Stalling the Answering of Readers' Questions

Hey, everybody. I love you all.

So yesterday, in an attempt to disintegrate my Dad-Blog-Writer's-Block, I asked my Facebook Friends™ what I should write about.

The response was overwhelming!

Now, if those last two sentences were a news piece or press release, the fact that the response was overwhelming would come first, setting up the fact that I asked a question in the second part of the sentence, like so:
An overwhelming response was the answer to a blogging father's simple question yesterday via Facebook.

There, a 15-word lead sentence. That's what you want to shoot for, short, snappy, says everything without making the reader use more brain cells than necessary by being bungalow written meow with style, grace, meow, poise, and grace.

Now that I really have your attention, let me instead just improvise, cause that's what my brain wants to do. I actually have an idea to write about!

Preface:

My girls' names are Lucy and BB. They're 4.75 and 2.66 years old. Really getting good at playing together. They're always in good spirits in the morning, especially.

Aaaaaand BB just walks in and says, "Uh — I nee diapah change."

2hrs later

Aaand I'm back. That whole thing turned into BB having peed in her diaper, actually wanting to sit on the toilet, sitting on the toilet with my help, and agreeing to wear underwear instead of a diaper for the first time. And she's had underwear on for a good while. I'm just waiting for either a big mess to clean up, or a warning from her that it's coming soon.

Now. Back to what I was talking about. They let me sleep in every morning nowadays!

Yes, you heard it right, this dad sleeps in till 8:30 a.m., even 9:20 one day. And what are my kids doing while I snooze? They get themselves up and turn on Netflix for Kids on the Wii, and watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Or some other kids show. And they're totally fine. Whenever I wake up, I always listen for the sound of them laughing. There are worse ways to wake up, and I think this is maybe a karmic reward for four years of being woken daily at 7 a.m. or earlier, regardless of how much sleep I've had or daylight savings time.

The reason I've been sleeping in is that I've been working this night job, cooking at Sundance Cinema. It keeps me out till around 10 p.m. whenever I have a shift, which is three or four times per week. This week is a four-day week. And whenever I come home, I need a few hours to de-energize and get sleepy. Last night it was just past 1 a.m. when I hit the hay.

The point of all this is to say that I have entered a new phase of my life. BB is OFFICIALLY POTTY TRAINING AS OF TODAY and my kids are old enough to play with each other and not rely on me so much. (remember how I was waiting for a mess or a warning? I got a mess. Two, in fact. A variety.)

One thing I always wish I could do more with Lucy is color with her. I must seem like a real weirdo being on my computer all day, but I'm trying to search for a job. And my kind of job searching is weird right now. It's all online, and I kind of have to do it while I'm at home with the girls. I'm trying to get into PR, so branding myself and gaining followers is key. And it's starting to work, I'm putting Twitter to use for myself and starting conversations with industry people. Blogging is a part of all that, so here we are. It all amounts to me being too busy to spend as much time with my growing, developing kids as I and they want.

But I also tell myself, that whenever I get a job that'll keep me busy 40hrs/week, my kids are going to be in daycare. Then I'll be around them even less.

Then I think of what Louis C.K. said on Conan that one time: "I'm not here to make them happy." (4:32) "I'm not raising children, I'm raising the grown-ups they're gonna be, so I have to raise them with the tools to get through a terrible life." The sentiment is what's important here. My job search will keep them happier in the long run, with the stability that money brings a family. 

Plus, I mean, my kids, they're fine. They've got each other. And, just this morning, I drew a stethoscope on a piece of paper on the kitchen floor with a pencil, just like Lucy asked me to do. Both kids were sitting and watching. Then after cleaning up both of BB's bathroom errors today (she's going to read this when she's older and totally hate me for putting this about her online), I did color with Lucy. I drew the two toy cars that were sitting on the table. Now I'm back finishing this.

Shit I do a lot in the day. Raising two kids, then going out to serve other people as a cook, getting harped on by my manager and lead cook if I make one or two mistakes, come home, try to decompress quickly, play some video games, and then go to bed.

Interesting thing about me, I don't watch nearly as much tv as I play video games. They're more interesting lately. Well, Fallout is anyway. Best writing in video games of, like, all time. The writing is what's important to me. I'll take the usual guns and killing and stuff as long as the writing is good. Good writing makes for memorable characters and rich and unique gaming experiences.

Here, I'll leave you with this, an article I found recently about teaching kids Lucy's age how to draw. It's really good, but there's one line in there I don't really understand, and if anybody could explain it to me that'd be good:

"I fail them if I take any pleasure out of drawing." You'll see it, the author highlighted the words in red.

C ya!