“Beep you, you beeping beep!! I’ll kick your beepity beep!!!”
Hmmm, who is that? I don’t recognize her voice
“I ain’t lying, I can’t have you be talking to my Momma like that”
That’s Carl. Good for him standing up for his mother.
A few weeks earlier Carl had introduced himself by handing me a burger across the hedge separating our houses. He and his buddies were cooking out in the back yard and tossing back a few cold ones on a fine summer day, celebrating his release from prison. He had just moved in with his Momma while he got his life back on track
“Beep you Carl! You can’t have her treat me like this!”
That must be Carl’s new girlfriend. Classy
*BAM!!!* A door slammed, followed by the sound of crying and a car racing off. Then silence. This would become a regular occurrence.
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Life has been busy as of late. Newborn babies are exhausting little creatures, and sometimes we aren’t sure if it is day or night. To parents who survive these early days while holding down a job, we salute you.
But each day is a little brighter. GCCjr sometimes sleeps 3 hours before screaming bloody murder, a big improvement over the usual 2. He’s also figured out that his left hand is really tasty, which has improved his self soothing skills. And I’ve learned to change a diaper without getting peed on.
All of this to say we are beginning to feel less like one of the Walking Dead, and a little more like our old selves. Sometimes we even have a brief moment of clarity during which we actually accomplish something! I took advantage of one of these moments recently to process all of our income & expenses for the 1st Half of 2015 (Yeah, I know how to party! Woot!)
Imagine my surprise when… *GASP*… this little blog accidentally made some serious bank!
Instead of continuing the income trend of previous years…
“Hello, Winnie? Yes, this is Dr. Luo. Your pap smear test results have come back, and we found some abnormal cell growth that needs to be evaluated immediately”
Two weeks ago I received this late night call from my maternity doctor. As part of my post delivery checkup we did a full health evaluation, and the results showed high grade lesions on my cervix (HSIL)
Do I have cervical cancer?! Google seemed to think so. The more I searched, the more panic set in. I just had a baby, I need to be here to take care of him
There is great diversity in interests and personal values in the world, and what is great for one person might be terrible for another
So it is no surprise that on occasion we come across people that frown upon our life choices. In some cases, that frown becomes a snarl
For example, this is one of my all time favorite pieces of hate mail:
….So in 2008 you lost 40% of your wealth when the market crashed, and then you had all this extra cash lying around to invest more in stocks after the crash?….. Also, you saved up your money by living like a bumb (I think they meant bum) in your 20’s to “retire” in your 30’s…..but you only traveled in 2012,’13, and ’14……now that you have a baby you are not welcome to travel and stay at many places. Nobody wants to travel with a toddler. You speak about not paying taxes and scamming for healthcare, the truth is you can’t afford to live in Seattle, your “home”.
I advice you to watch the movie “Jiro dreams of sushi” in it he extrapolates on his statement “the day I am unable to work is a very sad day” you see most people find stability, normalcy, friends, and community through workplace culture, your grand schemes of finding loopholes like a Wall St exec is so fragile. Your setting your child up for psychological issues of a Military family when you don’t have an established home with a church you go to all the time, family you see every holiday, chasing the cheapest meal…….
It’s very possible for people without families and void of responsibility to their family, or simply filled with greed of their own needs, to live an enjoyable lifestyle of travel and retirement. It’s the same question as asking yourself what if you won the lottery? Well I have a toddler I can tell you I would not travel with him, and I love my job and would not retire from it…..I speak English, I want to live in America. Traveling cheap is not as fun as you make it sound.
Where even to begin amongst the false assumptions, inaccuracies, and value judgements?
Adrenaline shot into my body, and I sprang into action like a headless chicken. Get dressed. Grab the bag of clothes we had prepared in advance. Fill a water bottle. Throw a bag of snacks into the backpack.
OK, we are all set to go to the hospital. What have I forgotten? There is something…. Oh, the wife!
We slowly walked the two blocks to the hospital, stopping every few minutes for the contractions to pass
My Mandarin isn’t very good, especially at 4 am, but I made out a few phrases… “…you walked here…?” “…probably too early…”
After a quick check the nurse sent us home with some clear instructions for when to return
