“My daughter wanted to do something thrilling for her birthday, like IT at Jordan’s Furniture, or zip lining at Urban Air. I decided we’d stand uncomfortably close to the Auburn Walmart pole during regular business hours.”

Was this before the pandemic?

Sent you a dm.

1. Nothing you said counters what I said
2. In your scenario a school of 300 or 3,000 will have one team. How does that benefit anyone not on the team?

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Or Aroostook County.

You’re talking about coaches. I’m talking about spectators.I’ve seen far worse behavior from the stands than from the bench, though I could write a book about both

And I would suggest NOT using EAP unless you don't care about your job.

Using EAP gives the business access to parts of your medical records. And they can and will use this against you.

If you are just working retail then don't worry about it. As those jobs are a dime a dozen. But if you have a real job or are in any public career.. I do not suggest it. Just the fact that you are looking for a therapist can still be used against you.

Because I subscribe to the theory that a word has no harmful meaning if you don't let it have one. People who keep pushing that a word has harmful meaning are the ones who perpetuate it's use as a weapon. I'm not ableist you're just not seeing the bigger picture. Letting a word get to you is the problem.

I'm with you. I've been searching for a therapist for literally years at this point Spent months and months (over a year at one place) on various agency waiting lists... only to be bumped off them because they finally had to admit that it was unlikely they would have any openings because of my insurance.

So I go to my PCP last summer and request a referral because I'm desperate and they claimed to have access to mental health providers... for the referral department to literally do nothing but say go to Sweetser... who literally fired their entire outpatient staff years ago due to LePage's cuts to Medicaid reimbursement.

It appears that the only 'resource' available now is Psychology Today... who is apparently not exactly particular about whom they allow to sign up for their listing. But at least it gets you some phone numbers to call to get on more lists.

There is a pretty awesome place upstairs next to habitat for humanity restore in Waterville.

I’ll keep it in mind if I am unsuccessful elsewhere. York is a bit of a drive even if only doing it every now and the .

Lewiston/auburn area

I have asked her if she had any recommendations, but she’s not very quick to respond so I’m continuing my search elsewhere.

The AAU equivalent in baseball is for sure killing Little League, which in turn kills high school baseball.

These kids are like 9 and being told they need to try out for travel ball and if they don't make it they must suck, etc., all while they're being asked to cough up $1500 for a season while Little League is sitting right there for $150.

Is the coaching better? Usually not really. They play the best kids, emphasize winning over everything, and blow smoke up the few good players' skirts until they start believing they're special. The uniforms and equipment are sometimes better, but they also convince parents to buy a bunch of shit no 10 year old needs.

In reality, most good 10 year old pitchers are that way because they happened to grow faster than their peers, don't have any special talent, and are allowed to go forward with crappy mechanics because they're "successful." Great!

Then, everyone catches up, they're 14 and mediocre, and they're terrible at taking coaching and so don't continue to get better. Welcome to high school! Where they quickly become frustrated because they're not very good, have no feel for the game, and it's all a mess.

What kids need is to play as much as possible in a way that keeps them enjoying the game and with feedback on technique that's appropriate to their level. That can be done on the town level just fine with some basic training of volunteer coaches.

Everyone has a story of some kid who bloomed late and was all of a sudden amazing. Too often, that kid doesn't even keep playing past 12 years old nowadays because it's not any fun being one of the kids who isn't that good while all your friends bail for travel ball. It sucks.

There are pockets of places where we're keeping the little league flame alive, but it's harder and harder every year.

Our league had 8 teams of 12 kids in the majors level as recently as 15 years ago. Now it's three teams of 10 if we're lucky.

The most important change this state needs to make in my opinion is to stop settling for good enough or business as usual. People need to embrace change and rise to the challenge and try to make things better. It starts with small things like having your store be open during hours that people with full time jobs can utilize.

Bangor is isolated. With sparsely populated areas on all sides, people in that area do rely on Bangor for basic needs but these are poor rural towns. People who don't like the bustle of Portland like to use Bangor as a second option. It's much cheaper to live up that way BUT it comes at the cost of lack of resources: southern Maine has the best Healthcare* and more options available for just about anything. Bangor does not have the same amount of money coming into it with rural towns on all sides and it also does not have the attractiveness of the ocean at its doorstep.

*I worked at MMC for about 5 years and briefly worked at an orthopedic office in Ptown. There were people who drove from as far as Caribou and Presque Isle to see Portland area specialists because nothing closer could help them.

Second this, worth a visit to see it once.

Saturday/Sunday flea market at Fort Andross in Brunswick

Don't worry it's getting gentrified one step at a time

The fathers were the loudest yellers. Sometimes they were too many of them in the dugout with the children, and the ump had to order some out. Others got into arguments over balls and strikes. I once watched the father at a Little League game meltdown because the bat one of the children was using was 2 ounces too heavy for regulation.

After Reagan the school boards across the state cut home economics, shop, art and athletics pretty much across the board. Not going to spend a penny that is not mandated by the state to confer a diploma.

I'm pretty sure that the only reason that there is any sports at our local school is because the boosters do all the fundraising to pay the coaches and the transportation. Players are expected to pay for each sport they participate in. The coaches are someone's dad or the math teacher who played sports in HS and remembers it fondly. Sometimes they are ok. But without any real coaching training sometimes you get people as coaches that absolutely should not be training children.

Also anyone who is any good at sport these days is expected to 'specialize'. That means playing one sport year round. Which normally means moving to non-school leagues. So that cuts down on the number of athletes on the school teams.

Add to that COVID restrictions and parents like me. I told the kids I'd give them one sport a year. It was all I could afford. The costs of uniforms, shoes, gas for trips for practices and games.. all on top of the 'participation fee'... times three.. gets freaking expensive.

In the end however it didn't matter. They didn't last in high school sports. No one plays for fun anymore. They play for their college resume. Like taking two years of a foreign language and racking up X number of hours of 'socially significant' volunteering. As my kids were never going to be able to go to a private college they didn't bother playing a sport. I was not cut out for the cut-throat nasty politics between player families and coaches. So they never got any play time. They were bored benchwarmers. And since they were going to state schools for college they didn't need the resume filler. So they quit.

edit: word

Have you heard of this thing called a scout?

Just Milk. They're amazing.

What’s worse than a lobster on your piano?