I was a chubby tween/teen. I was a nerd. I was a book worm, and I was pre-gay, if there is such a thing.

Then the 1972 Summer Olympics came along. I fell in love with these amateur sports. I felt they represented what was best in an athlete. The women’s gymnastics were my favorite sport to watch. Olga Korbut ruled that year. She was amazing.

And Mark Spitz garnered 7 Olympic Gold Medals for swimming. He became my hero. And, I also would like to point out it wasn’t a gay crush, handsome as he was. It was purely inspirational.

So I joined the jogging club at school. Then I took swim lessons. I joined a summer swim team. I joined the High School Varsity Swim team in 9th grade while I was still physically in Junior High School, but I was eligible. I walked miles to catch the bus to the college for practices. I was never anywhere near being a top swimmer, but there were not enough swimmers that anyone was ever “cut” from the team so I continued to persevere. I even had a school record for 10 days, until the other swimmers woke up! Unfortunately swimming was taken out of our school budget in 11th grade, but I swam on an AAU swim team in 12th grade. I even achieved a 2nd place finish in one intercollegiate swim race. I was so proud. And I don’t care that it was the week the whole of NYS had the flu!

I continued to swim varsity in college! Again, there were not enough swimmers that anyone was cut from the roster, so I persevered. As long as you showed up to practice you were able to stay on the team. One of my dorm supporters came to my swim meets and nicknamed me Mitch the fish. Thank-you Nancy M. for that! I even joined the Swim Team on their yearly sojourn to the International Hall of Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We raised money at our college’s football games and then drove the 24 hours down south. And I swam at the International Swimming Hall of Fame!

The Olympics inspired this overweight, unathletic, unhappy middle schooler years ago. It helped me to build some self esteem, and it gave me memories I will never forget. I will be forever grateful.

And my son and my spouse both have instructions to bury me with my Ramapo High School Swim Jacket with varsity letter. If it doesn’t fit on me, bury it next to me! That was the most important thing I did for myself, earning that jacket and letter, as a teenager!

As an adult, one of the myriad gifts that I have receive from the blog world is the chance to meet some real Olympians. Below are my pictures with some Gold Medal Heroes, they continue to inspire me today and always!

Swimming – Summer Sanders

Swimming – Aaron Peirsol

Runner – Sanya Richards

Skating – Apolo Ohno

Gymnastics – Dominique Dawes

Track & Field – Carl Lewis

Beach Volleyball – Kerri Walsh

“During his summer vacation, “Wimpy Kid” Greg Heffley, the hero of the phenomenally successful book series, hatches a plan to pretend he has a job at a ritzy country club – which fails to keep him away from the season’s dog days, including embarrassing mishaps at a public pool and a camping trip that goes horribly wrong.”

My son’s interview with the stars of the new Wimpy Kid movie went up yesterday. Today is my turn:

At the blogger press junket, the adult bloggers were invited to continue the discussion with author Jeff Kinney in a small round table setting, while the kids played upstairs. It was the mommy bloggers, and me. I love these discussions, it is not only fun to talk with a famous author, but when we are all parents, we get to tackle subjects from a different perspective. I can’t imagine how it must be on a press junket when hundreds of people ask you the same questions. We try to be a little different. I hope we succeed!

Blogger: I just want to say two days before I was invited to attend the Wimpy press day, or I even knew about the movie release, my son & I were fighting about summer reading. My son’s going into fourth grade and he picked up the Wimpy Kid book.
Mr. Jeff Kinney: Oh, really?
Blogger: You may have saved his whole educational career. So, I have to say thank you.
Mr. Jeff Kinney: Sure. Thank you for the compliment.
Blogger: And what’s next?
Mr. Jeff Kinney: What’s next for me? More books. I’m working on another one right now for the series. I’m also really excited about making an animated TV special, a holiday special, around Wimpy Kid.
And then, I don’t know. I still have a day job, and I’m working on trying to develop another television show as well.
Blogger: Maybe Wimpy Kid gets married in 10 years!
Mr. Jeff Kinney: I hope not!

(Round 2, this time I remembered to identify myself! Hey, this was my first !)

Blogger: Hi, I am Mitch from GayNYCDad.com. Two things. Did your kids always realize you were a famous figure?
Mr. Jeff Kinney: I think that it’s been a progressive experience for them, because they started off younger than the age group that reads these books. And now my older son has almost grown out of the age group that reads these books.
At first it was that the older kids in their school would say, “Hey, your dad wrote those books that I read.” And then, it kind of got to where they were in the sweet spot, in a way. And my younger son is just entering into that.
They’ve always seen me speak, and experience a lot of situations where I’m on stage. From the very beginning, my older son, he saw me in front of a bunch of preschoolers talking one time and he got up there and started talking too, because he thought he was supposed to, right? Now whenever I’m on stage, they’re happy to get up on stage too.
They’ve got that bug and I think it’s great. It’s a gift if you can make your kids comfortable in front of a crowd.
Blogger: Do you see any characteristics of your kids in your characters?
Mr. Jeff Kinney: I don’t think that my kids are like the characters in the books.
Blogger: I left it broad.
Mr. Jeff Kinney: Although L’il Cutie is modeled after my younger son all the way. As for my older son, there is a baby named Alfrendo in my sixth book, my older son named his doll Alfrendo. So that how he made it into the series.

The most fascinating information that came out of this discussion was that Mr. Kinney started writing these books as journals, with the intent that they might be a book in the humor section for adults. He did not have kids in mind. I hope we got across to him how fantastic this series is for kids, as several other bloggers also mentioned how this series helped a broad spectrum of kids to enjoy reading more because a “perfect” family is not highlighted, characters have many foibles, calamity does happen to all of us, and this is a depiction of what really happens to most if us at some point. Also, the stick figures help to keep the books interesting for kids, the diary style keeps things moving along and is captivating for the readers.

We loved the movie. We are grateful for the opportunity to have met the author and 2 of the stars from the film series, and I will use this for years to come to get my son to read more!

Visit the Wimpy Kid sites!

Create your own Wimpy Kid character from the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid at Wimp Yourself!

Like Wimpy Kid on Facebook and follow on Twitter! (And if you like to follow the hashtags:  #WimpyKidDogDays)

Disclosure: We previewed the movie, interviewed some of the cast, and were fed. All opinions are always 100% our own and honest.

Paparazzi picture! Zachary Gordon (Greg Heffley), me, Robert Capron (Rowley Jefferson), and the author, Jeff Kinney!