Author: Matthew Groff

  • Life with My Dog

    We have a little dog that is one tough coward. This dog is great with people and kids, and I have often made the joke that if I got mugged while walking her, the dog would roll over for the mugger. BUT, what makes the dog maddening is that she want to fight and kill any dog we encounter on the street. So, she tried to be a tough little dog.

    And then the rain comes, and she turns into the biggest little chicken. I know many dog are scared of thunder and fireworks, and our furry one is the same. Right now, thunderstorms are rolling through, and she is curled up with me, shivering, waiting for the weather to pass.

    I am taking full advantage of my scared dog. Normally, she is following my wife around the apartment because I guess the dog thinks she’s the alpha around here; Not that the dog is wrong. This means I don’t get a whole lot of snuggle time with the dog.

    Not that I am demanding that the dog spends her time with me. I am a cat person, so I feel like an animal and me should be more like roommates than family members. You know, I respect your space, your respect mine. But now and then, I would like the dog to curl up on my lap while I read. Not a big ask, but I feel it is manageable.

    The one thing I will say (as a person, a person in a relationship, and a person in a family) I don’t think I like the idea of living without an animal. There is something reassuring having a pet in the home, and taking her on vacations, and just another life at the end of the bed.

  • ODDS and ENDS: New Schedule, Rewriting, and August 6th

    (I do less before 9am, than most people do all day.)

    The kid is out of school for summer which means that stay-at-home-dad’s school year schedule has been thrown out the window. I know it isn’t my job to “entertain” the kid every moment of the day, but it does mean that I am her go to person for questions, and just about everything else. The quandary I find myself in is when do I write? I was knocking out blogs in the morning, but as of this week, the time is hard to find. I might have to write at night and publish in the morning. Or, whatever. I’ll figure out the new schedule.

     While I was on vacation, I didn’t do much writing, though I did spend a bit of time thinking about it. What I came up with is that I have to rewrite a story. And it’s a story that I have rewritten three times already. And it’s a story that I have submitted to four different lit journals. Not that it matters, as the chance of it getting published, even if it is rewritten, are slim at best. I just can’t stop tinkering with it. On one hand, I want to get it right, and on the other hand, I wonder if I keep messing with it as a form of procrastination?

    Premiere League starts up on August 6th. Well, that’s when Tottenham’s first match is.

  • Odd Start to Summer for the Kid

    New York City is just weird compared to the rest of the country, so let’s just start right there. I say this because around here, kids are off from school for July and August. The month of July is when all the camps happen, both sleep-away and day camps. August is the vacation month, or at least that’s when most people take their vacations, because August is honestly the worst month to be in NYC; it’s hot, humid, and there is this tar/urine/wet-garbage smell that is everywhere. Last Summer, in the month of July, the kid was in a day camp for the first two weeks in July, then we spent a couple of days with friends in Vermont. Following that, the kid took the last week in July to visit a friend in Virginia. It was only when we got to August that we started running around the parks and playgrounds again, and the kid made some friends that she ended up seeing most days, so she had someone to play with. We left on vacation right after school ended, and now that we are back in the City, the kid is running into the problem that there aren’t any kids her age to play with at the playground. There are little kids under six years old, but very few kids over that age. And today, it finally clicked in why that is; all the older kids are at camps. And it is really hot out, too. It’s an odd start to Summer in the City for the kid. Added on top of that is the inevitable let down of coming home from after a vacation. Home just seems very dull after a week of staying up late, eating ice cream, and going to amusement parks. She’s a little bored, and I am okay with her learning how to deal with boredom. Yet, I also had hoped that there would be a few kids she could run around with.

  • I Took A Break From Blogging

    I took a break from blogging because I was on vacation. I think I tipped my hand to this fact when my last post was about the airlines and being at an airport. But, I actually had every intention of writing and posting while I was away. I had even set time aside in my schedule.

    But, clearly, I didn’t post anything. I felt bad about it on the first day, and then I tried to write something on the second day which never materialized, and on the third day I reminded myself I was on vacation and forgot about writing. I took two afternoons to journal, but that was it.

    Now that I am back home, I need to start up again, keep the habit going. And I was ready this morning. I had my computer open, WORD doc ready to capture the magic.

    And then I watched The Drew Barrymore Show.

    The kitchen was kind of dirty, so I cleaned it.

    I went to the drug store because we were sort of low on toilet paper, and really, nothing is worse than running out of toilet paper.

    Then it was lunchtime.

    And I promised the kid we’d go to the park after lunch.

    While at the park, I finished reading Second Place by Rachel Cusk, and I thought I should write about that. But that would take some time and I should do that at home.

    So, I wrote this. On my phone. While kids are running by me at the playground, screaming with joy and throwing water balloons. (It is a pleasant though hot Summer afternoon.) This isn’t a particular important post, but it is the post where I’m stretching out my legs, so to speak. Like a pre-season game, or a friendly match.

    Just getting back into the habit, you know.

    (Say! If this blog tickled your fancy, please consider a gracious act of liking, commenting, or sharing this post. I can’t promise anything, but the last person who did that had five years of good luck.)

  • Airline Passengers Suck

    I flew out of LaGuardia the other morning. I had read all the news stories about how under staffed and overwhelming the airlines were, so I planned accordingly. Got to the airport two hours early, and checked in online, and I had my ID and everything ready to go. I just needed to check one bag. So, I got in line.

    And this is where I have to say I don’t think all the delays are the airline’s fault. I know that I was at LaGuardia, which is a major hub, so I’m not at all surprised that this would be a location that was fully staffed – which it was. All the the counters had someone working, and there were even staff walking up and down the lines seeing if there were questions they could answer for people. What I saw was that the airlines were really trying. Making an effort, you know.

    What I also saw was how shitty airline passengers are. Yes, most of them truly do suck. In my line alone, we had a guy who over slept and missed his flight, which the airline was willing to rebook him same day, but he refused to accept their options. I watched a couple try to check in three bags that were all over weight. I saw three guys hold up the line because their seats weren’t together, even thought they all admitted they had booked their seats independently. And I could go on and on…

    Look, I get it is easy to blame big corporations for doing shady things to their customers, and airlines do deserve to be shit on, if nothing else, for the lack of leg room on the planes. But, I think we should also keep in mind that some of these delays and issues are being caused by some rather crappy human beings.

    That is all.

    Happy Travels.

    (If you like this, then like it back! Please.)