Month: October 2011

Occupy Me!

With all the talk of “Occupy Wallstreet” and “1 percenters” and iPhones, I thought I would take some time to talk about what occupies me.

In a typical day, I’ll wear clothes from Banana Republic or Target or maybe some other random store I’ve shopped at. Some times I wear shorts and a t-shirt, sometimes I wear jeans and a nice shirt. I drink coffee from Starbucks or maybe Folgers that I brewed at home. On Friday’s I go with my family to a gas station to get what we call “Zombie Biscuits” from an old lady who is there 6 days a week serving food to truckers, teachers, and business people. I drive my GMC Terrain into the city and get approximately 19.5 miles to the gallon. I pass a dozen or so people who are homeless as well as people in suits. I listen to Spotify on my iPhone 3Gs today, but tomorrow it’ll be on my iPhone 4s.

While at work I use the computer my company provided. This is the same computer that my wife also uses at home for doing her grad school work. Sometimes for lunch I have leftovers from the night before, some times I go to Subway and Eat Fresh, other times I let the company pay for my over priced kobe beef hamburger at a local steak house. In a typical 9 hour day, I cram in about 7 hours of work. The other 2 hours I’m eating lunch, peeing, or just chatting with co-workers who are sharing the same typical day as me. Some days I work late, and other days I head out early to beat the traffic, but I always hop on line later to check in. I work when I get home, when I’m on the road, on the weekends, and while on vacation. But I also think about my family 24/7, regardless of work.

After work I go to the gym, or go to my son’s ball game/practice, or maybe I go get dinner at La Parilla, or Olive Garden, or some other chain restaurant. Most of the time I have dinner that my wife cooked using the groceries we bought the weekend before. After dinner, we watch the shows that are on the DVR and skip all the commercials. Some times I play World of Warcraft, some times I play the Wii or PS3 with our son. Regardless of what we do, we are together.

The next day, I repeat my routine… or maybe I switch it up a bit. Maybe I work from home.

In the end, I am mainly concerned about the wellbeing of my family. They occupy me. I don’t really care about Wallstreet or big corporations or anything beyond the scope of my day. I know there are families in other countries, states, cities, houses, that are struggling, but I refuse to give up that which provides for my family. I wish the best for all the others in the world. I want the best for everyone, but I also want the best for me. I will continue to work and push upwards get the things I need and want.

So that’s that. My family occupies me. I occupy me.

It’s the little things

Like little tiny toes and fingers and a yawn, that make it all worth it. Last Friday we went for our first official sonogram. It was the first time we got to see Jr. BLT really moving around. We got to see all his little baby parts and they were all perfect. For me, all I could do was sit there in awe. Here was this little baby, growing inside of my wife. He was so wonderful. He seemed in bliss and just happy to be right where he was. I wanted to hold him, but was ok with him being tucked away safely for the next few months.

Below are some pics of Lane in all his baby glory. I’ve not seen his face yet, but I know he is going to be beautiful and amazing.

UPDATE:
This post was originally made back in Sept, and I’ve yet to get around to actually uploading the photos. That doesn’t change the fact that my little boy is still safe, and warm, and kickin’ like a soccer player. I’ve had the joy of feeling him move around in SJ’s belly and it brings me to such a happy place. I can just picture him squirming around, being all baby like and happy. We got his room set up and I know I’ll be spending many hours in there with him, cleaning up poop, sleeping, doing my best to get him back to sleep at 2am, and all the things that come with being a father to a newborn.

I can’t wait. My life is changing, and it’s all for the better.

I need a hobby

Everyone has things they enjoy doing. Whether it’s snow boarding, bear wrangling, knitting, or deep sea fishing, people generally just like being active. For me the things that I enjoy doing are going to the gym (or exercise in general), cooking, and/or doing something with my hands. I really like the process of taking nothing or raw materials and creating a finished product. I don’t claim to be the best cook or most prolific builder, but I give it my all when I get into it. Over the past few months work has started to creep into my life more and more, thus taking away time to do other things I enjoy.

This post was started a few months ago, and I never got around to publishing it. Some might say that I found a hobby. Lately my life has been full of the things I enjoy doing. Certainly work has come into play, but now I find myself doing more a more of the things I love to do, cooking, building things, spending time with my family, etc.

With the baby on the way, there is always something to be done. Whether it’s building a bookcase, or painting, or baby-proofing the house, there is no shortage of stuff to do. This week in fact we’ve put together the crib, and got it all set up. We hung a vinyl decal on the wall, and today I finished a bookcase that I built. Not something I simply put together, but I built it. I love getting things ready for the baby’s room. Jess is doing all the hard work with growing the little fella, so the least I can do is paint and build things to make it more cozy for the pair of them when he arrives. Chase has also been a huge help! He was out there with me, cutting wood, sanding, and painting. It was great to get to work with him in the garage, and I know he enjoyed it a lot too.

So that’s that. I’ve been busy around the house with yard sales, cooking (made my favorite Brisket Chili w/ Butternut Squash last night), building, and just enjoying life. Fall is my favorite season, and this one especially has got me loving life more than I could have ever imagined.