Peppered Out
My commute drives me crazy sometimes. In order to avoid highways until the last possible second, I spend a lot of time on windy two-lane roads. I like this because…
Back on Schedule
This week, by far, ranks as one of my favorite weeks of the year. Finally, I can welcome stability and regularity back into my life.
Of course, I am talking about the return of my favorite television shows to the small screen. Few things make me happier than having my entire week sketched out for me between 8 and 10 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
Some people will surely think this makes me shallow. I came to terms with that a long time ago. If people judge me because I find a modern form of entertainment enjoyable, they have way too much time on their hands.
Time which could be better spent getting to know the Dunphy and Pritchett families on “Modern Family.” Or learning about the weirdest community college in the country on “Community.” Or realizing your family isn’t as screwed up as the folks in “The Middle.”
I Can See Clearly
About a year ago, I lamented in a column about changes in my eyesight. I had started to notice trouble with reading small print and wondered if I needed bifocals.
Luckily, I have escaped that fate, but I did something very overdue a couple of weeks ago. I went and bought new glasses.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought a pair of specs. I have a pair I would wear around the house – and around town when I didn’t feel like wearing my contacts – but they had the trifecta of an out-of-date prescription, an unflattering look and hopelessly scratched lenses.
I really wonder how I didn’t hurt myself or someone else wearing these things.
I got a new prescription earlier this year, but procrastinated on getting new glasses. I don’t care how much I have grown up. I hate wearing glasses. I started wearing them in fourth or fifth grade and the stigma of pre-teen teasing has never really gone away.
Of course, I went out and got new contacts right away. I have worn them pretty much full time since I turned 15 so I always consider them a priority.
Wedding Wardrobe Woes, Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
I knew we would have fun. As we prepared to go to my nephew’s wedding in Baltimore, that notion existed without any doubt in my mind.
I just wondered if I would go through the entire day without a problem. As it turns out, I didn’t even make it out of the house before that happened.
Our family last had a wedding six years ago. As Maria and I prepared to go to that ceremony, I realized I brought two different shoes. Luckily, I had one for each foot, but they were each from a different pair of black shoes.
Since we were in New Jersey, I had no chance to rectify the mistake and spent the whole day hoping no one noticed. I made it through unscathed, mainly because our weddings are so fun, no one really cares what shoes people are wearing.
With this ceremony in Baltimore, I figured I had a home-field advantage. We would get dressed at the house before heading down to spend the night so I had nothing to worry about. Or did I?
Shake, Rattle and Laugh
I don’t particularly have a “bucket list.” I have a few things in life I still want to experience, but don’t really keep them written down.
If I did have a list like that, I don’t know whether I would have ever thought to add “experience a hurricane earthquake on the fifth floor of a building” before the fact.
Like a lot of other people, I really didn’t know what to make of last week’s tremor. I had my headphones on as I plowed through work at my desk in Baltimore. After someone closed a drawer a few desks away, I noticed the empty Snapple bottle on my desk moving.
“Why did she slam that drawer?” I thought. “It didn’t seem that forceful.”
Then I noticed the bottle still trembling a few seconds later. Then I thought I saw something else moving. Then I wondered if something was wrong with me.
A lot of people I have talked to had that same thought pattern. In the back of my head, I was thinking earthquake, but the front was telling me those sort of things don’t happen around here. I sat still briefly to make sure I wasn’t having some sort of episode then went to make sure I wasn’t going crazy.
Happy Birthday to Me
I don’t know what I did on my 13th birthday. I can venture to guess, since it was the middle of August 1981, that I spent some time playing video games and some time hanging out by the pool.
If you had told me then that I could do pretty much the exact same things to celebrate 30 years later, I would have paid a pretty steep price to guarantee that.
In reality, I could think of nothing else I wanted to do when I turned 43 a couple of weeks ago. Since my birthday fell on a Sunday, everything lined up perfectly.
The True Necessities
The cost of air travel can sometimes get out of hand, especially since airlines have found more and more ways to take money from their customers. From bag fees to charging for food on many flights, the perks of flying the friendly skies have largely disappeared.
But on a recent trip for work, I re-discovered something which makes up for all of that. Well, at least for me.
I got a chance to peruse the Sky Mall catalog.
Not Risky Enough
To be completely honest, the thought did cross my mind for more than a few seconds. I almost went ahead and did it.
Let me set the scene before going any further. My wife and daughter went away for a few days to visit friends. I had the whole house to myself, a situation I get to enjoy a few days a year.
I do miss my family when they go on these kinds of trips, but I also enjoy getting in touch with the side of me which is normally suppressed due to rules about cleaning up after myself and making sure everything goes in its place.
Because Maria had not completed the living room painting project, the house took on a completely different feel this time. I think I took more liberties with my messiness because of this situation.
I’m not allowed to help with painting projects – it’s a long story – so I could really do nothing about the minor changes to the room. Some furniture still sat pushed to the middle of the living room. A paint can sat on some newspaper in the corner. None of the windows had any curtains.
As I sat on the couch the first night, I realized that the minor amount of disarray seemed a little confusing. It felt like I had just moved in or had seen some other major life change. The lack of curtains and area rug covering the hardwood floor made the biggest difference.
That’s when I started to think of the possibilities. Spending time home alone always leads to massive amounts of grilling, staying up too late and not making the bed. This time, however, something better came to mind.
Doing My Part
I firmly believe we should never stop trying to better ourselves. This wonderful world can offer new and exciting experiences regardless of how much we think we know.
I recently had a chance to put this belief into action. My wife wanted to paint the living room since we had a kid-free house for a few days. Even though I am not allowed to paint – that’s a long story which goes back a number of years – I did offer to help prepare things for the project.
So I moved furniture and carried the area rug upstairs. I made a Sunday morning trip to the hardware store and wandered around the aisles until we found everything on the list. I even spotted something we needed on a shelf before Maria did. That’s husband-of-the-year type stuff right there.
When we had the room all prepared and the supplies purchased, I thought I would be excused from the project. While I did have plenty of things I could accomplish on my own, particularly napping, I did want to help as much as possible.
So Maria told me I could help clean the walls. Against my better judgment, I got excited. I could actually claim that I did something helpful on a painting project.
We had purchased some special cleaning solution – that’s the stuff I found at the store – to wipe down the walls, but I had a chance to help even before we got down to that dirty work.
She let me use the Swiffer.
Beach Anniversary
In 1986, my parents and a few of my siblings went on vacation to the beach together. I don’t know all the details since I was in high school and either spent that week wrestling or working.
I know that they headed to Bethany Beach, Del., where my sister’s in-laws had a condo. A month or so ago, I spent the week in Bethany with 47 family members and friends, marking the 25thstraight year our family headed to Bethany for vacation.
Like many of the things my family does, I often see the trip at first glance as just something we do. We didn’t necessarily come up with this grand plan to have a massive beach week. It just started and grew to something that provided so much fun that we never considered stopping.