Category: Life

  • That Other Anniversary

    And I happen to have another anniversary this week. Today is my ten-year wedding anniversary. I am a little surprised that I have been married for ten years. It did go by rather fast. I never thought that I would get married in the first place, so to get to this place, I guess does show that the two of us made the right call.

    The truth is that most of our anniversaries haven’t had the best celebrations attached to them. Our first anniversary was pretty great as we took a week in Vermont to celebrate. And then after that, it’s been pretty hit and miss. One year, the wife was out of work and money was pretty tight, but we still went out at the local restaurant down the block; nothing fancy. Another year, my wife was pregnant, so no alcohol silliness for either of us, nor oysters. After the kid was born, that anniversary celebration was a babysitter, and an afternoon movie. We also don’t do big gifts. Most of the time it’s Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream on the couch laughing at something on TV.

    But neither of us complain about it. I could be all cute and sentimental and say that the kid is our wonderful anniversary gift, but that would be a lie. The kid makes us a family, which is awesome, but I married my wife because I like spending time with her, and she’s smart and makes me laugh, and is fun.

    She’s still fun after all of this time.

  • Napping

    The kid hates naps. She hasn’t regularly taken one for over a year now. Oh sure, now and then she’ll take one, but it’s pretty rare. Now, if we suggest taking a nap, she treats it like a punishment.

    We all know that in about eight years or so, she’ll get back on board with napping. Then she’ll be like us, and want to take naps but can’t find the time.

    But you know who gets naps on their own terms? My 77 year old father. He naps when he feels like it and it’s glorious. I am jealous, that’s true. I would to be able to accomplish a task like he does, and then reward himself with a nap. Yet another thing to look forward to in retirement,

  • Contemplations of a Brook

    We got out of the City for a few days. Where we found ourselves was in the country, on one of our planned vacations, and next to where we are staying is a brook. Where I’m from, we would have called it a creek. Or maybe it’s a stream. Either way, its water rushing over rocks. Nature’s white noise machine. And it is a rushing, turning, moving brook. I dare not wade into it, as I think it would carry me away. The water is clear, and I can only imagine very cold.

    As I have looked at this brook for the past couple of days, I want to know where the source of the water is. I want to know where it is going. The water passes through the property, but I have no gage on the role this water plays in the countryside. Is it spring feed? Does it come from the mountains? Is it created by the rainfall? I know all water makes it to the sea, but does the brook stop off at a pond or a lake?

    At night, when I go to sleep, I hear the rushing of the water, and it is the first thing I hear in the morning. The birds calls around here have to fight to be heard. The movement of water, passing and going. The continuous, calming sound.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Summer Day Camp’s Last Day, Vacations, Tottenham Anxiety

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    Today is the final day of the kid’s Summer Day Camp, and it went wonderfully well. I think the wife and I over did it asking the kid if she wants to go back next year. The answer is yes, and hopefully, we can give her a month there, instead of two weeks. The other thing that made me happy about the camp is that our daughter had no qualms about being away from us for 6 hours, and in fact, wanted it to be longer. To me that says she is in a healthy place with being away from her parents; She wants to separate and have her own experiences, like a normal kid.

    Now we start the stretch of vacations. Yes, that is means more than one this Summer. We were lucky if we got away for one vacation a year in the past. And most of the time a “vacation” was just leaving home for a few days, and could also mean visiting family, which sometimes can be the opposite of relaxing. For us to go someplace and actually relax and not doing anything has been rare. This summer, we’re getting two trips. I feel very spoiled in saying that, even a little self-conscious. I know this is due to Covid and being trapped home for the past 15 months, but wow! I really want to get the hell out of this apartment for a couple of days.

    So… Tottenham is a bit of a shit show right now. Have they even picked a manager yet? Is it Nuno? And Harry Kane rumors are all over the place, but Tottenham has him on contract for one more year, and I still hold that Kane made that, “I want to be on a teams that wins championships” statement to get management to do something, like build a team, or keep the talent they have (like Son) and solve that defense issue they have in the last ten minutes of every match! Friendly matches start up next week, so I hope to see some changes myself.

  • The Jobs I’ve Had

    Over the past couple of mornings, I have been thinking about all the jobs that I have had. From my first job sacking groceries at 16, to the last one, at the start of the pandemic, running a kids dance studio. And I will define “job” as paid employment. Not work, because I have worked on a lot of things, and never got paid.

    The first job was at a grocery store. Then I worked as a telemarketer, and at a Blockbuster Video. I worked at a Barnes and Noble, and delivered pizzas, then made pizzas, and then managed a pizza shop. I managed a costume shop at my university, and then did marketing for an outdoor theatre. I also did marketing for a small publisher, and a little copy editing, too. I was a background investigation specialist, and theatre director. Then I was a temp around NYC, doing a lot of emailing for different companies. Then I was an office manager for a rehearsal studio. I was a working actor, puppeteer, director, and even did a short stint as a producer. Then I managed another rehearsal studio, then ran all of their operations, and finally I was the managing director of the whole joint. Then I was the managing director of a different joint. I got paid to write a review of a B movie for an online magazine. Then I was the operations director for an art center, thus ending on running the kids dance studio.

    I think that’s all the job’s I’ve had. I might have missed one or two.

    And I can say with 100% Honesty, I worked the hardest for the jobs that paid me the least.