Category: Parenting

  • Brackets

    It is almost Spring, which means that it’s time for everyone to make a bracket for the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

    I don’t follow college basketball; I just need to get that out there first. But what I do follow is competition, and the chance to show old friends how good I am at something I know nothing about. That’s why I love making a bracket. I don’t know crap, but now and then, I will make better picks than my friends who spend hours researching, and working on their predictions.

    For my method of making picks. I just kind’a make up a story in my head about what I think will make a dramatic tournament. I have to have several huge upsets, and small schools beating powerhouses. I like to pick the Ivy League to win in the first round, just because a “brains” beating the “jocks” is a story that is always entertaining. And then, for no good reason at all, I’ll pick a #8 seed team to win the whole thing, in honor of the 1985 Villanova team.

    I downloaded the ESPN Tournament app on my phone, but as of writing this, I haven’t put a bracket together. I normally do three, because why the hell not. One is for my “real” picks, one is just random, and one is my best guess as to which team’s mascot would win in a fight against the other team’s mascot.

    The one development this year is that my daughter is interested in make a bracket. We will knock that out after school today, and I will let her pick whatever she likes. I won’t lie, I like the idea of watching the games with my kid. That feels like a wholesome father/daughter thing to do.

  • Spring Break (Unedited)

    I’m not using this as an excuse… but here’s my excuse; the kid is on Spring Break, and we’ve being doing stuff in the City, so I haven’t had any time to write. Which isn’t 100% true, as I have had some down time after running around with the kid, but I’m so tired, I just stare at my phone or nap.

    Right now, I’m at a playground on the Upper East Side, watching the kid and her friend running around. What I want is to nap, because we did run around the Guggenhiem for a couple of hours. To keep myself awake, I’m trying to hammer out a log on my phone. It’s kind’a working.

  • Short Story Review: “Five Bridges” by Colm Tóibín

    (The short story “Five Bridges” by Colm Tóibín appeared in the March 10th, 2025 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Photograph by Todd Hido for The New Yorker

    Sometimes when I start reading a short story, in the back of my mind, I start rooting for it. You know, cheering it on, hoping that the story succeeds. Like wishing that your favorite ballplayer hits a homerun when they’re at the plate. So you see, I found myself really pulling for Colm Tóibín’s “Five Bridges” to do well, and accomplish its goals.

    Here’s an overly simplified synopsis: Paul, an Irish guy who has been living in the United States illegally for over thirty years, has decided to move back to Ireland, but in so doing, that will mean he will have to leave his daughter, whom he fathered with woman he never married. But before he leaves, his daughter wants Paul, the mother and the mother’s husband, to all hike Mount Tam which is outside of San Francisco.

    It all starts well. The first section is about Paul hiking with his daughter, Geraldine, and then she tells him her idea about everyone hiking together to Mount Tam. Then at a very leisurely pace, we learn about the strained relationship Paul has with Geraldine’s mother, Sandra. We learn about Paul’s profession as an unlicensed plumber, his socks filled with cash, and his recovery over his alcoholism. Then the story takes a rather hard right turn with the introduction of Paul’s friend Kirwan, another Irishman, and the semi support group Kirwan creates for other single Irishmen living in the Bay Area. Then the story shifts back to Paul, Geraldine, Sandra and her husband, Stan, as the hike up the mount. I’ll leave it there as to not ruin the ending.

    As you can see, Tóibín layers his story, and generally it all works together smoothly, with the exception of that hard-right turn with Kirwan. Also, several themes play under the surface here; fathers and daughters, blended families, immigration, culture clashes, redemption, penance… And as the story went on, and I got closer and closer to the final page, that’s when I started hoping and rooting for this story to all pull together.

    I was enjoying what I was reading, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that nothing was getting it’s full due time to resolve itself. When I encounter stories that feel like this, it’s hard for me to shake the feeling that the piece needs a larger format (a novel) to explore the characters, motivations and themes. I wouldn’t go as far to say I was disappointed with the story; more like I was pulling for it, and wanted to it work.

  • Man, Am I Tired

    Not sure what happened. I went to bed at my normal-ish time last night. I did stay up and watch the Oscars, so maybe that had something to do with it.

    I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the Oscars, but it has been over 15 years since I have seen all the best picture nominees, let alone half of them. But I am a movie fan, and I like the spectacle, and it is something fun to debate with friends, and I wanted to see what Conan would do. With all of that said, it was a rather dull affair. My kid wanted to stay up and watch it with me, which I agreed to, but she was out by 9pm.

    When the Oscars were over, and the kid off to bed, I started to watch Becket. I hadn’t seen it since high school, and I didn’t get too far into it. I found Peter O’Toole’s Henry II grating on my nerves, which I understand was the point. Then I thought about watching Lion in Winter, which is also about Henry II but at the end of his life and with succession being the driver of that plot. Though Lion in Winter is not a sequel to Becket, with O’Toole playing Henry II in both films, it sort of very loosely, kind’a is.

    I bring all of this up for no other reason than it occurred to me last night.

    And this morning, I just felt off. Very tired, a little anxious, and all around uneasy about myself and the day before me. The last time I felt like this was when I was working a particular job that I started to despise, and knew it was time for me to leave. But I couldn’t pin down why I was feeling this way, especially on a day like today.

    But there is a very harsh reality with being the age that I am and also having responsibilities of my family; I had to push through it. I had to make breakfast for the gang. I had to get people up and on their way. I had to do laundry and clean up. I had to making chicken stock for dinner, and lunch for the wife. In a little bit, I will take that chicken stock and tech my kid how to make Greek Lemon Soup.

    I just have to keep pushing through, but that feeling hasn’t gone away today.

  • Random Pictures

    Busy day, and trouble finding a topic, so how about the last five pictures off my phone.