Yellow Blog Journalism

My Eagerness

This is it. This is the point that a guy comes to when he realizes that no matter what, this is as ready as he will ever be  without the trial by fire... or spit-up as the case may be. I'm not going to be more ready for this kid to come than I am right now.
So, bring it on...
Let's go...
I'm ready...

The kid hasn't dropped yet.

I thought that we would have the kid by now, I was six weeks early. It's a tough standard, but somehow that was where I'd set the bar. Now we are on the edge of three weeks. And the kid has yet to drop.

I hope you can hear the crazy in my voice. This kid needs to come out! We have toys out here. He has what in there? Nothing.

THINGS THAT ARE WORTH BEING BORN FOR:

• Mellow Mushroom
• Munchkin Fu*
• Soccer*
• Dark Chocolate
• Jeep Wranglers
• Transformers
• DDR
• Guinness
• Your First Dropkick Murphys Show
• Venti White Chocolate Mocha
• Toys
• Six flags
• The Beach
• SCUBA
• Your Dad's Journal

I could go on forever on this one.

THINGS THAT ARE WORTH STAYING IN-UTERO FOR:

• It's kinda warm

That's it. This kid needs to make an appearance. Time to up the bribes.

*by request

My Commercial Success

I've been doing some TV watching lately and while I haven't really been too impressed by the shows, I've really been entertained by the commercials. My personal favorite are the ones for different medicines being marketed directly to the public at large. Despite the moral issues, I think that they are absolute genius.

My favorite commercial of all time is the Viagra commercial with the voice over advising that if you experience an erection for greater than four hours to seek medical attention.

BEST.SALES.PITCH.EVAR.

I wonder about the people that become the spokesmen for Valtrex. For those not in the know, Valtrex is a product from GlaxoSmithKline AKA: "Thank God in Heaven that We Aren't MERK". The drug, according to valtrex.com is "the hydrochloride salt of the L-valyl ester of the antiviral drug acyclovir". It is used primarily to protect the sexual partners of Herpes carriers between outbreaks and if I am clear, also intended to help suppress outbreaks as well. The commercials feature people who have contracted herpes and their uninfected sexual partners. I imagine that they are well compensated, but how much is it worth to become the spokesman for an STD?

Of course, if I were in advertising I would probably steer clear of the pharmaceuticals all together. I would love to do a commercial for Adidas. It would start out with the interior of the church, a camera is panning down from the choir loft pulling back with stained glass windows  in the periphery. You can hear chanting in the background and the camera pulls back across the front pew where a line of nuns are kneeling with rosaries in hand. The camera stops on one nun focuses in on her rosary where instead of a crucifix there is a soccer ball. No tag line, no actual product, just fade to the Adidas logo... and I go to hell.

Maybe that is the price of success in advertising.

My Busy Week

The last three days have been pretty hectic, starting with birthing classes on Saturday followed by work and then a few more days of double shifts. I'm busy during the day, but at night time with Jenn is refreshing. I've been contemplating getting bck on the ambulance 2-3 days a week and I think that I am going to begin doing the leg work that that would require. I have my CEUs to complete by June 30th and  I'll want to recert National Registry as soon as I can get in for a testing date.

As it stands, I'm wiped out. I'm going to grab a nap and then head into work.

My Frustration

My Indoctrination

My Birthing Class

I'm in the Birthing Class today, so No real posts until tonight/tomorrow. Wish us luck!

My Familiar Feeling

It's not on rare occasion that I get this eerie sense of Deja-Vu. It comes frequently when I've locked myself out of somewhere important or away from something that I need. I do that.

Alot.

I also do it with familiar faces. I'll rarely remember a name on the first go round. I gave my supervisor, Erica, about ten different E names before I finally glued down mentally that her name was Erica. I was in a meeting earlier where I knew I recognized one of the guys. I spent half of the meeting trying to figure out his name and where I know him from. WHO IS THIS GUY?!?! After the meeting I went to say hello, preparing myself for a humility gut check when it hit me. Actually, it was more like it erupted out of me "DUNCAN".

I haven't seen him in about 18 months. We traded stories and he was amazed to hear the turns that my life had taken since he went to the Balkans. His has had a few turns as well, but apparently my change is dramatic, something that is hard to notice from within. I ran into another former aquaintence who was happy to hear about the soon to arrive kid-let.

As much as I don't realize it because I have my nose too close to the glass, life is good. give it another 18 months and I bet it'll be even better still. I can't wait to learn how to raise a kid. I'm sure Jack is going to do plenty of things for me that I could never do for myself.

I have an awesome wife, and I don't mean that in the I-just-fell-off-my-skateboard-and-have-road-rash-down-the-left-side-of-my-body-OMG-that-was-SOOO-awesome kind of way. I mean that this chick leaves me awe-struck. I mean that she is such an amazing person, how did I know her for 9 years without trying to throw rings onto her finger.

Every day the life that I am living becomes more familiar. I hope to God that it never becomes something that is just taken for granted that it will be this way.

My Entry for the 'Parenting is Not a Death Sentence" File

Let's hear the positive, people.

My Private Faith, My Personal Jesus

I don't care what you think about religion as a private matter. It's not. Regardless of your public standing, be you Barak Obama, Mitt Romney or just the guy up the street, your religion, a personal decision, is a dangerously public concern. It impacts your philosphy for how you live your life, how you approach your civic duties, how you raise your children, how you spend your money, how you treat the people around you in the day to day.

Sorry Politicos, it matters because we are voting for someone to participate in a representative government, and I want to vote for someone who is likely to accurately represent me. Religion is part of that. Deal with it.

My last two days

The last couple of days have been the most valuable that I have had in quite a while. I've had the opportunity to do quite a bit of soul work, and not on my own like it used to be but in conjunction with my wife. When I first started this fashioning of the soul, I had no idea what I was doing and took some wrong turns, a couple of which were incredibly destructive turns. It was ignorance. Then I got involved with a group of men who knew what this initiation looked like, and helped me onto a better path with it.

While I thought that the culmination of it was the scaling of a mountain and standing at the top, it turns out that the initiation is simply that, an initiation. There are valleys to ascend into and many other mountains to climb. The process of initiation simply teaches the philosophy and mindset that you will need before moving forward. Each step on the journey is soul work, and usually --despite our inclinations to try-- cannot be done alone.

Tuesday was spent with my wife and baby; first making sure that Jack Jack is healthy, second making sure that she is healthy and finally making sure that we are healthy. Wednesday was spent with mentor checking up on my spiritual state and working through a couple of challenges that are facing me right now. The good news is that I am exactly where I should be. There is no bad news.

After almost a year and a half of work, I'm starting to see what my program is going to look like for quite a while. 12 chapters, 12 steps, 12 traditions and 6 principles are going to be the meat of my focus for quite some time.