Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Isaac the Graduate!

Isaac graduated from kindergarten last Wednesday, and thus ends his indoctrination into Catholicism! Next year...public school.



Seriously, though, as much as I hated their incessant nickel-and-dime fundraising (we drew the line at the not-so-nickel-and-dime $25 raffle tickets!) and their tendency to close because it was snowing in Pennsylvania, Isaac learned a lot this year. He can read on his own, has some basic math skills, and survived being the smallest kid in his class. It'll be interesting to see if he notices any significant differences switching to public school. He certainly won't miss the daily prayers!

Bonus footage: Hot Mom!

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Rolling With the Punches

That's pretty much my rule of thumb when it comes to life in general: roll with the punches and wait for an opening to land your own, and when you do, make it a good one. Sometimes, though, life delivers a vicious flurry and you just need put up your dukes and start hitting back or you'll get knocked out.

I'm developing a plan for the rest of the year that will culminate in my not only participating in NaNoWriMo this year, but going into January 2007 with a completed manuscript ready for submission. To where, I have no idea, but first things first, yes?

Two good things to relieve stress: a game of softball (preferably one you win), and post-game Two Boots pizza with a cold bottle of Magic Hat #9.

Aaaahhhh....



EDIT: Coincidentally, I'm wearing #9 this season, representing my all-time favorite Yankee, Graig Nettles. Didn't make the connection when I first posted this!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Crossroads

The problem with blogging so infrequently is that things pile up to the point where there's just too much to cover and I end up not covering anything. Bleh.

Long story short, things change, all the time, and sometimes there's the sense that there's a reason for it, a master plan, and other times, it seems random as a three-legged dog ordering a drink at your favorite bar.

The "Dream Apartment" in Inwood fell through last month as our credit, which isn't great but is good enough to get a mortgage at a decent rate, wasn't good enough to get into the building. Yes, we can borrow $300k, but we can't rent a $2000 apartment. WTF?

So we decided to stay put in the BX, signing a two-year lease that will keep us relatively stable until India's ready for Kindergarten, and wondering what the next curve ball would bring. As if on cue, Salomé changes jobs, accepting what seemed to be the best of the three offers on the table, only to find out she'd been sold a Volvo when she was in fact getting a Kia. Plan C = NYC Teaching Fellows, which comes with a significant pay cut, some serious belt-tightening and a hint of some light at the end of the tunnel. Coincidentally, it also means staying put for two years while she completes the program, a program that would have been out of reach if we'd gotten the apartment in Inwood.

Things change, sometimes for a reason.

As for me, I'm in limbo and not particularly thrilled with it. That Plan C offers the possibility that, in a few years, we can move from the area again with one of us having a transferable career is a good thing, making the necessary sacrifices a bit more bearable. At the same time, a few more years of sacrificing for a vague end result that will undoubtedly include its own set of compromises is more like looking forward to Thanksgiving than Christmas.

Days like this I wish I had simply gone to school for something tangible, like marketing or accounting, instead of doing the pseudo-creative thing, sowing my oats and opting for life experience over resume experience. I've pretty much hit the ceiling in marketing, a career I fell into rather than chose, and would have to complete my BA to move any further, an unlikely thing before Plan C, but is now a definite no-go.

More and more, I'm tempted by the idea of going into sales, but loathe the idea of starting in Classifieds and doing most of my work over the phone.

And, of course, there's my writing, which despite the comics stuff keeping the juices flowing, is feeling more and more like the red-headed stepchild in my life.

Some things never change, presumably for a reason.

Bleh.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Pedro & Us; plus, Good News Coming?

I've been off since last Thursday and am returning to work tomorrow, wisely taking an extra day to recover with a day all to myself. Yesterday morning, Salomé and I both headed in to our respective jobs to get some paperwork we needed for the "Dream. Apartment." application. Since Isaac had a podiatrist appointment that she was taking him to in the afternoon -- poor kid's inherited my flat feet, possibly even worse than mine -- she took him with her while I dropped India off at school on my way in. While I was at work, I received an email from the Mets promoting last night's game, with Pedro Martinez going for his 200th win in their first matchup of the season against the Braves, and decided Isaac and I just had to go to the game! Scored some decent Upper Box tickets on the 3rd base side, a few sections over from where we sat on Saturday, and then Googled free WiFi spots in the City and ended up chilling in Bryant Park for an hour or so before heading home.

The game was great -- though cold and windy as hell throughout --as Pedro was much more crafty than dominant, Nady and Delgado popped the big apple in center field with home runs, and Billy Wagner sent the crowd into a frenzy when he entered the game in the ninth inning with Enter Sandman blasting from the speakers. It's the specific situation he was brought in for, to close the Braves out, and he pitched a perfect inning to seal the deal and send us all home happy and optimistic that this really is "The Team. The Time."

In other news, today's horoscope cuts very close to home:

LEO: Keep your cell phone charged and check your email often today. You're likely to receive good news about your career or a financial matter. A friend may give you a heads-up on a job opening, or you may hear that a mortgage or loan you've applied for was approved. Your luck today may seem tandom, but if you think about it, you'll realize it is the result of your recent good work.
Papa likes!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Ignoring the kind of luck it takes to catch only their second loss in 10 games, today's Mets game was a blast as Isaac and I -- along with evil Dan, Yankee fan and official bad luck charm! -- enjoyed some great weather out at Shea Stadium, decked out in sorta-matching Mets gear.











While it wasn't his first baseball game, it's probably the first one he'll really remember, and it was definitely the first time he asked questions about how to play. He wasn't even one yet when we went to the first post-9/11 game, sleeping through Piazza's home run and the uproar that followed it; and we went to a couple of games down in Virginia to see the Norfolk Tides play, the summer before he turned two years old, but that's the minor leagues, and other than India's birth, 2002 has pretty much been scratched from our mental hard drives.

Major League Baseball was celebrating Jackie Robinson Day, commemorating the day Robinson crossed the foul line onto the playing field as the first African-American "professional" baseball player. (Yeah, because the only reason the Negro Leagues weren't "professional" is because a bunch of white guys said/say so.) Robinson's widow, Rachel, was there; the Christ Tabernacle Youth Gospel Choir performed, including an excellent a capella rendition of the national anthem, a song that always gets to even my cynical ass; and Adriana Lee, a Jackie Robinson Foundation scholar from Rutgers University, who threw out the first pitch to Carlos Delgado.

I had no idea when I bought the tickets on the spur of the moment yesterday, having been inspired by the weather forecast and the realization that, if Isaac's going to be buying us a nice house in 20 years off of his fat baseball contract, I need to get him into the sport ASAP. Even though he hates watching it on TV -- like his mother -- he had a pleasant enough time at the game, bored here and there as even I get sometimes, but when I put him to bed a few minutes ago, he said he had fun and wanted to go again. Fortunately, he does like to actually play -- at one point during the game, he asked he if could go down on the field and play -- so as soon as we get ourselves re-settled again, I want to get him into Little League.

Speaking of re-settled, just when we thought we were staying put for another couple of years, it looks like we'll be moving this summer after all. Since we want to stay in the City for as long as India needs/qualifies for the school she's currently in, and our long-standing day care is disappearing as of June 2nd, we decided to look into taking the plunge and moving into Manhattan and a better school system. Surprisingly, Inwood is still relatively affordable -- assuming you can handle the initial $$$hit of getting past the brokers and/or supers who act as gatekeepers to the neighborhood -- and we just may have found our dream apartment yesterday, pending credit and income approval.

Dream. Apartment.

Hopefully more news on that late next week.