Happy VD to all.
Every day is valentine's day for Doug and Chris. That's the way it usually is. We don't buy into the commercialism just to say "i love you." We normally buy a little something for the kids, but ... we didn't this year. They know, we know. There's love. Why make Russell Stover richer?
I didn't buy him anything and he bought me some flowers.
I feel like a shite. But hey -- it's nice to once in a while get appreciated. If I don't pass out at 9pm perhaps I will be able to show that appreciation. But you'll notice that I speak no more of that sort of thing and I move on....
I saw on someone else's blog that Valentine's Day should be renamed "Steak and BJ Day," and that women ought to be giving both to their men, instead of men giving chicks worthless boxes of chocolates and some flowers. It made me laugh. What a concept!
But I don't see women jumping onto that bandwagon. And could you imagine the Hallmark cards for such a holiday.
Hee hee.
It's been a good day. I babysat Mr. Baby Ben. I brought my two dogs with me for the first time. It was absolute chaos there for a while... all these legs and tails and tongues all over. Buddy, Dan's yellow lab, loves to lean all over me and get love, which is very hard to do while holding a 4 month old. Tiger got very defensive of the food dishes so I had to send them to safer ground. And Jack and Kinger both attempted to be dominant by humping Tiger and Buddy... with hilarious results. I wish I'd had a cam corder. It was some funny stuff. I can't write it well enough -- suffice to say Tiger and Buddy are still dominant in their own home.
We played Taboo. Ben (not the baby, but my buddy) and I kicked Peg and Dan's collective ass. We're both very good at giving and receiving clues. I felt accomplished, smart, and I don't think Dan will play against me ever again. I'll end up with him as a team mate because he'll believe his chances are better that way.
And he's right.
We are going to my parents' and sister's house on Monday. In Massachusetts they give a week off in February, which made absolutely NO sense to me at first and now... it is genius. We totally need a week off. We need it to be above 10 degrees though so we can enjoy our week off.
We'll enjoy our week off nonetheless, but... it'd be nice if we were in Tucson instead of NY/NJ.
Doug and I are ditching the kids with my folks for two days and we're going to Atlantic City to gamble away the last few pennies we have. Rubbing them together has done us no good, so we may as well slap them down on the craps table and pray for lucky seven.
I'm not a big gambler.
I like playing the quarter slots. I like watching the people. I like the free booze. It's fun to go there. Doug likes Roulette. He's won and lost some money there. The best I've ever done at gambling was with fake money at a monte carlo night at a conference that I went to in 1998. Clayton, Ben, Brian, Dan and I skipped out on the actual conference evening festivities. We had enrolled in a pool tournament, and all got eliminated in the first round. Rather than stand there and watch strangers win, we went to the hotel across the street where they'd set up a gambling room with free chips, no money needed. We were given 2000 in chips when we walked in, and proceeded to the Black Jack table.
I had no idea how to play, I just knew you were supposed to beat the house without going over 21.
The guy running the table was a handsome African American dude, who taught me everything I needed to know and kept the drinks coming.
In no time flat, Ben and I were drunk and laughing our asses off as we quietly swiped money from Dan's stack of chips. Brian, an avid anti-smoker, was chugging on a stogie and saying "my wife would KILL me if she saw me right now." We had such a wonderful time. I ended up with a gazillion chips, had no idea how I got them but I think Ben kept putting them in my pile (stolen from Dan).
It was by far one of the most fun "gambling" nights I've ever had. We all went back to the hospitality suite that was hosted by one of the vendors we worked with, no one was there... we drank all their beer and stayed up until 4am. It was tons of fun. I had to give a presentation at 10am. I got about three hours of sleep, drank four big giant coffees and did a great job presenting. So much so that my boss (who sat in on the presentation even though I didn't want her to) gushed to the president of the college about how great I was.
Those were good times... goooooood times.
Brian said to me today "Aren't you the least bit nervous about traveling to the greater NY area this week with this heightened terror alert?"
To whit I replied:
1. No. I'm not worried.
2. I have a big truck. I'll run people over in it and survive.
3. I have plenty of duct tape.
4. If I don't go there, line Donald Trump's pockets, gamble and win or lose, the terrorists win! You don't want that do you???
hee hee hee.
A "boss of me" once told me that I am too flip. I don't take anything at all seriously. He was and is absolutely correct. I am flip. I joke in serious or possibly serious situations. It's just my way. If I was on a plane that was in the process of crashing, I'd be serious and pray, and then sing something. Probably "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" by Monty Python. And I'd die with a smile on my face.
While I do joke about the "heightened" alert I'm not worried. I kind of would like to go to the heart of Northern Maine and visit with Michelle... I think my peace of mind would be better being far from a metro area, but really.
I have a life to lead.
We made these plans before this alleged Al Qada increased activity and maybe/maybe not threat was put into play.
I just don't see myself sitting on my hands and sweating the situation.
My kids will be with my parents. If there is an emergency, I will instruct my mom to hightail it the fuck outta Dodge via any means necessary, back to our house. We'll regroup/regather there. I know that if we end up stranded or something South of the City, we'll be all set -- the kids are being watched, and we'll eventually get to where we need to be. I'm optimistic about such things. And you really have to be.
We did toy with the idea of going to Vegas. Tickets are cheap, hotels are cheap. We could have gone out there for the same amount of time and had the same kind of fun for just a little bit more of our nonexistent money. But deep in the heart of me I'm glad we'll be close to "home" and not halfway across the country, where getting stranded could be a lot more serious, lonely and long term...
I have a friend whose parents used to always plan for disaster every single time they traveled. Life ending disaster. She and her brother and sister would be sat down every time her parents were heading out of town. Soberly and with great gravity, mom and dad would tell them that "in the event of our deaths by whatever means while we are away, here is the plan..."
The entire time their parents were away, the kids were shitting bricks. Convinced the plane their parents were on was going down in flames. Convinced the hotel where they were sleeping was on fire at that very moment. Convinced that the cruise ship was going all Poseidon Adventure on them. These kids were scarred for life..
I think it is good to have a plan.
I don't think it would be necessarily good to sit Geoff down and tell him that "When Daddy and I die, you'll go live with Grandma!"
Although, he'd really like living with the Nintendo Game Cube.
Seeing how it is Valentine's night. I should get off the computer. Doug rented some movies. We'll drink some beers, lounge on the couch. He is in the process of kicking the kids out and making them go to bed. I'm sure I'll post one more time before we go to Atlantic City (even though I dislike him, I love Bruce Springsteen's Atlantic City anthems).
I hope that there is much love in your life. If not erotic and romantic, please embrace the love that you have which surpasses all understanding... the love of your family, friends and God. Meditate on that, and have a love filled day.
No comments:
Post a Comment