– Performed by Valerie Cox

My Shower – lyrics

If there’s something that I have to do
So basic for me, just a daily activity
But it means so much more to you
Then there’s no need to close the door
I don’t know why I did it before
I have to shower anyway
Why don’t you watch while I get started with my day?

My shower has the power
In the early morning hour
Soap and steam and I sing some too
You like to watch, I know it’s true
It’s just a little way I like to say
I love you; here let me show you too

The shower was my own half hour
But now I know I have the power
To make your day start out a better way
While I get started with my own day
If you love me then get out of bed
There’s room for two you sleepy head

My shower has the power
In the early morning hour
Soap and steam and I sing some too
You like to watch, I know it’s true
It’s just a little way I like to say
I love you; here let me show you too

Sometimes our shower turns into more
I don’t keep track, I don’t keep score
But when you join me, have me, hold me,
I’m not surprised by the water that ends up on the floor

My shower has the power
In the early morning hour
Soap and steam and I sing some too
You like to watch, I know it’s true
It’s just a little way I like to say
I love you; here let me show you too

Lyrics Copyright©2008 by Mark L. Berry

Street Justice

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This is my tribute to ERAU’s 25th year of NAIA sanctioned baseball (2013). I played for the team just prior to this official intercollegiate era when the ERAU Baseball Team was still a club back in 1983-1985.

(and here’s a more readable version)

Ode to Eagle Baseball by Mark L Berry

(557 words)

25 Years of Embry Riddle athletics—wow. Back in my day (1983-1985) prior to ERAU’s inclusion as an NAIA member, the baseball team was technically a club, and we answered to the Student Activities department much like the SCUBA and the chess clubs. We bought our own uniforms and provided our own transportation to our few self-scheduled road games. We enjoyed such lavish club benefits as thirty free photocopies per month in the Student Activities office, and we were allowed to hoist a giant paper announcement banner inside the University Center any week that we’d successfully scheduled a home game—but mostly we played before less than a handful of my teammates girlfriends and wives. Once, we painted a jockstrap on our baseball banner with the slogan: We Need Supporters. Our attempt to attract a larger audience using this humorous promotion only earned us a stern verbal warning from Student Activities, and our meager privileges were put on probation.

The fields we played on were not like the lush grass and manicured infield maintained inside the glorious stadium that I discovered while visiting the Daytona Beach campus. Back in the mid eighties, the east side of Clyde Morris Blvd—where Eagle Stadium now stands—was nothing but woodlands.

We practiced and played many of our games on several sandlot ball fields tucked in against Runway 16 by the airport terminal. I have a special place in my heart for those fields, and the memory is usually triggered after wolfing a bowl of chili. Recollections of fire-ant bites and stings must trigger the same part of my gray matter as heartburn. The fire ants were the only downside to an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable several seasons as an ERAU Eagle. I remember joking with my teammates about our great shifting defense. I don’t know how our catcher maintained his steady posture behind the plate, but the eight of us out in the field would pace in small circles to prevent the fire ants from climbing up our stretched socks stirrups.

I remember feeling like a pro while sliding into second base and nearly a dozen umpires calling me safe—while several more simultaneously screamed: You’re out! We shared these fields with the Wendelstedt Umpire School, and they often lined up more men in black than we fielded players in blue.

At the plate, curveballs gave me more trouble than Professor Kumpula’s 7 a.m. Aircraft Performance class. His quizzes burned like spitballs set on fire. They always contained three seemingly logical choices, and then the much-feared additional options: Select choice D for all of the above, or choice E for none of the above.

We played some powerhouse teams while they were in town for spring training—unofficially. Our shifting defense didn’t distract them at all, and these disciplined, competitive teams routinely trounced us. The professional umpire experience probably left more of an impression than our futile level of competition. Nevertheless, we felt every bit like legitimate college ball players, paving the way for today’s sanctioned school team.

The ERAU Eagles have come a long way. I wish you all a safe, fun, and successful 2013 season. Go out and make me proud, and beware of the fire ants.

Cheers, Mark L Berry
BS in Aero Science – ERAU, Dec. 1985
MFA in Creative Writing – Fairfield University, Jan. 2012

Current Events and Updates

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– Performed by Shannon DeCourcey
– Words by Mark L Berry & Music by Shannon DeCourcey

The Ant and the Boy and the Sun – Lyrics

(verse 1)
Out from his mound
An ant makes a sound
That resembles a prayer to the sun
He’ll forage all day
And when the sun goes away
What will his efforts have won?

A baby is born
One early morn
And his mother says, “Welcome young lad.
We have school planned for you.
And a job lined up too.
And one day you’ll be just like your dad.”

(chorus)
The sun comes up
The sun goes down
And science says
The world goes ‘round
As the days go by
Do you wonder why
Why we were born
And why we will die

(verse 2)
The ant roams an acre
He’s a real mover-shaker
And toils his time in the sun
Ever since birth
The boy roams the earth
With not just a walk but a run

The ant and the boy
Know the same joy
Of the sun rising and setting again
But their days will count down
Whether or not they look ‘round
And everything comes to an end

(chorus)
The sun comes up
The sun goes down
And science says
The world goes ‘round
As the days go by
Do you wonder why
Why we were born
And why we will die

(extended chorus)
To live forever
Wouldn’t that be great
We know we can’t
So we procreate
Then another one
Looks up to the sun
And her life begins
With ours almost done

If she lives a full life
Or dies the next day
Still the sun rises
And sets the same way
And the ant makes his rounds
And he treads the same grounds
His tiny world
Is like ours in that way

(bridge)
Do we really care?
Do we really know?
If life is more
Than a magic show
Do we really know?
Do we really care?
What’s beyond our own world
If there’s more out there?

(chorus)
The sun comes up
The sun goes down
And science says
The world goes ‘round
As the days go by
Do you wonder why
Why we were born
And why we will die

(final extended chorus)
Like the ant from the mound
Now snug in our hole
Our bodies retired
Under some grassy knoll
The sun will still rise
The sun will still set
Our lives will be over
With or without regret

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