No, not that kind of family news. A couple big events over the last two weeks in my extended family. First, one of S.’s sisters got engaged. So far, we’re the only married folks in the family, so it will be cool to have another guy around on holidays and whatnot. He’s a really good guy and we get along great whenever we’ve been together, and the sister-in-law seems happy, so that’s all good.
It was a, how shall I put this, fast paced Saturday for us. First, I ran my second 5K of the year in the morning. The last race I ran was longer than 3.1 miles, and this one might have been shorter because I came in at less than 27 minutes, and I wasn’t running hard enough to clock that good of a time. Oh, and I’ve been running like once a week, so it’s not like I’m on some great training regimen that cut my time down.
Well, somehow C. turned one today. Was it really a year ago that we dropped M. off at her grandparents' house and took S. in for a c-section? In some ways it seems like a lot longer than that. In others, the time has really raced by. The last two or three weeks have been pretty amazing. Not that she was developmentally delayed in any way, but she has suddenly blossomed.
Last week I bought a new cell phone. Not a huge deal, since something like 180 billion cell phones are sold each day. My old phone was actually in fine shape, for the most part. But after almost three years, it took as long as 30 seconds before an out-going call would connect with the network. I spent a ton of time last week scrolling through Verizon’s site, looking at the phones that are available, the discounts I qualify for, and then reading reviews of the phones on about a dozen different sites.
We’re in the midst of having quite a bit of work done around the house. It should all be wrapped up by the end of the week, and then I’ll share what we’ve done and post some pics to Flickr so you can see. So we’re pretty busy and I haven’t had a chance to wrap up a few posts I’ve started. But I did want to share some news on the girls.
9 - Not On Our Watch - Don Cheadle and John Prendergast. A book, and I know this will surprise you, about Darfur and activism, written by two of the most notable and active members of the movement. Don Cheadle you should all know. Actor in Boogie Nights, the Oceans movies, and Hotel Rwanda. Prendergast has worked in the White House, Congress, and UN with a focus on African issues and now works with several NGOs that are attempting to end the genocide in Darfur as well as near genocides in Somalia, Uganda, and Congo.
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been working hard to get the music of the Beatles deeply ingrained in my daughters' heads. I figure if they get a solid base of Beatles, even with whatever regrettable music they listen to in their teen years (Hey, I’m just as guilty as the next person), they’ll eventually gravitate towards good music and be better people because of it. We now have a new lunchtime routine, at least on the days when S.
Even though it’s been nearly three years, when I hear M. yell out to me, “Daddy!” it still sounds a little strange. Me, a dad? But it also sounds magical, magnificent, amazing, etc. etc. etc.
I am now in possession of business cards that identify me as a writer and editor. Yikes, that sounds a little strange. More about the process of actually getting the cards in a second. I realized when they were delivered Sunday (Sunday delivery, very nice!) that this was kind of a big deal. I had business cards back when I worked the The Big C Corp. However, those were a bit of a let down.
Every baseball fan remembers You Make the Call. I think it should apply to real life as well. So here’s my conundrum. Friday, I was out running errands and sitting at a red light near a middle school as the kids were getting out. A series of buses were making the left turn onto my street. After my light turned green, the next bus continued through the light and made its turn.
Books, books, and more books. 5 - The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama. I have a problem with books written by politicians, even those politicians I like. I can’t stop thinking about how they’re angling, positioning, and posturing. It’s hard for me to separate the words on the page from the next office they will seek. This book was no different. The entire time, I kept thinking, “This man is running for president.
I tried to dig through the archives a bit today to find an old post about the kid who, one day at the Carter’s store, just came up to me and started talking and asking questions, every sentence prefaced with the word “Hey.” M. is in that mode now. It’s fun for about five minutes. Seriously, listen to a kid say “Hey…” every ten seconds for five minutes and see if the cuteness doesn’t wear off really, really quick.
A lot of ground to cover and, suddenly, nothing but time to do so. Here goes. 3000 words? We’ll see. Grab a beverage and dive in at your leisure. A commenter asked Friday how I was celebrating the end of my grad school classes. Well, here’s what I did. First, I grabbed a big, fat carnitas burrito at Chipotle. Normally, I go with the vegetarian burrito. I figured I owed myself a little pork.
Just put the finishing touches on my final article. Kind of a shitty ending to it, but, you know what? I don’t care that much. Just glad to be done. I’ll print it off and drive it down to campus in a little while, and then I will have finished my grad school requirements. How about that? Seems like we have some things to talk about. Barry Bonds. Curt Schilling’s sock.
Tonight was my last class. Ever? I sure as hell hope so. I always said I would never go back to grad school, because undergrad was enough of a chore. Yet I did return for my Master’s. However, I think it’s safe to say unless they invent a Ph. D. that doesn’t require some kind of quantitative research, the next step is not in my future. My final article is due Friday, and I’m plugging away at that.
We braved the grocery store with both girls today. Normally I do the shopping while S. stays home with them. It was a typical day with two kids: C. was fussy the first 15 minutes we were in the store; as soon as her mood improved, M. started acting up. Loads of fun. While I was in line to check out, S. found a fountain with goldfish in it that kept M.
That’s what my father-in-law was calling me today, professor. The exciting entry on my calendar today was serving as a guest speaker at a local high school on the crisis/genocide in Darfur. Yes, as scary as it may sound, I was imparting wisdom on the future leaders of this country. And at the swankiest high school in the city, too. I corrupted the best and brightest! So how did this strange event come about?
It’s opening day, excuse me, Opening Day. I’m preparing for a ten hour orgy of baseball with a little college hoops thrown in for good measure. S. is working tonight, so I’ve already instructed the girls that there will be no nonsense tonight as daddy gets his baseball on. I’ve already got ESPN on, and checked in on a few games on MLB Audio. The Internets are a beautiful thing. I think the Royals are going to surprise a lot of people this year.
I think I’ve shared this before, but since it’s being repeated more and more, it deserves another mention. M. has this strange habit of calling certain things “the peoples’….” The most common example is “the peoples’ water.” She always wants “the peoples’ water.” We have no idea where this came from. I’ve actually paid attention to some of her shows this week to see if I can pick the reference up there, but have yet to find a connection.
On our last trip to the library, we picked up a CD of Beatles songs sung by kids. A lot of them are completely intolerable to adults, but hey, I had to start indoctrinating the girls with good music. Each time we hop into the family truckster for a journey somewhere, M. asks, “Are we listening to Beatles music, daddy?” This morning, C. and I were watching VH1 Classic while waiting for M.