We're loving life with Owen. Today he spit up all over me. That's just a few days after he pooped on my arm while I was changing him. And of course, as he is a boy, he has peed on both me and Heidi quite a few times.
And I must say, I'm loving it. I love holding him and I love to just enjoy his small size, his little noises, his darting eyes and his goofy, uncoordinated movements.
Owen is doing well, for the most part. We still have some challenges, primarily with feeding, sleeping, and scheduling, but we're all soldiering through it the best that we can. Pray for us, and pray for Owen, that things will smooth out soon.
In honor of my last few days in Boulder, I have devised this list: 10 ways you know you're in Boulder.
1. You walk along the Pearl Street Mall and see a contortionist performing, only to realize that he is on the city council.
2. The students are rioting, but the police are too busy writing parking tickets to stop them.
3. The parked Cooper Mini you spot has tons of environmental-awareness stickers...and so does the Cadillac Escalade parked next to it.
4. Every parking space is about 2/3 the size of a normal parking space, so when you park exactly in the center of the spot you have 6 inches in which to open your doors on either side.
5. The city loves the snow so much that they refuse to plow it.
6. As you drive along you notice more out-of-state plates than Colorado plates.
7. Everyone smokes in their cars, because it's the only place they can smoke without being arrested...for polluting the air.
8. You see tons of people with PETA stickers and pins, driving past pharmaceutical companies...all with animal testing labs.
9. You're constantly blocked by active construction...during rush hour.
10. Pedestrians actually slow down when walking in front of your car.
TV show seasons and hiatuses....AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHH!!
Not only do we have Heroes going on long-term break, but we now we have Battlestar Galactica going off the air until 2008! Oh, they'll have re-runs, but nothing new until after the new year. I liked it so much better when you could set your watch to the TV season. Nowadays the networks, so driven by competition from cable, are no longer willing to let shows "bake" a bit and let the fan base build organically. And they can't seem to stand anything like a real schedule...your favorite show will probably change nights a mere 3 times in a year...a GOOD year. Maybe we'll eventually get some sanity back, but I doubt it.
Complex Issues at Virginia Tech, with all the things going on there. There are so many twists and turns from this, that I could post a huge pages-and-pages post like I used to have in the early days of this blog. I'll just touch on a few, though.
1. Gun rights and self-protection -- just another demonstrator that you, and you alone, are responsible for your own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, regardless of what the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution say. The American patriots on Flight 93 understood this, but only in the final moments of their lives, when they realized the desperation of their attackers and the gravity of a fight for survival. "Let's Roll"...how quickly we have forgotten.
2. More active preventative measures: FOLLOW THE WARNING SIGNS. People saw his writing, he had been referred for counseling, in a small department he was anonymous, etc. We've all heard these talking points. Here's what it comes down to: lots of people saw that something was wrong with this guy, but something prevented them from getting him the help he needed. Be it political correctness, fear of liability, not wanting to get involved, lack of follow-up, negligence, or whatever, lots of people really dropped the ball here. Now, I've never seen someone as much of a loner or as disturbed as it sounds like this guy was, but you'd think that even on the severely-overcrowded East Coast, people who exhibit these sorts of behaviors would not be the norm and would be potentially flagged as someone who at least needs further scrutiny. To their credit, many of the folks who missed the warning signs have admitted they made mistakes. A big step in recovery from this will be to learn the lessons and move forward; hopefully we can do that without too many witch-hunts or ridiculous knee-jerk reactions (like more gun control laws...as though THAT would have somehow prevented this. If I could find someone who could make a logical case that gun control laws could have prevented this tragedy, I would listen...)
Remember me, as I take my first steps into the political arena. I'm running for the Board of Directors for the small charter school my kids attend here. It's an interesting and exciting thing for me. I've never done anything like this before. I never ran for any student government positions and I've never had to sell myself like I'm doing now. I don't expect to win, really; there are two open positions on the Board, and the other two guys I'm running against are already on the Board, filling temporary positions as the result of vacancies from folks who left. So I expect to lose, thanks to the incumbent effect, but you never know. We had a "Meet The Candidates" night last Tuesday and I felt I did OK. My only hope is that the wife of one of the gentlemen I'm running against works at the school, and some folks feel there is a conflict of interest there (though I don't think so, myself). In any case, both of my opponents are very nice, highly competent, well-respected gentlemen, and I feel any of us will do well. Win or lose, as I said, it's an interesting and exciting experience.
I started my new job today. I'm now a government contractor, working in the SecOps team at the Information Security division of the National Business Center. I'm getting a security clearance (a low-end one, but a clearance nonetheless) as part of it, so basically, once that's done, I won't lack for work ever again. The position itself looks great. Lots of paperwork, training, and meeting people today, though; I hope to get into some good technical work soon.
The best part is, I'm rejoining the war, for real. It's been a while since I was involved in the endless struggle of Good Against Evil, but here I am. Kind of par-for-the-course in my line of work, of course, but my consulting gig took me out of it for far too long. Strange as it sounds (in lots of ways), I'm glad to be fighting again. Making a difference, no matter how small it might seem, always feels good. And it's lots of fun, too.
Thanks for reading along.
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