inherently do but it just comes naturally to Jayden-Faith. Well, naturally as well as having the best parents in the world guiding her.

So there you have it. That's what makes Jayden-Faith the most specialist girl in the whole wide world. Thank you for your continued prayers in her time of need. #pray4jayfay #prayforjayfay :-)

Dear Jayden-Faith,

It's been 113 hours now since I received the worst call of my life from Nana telling me that you were in a terrible car accident and suffered a fractured skull.

I hope that you never have to hear a distraught, worried sick, crying Nana trying her best to relate sad news to you because it's not fun. You are both angels and angels are supposed to always bring constant joy to all those that surround them.

Even in the states you are in now you two are still bringing joy to the world because you are both precious and strong and determined to make it through this. When I talk to Nana now I can still hear the sadness in her voice but at the same time I can also hear strength. It's as if she has spoken to God and he has assured her that you are going to be fine and when she speaks to people to relay this to them in some way. She may not even be aware she is having such a calming effect on all those so concerned about your well being but she is.

After dinner with Marie two nights ago we stopped by a convenience store and bought a $5 lottery scratch off. When we got home we tried to have just a normal night like we usually do but "normal" these days is pretty much thinking about and praying for you to get better. At least it is for me. We even forgot we even bought the lottery ticket.

Yesterday we remembered we had it and Marie wanted to use a special coin with your birthday year on it to scratch it off. She found one, we scratched it off together, and needless to say it was a winner. It wasn't a big winner but if I've learned anything in the recent past it's that small wins are still wins and they add up in time.

The moral to the story is that everything is on your side. The best doctors in the world. The prayers of thousands. A solid endlessly hopeful family unit. Your own fortitude and will. And even some luck.

A beautiful, sweet, gifted, silly, fun, lucky angel. That's the Jayden-Faith Fraser I know and will be joking around with again very soon. I love you.

Uncle Nick

In the beginning an uneducated society may blame URPOs that wrestle guns away from perpetrators for then killing said perps but there will never be any video evidence (taken by the URPO themselves) to support such claims. Besides the fact that they have no motivation to kill because A, it's not in their programming and B, guns don't do them any harm. 

As a championship amateur baseball center fielder I have some perspective on how to play this. 

What you have to be thinking in this situation is that even if you have a big arm you're probably not going to throw the runner out at the plate on a single up the middle even cheating in some (aka play a little shallower than normal.)

Therefore, your best bet is to play deep because if the batter muscles up and hits one over your head you're *really* screwed. Not only is the tie run going to score (which you were hoping to cut off by playing shallow), but the batter is going to have at LEAST a double and possibly a triple if they're a fast runner. 

This is exactly what happened to the Astros center fielder tonight and led to a Rangers win. Nice. 

But don't fret, Astros center fielder. In my youth I would have optimistically played it the same way. And this is why baseball, more than any other sport, requires extra smarts and makes it > all other sports. 

The wine dude at Kroger (yes, they actually have sommeliers at Kroger but you have to go in the middle of a weekday) recommended this wine and said it "blows away Kendall Jackson. Now that's going a little far but I would say it's on par with KJ if not a little better. 

So I took a look at the bottle and saw that it's 14.5% alcohol content. If you don't know, that's at the top end. I said "14.5?!? Are you trying to get me drunk?!?" We had a good laugh and as I write this I'm not completely sober but if you think that deters from the writing process you've never read Moby Dick.

But I digress. 

The point is that Katherine Goldschmidt is an excellent Cabernet and it's no surprise it comes from winemaker Nick Goldschmidt since everyone knows that Nick is the best first name a male person (and even some female persons) can have. 

And that. As Paul Harvey would say. Is the rest of the story. 

(Editors Note: This post was a grammatical train wreck upon first draft. I fixed it for Nick but since I also AM Nick, there's no guarantee my edits improved its clarity. This is what happens when you allow just anyone (in any state) to have a blog.) :-D

Going for drinks with Amanda was a pretty regular deal but the surprise intrigued me. Was she finally gonna give it up? This I doubted. But you know, I'm a red-blooded male so that's where my mind goes pretty much all the time. 

So she takes me to some hole-in-the-wall bar I'd never been to and we order drinks. She's on the phone texting and not paying all that much attention to me which was nothing new. I just sat back and drank my beer and wondered what she was all giddy about. 

Then she excitedly got up and told me to do the same and then like out of nowhere there she was. Magnificent beauty and personality. Susan. I stood in awe. This was THE BEST surprise EVER! 

Amanda starting yapping at her at a speed at which no other human can approach to which she said "stop stop, lemme catch up!" We ordered more drinks which I'm sure included some shots and the night (shall we say) was afoot. 

What followed were drunken shenanigans that took us from bar to bar, one of which we almost got thrown out of because Susan and I played a game called "pretend you got roofied" which ended with Suze writhing around on the floor and me drooling in a chair. At the same time we were doing this Amanda was creeping out a server I knew that worked there by making not-so-subtle advances towards her. The whole scene was surreal. 

After we left that place BEFORE they threw us out we stopped by my shitty apartment so one or both girls could pee. On the way to the bathroom someone leaned on my VERY unstable workstation and the whole thing collapsed. It made a giant thud against the wall and startled my next door neighbor so much she almost called the police. 

Luckily the night ended on a calmer note at Susan's home where I ran into ANOTHER crazy awesome woman, Julie! 

We get there and I hadn't been there 2 minutes when Julie comes up to me and goes "OH MY GOD, NICK!!!" I was like "Do I know you?" She goes "YES!! I'M JULIE! YOU KNOW ME!!" I was like "I really don't think I do." But she was insistent. "YES YOU DO!! YOU KNOW ME!!" I was like "okay! It's SO wonderful to see you again for the first time!"

Susan was a gracious hostess and came to check on me and kinda tuck me in and give me water. I'm pretty sure I demanded that Amanda come sleep with me to which Suze just rolled her eyes and said "Goodnight!"

The end.