Small Town Goodness

I thought I grew up in a small town. It was small I guess...compared to New York City which was just a short train ride away. But since we've moved to an honest-to-goodness small town I'm constantly struck by the differences between the world I grew up in and the one my kids are now experiencing.

For example, nearly everywhere we go my daughter sees at least one friend of hers from her nursery school class. It makes her feel like a big shot and I love that.

I love that in the fall we can take the kids apple picking - in our own town. I love that the kids take swim lessons in the lake just up the road from us. The sun fish brush their legs and they squeal with delight.

I love that an escaped llama makes the police blotter in the local paper.

I love that we go to a neighbor's house down the road and pop into his shed to buy fresh eggs. This is his fridge:

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And this is where you pay. We go by the honors system in this neck of the woods:

The icing on the cake is that with all of this small town goodness we still get to be near the ocean where we get to enjoy views like this:

Someday I might want to live in a big town again. But right now this feels like just the right size...

It's Me Against the 3rd Grade

My son brought home a flyer announcing "Reading Week" at his school. His teacher is seeking parents to volunteer to come in and read a book to the class. Great, right? I immediately signed up and was looking forward to it until I discovered that there was more to it. The flyer went on to suggest that each volunteer explain to the class how being a good reader helps us with our career. Uh...I had a career and I plan to have another one in the future...but now? What to say if there currently is no career?

Uh...well...I guess my literacy is a boon for tuck-in time. My 4-year old can't read yet so really it's up to me to crank out a little Dr. Seuss before bedtime. And I guess it's a good thing to be able to read the dosage amounts on the kid's medications so I don't accidentally send them on a long strange trip. In any event I'm gonna have to think about my approach. Third graders can smell B.S. a mile away.

Stay-at-Home Anniversary

It recently occurred to me that I've been doing this no paying job/full time kid raising thing for a year now. A whole year and the kids don't seem emotionally damaged and our house hasn't been foreclosed on. Alright! In the words of the great Charlie Sheen - Winning!

I would like to send a big shout out to my wife whose back must be sore from carrying the financial weight this past year. She's been a trooper. She's endured long business flights next to stinky people just to have the pleasure of sitting in long business meetings (not clear if the people in the meetings were stinky). She's sacrificed way more than I have in our relatively new arrangement and I owe her for that.  

I just can't believe how fast time has passed. When I started this journey one of my fears was that it would feel like working the floor folding sweaters at the Gap - watching the seconds ticking by...tick...tick...tick - is it my break yet? No? I guess I'll just have to stand here and look busy for awhile longer..."Dave can you see my soul dying??"

It's been quite the opposite thankfully. My days have been full between the kids activities, keeping the house in order, doing chores, being awesome, etc. However I must say that these past few days have been a challenge with my daughter home from school sick. I've watched more cartoons than is healthy for an adult man. When you can sing the theme song to "Phineas and Ferb" it's time to walk away. Luckily she's on the mend and I'll soon be able to ship her back to school and get a smidge of me time back.

Wow...a year gone by. The time is fast approaching when I'll have to get a real job again. Yikes!!


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Anniversary Memories

Everyone remembers their wedding anniversary (or at least they should). But who remembers their engagement date? Well I do. It was March 1, 1996. Fifteen years ago today. Easily one of the happiest days of my life...and now my younger brother is experiencing the same thing...on the same day! My mother called to inform me that my brother asked his lovely girlfriend to marry him today and she said yes. I'm very excited for them.

It's funny . I think back to that day and sometimes it feels like yesterday and other times it feels like a hundred years ago. The memory that is most cemented in my mind is the look on my wife's face when I got down on one knee in that little Italian restaurant and asked for her to share her life with me. It was part confusion and part amazement. "What is he doing?" morphed into "Oh my God! I know what he's doing!"  Luckily for me she got over her shock and said yes.

This is a long winded way of wishing my brother and his fiancee a long, joyous life together. If I were Jewish I would say Mazel tov. But I'm not so I say good luck!

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