Daddy Day Care

Have to admit, staying at home with Quinn has presented some challenges:

.Pulling him away from the television - the kid loves TV, pulling him away to other projects has been challenging. A lot of the good free events for kids that normally go on during the week are not being offered during the holiday season. Come on January!

. Not "over-napping" - it's winter and I work night shift. This is a challenge more for me than for him. That nap-time in the afternoon sure looks cozy and inviting. Plus, it makes it hell on Tammy when she is trying to go to bed at night.

.Kid wants to constantly be on the go now. He never wants to stop, I think home is all about bed time and being forced to eat things other than chicken and French fries. Even tonight, we did some stuff around town and he still didn't want to come home. Too busy partying in the "bye-bye" car....

There has been one major plus side: I have grown more attached to this kid than I ever thought I could. When at worm or out with the guys, I genuinely miss hanging out with him. It is like have a crazed frat brother roommate. Without the drunken stupors.

I don't think I could tire of this. Planning on starting work on my MBA in the Spring, so him,plus work, plus school, should bring some adversity, but with the great support system I have at work, and my wife and greatest love, Tammy. Things are gonna be great in 2013.

Peace and hair grease...

WITHOUT OUR CHARLIE-DOG

Today, my wife lost her best friend. Charlie was around before me. He roamed up and down the hallways of our home, looking for food or love for almost a decade. It used to drive me insane, now the house seems terribly quiet.

My Dad loved him too. I will never forget his insistence that we go to Pet Smart and get him a present for Christmas. He always wanted him to fight and wrestle with him, but Charlie never got mad. That always cracked my Dad up.

My friend Spencer was a big fan of Charlie's. Spencer would come over and rub his back for hours on Boys' Nite, or any other occasion here. I am pretty sure Spencer is not going to know what to do with himself the next time he comes over.

I loved him too. He was always loud, always stinky, always in my face but he was always, my Charlie.

Peace and Hair Grease

Holidays

The holidays seem to get rougher for me as I get older. I tend to now, miss the innocence and wonder of the season. Depressing, huh? I am gonna make some changes in my personal habits and routines, that I think will help. Plus, I am going to be home with the family more. I think that being here will be a big positive for me, as well.

Right now our old dog, Charlie is pretty sick and we are just devastated. He has been a constant companion for Tammy, long before I ever came along. He has been a real part of our family. I hope he can turn this corner and get back to being his old self.

Quinn seems to just be in awe of everything this year. Southern Lights, other homes decorations and just what we have around the house, his reactions have been our greatest joy so far this holiday season.

The Daddy Day Care experience has been fun so far. I am going to start working on my MBA, so I better like it. I do feel us bonding a bit more and I hope that I can be a better role model for him in the coming year.

Hope to join this new gym here on the North End, Planet Fitness, and see if I can actually whip myself into shape in the coming year. We are hoping to go to Vegas in the Spring, so I gotta look good.... Hehehe.

Well, I hope to make this more of a personal nightly journal. Which will become, really annoying, but the page will be what it is and it makes me feel good to vent a bit. Whether I have other readers or not.

Peace and hair grease

This Grown-up Stuff is Hard

      Up in the middle of the night, smelling a horrible dog fart, looking for a sign that I may have made, in the words of most of the characters on Arrested Development, "a horrible mistake" in career decision.

     This decision crisis is coming earlier to me than from what I have seen from most nursing students. Mainly because I have so much riding on every decision I make concerning school. How much study time do I put in versus, being able to function at my current job versus family time.

      It is rough out here in the real world.

     It is also tough for me because I have made so many career changes, most admittedly not of my own choosing. I feel that I have often stumbled into what many would call successes, mainly on the backs and coat tails of others. Somehow, I have ended up with a beautiful, and more than a little understanding, wife and a little boy who looks at me with such love that I tear up just thinking about it.
    
     I love my work and UK. I know this is the right place for me, but I am not getting any younger. You can only bounce back professionally so many times. I always fear, that this may be the last bounce, that if things don't go in the correct direction, the fragile "house of cards" will come crashing down.

     The best consolation, is that I have the wife, successful in her own right. That we have an amazing support system in her family. Finally, I have that little boy who needs me to win. Who needs me to find that confidence and career that will make him want to be just like his Daddy.

     This Grown-Up stuff is hard.

Lighter Notes:

 

 

     We had a great Boys' Nite tonight. Glad all four of us could get together and they could spend some time with Quinn. During our NO QUINN ALLOWED TIME, we watched they very funny, PIRANHA 3D. This movie is truly only for adults and 13 yr old boys to sneak and watch on HBO late at night. It is juvenile and bloody with a wink to the camera with every bikini close-up and every skull left behind. Highly recommended for the "so intentionally bad, that it is unintentionally good" crowd. Also, it is as R rated as they come.

 

     We turned our IPhones back on and with little hesitation, I reactivated my Facebook account. Of course, little has changed. The under-informed continue to shout the loudest, while saying the least. I am sure many find me the same way. Dropped a few people and hid news feed updates from more. It is practically embedded in your phone that Facebook accounts be a part of every application. C'est la vie....

 

Peace and Hair Grease to all.....

 

 

 

Home on Sunday Morning

What can I say this boy is hilarious, the wife is great and a quiet Sunday at home was much needed for all...

Life Disconnected

     Since my last post, I have restarted, then gave up facebook again. I find the political rantings of people who are not directly involved in my life (and even more so, of those who are), such a waste of brain usage that I just couldn't handle it anymore.

     I did realize that facebook "addiction" is real and kinda scary. I do feel strangely disconnected from the rest of the world. Disconnected and not "in the know' about the comings and goings of those around me. Strange how ten years ago, letters were written, phone calls were made. Life seem to happen at a less immediate pace. There was life documentation, pre-facebook, pre-twitter, pre-Myspace. Pictures, letters, notes, cards and most importantly, a phone call. There are people I used to connect with whose voices, I have truly forgotten the sound of because of lack of 1 to 1 connection.

     So yeah, if someone is truly interested in what is going on with me, they will have to pick up the phone, send at least a text, write me a note. I want to be a challenge. I want the life my family and I share to not just be another blip on the information superhighway, but something well documented, something well thought out. Making me take time for reflection about myself and what I see around me.

     I will continue to blog, with my four subscribers (Hell, my wife is not even a subscriber). Continue to talk about the things I love to read, listen to, and watch. Should the day come that I feel a need, I may spread the word about this page through methods other than my personal twitter feed and maybe word of mouth. For now, it is just me, writing. And no one really is looking. I like that.


TV SHOWS: http://www.nbc.com/revolution/ Revolution had a great first episode. Tammy was wondering how they will keep up that level of excitement every week. So am I.

Music: http://www.algreenmusic.com/ Tammy and I saw Al Green in concert this week. He was genuinely amazing to see and hear. His voice was lifting the roof off the place. Though he did think he was still in Lexington, when in fact we saw him at the EKU Center for the Arts in Richmond....

Movies: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072245/ TNT JACKSON was a Boys' Nite winner from last week. I cannot believe some of the bad karate action this movie sports. It is an 70's exploitation film at its finest, or worst.

Family pic: This is an old cute one, I haven't synced up my phone and blog yet.

Peace and hair grease to all...

 

 

 

Giving up (on facebook) is hard to do.

I recently gave up facebook news feed reading.

I had too because my blood pressure could no longer handle the pre-election, under-educated madness I was reading almost daily.

Posts about the election, posts about religion, posts about the culture wars permeating through our state and country.

My wife made fun of me, rightly so. I am a rambler and ranter without conviction. A zealot in the religion of ME.

I even admit to cheating and looking tonight, scrolled my news feed one click and saw a post about the evil that is "Obama."

I will keep posting, keep tweeting, responding to friend requests and keep writing.

I just can't handle the stupid

The Day after Quinn Day

1am: The Boy just woke us up effectively kicking me out of bed again. He just can't sleep without snuggling. He fascinates me more everyday. He takes my baseball caps and puts them on his head, proud of wearing, as he puts it, "Daddy's Hat." His desire to emulate me, is the source of my biggest pride and biggest fear. I have accomplished a lot, but have very little in the bank or "social status" to show for it. Like every parent, I want him to be able to face challenges with strength and with a resolve for success that I have rarely had.
His adoption was finalized to years ago yesterday, I am praying and meditating on the hope of putting aside old fears and failures so that as he grows he can find more reasons to emulate me other than that we both can rock a ball cap with swagger.

SPRING STAY-CATION

Tonight, I am sitting on my recliner with my arms propped up uncomfortably while I try to type before too many things escape my mind about the past week or so. The reason for the odd propping is because of a nasty case of poison ivy or oak or something I am allergic toothat has turned certain areas of my skin into a giant boil. This is not a sexy look for my “stay-cation”, but it is what it is.

I have been trying to fit in some movies during my time off and they have all been fairly entertaining in their own way. I saw the summer movie disaster, “The Last Airbender”, based on the wildly successful Nickelodeon cartoon. I don’t think, outside of Masters of the Universe from the 80’s, have I ever seen a movie take a simple premise that should work and mess it up as royally as they did here. The script is mind-numbing, the casting is just offensively bad, and that is being generous. Someone, somewhere along the way should have seen some dailies and thought that this wasn’t working. I just was dumbstruck by the poor decisions made with this movie. Not even Boys Nite worthy, just kind of sad.

Tammy and I had a movie day together, something we haven’t had in a very long time. We watched the weep-fest “Love Story” and I don’t think Tammy was too impressed. This had been the second or third time I have seen it, so I was mainly watching it for her reactions. They were fairly mixed.

We took an “intermission” and had lunch at The Lunch Box, which is a really great place. They are big on the 1980’s kids nostalgia, the food was fresh (much of it local produce and meats) and the atmosphere was family friendly, but plenty of adult beverages to be found on hand. I am looking forward to going back for dinner sometime soon.

We finished up our movie day with “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks and the Beast himself, Ron Perlman. I loved this film. It seemed plucked straight from the Michael Mann/Walter Hill catalog of movies from the 1980’s. Tammy even recognized this vibe from the opening credits. It was very music driven and the atmosphere (and Gosling’s scorpion jacket) was a solid match. I just can’t say enough about this movie. Rent it, buy it and you will love it.

Planning on giving the NBC show “Grimm” a shot, they have the full season on HULU right now, so I plan on taking a look and seeing if it is a good fit for me. The weekend ahead is filled with having some pleasant visits with friends, then some quiet time tomorrow afternoon. Sunday is church gatherings and Quinn spending lots of time with Tammy’s family. I hope that Boys Nite comes to fruition this week; we have a doozy of a flick on tap if we can pull it off. Otherwise, I plan on resting up for another work week.

Peace and hair grease….

Movie Day

Had a movie day with wife, made me think of one of my favorite movie posters. The poster used for
Day of the Dead.

Autographs Following the Q&A

It is fairly laughable that my favorite show on TV right now is ABC's Once Upon a Time. Nothing about this show should work, the premise is weak and unsustainable beyond this season, even the finale acknowledged that. The actors are not very strong, except for the always great Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold/Rumplestilskin. I will be curious to see how this show will play itself out, how much money ABC is willing to fork out to keep interest strong.

 

     Tammy and I are selling our home, so I thought it would be a good idea to run through the books on my bookshelf that I have always "meant to read" but never got around to it, to clear it out.  I recently finished an old Mickey Spillane-Mike Hammer book, I do love that genre of books. They are just so non-apologetic about the image the portray. This is tough guy, action oriented, and yes, pretty masgonistic. Just pop your fedora and go with it. Currently, I am reading the sci-fi classic, CHILDHOOD'S END, by Arthur C. Clarke.

 

     Tammy and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this weekend by having lunch on My Old Kentucky Dinner Train in Bardstown. The scenery was nice, though the train does travel through suprisingly several residential neighborhoods. The trip and food are pricey, not undercut that it wasn't worth the price, you truly get what you pay for. A choo-choo for two is not to be missed. An experience that I can't reccomend enough.

 

     Recently watched Kevin Smith's indie flick, RED STATE. I admit this was a second viewing. My first attempt, I got about ten minutes in and it reminded me a bit too much of the SAW torture genre that is so prevelant. I gave it a second try after watching his Q&A session "Burn in Hell" about the making of the film and the ideas behind the film. The movie is spectacularly dark with a serious eye toward ultra-conservatism that is not for all tastes.

 

      Spending my Wednesday morning speaking to new Nurse Tech hires at UK about "life on the floor". Should be interesting, working on what I should sugar coat (don't want to scare them off), and how much I should talk about the  honest hard work that goes in to taking care of the every need of at least 5+ sick individuals. I wonder if I should hold an autograph session afterwards? 

Something New

Just a place to journal the week. Things that interest me, things that provoke me and things that inspire me. We will see if anything comes of it.