Fight the Good Fight
Yesterday, my son left back for Oklahoma. He was here for over a month in New York City. The trip to the airport was a bit depressing but I kept us talking and concerned with our path to the airport so for the most part, it was an everyday event until we were sitting at his gate, waiting for him to board. I was trying to be okay but it was just killing me to see that kid get on a plane to go away from me and for who knows how long 'till I see him again. In this economy, I haven't been able to get back every couple of months like I used to. This last gap of time was equal to the amount of time I went without seeing him in Australia. Today, I started a new contract job that will last a few weeks and I think both sides are still looking to see how the fit goes. I like the people there and the the walk is pretty nice so I hope it does work out. But today, my first day to work there, there was an 89% humidity which caused me to show up drenched with sweat. During the first meeting my eye did the allergy blood fill thing, and on the way home, it poured down rain down on me. Despite the cool rainstorm view from the 44th floor in a lower Manhattan office and a cool thunderstorm today, I'm so sick of the rain. Yesterday and today I have felt like a truck ran over me, probably from the emotions I have been dealing with.
I have dealt with a lot of emotions and life altering events over the past year, one after another, after another. I have done all this with a smile on my face and a positive attitude while some days screaming a bit inside. But for one month, one really good month, I had my son here to remind me what is really important and make everything else seem a bit less significant. This awesome kid who means more to me than anything, sit next to me, and be that piece of hope I so urgently needed. It was exactly what I needed. And just like that, he was now gone as well. It really hurt. He knows that he is a source of strength for me, I kinda like that he knows that.
I will be fine, I always land on my feet, sometimes you just need some time and a big change to come along. I'm ready for the change.
You Can't Always Get What You Want
This year, which has not been bad at all, has been going by at an incredible, mind numbing speed. Seems like yesterday it was New Years Eve in Times Square and now we are at Halloween again already. This year however, has been different than the past. For the better actually. See, I haven't found out things yet, but I've had to deal with a lot of things I been avoiding and I have had to confront some pretty big fears. Yea, I know, sorry, cryptic and I apologize but, I like to let you in on the fact that I am having these insights, just not as to what they are.
Tomorrow is Halloween night and I was going to try and get back to Oklahoma to be with Nate this year, simply because even though we always video chat every year before and after the event, I haven't been with him dressed up in his little outfit in four years now. It's a trade off to have Christmas and it's an easy choice, but still, how many years does your kid still want to dress up as a Star Wars Clone Trooper? I'm missing out on that and it doesn't go by me without difficult notice. So we video chat again and we enjoy the time we spend at Christmas and we hope next year allows us to get both.
Nathan's report card
Ask me, who has a kid, who just got strait A's on a report card, is doing well in Baseball, reads on a grade level above his, has been doing all his house chores as promised and wants to buy a cookbook for kids so he can learn to cook.
Go ahead, ask me. :)
what nathan wants to be
So far it has gone in this order from most the recent to the earliest I can remember him saying he wanted to be. I think I will keep this handy and update it as needed.
2006: Designer (wants to travel like his dad)
2006: Soldier (saw a national guard ad at the theatre)
2006: Photographer (likes to play with dad's camera)
2006: Film Director (likes to make movies on the camera I got him)
2006: Race Car Driver (from a movie)
2005: Astronaut (later decided he wasn't crazy about heights)
2005: Scientist (this was / is to coincide with being an astronaut)
2003: Policeman
2003: Fireman
His self proclaimed college plans: University of Oklahoma.
Little Man Nate
Nathan starts the first day of the fourth grade today. He had a rough day yesterday not getting the games he wanted on the final day of freedom and some other stuff going just a little foul so I hope his first day back goes well. I asked him if anything could be done yesterday to put him in a better mood and he piped up real quick "I could go to Incredible Pizza?" Good try kiddo.
I'm a dad to a nine year old in the 4th grade. Amazing.
Update: Nate's first words on the phone: "I totally scored with my teacher!" After a second of wondering if Debra Lafave was now teaching in Oklahoma, I came to understand he meant he got a teacher he likes.
Stars for Nathan
Nathan is making his first trip with me to New York today. I'm looking forward to all that I get to show him around the city. We have many good ideas so if you have any that you think a 9 year old would like to see, please give some input.
update: We've made it to NYC and found ourselves very whooped after getting unpacked and cramming some fragments of food into our mouth after not eating all day. Nate is loving NYC so far and can't wait to see what it looks like in the daylight.
Thanks for the comments, more input if you think of anything more or different. We are going to just go down and see what looks interesting to him with the week we have here.
update 2: A new Map at Wayfaring to keep track of it all.
update 3: If Your trying to find an address in NYC, Google Maps is obviously the best solution.
If you are trying to find your way from point A to point B in NYC via Subway then the Interactive Transit Map is the best solution.
If you want to Mark these places off so you can best plan a course of travel around NYC, Wayfaring is the best solution.
I just really wish someone would combine these great tools into one. Seems like it's not a hard stretch since they all use the Google Map API.
Today in the car
nathan: "Oh bother."
me: "heh, who says that?"
nathan: "Winnie the Pooh."
(pause)
nathan: (cracking himself up laughing)
me: "what?"
nathan: "I said poo(h)" (more self cracking up for about 5 miles)
Yea, good times.
Welcome Nathan
Paula and I have a new son I would like to introduce you to. He is a healthy little guy who has beautiful eyes and after the hard scrubbing the nurses gave him is returning to a nice skin color. I know it sounds cliche but when I saw him for the first time, I cried in a way I never have before.
Happy birthday Nathan!
