Tag: Kids

  • It Snowed

    It snowed last night. That was cool. We haven’t received any snow this year in NYC, and it feels really weird. I am aware that this might become the new normal for the region. Warmer than average temperatures, then a bomb blizzard, then back to above normal temps. When do we get to the point that this is now normal? I think you get there when all of the people who remember what it was like before have died off.

    Yikes! There’s your dark take on a Tuesday.

    The nice thing about our three inches of snow was that it made walking the kid to school an exercise of fun and excitement. She got to put on her snow shoes, which, obviously, she hasn’t had a chance to wear. And the best part was her walking in all the spots of fresh snow no one had touched yet. She was giddy, and I am sure it has made sitting in class today very difficult.

    For me, I feel like I have been granted the first season of the year. It really isn’t Winter around here until there is snow. You know. You need flowers in the Spring, heat in the Summer, and leaves changing in the Fall. It’s part of the deal. And the older I get, the more I need it to happen. The cliché is for old people to move South or West, get out of the cold and live in the heat. But I find myself running in the opposite direction. I want to see the passage of time, the cycle continue and renew.

    Let’s face it, as some people get older, they want to be as comfortable as possible, which makes complete sense. You have worked hard, now you want to relax and enjoy the final years, and be as predictably comfortable as possible. Not knocking it, and I may want that someday.

    But what I want now is to see the changes come. To count my Winters and Summers, and experience the seasons. Has being comfortable ever spurned growth? Maybe I’m not ready to stop the wheel of time in life. Maybe I need to see the passage of time to know that I have a place in it. (I’m putting a lot on these three inches of snow, I know that.) Maybe seasons remind me that there is something bigger than me out there.

    (Psst! If you enjoyed, pleas take a moment and give this post a “like.” I, ahh…, I need the algorithm to kick me up a notch. Thanks.)

  • The Kid has Learned Well

    Last week, I mentioned that the kid was off from school for her “Mid-Winter Break.” I do not know of a single parent in the City that finds this “break” enjoyable. It is a week of scrambling to find things for the kid to do, so she doesn’t sit in front of a screen the whole time. I think I did an okay job last week. She surely didn’t have less screen time, but she didn’t have more.

    I mean, I’m not an idiot here. I do understand that I am receiving a wonderful gift, which is getting to spend time with my kid, at an age where she still likes and respects me. (The clock is ticking until that goes away…) She is forming her own opinions on music, and movies, and books she wants to read. She is just now taking the first steps in trying to figure out the world around her, and where she fits in. Being a witness to that is a great fringe benefit of being a parent.

    The kid did pepper me with lots of questions last week about growing up in Texas during the 90’s, in the suburbs, where it was warm or hot all the time. Describing growing up outside of Dallas is a fascinating and odd tale that my daughter, with her urban New York City upbringing, has a hard time wrapping her head around. Of all the things I have told her, she finds it amazing that the D/FW area will totally shut down at the first sight of snow; Not a blizzard, or sub-freezing temperatures, but just the tiniest of snowflakes falling would wreck North Texas.

    I think my story telling had an effect on her, as this morning, when getting ready for school, she told me she wanted to dress like a “90’s kid.” I was puzzled, so I asked her what a “90’s kid” looks like? I was told “90’s kids” wear; light blue jeans, All-Star shoes, baggy long sleeve tee-shirts, and listen to cd’s.

    She wasn’t wrong.

    And I also find it rather amazing that my daughter so succinctly summed up a very formative decade of my life. The only way she could have been more on the money is if she wanted a pack of clove cigarettes and a beat-up paperback copy of Naked Lunch to read.

  • Thoughts on Time and Settling (Unedited)

    The wife and I made a promise to each other for 2023. I don’t want to call it a resolution, because those are stupid, and doomed to fail. The promise we made was twofold:

    “No more wasting time, and no more settling.”

    This isn’t self-help garbage, like the “Hang in There” kitten poster. This is a pragmatic reminder.

    We do waste an enormous amount of time each day. Looking at our phones is the biggest culprit. But also, mindless eating while looking at the tv. Staying up late to stay up late (that one’s all me) and I have to go back and mention the phones again, because, you know, phones will eat up hours of your day. See, and this time wasting leads to us having to settle on things, because we haven’t given ourselves enough time to accomplish the things we want to do. It can be a vicious cycle, and we’d like to bust out of unhealthy cycles.

    And like all changes in life, no one really likes it, and it’s hard to follow though on.

    The wife is doing better than I. She is making it to yoga on the scheduled days, and going to bed on time. I can’t seem to get to the gym more than twice a week, and that should increase to at least three to four days a week. Like I said above, I’m still not making it to bed on time, which means I’m only getting like six hours of sleep.

    And as we start the game of setting goals and trying to achieve them as a family, I can’t shake the feeling that there is a clock, and I am running out of time. Maybe it has to do with being in my mid-forties, which I have been thinking about a lot of late, and that I might need to have to make some tough choices; I can’t do it all – something will have to fall to the wayside and be left behind.

    I have been with my wife for seventeen years, married for twelve, and they have been good years. We have a kid we love, and want to provide for, which is the real motivation for this. We will only have so much time with her, and then she will be out there in the world. We need to be parents that she can count on, and follow through when we say we are going to do something.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Trump Trading Cards, School Holiday Concerts, and World Cup Prediction

    (Elon is watching…)

    Trump released trading cards yesterday. It was a big announcement, if you haven’t heard. A great number of people who are funnier and fast than me have already jumped on this, and created some spectacular comedy from this shit show. I only bring it up here, because I wonder how many people will be receiving these trading cards for Christmas? And of those who received them, how many actually wanted them? And I also wonder how many cards were given because the giver knew it would piss off the recipient? We do live in polarizing times.

    I love school concerts and recitals. I never thought about them in conjunction with becoming a parent, but it is a requisite activity that parents are required to take part in, or at least sit through. And for the record, it normally is a very cute hour of your life. Having gone to several now, I want to give a shout out to the kid, who is always in the back, who refuses to take part. You know, the kid that just stands there; not mad, or angry, or afraid. They just stand in the back and don’t move. I look forward to seeing who that kid is every year, for sometimes it does change. One year my kid stood in the back and didn’t move. Then the next year she was up front and singing as loud as she could. Tip of the cap to the kid not moving in the back!

    Argentina.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Movie Trailers, They’re Talking About Me, and Christmas

    (Pay teachers more. You know it’s true.)

    Yesterday was a big day for the release of movie teaser trailers. We got one for the new Transformers movie though I wonder who out there is asking for another installment of that series, one for Guardians of the Galaxy, and the one that hit my sweet spot was the new Indiana Jones. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I still find it exciting to watch after all of these years. It can still take me back to being seven years old and seeing it for the first time. And I can also say that I am old enough now to know that nothing, no matter how good this movie is, will recapture that feeling of being a little boy and having no idea where Raiders was going to take me. But at the same time, I will be first in line to see it when it comes out.

    There is a New York Times article that was written about me! Not me specifically, but my middle aged demographic, which I will take as the story is about me. The article examines why middle aged men are not returning to the workforce after the pandemic. The piece gives several reasons, but it mainly focuses on men who do not have college educations, as they make up a large number of these middle aged men. For me, I don’t necessarily want to return to an office job, but I do want to bring in additional income for my family. And family is the optimal word there. My real job is taking care of my daughter and my family, and I do enjoy it. Yet, living on one income in the most expensive city in the US, does make our lives feel rather fragile. I believe that things will change for us when we get into the new year. I’m not asking for much; just $500 a month would make a big difference.

    Christmas is like, three weeks away…

    (And here is where I ask you to like, comment, share, or follow my blog. It’s a standard thing I do now.)