While sitting in traffic yesterday for a combined two-and-a-half hours on my way to and from work thanks to traffic accidents, I contemplated the pros and cons of my commute. Here are the top items I could come up with:
Pro: I have an awesome 10-year-old house on a quiet court with an open field behind our yard.
Con: The drive between our house in St. Charles and the office in Creve Coeur is 40 minutes each way and gas costs almost $4 per gallon.
To add insult to injury, I drove past my former residence in Maryland Heights on the way to getting my hair cut after work on Tuesday. How long did it take me to get there? Twelve minutes (yes, 12!!!). I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave for work at 7:45 a.m. and get home around 5:15 p.m. Imagine what I could do with that extra hour each day. I’d probably feel more energized as well.
I may have to start looking at house listings and just not tell Sarah about it. You know, find the perfect house and then spring it on her. I don’t know what else to do. I simply will not live in the St. Louis city limits, and I’m stuck on the west St. Louis County area. However, those areas are pricey and I’m still in the early stages of my career.
Any thoughts or suggestions? What’s your commute like?
Oliver busts a move
I haven’t posted much lately. And this blog has been sorely lacking in the “fun” department of late. To mix it up, I put together a brief but goofy video of my son “busting a move” this past weekend. I’m a huge dork and it’s terrible editing, but hopefully a few of you all will like it. Enjoy (or not):
Six magical hours
On Saturday, Oliver slept for four-and-a-half hours. Unfortunately, it was during the late afternoon. He had a rough night, sleeping-wise.
So we thought, “There’s potential now for longer periods of sleep,” but we didn’t get our hopes up. So last night we put the boy down at 11:30 p.m. Amazingly, he slept until 5:30 a.m. I’m in total shock right now. That’s six hours of sleep. And when he woke up, it wasn’t by choice. Sarah woke him up to feed.
What a great night. Hope it’s a sign of things to come.
Schweig Engel doesn’t take my arm (or leg)
I needed a good laugh today, and I found one (well, several actually) on YouTube thanks to a post I found on a sports forum I check out on occasion. For those who lived in the St. Louis area in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you’ll remember these Schweig Engel commercials from late night TV, like during old “Three Stooges” episodes on KPLR-TV and overnight movies on KDNL-TV. My favorite line went something like, “I can’t get any credit. Here, take my arm. And take my leg, too!”
Here are a couple classics, followed by a link to some has-to-be-awesome dude’s YouTube page, which includes a batch of these babies for your enjoyment. By the way, what ever happend to these three Schweig Engel guys? They’re sorely missed.
http://www.youtube.com/user/murfshizle
Stories about heparin make me sick
All these stories in the news about contaminated heparin and related deaths have been making me sick to my stomach. Sarah took heparin shots twice a day throughout her pregnancy, and we are thankful for all of the medical help she had prior to delivering Oliver. However, this news is alarming.
So now the feds are saying that, perhaps, the contamination was intentional. OMG, I smell a class-action lawsuit. And I’m ready to sign up as a plaintiff.
Here are a few details from an article in today’s New York Times:
Federal drug regulators believe that a contaminant detected in a crucial blood thinner that has caused 81 deaths was added deliberately, something the Food and Drug Administration has only hinted at previously.
“F.D.A.’s working hypothesis is that this was intentional contamination, but this is not yet proven,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s drug center, told the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in written testimony given Tuesday.
A third of the material in some batches of the thinner heparin were contaminants, “and it does strain one’s credulity to suggest that might have been done accidentally,” Dr. Woodcock said.
And more from that same article:
David G. Strunce, chief executive of Scientific Protein Laboratories, the company that supplied contaminated heparin material to Baxter International, which manufactured and distributed the finished drug, described the contamination as “an insidious act” that “seems to us an intentional act upstream in the supply chain.”
The F.D.A. has identified Changzhou SPL, a Chinese subsidiary of Scientific Protein Laboratories, as the source of the contaminated heparin. A Congressional investigator said the contaminant, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, cost $9 a pound compared with $900 a pound for heparin.
Mr. Strunce said that his company tried to find the original source of the contamination but was stopped by the Chinese authorities.
So that Grant’s Farm trip on Sunday …
Now that Oliver and Sarah are both sleeping at the same time, I am sneaking some Internet time on the laptop. Thought I’d write a little more about Sunday’s trip to Grant’s Farm. It was for my work picnic. We bundled Oliver up in a little onesy that has a tie sewn on it, and we topped his outfit off with his first pair of blue jeans. It was pretty cute.
So anyway, we were running late as usual. I actually thought I had made up for lost time with my driving, but had forgotten about the LONG tram ride. We had to take it all the way to the back area of the park where our picnic was being held. Needless to say, we missed the special tour our company had arranged. Instead, we indulged in some brats and hamburgers. Then we walked around and did all the regular “Grant’s Farm stuff” that you do there. You know, feeding animals, reading about animals and looking at animals, as well as smelling poo, looking out for poo and trying not to step in a pile of poo.
After a few hours, Oliver was getting fussy so we headed home. He was a hit at the party, but I’m pretty sure he’ll enjoy his next trip to the park — when he’s older and all that. Anyway, I’m trying out a new photo service tonight. If it works, there should be a few pictures below. Enjoy!
Oliver all dressed up:
Sarah feeding her new friend:
Me feeding my new friend:
By this time, even the kangaroos were getting tired:
And so Oliver and Sarah posed for the obligatory “You-can-tell-I’m-at-Grant’s-Farm-because-of-the-sign-behind-us” photo shortly before leaving the park:
Where has Justin been lately?
I haven’t written a blog post in several days. And I don’t even feel like doing this now. However, I’m caving to the pressure of loyal readers such as Jennifer Hatton’s mom (just kidding; I’m really happy to have you here!).
So where have I been? I’ve been super busy of late. I’ve had about four or five blog ideas in the past week, and I’ve had pictures as well. I just haven’t had time to write anything.
A few days ago, for example, we had Oliver’s great-grandpa Gil’s 90th birthday party. We had a blast, just talking and hanging out. We even played Wii together. Gil loves to play bowling, and he’s pretty good at it.
Then on Saturday we went on a massive, and long overdue, shopping trip. On Sunday, we took Oliver to Grant’s Farm for my work picnic. It was a little chilly and made for a long day, though we had fun. When I got home, I needed to grade papers for the courses I’m teaching in my spare (“spare”? How funny is that?) time. However, our thermostat wasn’t kicking on and it was getting cold in the house. As Sarah prepared for the thought of taking Oliver to spend the night at her mom’s house, I went downstairs and worked on the unit. Thankfully, I know how to read the HVAC Morse code-like blinking light. Turned out it was just a burnt fuse that needed to be replaced, so I took the thing apart, found the culprit and head to Home Depot. Of course, HD didn’t have the damn thing, so I had to head across town to AutoZone. Got the part, came home and the unit worked fine. I then graded papers until bed time.
Yesterday was a complete blur. To give you a better understanding of how my day went, I thought I’d break it down by time. Here you go:
6:30 a.m. – Wake up for work
7:20 a.m. – Leave for the office
8 a.m. – Arrive at the office (BTW, this long commute that I’ve been doing over the past three years is ABSOLUTELY KILLING ME – it’s taken years off my life and I wish we could afford to live in certain areas of St. Louis County that are, quite frankly, out of our price range at this point in life)
Noon – Eat lunch
12:30 p.m. – Back to work
5 p.m. – Leave work
5:45 p.m. – Arrive home (again, the long commute was a blast)
5:50 p.m. – Help calm Oliver, help with dinner, clean up the kitchen
6:45 p.m. – Eat dinner and clean up afterward
7:15 p.m. – Head upstairs to grade papers
10 p.m. – After finishing grading, head downstairs and am given Oliver and told by the wife, “I’m going to bed. I’ve had him all day and I’m tired.” I’m like, “I have also had a long day.” The wife shrugs it off.
11:30 p.m. – Awake from awkward and light sleep, startled and ready for bed. Let the dog out and head upstairs, where Oliver wakes up and starts feeding. Of course, the lights are on the entire time, and he’s grunting and snorting. This is causing our dog, Molly, to bark from her crate downstairs.
12:30 a.m. – Oliver finally goes to sleep. I’m wide awake due to the commotion that took place over the past hour. Plus, the darn lights. I don’t know how I could have physically gone back to sleep. Google the words “sleep,” “light” and “melatonin” and see what that cocktail of items does to your sleep cycle. Do it now. This page isn’t going anywhere. We can wait for you to come back.
1:30 a.m. – Oliver is awake again, snorting and ready to eat (again! just an hour later!!!)
2 a.m. – Fed up with laying there and thinking about my alarm going off in a few hours, I head to the guest room. I lay there for an hour, listening to Oliver cry and snort, and getting angry at our dog, who is now barking rhythmically every 1 minute or so
2:45 a.m. – Finally fall asleep for good.
6:20 a.m. – Wake up for work.
7 a.m. – Start this blog post
7:20 a.m. – Head out to my car to start the whole cycle over again.
What a day, and what a frickin’ week. Hopefully things will slow down soon, though I have 25 more papers to edit this week, plus there are about 80 more due this coming Saturday. Sorry to rant so much in this post, but it makes me feel better. Plus, I know that there are a lot of new moms who read this blog, so maybe (just maybe) a lucky husband out there might catch a break by someone who finds some sympathy for me.
Oliver finally showing his “fun” side
Oliver is finally showing his “fun” side. He’s smiling a little bit, and he kicks his legs when he’s really happy. I shot a short video of him kicking his legs while sitting in his bouncer earlier tonight. Enjoy:
Really touched today by story of Sarah Jane
Anyone who knows me or has been around me over the past, well, 32-plus years knows my thoughts on charities. While I have never had anything against them at all, it’s the giving of my money to them that I never got around to actually doing. You see, I had a pretty humble youth. Later in life, I was a poor college student and struggling journalist. I’ve lived on my own (with some help from the parents, mind you) since the fall of 1995. For 10 years, I struggled financially as most of my friends flourished with well-paying jobs. I’m living proof that it’s really difficult to make a career out of an English degree.
Flash forward to the present, and I’m now doing pretty well. There’s room for growth, yes, but it’s nothing like the late 1990s and early “aughts.” I now have a master’s degree, a great job, a side gig teaching college classes and a wife who also earns an income. I also have a son.
Having a son has really changed my outlook on helping others. For example, I recently bought overpriced candy bars to help seventh-graders pay for their basketball jerseys. I even had a 2-3 minute conversation with the girls, teasing them about how I could head back inside Schnucks and buy three candy bars for the price of one of theirs. I still bought three of theirs. Best (and only) $2 candy bars I’ve ever tasted.
Anyway, the point of all of this is that I was really touched today. A little over a year ago, I helped on a video for a client and the editing took place at SmithLee Productions in Maplewood. Overseeing the project was Dave Smith (to my hockey friends: this is not “Diving Dave” Smith who used to play for the Black Bears and mysteriously fall like he had been shot every time a stick went near him). Dave owns SmithLee. He was great to work with, and after the project I agreed to meet him for lunch a few months later.
During that lunch, I learned about his daughter, Sarah Jane. She suffers from seizures. Originally able to walk and talk, she sustained major injuries from a five-hour epileptic seizure in 2004. She’s currently recovering from an operation to rebuild her hip joints so she will one day be able to stand up, ride a special tricycle and walk using a special machine. The activities, according to Dave, will help extend Sarah Jane’s life.
Hearing and reading about Sarah Jane and her progress and challenges has moved me like never before, probably because our little Oliver has given me a new perspective on parenting and children. You never know what life will throw at you, and having a child has really softened me up when it comes to relating to other parents.
In an e-mail from Dave today I was informed about a trivia night and silent auction that will be held next Thursday to benefit Sarah’s medical fund. Details can be found by clicking here. You can also find more information about Sarah Jane on her Web site by clicking here. It’s worth checking out, and it would mean a lot if you’d forward the links along to anybody who might be interested in helping Dave and his family.
What do you think? Am I becoming a “softie?” Can any of you new parents out there relate? What about my fellow English majors?
Oliver and his first lady-friend
Oliver met his first lady-friend yesterday. You may recall that my good friend Mike and his wife had a daughter about two and half weeks before we had our son. Mary Kate and Oliver are now about the same size, though Mary acts much more mature, plus she smiles a lot (Oliver is just starting to smile, though I haven’t been able to capture one on film).
It was cool seeing the two of them together, but they’re babies, so they didn’t really interact. It will be even cooler to see how their friendship evolves over the years. Oliver should be a certified ladies man by the time he’s a teenager — all of my friends who are pregnant are having girls, and all the ones who had babies during the past year had girls (except Jen and her son Drew). Here’s a picture of cute little Mary Kate, followed by the babies with their moms and another that looks like the two are singing in unison (in that picture, Mary Kate was crying and Oliver was yawning). Enjoy:
Blog Full of Letters 