Sick Again!!!

I got another cold. These kids are killing me. I feel like I have been sick half the time I have been here.

The Goods

Two items I lived off as a kid.

Burgled

After we got robbed people would come up and say, "So I heard you got burgled" which always made me laugh. It just sounds so funny burgled partially, because it reminds me of the Hamburgler. Anyway here are a list of words I like.

1. Burgle

2. Tomfoolery

3. By the Bye

4. Bollox

5. Romp

6. Query

Ultrasound

With the help of my Goofball brother I was able to make an ultrasound machine and captured this picture of my unborn son.

Strangers In The Night

Two men broke into our house last night. At about 4am, two men cut a hole in the barbed wire fence around our campus and slipped past security. They went along the road checking back doors to see if any were unlocked. We left our door unlocked and so did our neighbors.

Celine answered our phone at 5:45 and was told that a burglar had been in some of the lojmans and our back door was opened, so she told me to go down stairs to check, so I bolted down the stairs to see if anyone was still around, but they had already gone.

Later, we learned that they were at our house first and then went to our neighbors who heard a noise and yelled at the two men as they escaped from their home. Our neighbor saw one of the robber's faces as he was running up the stairs.

The cops and campus security came by, and I gave a statement and a list of things that were stolen. The list was short my wallet and Celine's camera. (She almost cried)

Later, I went through the hole in the fence in search of evidence. I found none, but I will go back later and continue my search down the dirt road that leads to a village. I will find these villains and bring them to justice. When I say Justice, I am talking Jack Bauer justice.

There was an Italian artist who was murdered a week ago about a 20 minute drive from campus. Maybe we should have started locking our door then. Lesson learned.

Once You Start You'll Never Stop

My father-in-law told my wife when she was younger not to get to excited about working, because once you start you will never stop. I found that this was true in my life. I was just thinking about all the jobs I have had over my life.

I started working when I was 9 - working with my dad for his tree removal company on Saturdays. I worked almost every Saturday until I was 19. I have not stopped working since.

1. Tree service-goffer

2. Pathmark-cart boy

3. Boston Market-food prep and meat boy

4. A&P-Cashier

5. Landscaper

6. Taco Bell-food prep and taco maker

7. McDonalds-griller

8. Denny's-cook

9. Toys R Us-overnight stock boy

10. Philly's Cheesesteaks-griller, food prep, cashier

11. Fedex-courier

12. Venice Pizza-pizza delivery boy

13. Chop Stick King-delivery boy

14. Firday Night Live-working with adults with disabilities

15. Massage Therapist

16. Federal Government Census Bearuea-investigator

17. Boulder Creek-waiter

18. Substitute teacher

19. Highland Park Youth activities coordinator

20. Army-recruit

21. Building Retaining walls (one day)


22. Teacher

I might be forgetting some?

It's Raining Diapers

The other day I was walking across the room to put 30 diapers away I was holding in my arms. On my walk over to the diaper cabinet I saw Celine sitting on the floor going through some stuff. I decided to drop the diapers on her head while singing, It's raining diapers. She laughed but I think it was because she didn't know what else to do.

Cyprus

We just got back from Cyprus. It was great! We traveled with a couple we became friends with, or should I say Calvin became friends with. The two highlights of the trip were the pool and a castle. The pool at the hotel was really fun, because Calvin is at a really fun age where he is easily amused, and I love to see him laugh. We saw a couple of castles, but one was in the mountains and we had to drive to it. We drove up to the gate, and then I put Calvin in our backpack carrier and we hiked around the castle which was on three levels, because it was built into the mountain. It is rumored that this was the castle that inspired Walt Disney to design many of the castles in his films, like in Snow White. After we were there for an hour, a heavy fog rolled in creating a Stephen King-type atmosphere. It was great.

First Watch

For anyone who is married and has kids, this advice is for you. Always! Always! take the first watch.

We just got back from Cyprus and it was amazing. We took turns watching Calvin usually splitting it up into half the day. He was really good considering he had to spend a couple hours in a car everyday. I would usually volunteer to take the first watch here's why...we pack snacks, treats, and games for Calvin so on our way to wherever we were going I would use up all the distractions and he would be content in the morning, but on the way home he would get more and more fussy.

So my advice - always take the first watch.

Generation X

I really like this term. Let me give you a brief history of this term.

Generation X (Aka the MTV Generation or The 13th Generation): A term used to describe the generation born between 1964 and 1980. Many books have been written based around what Generation X means. The basic idea is that there is an extreme disconnect between the Generation Xers and previous generations. The disconnect refers to the following...

1-Disaffection with governance, a lack of trust in leadership, particularly institutional leadership
2-Rampant political apathy
3-Increase in divorce
4-Increase in mothers in the workplace
5-The zero population growth movement
6-Availability of birth control pills
7-"Devil-child films"
8-Increase in educational variance
9-Decrease in educational funding and loan availability (simultaneous with increase in advertising for military service)
10-Inception of the Internet
11-The end of the Cold War

For me Generation X refers to an Extreme generation. There have been such extreme changes during my generation. We are a generation raised by TV with programs devoted to being extreme. We grew up on music that was completely different from other generations - we saw the birth of Grunge, Punk , Alternative, and New Pop music. We also experienced the birth of new and re-imagined extreme sports like snowboarding, skate boarding, mountain biking, and other sports, many of which have made it into the Olympics. The development of video games and computers has also fueled this change. We are a generation who had parents telling us not to play videos game so much, but we as parents play video games with our kids. I don't think PC's would have evolved the ways they have if it weren't for video games.

The term Generation X was used, because it was in reference to a nameless generation that did not fit into the world it was born into, so it changed that world in order to fit in, but I think I have found a name for my generation. The Peter Pan Generation, because we are a generation that refuses to grow up. Less of us get married and have kids than before and more of us get divorced. They say money is the number one cause of divorce, but I think it is selfishness which stems from the Peter Pan syndrome. Everything about our generation fuels this and exponentially increases our selfish desires.

The question is, how do we overcome this Peter Pan Syndrome and avoid our Extreme selfishness?