r and i went to point reyes this past weekend. i decided i had to get out of town, compounded when i realized that it had been last august since i had taken a trip. (barring holiday travel to the east coast).

point reyes was beautiful and exactly what i needed. we had a wonderful room in the point reyes seaside lodge — no tv, a windowseat and a fireplace. coupled with the complete lack of cell phone signal and my leaving the laptop at home, i finally was unplugged for a few days. perhaps even for the longest amount since we went to japan a year and a half ago.

we saw a veritable menagerie while we were there: dogs, cats, many many birds (including some vultures — up close in the backyard of the lodge), cows, horses, sheep, dozens of deer, dozens more of elk, some giant slugs, a possum and even an ostrich.

we hiked, we went to the beaches, we saw the lighthouse there. we had wonderful meals and sat in the woods. we saw rolling farmland right up against a crashing ocean.

i can't recommend it enough. though r's legs killed when we got back and i woke up this morning (a full day and a half after getting back) wondering if i could still walk.

last night was spent at ugly's as most monday nights are. it was empty until about 9.30 and rachel, our normal bartender, had the night off. it's ok, because we made friends with bobbi, a nice 40 year old woman who has just moved here from chicago. she's feisty and as the night wore on, she ran with it. i won't go into too many details, but suffice to say we now know her opinions about 'licking lolli', how straight she is, how she isn't having any sexual relations with rachael or myself and various other unmentionables. all unprovoked and highly entertaining.

she traded phone numbers with r, wanting to go out to coffee. i'm excited through proxy — she seems fun and i think it'll be fun for r, especially since she is so introverted. heartless bastard i am, i'm hoping for rachael to be pulled out of her comfort zone. i do hope to hear good stories.

i ride caltrain 3 times a week up into the city. its a fine commute — long enough to be exhausting (leave the house at 7am, get back home at 7pm), but tempered by being able to relax for an hour each direction. prime gameboy/reading/writing time, esp since there is no wireless on the train. me and video podcasts have gotten pretty close too.

anyway, i ride 3 times a week. and after 6 months, i know the people who ride my train and who sit in my car. i sit in the same areas on the train everyday, as most other people do as well. it's this whole familiar stranger thing. you learn.

so there is a girl who rides my train that i think is awesome. she's like 13. you look at this girl and think 'wow, she is going to be gorgeous in a few years'. there's nothing weird or sketchy about me thinking she is cool, so let's skip that whole thing. you develop opinions about pretty much everyone you see on a regular basis, my opinion of her is just higher than most. one of the first times i rode the train, she was waiting and reading 'the alchemist' which i still haven't read, but have always heard good reviews of from people i like. so she got a point from me there. random observances go a long way towards forming opinions of strangers.

anyway. why bring any of this up, knowing my friends and the type of grief i am likely to get?

cause today she showed up to the station wearing a jean skirt with — and this is the punchline — hot pink fishnet leggings.

that matched her sneakers.

this was about an hour ago and i am no closer to digesting this article of clothes.

hot pink fishnet leggings.

hima, petunia, someone? can someone explain this to me?

it's almost like my cyclical theory of movies (a movie can be so bad, it is good again). i mean, i give this girl mad props for wearing them cause, well, how can i not? at the same time, i'm so utterly confused by them that i don't know what to think. i had to preface it like i did, because i believe that someone in middle school wearing these is different than a grown woman wearing them. but it doesn't make my understanding any more clear.

i hate hate hate leggings. but the inclusion of several other adjectives almost transforms these leggings into something else entirely. it's like mad libs or a grant morrison comic book.

can anyone help me form an opinion here?

this morning, i've been listening to the old op ivy album, as well as gnr's use your illusion 2. they both hold up much better than i would guess.

what a holiday. i'm still exhausted. it's easier, for now, to perhaps do a carter style list.

crowded planes. sleep dep. burger king's sneak king.* mst3k. broken baggage carousel. super shuttle. misunderstandings. emptying boxes. vomit on a plane. ihop. kilmarnock. moonshine. fried food. christmas lists. eggnog. the sopranos videogame. carter verus carter. petunia, her father and diesel. anna and elizabeth. winning the airplane seat lottery twice. the office season 2. grupreet in sfo. mike's xbox collection. caltrain and bart. wrapping christmas presents. carting food back and forth across the country. tetris ds. cindy, john and ben. a confederate flag and trying to explain why there isn't a reason to fear terrorism. david, melissa and julia. the atlanta airport. seeing jaffrey. mike's moving plans. weight watchers.

* seriously, if you have an xbox, go to burger and, for 4 bucks, buy their 'sneak king' xbox/xbox 360 (same disc for both systems) game. creepy, weird and very amusing, it's worth every penny of the 399 you will spend.

yes, i have sucked on updating. a flurry of work and concentration and tiredness and cleaning and life stuff have taken up my time.

i went to my new gp and got a clean bill of health on wed. i switched car insurances today and found myself saving 200 every 6 months.

yes, boys and girls, this is my life. when saving money on my car insurance is the highlight of several days. i am old.

i have some other posts kicking around and they wont be so long in appearing as this one was.

but, you ask, you called this post 'dates'? oh right — im back in richmond for the holidays from dec 23-30. who wants to make plans with me when?

i dropped tripp off at the airport this morning. i guess technically, he dropped himself off- i made him drive. a weekend all alone…

last night i made a yummy dip from nonfat cottage cheese, a couple spoonfuls of sour cream, a crumbled 1 inch block of blue cheese, dill, onion powder, a dash of garlic powder and lemon pepper. served with cucumbers, carrot sticks, and red pepper, it was a nice light accompaniment to some rice pilaf. it needed to be a light meal because i made chocolate lava cake for dessert.

This all makes me want to kick Richard Reid in the ballsack. No shoes, no water (no fucking beverage service on a lot of flights either, I might add!!!). Next, the terrorists will make exploding clothes (you heard it here first) and then we'll have to fly naked, because that's apparently how America rolls.

If I sound pissy, it's only because Amy's been pumping breastmilk ALL WEEK in Toronto. Yeah, this is going to work like a charm.

Terrorist douchebags.

August 9, 2006

If you ever think you ought to get a baby up in the middle of the night, chances are you should. I heard the little girl fidgeting in her crib around 2 this morning. She'd grunt and flop her legs around, then doze off for about three minutes. This went on for about 10-15 minutes. I fixed a bottle—knowing the tummy must be appeased should I rouse her—and went in. Her diaper felt quite full and I figured she was having trouble sleeping because of the wet diaper. Turns out the diaper was indeed full … of shit. Poor kid. I'm glad I went ahead and got ready and woke her; she'd only have gotten more and more agitated.

Yesterday I took Reed and Beks out to the library. Reed loves book (brag: he was reading independently at 2years, 9months!) so I've got Bek in the car seat stroller, Reed is holding one hand while "helping" to push with the other. Yesterday was also the primaries, and as such, the library was a voting location. As we strolled in, a candidate supporter with a sign said, "You're the first guy with kids I've seen all day! Everybody else has been women with strollers!"

Um. "Well, I'm a stay-at-home dad," I said. "It's what I do." That's me: trendsetter. Or the only guy who takes his kid to the library anymore.

Hmm. The rest of you guys are dicks.

At that moment, some small part of me felt I should have a minivan.

Later:

Speaking of minivans, I'm loathe to admit I felt my very first pang of minivan envy today. A woman with two children was exiting the grocery story as I went in. The kids hopped in, each with their own captains' chairs in the back, and she easily loaded all the groceries into the back. Shit. That's a lot of rolling space. I've got a full sized car, but for those of you without kids: car seats ain't made for cars. Wedging these huge hunks of plastic and padding into the back seat of a car is laughable … assuming you're not the one doing it. Upon trying to maneuver two of them in there, and having to shove my seat up a couple notches just to make everything work, I can see why so many families resort to the huge ass SUV or the minivan. Sadly, I also know that when the little girl outgrows the little car seat, she'll need to sit in the bigger car seat… facing backwards. Practically speaking, this is impossible in my car in this space/time continuum. Grr.

Alone in the night once more, now with two charges rather than one. Five months have passed in the blinking of eyes. You came home swollen with child, bore her and are once again making the way for all of us. Much of me quails in awe of your burden; an immense respect I try to repay each day I care for our tender sweets. All the air leaves the room when you close the door goodbye, but I am comforted by a boy a mere thousand days old. He is beautiful and she is beautiful and I am ever grateful for my opportunity. In another life I wrought such malice through simple sloth. Now my feculence is usurped by fecundity. Odd. Ironic, even, that the proportional amount of time once wasted on my own devices is now given to the work of tending our little blossoms to fullness.

I love it.

And I love you. See you soon.

so while i was in turkey, i managed to open my ibook and type a few paragraphs about our trip.

thursday. first week
in small town about an hour and a half north of izmir. took bus overnight from istanbul to izmir where we rendezvouzed with mother in law. we are now in odemis, pronounced 'oh-dem-ish'. d picked up some turkish music cds while we were in istanbul, so i am listening to turkish pop music as i write this. visited d's cousin's farm yesterday and shot photos and video while there. i always love going to the farm, it's very relaxing and rich with gorgeous imagery. the people that live on the farm are always very welcoming and hospitable and it was a joy to see them again. there are about 8-10 children that live on the farm, including a kurdish family with twins. the last time we visited the farm; about 2 years ago, the twins were very young. this tiime, they were older and running around playing. the children were very shy. we gathered them all together to take some photos of them, and afterwards, we said thank you and were walking away. i looked back at the children and it was like they were frozen in time. they were still posing for us and did not move until we were completely out of sight.

monday. second week
we are now in kas, arrived here late yesterday. drove from odemis, trip took about 6-7 hours. kas is in the south mediterranean, and close to greek islands. as i write this, i am sitting on our hotel room balcony looking at the greek island of meis. we took a boat trip today. the entire trip lasted from 10am to 6:30pm. our tour took us to 5 or 6 island coves where we were able to stop and swim/snorkel. saw some fish, some natural sponges. at one point we were able to see amphoras from the glass bottom part of the boat, which are clay vessels that were used to transport different things. another cool part was the sunken cities of lycea. Lycea was a city that was destroyed by an earthquake about 200 AD. it is mostly underwater now, but there are still remains of buildings near the edge of the water. made friends with a british family and rented a waverunner with the british guy for 10 min. that was a blast, going full speed and jumping waves in the mediterranean. at a few points both of us almost fell off because we were going so fast and turning. another high point of the trip was when the captain asked us if we wanted to surf. so 5 of the men on the boat jump in the water and hold on to a rope behind the boat. he asked us if we wanted to surf, but i think what he really meant was 'let's play try to drown the brit and the american!'. nonetheless, it was fun, even if i did swallow about five gallons of salt water. i've been shooting a lot of video while we've been here, and hope to post a video podcast upon return to the states. so far i've gone through 4-5 tapes, so plenty of footage for a lengthy podcast. not many americans vacationing in turkey, which is sad. mostly when i hear english being spoken, it's either brits or germans.
also on the boat trip was a small village, where we walked to the top where there was a castle with the smallest ampitheatre known. the village is only accessible by boat or helicopter, and the land is not very fertile since it is rocky and salty. most other land in the mediterranean is extremely fertile. so the locals depend mostly on tourists from the boat trips to sell there merchandise to. the merchandise they were offering is mainly handmade textiles, herbs, and fresh squeezed juice; at least from what we saw.