Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I WON THE MEGA MILLIONS LOTTERY!!! or so i thought for 3 minutes

I went to the dry cleaner with my two boys to pick up my wife's clothes, as we left I saw that the multi-state lotto was up to 105 mil, so I thought it would be fun to have the kids pick three numbers each.
On the rare occasions that I buy lotto tickets I usually loose them, or forget that I even bought one, which was the case with this time until I heard some guy down to the A&P Fresh (daddy why is it called 'fresh' everything in there isn't fresh?) say, hey did you sell the winning ticket, it's from Jersey and no one claimed it yet.
So then I'm like hey, I bought a ticket in Jersey and didn't claim it, that's got to narrow down the odds right, so I rush home pondering grad school vs. starting a record company, nannies vs. me continuing to take care of the kids, how much would I donate to Obama, being able to pay for movers to pack up my whole house for our impending move and all kinds of other more extreme and ridiculous scenarios, so I get home unload the groceries, check online and of course I didn't win.

I'm not so big on the whole dollar and a dream thing, now I really don't feel like packing for the next five days straight, I think I operate better sans hope.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

a great moment

I had a great moment with my oldest son the other day. My six year-old and my three year-old were jockeying for position on my lap, the little guy was able to displace his older brother and said, “You’re too big to sit on Daddy’s lap!”
I said, “No, he’s not too big to sit on Daddy’s lap,” and my big guy said, “Yeah, not until I’m ten.”
Then I told him, “Even when you are ten, I don’t care how old you are or how big you are you can sit on my lap, I don’t care if you’re 50 and I’m all old and frail, so long as I have a lap you can sit on it.” Now I really doubt there will be any lap sitting when I’m an octogenarian, but I was trying to make my point strong and clear.
My six year-old was apparently really touched by this he gave a big eyed look, held my face and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
The reason this was so rewarding is that as a loving and communicative parent one is always trying to let their children know how much they truly love them, and nine times out of ten they don’t get it, I mean they do know you love them but deepness of it doesn’t usually dawn on them. So for this silly little incident and unpremeditated comment on my part to actually get through to my son how much I love him was an unexpected joy.

My six year-old is cooler than your kid

He is in art day camp; he takes six classes a day one of which is jazz tap. My wife told me that when you are a kid taking dance, the tap shoes or ballet points or whatever seem magical to you and make you feel like you have an enhanced ability to dance. Armed with this information I drove a half an hour north to the Capizio outlet to get kids tap shoes, and they still were not that cheap, anyway my son took to them right away.
When his mother got home from work I told him to show her what he had learned, plus some of the moves that he had already made up himself, he shyly when through a few steps, when he finished I asked if he wanted to show mommy some of the moves he came up with and he kind of lamely tapped out few steps, which surprised me because he had been stoked about tapping all day.
I was like okay thanks, that was good, do you want to show us anything else and he says yeah check this out and starts tapping out an Arctic Monkeys song, and after the intro he starts full on tapping and singing the song at the same time, it was fucking awesome.

And another thing, I’m a huge Clash fan, some my kids are familiar with them and know a number of their songs. So the other day I picked out a new album by their guitar player’s new band Carbon/Silicon and I’m playing it and my six year-old asks, “Is this the Clash?” and I answer no but really close and explain who the band is and who is in the group, and I think how awesome is that, that he could unprompted recognize the song writing as similar to the Clash’s. The only bad thing is that two of Carbon/Silicon’s best songs have “Fuck” in the chorus …

What, It's Not Me?

I’ve changed/slowly evolved into a somewhat friendly person over the years as compared to the person I was before that rarely hid his disgust for the world and little time for chit chat with strangers and shop keeps, I think living in San Francisco had a large part to do with my change from a very East Coast I don’t give a fuck about you come introverted and somewhat depressed demeanor.
Having moved back to the East Coast after seven years I’ve found people friendlier than in years past, some have attributed the change to 9/11. Now I often say hi to unknown passersby while on walks and most everyone at my boys schools are friendly particularly the teachers, camp councilors etc.
I say all of that to say this, this past week for the first time my two boys were out of the house at the same time for their separate summer camps, last school year one was on an early schedule the other on later one which we set up that way so they each could get some solo daddy time on a regular basis. So again this past week I was alone for a good four hours a day and I tried to take advantage of that by getting some exercise and walking places instead of driving. In the course of these walks I have discovered that the denizens of my region have not suddenly become more friendly, nor has my recently adopted practice of acknowledging most of the people I come into contact with hello or a nod been reciprocated with any regularity when I am traveling sans my really cute kids, it was them all along, I’m still that guy that people don’t sit next on the train, it’s interesting how people having a positive reaction when they come in contact with you on a regular basis uplifts your general mood.
My chiropractor, who is normally a warm and friendly guy was all business at my last visit sans kids, no hand shake, no chit chat, no big smile, I thought my new found openness and efforts at friendliness was really spreading a positive vibe to those around me that was being mirrored back to me, but apparently I was wrong.
Now when my kids reach that awkward not so cute anymore age I guess I’ll have to get a puppy to keep the friendly vibes coming my way.