Twas The Night Before The Night Before Christmas!

One more day until Christmas!  One more early morning and one more trip around the Baltimore Beltway!  
I'm ready for a little Xmas cheer!

HOLY SHIT!

Button Is One Year Old!  Today my daughter has been in our lives for 365 days!  That boggles my mind.  How can we have been parents for a year?  How can I have been someone's father for a whole year?   I can't even understand it.  Where did the last year go?  (I'm sorry that the title of this post is so crass but it best sums up the wonder and awe I am feeling at this moment.)

To be honest I've been working on this blog post ever since the day before Evie Sue's birthday.  I just couldn't come up with anything else to write.  Maybe it was the pressure of such a monumental day.  Maybe I've gotten rusty and just don't have the motivation to blog anymore.  I've also been overwhelmed with work and finances lately, so maybe that's contributed to my lack of posting.

Then today, the day after the birthday, I heard a song on the radio that summed it up better than I was able to do.  To borrow a page out of Sara's book, I would like to quote a song as part of this post.

In 'Love Will Do That'  Darius Rucker sings:

The second I saw you  
What was important wasn't important no more 
Love will do that 
Love will do that
Made the ole moon burn brighter, 
led to all-nighters  
Made sleeping a thing of the past 
Love will do that 
Love will do that
It changes everything  
Makes the angels sing  
Puts the past in the past
It'll drive you crazy  
Sometimes it just makes you laugh  
Yeah, love will do that

Okay, so maybe the song was meant to be a love song but every time I hear it I think about how my daughter has changed my life.   I think about how I love her much more than I ever knew I could, and I think about how my life will never be the same.  Happy Birthday, Button!}  

 *Just a fun fact, apparently this is not the 1st time I have quoted a country song on this blog and I was never a country music fan!

5 Years A Few Days Later

On the 24th Sara and I celebrated our Fifth Year Wedding Anniversary!  Five years!  Our families came together to celebrate Thanksgiving, that year, and 2 days later Sara and I were wed in a small ceremony with 50 of our closest friends and family.

So here we are today.  A family of 3 with a baby approaching 1 year, and very little money.  As much as I would've liked to take Sara out and wine and dine her to celebrate.  Unfortunately, it was not in the cards.  Instead we ordered Italian carry out and opened a bottle of wine that we purchased in San Francisco on our honeymoon.  We put the baby to sleep,  I ran out to pick up the food, and came home to snuggle on the couch with my sweetheart.  Not a bad way to spend the evening.

One of these days I'll be able to shower her with riches, and celebrate our anniversary in style.  For now we'll have to be happy just spending the evening today, and reminiscing on the time we've spent together.  Once again, not a bad way to spend an evening.

Thankfuller?

This year it was a low-key celebration down at my Dad's house.  The family ate dinner and watched the Skins' game.  I was not feeling well, and got worse as the day progressed.  Add on to that the fact that I ate entirely too much and , suddenly, I was uncomfortable, and cranky.   I think maybe Sara and I built up the holiday so much in our head, because it was the baby's 1st, that there's no way it was going to live up to expectations.  That's okay.  Evie Sue's 1st Thanksgiving and she sat at the table and enjoyed smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and more.
Missed you Mom.   

3 > 1

Today we watched the niece and nephew!  We played some video games, conducted science experiments, goofed off some, visited the library and tested each others' limits.  3 children is much more work than 1.  That probably seems pretty obvious but my math skills were always kinda lacking.

Hard To Say Goodbye

Since last I wrote a Presidential Election has occurred and I have seen another of my scripts come to life in a live theatrical production.

Right now, however, I want to talk cars.  In particular family cars.  My family's cars.  Today Sara and I turned in the old CRV.  This car, originally from my Mom, has served us well since moving to Maryland.  It has almost 273,000 miles on it.  The drivers side door doesn't work, nor does that window.  The fuel gauge warning light hasn't worked for years and I can't remember the last time that the check engine light wasn't constantly flashing in the corner of my vision.  It rumbled when idling, and stalled often but it was a good car.

I drove that CRV around the Baltimore/Washington Beltway in morning and afternoon rush hour traffic for 4 years, and my Mom wrestled with the same type of commute for years before that even.  I've climbed in and out of the passenger side door since last January, maybe when the driver's door stopped opening completely.  For months before that I would unroll the back window, reach around and open the driver's door from the outside.  I have many fond & frustrating memories of the car. 

Earlier this year, when I took the promotion and was, once more given a 40+ mile commute I knew the CRV would not be the car to rely on.  Unfortunately, there was no money at the time for a permanent replacement.  We've been borrowing my Father's 2nd car now for months as we explore our options, and try to find a new car while getting rid of the old one.  Originally I was going to junk her.  I'm glad I didn't.  Carmax gave us 6 times what the junk yard was offering.  (Still not a major financial gain but better than I anticipated.)

So here we are now.  The CRV is gone. I'm driving the Kia Rio 5.  We still are in need of a 2nd car; preferably, a reliable, and affordable one.  I'm commuting up to Towson 5 times a week.  Dad has been unbelievably patient and giving with the loan of his 2nd car, and the Holidays are upon us.  It's hard to believe it's that time of year again. 

Here is the CRV right before we drove it to the dealer.  In the background you can see Sara waiting for me to say goodbye to the old car.

In other news, Obama won the election.  The system is still flawed.  My One Act Play: Brock was produced, and directed by a friend, as part of an evening of One Act Plays at a local high school.  I saw it opening night and was happy to see another script brought to life.  The evening I saw the show had some technical difficulties, and pacing issues but I'm confident that everything worked itself out in the later performances.  I noticed some script issues, as well, and plan to revise some.  Oh, and the baby is almost 11 months!  Time flies...

Nightlights Vs Glow Sticks

Last night Super Storm Sandy or Hurricane Sandy or Tropical Storm Sandy, depending on what news broadcast you watched pounded into the East Coast!  Maryland was prepared for the worst and, luckily, things turned out much better than we hoped.  Yesterday was windy, and rainy but the majority of the damage and devastation was further to the north in New Jersey and New York. 

Before the storm we extended an offer to my father to come and stay with us through the storm; he lives right on the Chesapeake Bay and is prone to flooding while we live on higher ground in a wooded neighborhood that suffers from power outage epidemics.  Who has it worse?  Anyway, he came to ride out the storm here in Annapolis and we kept power until the very moment we sat down to eat a hot dinner.  10 minutes earlier and we would've been eating some seriously al dente spaghetti.  

We broke out the lanterns, candles, and a few glow sticks and spent a powerless night listening to the storm rage outside the apartment, huddled around the  radio broadcasts from a hand-cranked radio.  Sitting in the dark there isn't much to do but chat, drink and wait for a tree to come crashing down through the roof.  This wasn't the first Hurricane we rode out in our apartment but this was the first as parents and we were more concerned for all of our safety than I remember us being before.  At Sara's suggestion I spent the night sleeping in a  recliner in the baby's room to be close to her in case something unexpected happened.  It would help both of us sleep better.

It occurred to me last night, falling asleep in Evie Sue's room, and bathed in only the soft pink light from a Dollar Store glow stick that while glow sticks can be silly, and fun nightlights are dependable and comforting.  Nothing happened during the night except the storm passing by and the temperature in our apartment dropping uncomfortably but I was there in the room early this morning as Evie Sue awoke in a room lit only with a pink glow stick instead of her butterfly nightlight.    The glow stick was a fine temporary nightlight but I was happy this afternoon when the power came back on and Evie Sue's butterfly nightlight started to shine!  It meant the storm had passed and everything was fine.

Thank You, Yul!

The bigger picture?   I have to keep it in mind.  That's not always easy as you go through life.  Sometimes I get bogged down by the stress.  Sometimes I'll open a bill, or pay a bill, or spend an afternoon trying to figure out how we can afford a new car and I just shut down.  I get overwhelmed, go silent and want to run off and bury my head in the sand.

Today we were running errands, and I was in a funk.  The baby was just as cute as ever, and Sara was as supportive as she always is but I was not in a good mood.  Then Sara changes the radio channel and the Broadway station plays a song I remember from the 'King and I'.  Yul Brynner sings 'A Puzzlement'.  Do you know the song?  If not, here is a sample of the lyrics.:

'There are times I almost think
I am not sure of what I absolutely know.
Very often find confusion
In conclusion I concluded long ago
In my head are many facts
That, as a student, I have studied to procure,
In my head are many facts..
Of which I wish I was more certain I was sure!'

Now, admittedly, I am not the King of Siam, and my problems would seem trivial when compared to the responsibilities, and stress of an Asian monarch but I relate to the song.  I feel for the man whom doubts the wisdom of his ways.  Even though he has more children than he can count and I have but one, so far, I feel for this man.  He holds his head high, and tries his best.  Sometimes he is stubborn.  Sometimes he makes poor decisions.  Through it all he is just a man - except in Westworld, in which he played a killer cyborg cowboy, but I digress - he is a man, and a man is flawed no matter how perfect he wishes to be. 

Evie Sue visited her 1st pumpkin patch yesterday!  It was just a small roadside farm stand with local produce, pumpkins and a corn maze but it was exactly what Sara and I were looking for.  We both love this time of year, and were looking forward to getting Evie Sue in a photo op with some pumpkins!  It was a beautiful Fall day, a quick little stop, and yet another memory that I'll always cherish.

The Weekend Is Whenever

Several months later here we are.  I'm still working the management job, commuting up to Towson 5 days a week, 10 hour shifts, and 2 days off a week.  That last part is very important.  I get TWO guaranteed days off to spend with my family.  That's valuable time.

Last year I worked almost every single day.  Nowadays I get a weekend, yes it's during the middle of the week but we try to make it work.  We sleep in, but not too long.  We eat breakfast as a family; today was pumpkin pancakes!  We spent some time on the floor playing with baby toys and singing silly songs.  We spend time together as a family. 

Tomorrow I will go back to work but I will be counting the days until my next weekend!