Do you know how when you are standing chest- or neck-deep in a pool, how it's harder to breathe because your lungs can't fully expand due to the pressure of the water? That's kinda how it feels for me to be jobless still. So many nice things have been happening lately, things coming together, and yet I can't relax and enjoy it like I should, can't fully inhale.
So, cloaked in that bit of happy, here are some of the nice things. We have moved into our new apartment and have almost all of the furniture already. The apartment is big and pretty nice too, and the furniture is.............adult (except for the cardboard box serving as the TV stand). The best part is that it's been cheaper than expected. I had mentally planned for $5,000 in apartment furnishings, which for us includes all furniture except for a small bookshelf, a small dining room table, a desk, and the mattresses. Because we moved out of NYC with so little stuff, lots has had to be bought, and having a large place to live means needing more things. For instance, we have two bathrooms, which is great, but that's two bathrooms to outfit. I now own a full set of towels that are mostly ornamental, that I will never use myself, and this feels strange.
I don't have a neat ledger covering everything but adding in everything from toilet paper to paint to the big sectional I'm currently sitting on, I think I'm just under $4,000. It's a big number to think about while unemployed, but we did a good job getting nice things so I feel good about it.
On the baby front, I'm happy to say that miss Lula can now turn herself over in both directions. I was watching her on the floor yesterday as she was in the middle of the long process of going back-to-front for the first time. She could get over onto her side pretty easily, and then rotate her trailing leg all the way over pretty easily too, so that her lower body was all facing downward. The big obstacle was her inside arm (if rolling toward her left side, then her left arm). Think about what it takes for you to get that arm out of the way when lying on the floor yourself. I was watching this process thinking about this and feeling pretty sure that she wouldn't have the strength to finish the roll because of the left arm. I am proud to say that she did not give up and kept struggling with it for several minutes (fair question is what does that say about me, that--assuming the endeavor was fruitless--I allowed my 3.5 month old baby to struggle in an uncomfortable position for maybe 20 minutes without helping). All the while I was watching, just seeing what would happen, sorta also waiting for the moment when she cracks and the sounds go from honest struggling with the effort, to full-on cries of frustration. Finally, like most things in life, it just sorta happened, the arm slid under and she made it all the way over. It really was something. To celebrate, in the hours since she accomplished this maneuver, she replicated the feat another 5-6 times. The lesson in parenthood here is that there is no turning back with a baby. She learns and does things like a boat going down a swollen river heading for a waterfall.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Apparently it's been over a month and a half since I last posted. If I had a better sense of that fact, then maybe I'd have done something about it. Life intervenes. Actually, what am I saying? What I've been wandering through these last weeks hasn't been the same as what for the last near-decade I have known as "life."
Moving as an almost-30-year-old, with a wife and a little baby, is very different from moving to and away from college. Remarkable insight, I know. We're finally sorta completing the move this weekend by getting into our own two-bedroom apartment, a place with two bathrooms. I don't know what's a bigger life rite-of-passage: having a baby, or having two bathrooms. I can now have one toilet used exclusively for pooping. Also, one of the showers has one of those hose attachments that lets you take the showerhead off and move it around. This is superb for two reasons: first, let's just say that I can more thoroughly clean certain parts of the body finally; and second, I can take my baby into the shower with me as substitute for bath time. This second thing might seem odd, especially since my baby is a girl and I am a man, but there is a part of the trailer to the recent documentary movie about babies (I actually think it's called "Babies") that includes a quick shot of a man from the waist up hold a baby with one hand in a shower and using the handheld showerhead to clean the baby with the other. For some reason, I saw this trailer a million times, and every time I wished I could do that same thing. (And before you think I'm a weirdo freak for desiring sharing naked time with my baby, know that doctors recommend parents have as much direct skin-on-skin contact as possible when babies are very young. So it's creepiness, but with an alibi.)
Originally, I thought there were two bars within a one-mile radius of our new apartment but it turns out that one of the two is actually a family-style place that only looks like a bar with rows of wooden benches and a barfront that is only where you order your hot dogs/burgers/etc. I should have been tipped off when we walked by on a Sunday afternoon and it was closed.
On a related note, I recently learned that my new hometown of Evanston was a dry city until only 20-30 years ago, and also that you when you buy beer they can't let you take it out of the store without a bag. For a place that is so extremely liberal, they sure do cling to the essence of the old blue laws.
Ok, now instead of going on and on about all the changes in my life the last month, or the new things I've seen or done, or god forbid some of the details of my job search process, I think now I'm going to list some oddities or observations or just bits of found knowledge. Starting now:
Running on grass all the time is very nice.
I ride a bike on paved trails only a little more than twice as fast as I run. I thought it would have been faster.
People from Chicago pronounce the name of their city either Chi-cawg-o, or Chi-cwah-go, not the way that I've only ever heard it by non-natives: Chi-cah-go. Who's right?
Overlooking the soccer field at DePaul University is a giant, like 5-6 story brick mural of either the pope or some other high-ranking Catholic figure. He's not in a classic straight profile shot either, like a guy on a coin, but sorta cut off or cocked to one side, as though he's peeking around the building.
The Jews of Skokie build horrible huge houses that seem designed specifically to look terrible in their context, like a sledgehammer in the middle of a row of glass jars.
Job-searching is a very debasing activity. Not humiliating. I guess it depends on how much pride you have. I just find it debasing.
The Droid X is a spectacular phone that is a couple levels of technology ahead of its battery.
It is possible to live in Chicago in October and not unpack any pair of pants not belonging to a matching suit.
My NFL ratings spreadsheet has allowed me to go 41-26 over 67 wagers placed, for a net betting gain of $335 over the six weeks of the season.
Removing four of the bets made specifically to satisfy bonus requirements at the website, and 37 of 63 of those bets were for an underdog.
That's 59% of all bets for underdogs. Yes there is a lesson of success in there.
If a baby girl smiles at you, it means either that she's happy or that she wants your attention.
If a baby girl smiles at you and she is your daughter, it means she loves you.
Moving as an almost-30-year-old, with a wife and a little baby, is very different from moving to and away from college. Remarkable insight, I know. We're finally sorta completing the move this weekend by getting into our own two-bedroom apartment, a place with two bathrooms. I don't know what's a bigger life rite-of-passage: having a baby, or having two bathrooms. I can now have one toilet used exclusively for pooping. Also, one of the showers has one of those hose attachments that lets you take the showerhead off and move it around. This is superb for two reasons: first, let's just say that I can more thoroughly clean certain parts of the body finally; and second, I can take my baby into the shower with me as substitute for bath time. This second thing might seem odd, especially since my baby is a girl and I am a man, but there is a part of the trailer to the recent documentary movie about babies (I actually think it's called "Babies") that includes a quick shot of a man from the waist up hold a baby with one hand in a shower and using the handheld showerhead to clean the baby with the other. For some reason, I saw this trailer a million times, and every time I wished I could do that same thing. (And before you think I'm a weirdo freak for desiring sharing naked time with my baby, know that doctors recommend parents have as much direct skin-on-skin contact as possible when babies are very young. So it's creepiness, but with an alibi.)
Originally, I thought there were two bars within a one-mile radius of our new apartment but it turns out that one of the two is actually a family-style place that only looks like a bar with rows of wooden benches and a barfront that is only where you order your hot dogs/burgers/etc. I should have been tipped off when we walked by on a Sunday afternoon and it was closed.
On a related note, I recently learned that my new hometown of Evanston was a dry city until only 20-30 years ago, and also that you when you buy beer they can't let you take it out of the store without a bag. For a place that is so extremely liberal, they sure do cling to the essence of the old blue laws.
Ok, now instead of going on and on about all the changes in my life the last month, or the new things I've seen or done, or god forbid some of the details of my job search process, I think now I'm going to list some oddities or observations or just bits of found knowledge. Starting now:
Running on grass all the time is very nice.
I ride a bike on paved trails only a little more than twice as fast as I run. I thought it would have been faster.
People from Chicago pronounce the name of their city either Chi-cawg-o, or Chi-cwah-go, not the way that I've only ever heard it by non-natives: Chi-cah-go. Who's right?
Overlooking the soccer field at DePaul University is a giant, like 5-6 story brick mural of either the pope or some other high-ranking Catholic figure. He's not in a classic straight profile shot either, like a guy on a coin, but sorta cut off or cocked to one side, as though he's peeking around the building.
The Jews of Skokie build horrible huge houses that seem designed specifically to look terrible in their context, like a sledgehammer in the middle of a row of glass jars.
Job-searching is a very debasing activity. Not humiliating. I guess it depends on how much pride you have. I just find it debasing.
The Droid X is a spectacular phone that is a couple levels of technology ahead of its battery.
It is possible to live in Chicago in October and not unpack any pair of pants not belonging to a matching suit.
My NFL ratings spreadsheet has allowed me to go 41-26 over 67 wagers placed, for a net betting gain of $335 over the six weeks of the season.
Removing four of the bets made specifically to satisfy bonus requirements at the website, and 37 of 63 of those bets were for an underdog.
That's 59% of all bets for underdogs. Yes there is a lesson of success in there.
If a baby girl smiles at you, it means either that she's happy or that she wants your attention.
If a baby girl smiles at you and she is your daughter, it means she loves you.
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