One of my favorite commercials of all time is an Office Depot add. A man and his children are walking through the isles of Office Depot with a familiar Christmas season tune playing in the background – setting the mood. The father is happily lip-syncing the words to the song as he glides down the isle. The children are dragging each step as if they are being led to their own execution. The…
What is in store for me now? Well, tomorrow we’re going to church. Cheryl and I decided that we would carpool to church tomorrow (a bit of an inside joke that I’m not going to explain). Not much is going on at this point. We are between major events, and what’s more, there are no imminent plans for another major event. What’s a guy to do? The last think I need to do right…
“Mommy, when you were little did you watch the Care Bears forty hundred times?”
“No Beth, I could only watch the Care Bears on the weekend because we didn’t have cable TV, VCRs or DVD players”
“Oh, you mean back in the old days?”
I am certain that I never referred to anything being associated with “the old days”. I am certain that I have never…
Counting down the days until Beth’s thirteenth birthday with a few reposts from the archives.
Originally posted: Jul 10, 2003, Beth’s age: 5 (almost 6)
We have been thinking about Beth’s birthday present for some time now. Tonight we took action. Cheryl called around to see which stores had the item in stock. After a couple of disappointments we found one that had it. Cheryl took off…
It was Friday evening and the game was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. It was to be the Arena Football League championship game, and I had completely forgotten that it was going to take place nearby. Arena football being slightly more popular than curling in Florida, we were able to get tickets. Having never seen an Arena League contest, I was game for a new experience. I checked my calendar…
You and your wife are sharing a moment of matrimonial intimacy in the bathroom. This is not the honeymoon kind of intimacy that people fantasize about. No, this is the mundane, day to day intimacy that is found in the real world. Your wife is in front of you, bent over the sink, brushing her teeth. Her face is visible only because of the mirror. It strikes you that this is what it really means to…
Camera number one shows the layout of the scene. It’s a retirement party. Everyone is saying goodbye to a Department of Corrections cohort. We are outdoors, in someone’s front yard. I am between conversations, observing the crowd from a lawn chair in the middle of the yard. Beth is walking around aimlessly, but not being disruptive. She is the only child at the party. Cameral number…
Have I mentioned that I am not an outgoing person? In a room with other people, silence is not my friend. Any silence tends to be awkward silence. With my family, words come out of my mouth with nary a second thought, or any prior thought for that matter. With others, words come rarely if at all. When they do they are not something to be proud of. My intelligence quotient takes a 30 point drop…
Have I mentioned that Cheryl is not a patient person? I pity anyone in her path when her patience is overtaxed. On morning two of our Spring Disney Fling, Cheryl planned to leave early for the park, sans significant other, with offspring in tow. She was going with a friend and her child. They all left around 7:30 to fetch a resort bus to the park thinking they had plenty of time. About a half an…