Various thoughts from the weekend
So, I think I've established a pattern of taking weekends off from the ol' blogue. That is, of course, until the next time I'm bored on a weekend and decide I have the itch to type.
However, seeing as it has been a few days since I've checked in, there are a multitude of things I could discuss. Let us begin.
PARENTHOOD?
In the words of the great bard, "to be or not to be, that is the question." Of course, that sentence is actually declaratory in nature, so to state that it is a question is a falsity.
That being said, my wife and I have just celebrated our fourth year of marriage, and as such we've noticed that the large majority of our friends and family have grown past their adoration of our cute newlywed-edness and are now fully fixated on us creating progeny.
Don't get me wrong. The pressure's been slowly mounting for the last year and a half or so, but it's starting to get ridiculous.
For some historical perspective, lets go back to the beginning. I married a young 'un, which is all well and good except that, sometimes, I notice that in my agedness (I'm six years her senior) I tend to be a little more cold, calculating, patient, and stubborn. She, God bless her, is driven by her current need, to the point that all reason is pushed aside, or simply bent to her whim, in order for her to accomplish an immediate goal. And, when reason doesn't work, there's always begging.
In our first year of marriage, my wife was 21 years old and still in nursing school. I was 27 and working as a prosecutor in Marion County, where I was at the bottom of a pay scale which is woefully low considering the population of the county and the volume of crime that I was handling.
During that first year (and, for some of the second), it was not uncommon for my wife to have fits of wanting to be pregnant. She would in turn cajole, convince, and beg me to impregnate her, all the while bristling at my stubborn refusal to take on that sort of responsibility given the fact that we were barely getting by with what we had.
I found the secret to holding her off. Every once in awhile, we would babysit my foster-sister's daughter for a weekend. The crying and fussing of the weekend would invariably wear my wife out and would earn me a temporary reprieve from her insane desires.
After the first couple years, my wife started working and I got a better-paying job, and we discovered that we were able to go on vacations and stuff because we were able to save money. My wife realized that this sort of fun would be much more difficult to have if we became parents, so there was mutual agreement to put it off for a bit.
So, here we are. As we've walked down life's path together, we've seen alot of our friends get pregnant and have kids, and now the pressure is mounting from our parental units, who will love the idea of us having kids until they realize how old it feels to be a grandparent. For Christmas, my mother-in-law started accumulating baby clothes.
We've set up several rules for kids. Well, actually, only two hard-and-fast rules.
First, no Christmas babies. JLowe's birthday is in November, and he resents being even that close to Christmas, as he invariably gets gypped on presents. I think an early November or late January birth is fine, but a December baby is definitely not in the plans that we've made, because you need a one or two paycheck buffer to be able to keep the kid's birthday a separate holiday from Christmas.
Second, we are required to have a daughter in February. This is more a goal than a rule. You see, my wife's side of the family has a tradition of February girls. My wife's grandma was born on Valentine's day. My wifes mom was born on February 20. My wife was born on February 22. So, ideally, a daughter in the first week of February would be ideal for me, because then I can afford her birthday present with the first paycheck of the month, and my wife's with the second.
Why am I discussing all of this? Well, my wife and I have put off babies until certain conditions were met. Job stability, home ownership, relative solvency. We've met all of these conditions, and now I think that we are not necessarily trying to have a kid, but not trying not to either. So, if one of these days, I have some sort of exciting announcement, you'll know that we finally caved into our parents' demands for having someone to spoil.
BLAZERAMA
Got to go see the Blazers on Saturday, courtesy of C-Mac.
C-Mac actually had a shot at going to the Super Bowl. You see, he's a die-hard Eagles fan, and has the lucky distinction of having a brother fairly well-placed in the Nike organization. His brother, through some sort of magic, had managed to score C-Mac two tickets for the Eagles game. C-Mac only knew two things about these tickets: they would cost him $500 a piece, but (more importantly) he would actually be sitting somewhere in the arena. Whether they were seats in the bathroom or whatever was immaterial to C-Mac, who really just wanted the chance to go.
So, C-Mac was offered these tickets on January 28th, which didn't give him much time to prepare. First, he called a friend in Georgia and arranged to fly there, drive to Jacksonville on Sunday for the game, and fly back on Monday. Total cost for airfare would've been $600.
I pointed out to C-Mac that the package his brother had put together included the Nike Super Bowl party on Friday night. This would be C-Mac's chance to meet all sorts of cool people, and I told him he was an idiot to pass it up. He saw my logic, and we started looking for places semi-close to Jacksonville (since it was impossible to find a hotel, or a plane ticket, into Jacksonville at that point.
The best we could do was a flight into Gainesville on Friday afternoon, coupled with a motel about 10 miles north, which C-Mac could drop his things at before driving the next 60 miles to Jacksonville for the party. He'd then have to drive back. His friend could drive into Gainesville and stay with him, and they could do the game together on Sunday. Not a bad plane, huh? Only trouble was that plan would cost $1300 in airfare and motel fees. And there were no better deals to be found.
What was I working so hard on C-Mac's behalf? Because, if I could get him to the Super Bowl, I'd have two Blazer tickets instead of one. Then I'd invite my wife and, knowing she'd refuse, I'd have JLowe on standby.
Despite my efforts, and the efforts of several people around the office who were trying as hard as I was to push C-Mac off the ledge and into abject poverty, he came to his senses and told his brother to let the tickets go.
So, C-Mac and I took in a Blazer's game. We watched the Blazers beat the Kings, 114-108. A couple of thoughts:
SUPERBOWL
On Sunday, the Missus and I joined many of our friends (including C-Dub, Bosco, the Schro-dude family, BD, Travis Vo, the Wanger, and others) at Chez Hozay to enjoy the Super Big Game on his giant 50" high-definition set. I'm losing my inspiration to type anything funny or insightful, so let me just say it was a good game, very suspenseful, and the commercials were fun as well. My personal favorite was the one with the cat and the spaghetti sauce. If you didn't see them all, I understand you can view them at IFilm.com. I was relieved that the Pats won, for no other reason than it would make C-Mac easy fodder for the next week or two of mean-spirited jibes. I was disappointed that I lost the pool that was being held. I was only saved by the gambling alliance I have with JLowe, wherein we have pledged to eachother that whenever we gamble, if we win, the other person gets one third. JLowe won the fourth quarter, which means (after paying him back the $5 I borrowed to get into the pool) I get $7.50. Pay up, JLowe. Or I'll send the bill collectors to break your kneecaps.
Not much more to say. I never give any shout-outs to any of my friends, but wanted to today. Quick shout out to Krime-Dog from the old office, who finally shook her crazy roommate and now just needs to deal with her crazy boyfriend, and also a shout-out to W&J, who are preggers for the second time. BT and Mrs. T as well. If me and The Missus start warming a bun in the oven, we'll all have to get together to arrange some marriages.
Quick note: Delta Cafe has a trivia night every Wednesday, starting at 10-ish. Theoretically, fabulous prizes are involved. I'm planning on being there with the Wanger, C-Mac and others this week, so come on out and try to beat us, if you can. Maximum team size is 7 players.
Catch ya later.
However, seeing as it has been a few days since I've checked in, there are a multitude of things I could discuss. Let us begin.
PARENTHOOD?
In the words of the great bard, "to be or not to be, that is the question." Of course, that sentence is actually declaratory in nature, so to state that it is a question is a falsity.
That being said, my wife and I have just celebrated our fourth year of marriage, and as such we've noticed that the large majority of our friends and family have grown past their adoration of our cute newlywed-edness and are now fully fixated on us creating progeny.
Don't get me wrong. The pressure's been slowly mounting for the last year and a half or so, but it's starting to get ridiculous.
For some historical perspective, lets go back to the beginning. I married a young 'un, which is all well and good except that, sometimes, I notice that in my agedness (I'm six years her senior) I tend to be a little more cold, calculating, patient, and stubborn. She, God bless her, is driven by her current need, to the point that all reason is pushed aside, or simply bent to her whim, in order for her to accomplish an immediate goal. And, when reason doesn't work, there's always begging.
In our first year of marriage, my wife was 21 years old and still in nursing school. I was 27 and working as a prosecutor in Marion County, where I was at the bottom of a pay scale which is woefully low considering the population of the county and the volume of crime that I was handling.
During that first year (and, for some of the second), it was not uncommon for my wife to have fits of wanting to be pregnant. She would in turn cajole, convince, and beg me to impregnate her, all the while bristling at my stubborn refusal to take on that sort of responsibility given the fact that we were barely getting by with what we had.
I found the secret to holding her off. Every once in awhile, we would babysit my foster-sister's daughter for a weekend. The crying and fussing of the weekend would invariably wear my wife out and would earn me a temporary reprieve from her insane desires.
After the first couple years, my wife started working and I got a better-paying job, and we discovered that we were able to go on vacations and stuff because we were able to save money. My wife realized that this sort of fun would be much more difficult to have if we became parents, so there was mutual agreement to put it off for a bit.
So, here we are. As we've walked down life's path together, we've seen alot of our friends get pregnant and have kids, and now the pressure is mounting from our parental units, who will love the idea of us having kids until they realize how old it feels to be a grandparent. For Christmas, my mother-in-law started accumulating baby clothes.
We've set up several rules for kids. Well, actually, only two hard-and-fast rules.
First, no Christmas babies. JLowe's birthday is in November, and he resents being even that close to Christmas, as he invariably gets gypped on presents. I think an early November or late January birth is fine, but a December baby is definitely not in the plans that we've made, because you need a one or two paycheck buffer to be able to keep the kid's birthday a separate holiday from Christmas.
Second, we are required to have a daughter in February. This is more a goal than a rule. You see, my wife's side of the family has a tradition of February girls. My wife's grandma was born on Valentine's day. My wifes mom was born on February 20. My wife was born on February 22. So, ideally, a daughter in the first week of February would be ideal for me, because then I can afford her birthday present with the first paycheck of the month, and my wife's with the second.
Why am I discussing all of this? Well, my wife and I have put off babies until certain conditions were met. Job stability, home ownership, relative solvency. We've met all of these conditions, and now I think that we are not necessarily trying to have a kid, but not trying not to either. So, if one of these days, I have some sort of exciting announcement, you'll know that we finally caved into our parents' demands for having someone to spoil.
BLAZERAMA
Got to go see the Blazers on Saturday, courtesy of C-Mac.
C-Mac actually had a shot at going to the Super Bowl. You see, he's a die-hard Eagles fan, and has the lucky distinction of having a brother fairly well-placed in the Nike organization. His brother, through some sort of magic, had managed to score C-Mac two tickets for the Eagles game. C-Mac only knew two things about these tickets: they would cost him $500 a piece, but (more importantly) he would actually be sitting somewhere in the arena. Whether they were seats in the bathroom or whatever was immaterial to C-Mac, who really just wanted the chance to go.
So, C-Mac was offered these tickets on January 28th, which didn't give him much time to prepare. First, he called a friend in Georgia and arranged to fly there, drive to Jacksonville on Sunday for the game, and fly back on Monday. Total cost for airfare would've been $600.
I pointed out to C-Mac that the package his brother had put together included the Nike Super Bowl party on Friday night. This would be C-Mac's chance to meet all sorts of cool people, and I told him he was an idiot to pass it up. He saw my logic, and we started looking for places semi-close to Jacksonville (since it was impossible to find a hotel, or a plane ticket, into Jacksonville at that point.
The best we could do was a flight into Gainesville on Friday afternoon, coupled with a motel about 10 miles north, which C-Mac could drop his things at before driving the next 60 miles to Jacksonville for the party. He'd then have to drive back. His friend could drive into Gainesville and stay with him, and they could do the game together on Sunday. Not a bad plane, huh? Only trouble was that plan would cost $1300 in airfare and motel fees. And there were no better deals to be found.
What was I working so hard on C-Mac's behalf? Because, if I could get him to the Super Bowl, I'd have two Blazer tickets instead of one. Then I'd invite my wife and, knowing she'd refuse, I'd have JLowe on standby.
Despite my efforts, and the efforts of several people around the office who were trying as hard as I was to push C-Mac off the ledge and into abject poverty, he came to his senses and told his brother to let the tickets go.
So, C-Mac and I took in a Blazer's game. We watched the Blazers beat the Kings, 114-108. A couple of thoughts:
- Mike Bibby is incredible. He was knocking down all sorts of shots, including several three-pointers where he was taking a 5' handicap.
- Chris Webber, back from being out with an injury, was obviously having an off-night, and still managed a triple-double before fouling out late in the fourth.
- I love Damon Stoudamire. Despite his trouble in the past, I think he's turned the corner and straightened up. During the game, he showed alot of poise and made it clear that, if he wanted, he could be a real force in the NBA.
- Ruben Patterson is amazing. The energy he brings to the game is infectious. Too bad he's (allegedly) a wife-beater and a nanny-rapist. Makes it hard to get behind him.
- Zach Randolph can put up alot of points, but he looks like crap doing it. The nickname "Black Hole" absolutely applies to this selfish player.
SUPERBOWL
On Sunday, the Missus and I joined many of our friends (including C-Dub, Bosco, the Schro-dude family, BD, Travis Vo, the Wanger, and others) at Chez Hozay to enjoy the Super Big Game on his giant 50" high-definition set. I'm losing my inspiration to type anything funny or insightful, so let me just say it was a good game, very suspenseful, and the commercials were fun as well. My personal favorite was the one with the cat and the spaghetti sauce. If you didn't see them all, I understand you can view them at IFilm.com. I was relieved that the Pats won, for no other reason than it would make C-Mac easy fodder for the next week or two of mean-spirited jibes. I was disappointed that I lost the pool that was being held. I was only saved by the gambling alliance I have with JLowe, wherein we have pledged to eachother that whenever we gamble, if we win, the other person gets one third. JLowe won the fourth quarter, which means (after paying him back the $5 I borrowed to get into the pool) I get $7.50. Pay up, JLowe. Or I'll send the bill collectors to break your kneecaps.
Not much more to say. I never give any shout-outs to any of my friends, but wanted to today. Quick shout out to Krime-Dog from the old office, who finally shook her crazy roommate and now just needs to deal with her crazy boyfriend, and also a shout-out to W&J, who are preggers for the second time. BT and Mrs. T as well. If me and The Missus start warming a bun in the oven, we'll all have to get together to arrange some marriages.
Quick note: Delta Cafe has a trivia night every Wednesday, starting at 10-ish. Theoretically, fabulous prizes are involved. I'm planning on being there with the Wanger, C-Mac and others this week, so come on out and try to beat us, if you can. Maximum team size is 7 players.
Catch ya later.
posted by Rusty at 12:05 AM
4 Comments:
All I ask is that you make sure it's *you and your wife* who want to have kids not your relatives. It's a big responsibility not something to do just because other people are doing it or because people are pressuring you to have kids.
Sorry, but I've got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about that.
This is the biggest blog entry ever. I have tried to read it four or five times now and I always get bogged down in the Superbowl section. But I WILL conquer and succeed...eventually.
You think you don't sleep a lot now, wait until you have kids. ;)
Denise
And So It Goes
No worries. Despite my sarcasm, we actually are looking forward to parenthood. I actually think I'll be a good dad. My wife, however, fears my impending fatherhood because she's afraid I'll foster all sorts of bad habits in our kids (burping, farting, talking inappropriately loud at parties, etc...)
Denise, keep on plugging. If Burns could get through this, then so can you.
So you are going to do the meme for Betsy, but not for me.
That is WHacked - with a capital WH no less.
I am so sulking. And YES - I posted the same thing on Betsy's site, so I am really sulking.
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