CITY LIFE
Washington DC is a major city with a down home feel. Sort of like Mayberry with more people.
Having lived here for as long as I have I have a slight social advantage (or disadvantage if you are antisocial) over some people. I run into people all over town all the time. When at lunch, on the trails in the woods, shopping at the market, or just walking down the sidewalk I can encounter people. The meetings have grown to be fewer and further between, but that reflects back on my homebody lifestyle. As a semi-pro drinker with near Olympic barfly status I developed a great number of connections and contacts and almost learned to shoot pool. Okay well, basically a great number of superficial friends. With adult life I now as I have a variety of responsibilities (wife, kids, dogs, and 9-5 straight job) my response to these familiar faces on the street has changed. I no longer feel compelled to shout out across the street, roam across the restaurant, or roll up on someone on my bike. It just seems that it is not as important as it once was. That is not to say that I do not give a wave or a nod, but I do not have the time and energy to 'talk up' any and every person I once knew. This is doing everyone a favor as I can be a bit of a "chatty kathy." After all, who really wants to hear about my life, sure people ask, but do they really want to know about the wonders of fatherhood. How I am going through a long list of very powerful emotions. The bond between me and Dean has hit new levels, currently he is sick, and it effects me. The empathy, the compassion, the symbiotic relationship, it is all a very fantastic experience. Grant is growing in front of me and there are marvels of life and nature right in front of me, but the actual bond has not really started to grow, yet I wait to experience all of those "firsts" for the third time. His first roller coaster ride will give us both a thrill, his first sled ride with cause both of our stomachs to drop and we will not care about the cold as the fun will overwhelm us, well...until it is all too late and he is crying with blue lips and icy red hands. Dean showed me the moon. It had been there all along, but I think somehow I forgot to appreciate it. But now I look for it each day, and appreciate each and every phase. Grant will show me these things through his eyes and I will grow to understand them all over again. As I get to be a father Dean will get to be an older brother. Ah, siblings...the joy and the pain. A blog for another day.
Enough babbling, I see an old friend who has not heard me update them with information that they neither asked for nor care to hear.
keep in mind when I write this that I am a social addict! (which has always been a bit of a hassle since I don't like people, but I need the interaction, a painful paradox) so don't think that I have gone COLD TURKEY on saying hey to people. just last week I interrupted Stevie G while he was having lunch with his co-working peeps at the Vietamese restaurant and then the next day, yes the next day, I sat myself down with Luke from many years ago at Big Wheel Bikes and interrupted his girl watching!
Washington DC is a major city with a down home feel. Sort of like Mayberry with more people.
Having lived here for as long as I have I have a slight social advantage (or disadvantage if you are antisocial) over some people. I run into people all over town all the time. When at lunch, on the trails in the woods, shopping at the market, or just walking down the sidewalk I can encounter people. The meetings have grown to be fewer and further between, but that reflects back on my homebody lifestyle. As a semi-pro drinker with near Olympic barfly status I developed a great number of connections and contacts and almost learned to shoot pool. Okay well, basically a great number of superficial friends. With adult life I now as I have a variety of responsibilities (wife, kids, dogs, and 9-5 straight job) my response to these familiar faces on the street has changed. I no longer feel compelled to shout out across the street, roam across the restaurant, or roll up on someone on my bike. It just seems that it is not as important as it once was. That is not to say that I do not give a wave or a nod, but I do not have the time and energy to 'talk up' any and every person I once knew. This is doing everyone a favor as I can be a bit of a "chatty kathy." After all, who really wants to hear about my life, sure people ask, but do they really want to know about the wonders of fatherhood. How I am going through a long list of very powerful emotions. The bond between me and Dean has hit new levels, currently he is sick, and it effects me. The empathy, the compassion, the symbiotic relationship, it is all a very fantastic experience. Grant is growing in front of me and there are marvels of life and nature right in front of me, but the actual bond has not really started to grow, yet I wait to experience all of those "firsts" for the third time. His first roller coaster ride will give us both a thrill, his first sled ride with cause both of our stomachs to drop and we will not care about the cold as the fun will overwhelm us, well...until it is all too late and he is crying with blue lips and icy red hands. Dean showed me the moon. It had been there all along, but I think somehow I forgot to appreciate it. But now I look for it each day, and appreciate each and every phase. Grant will show me these things through his eyes and I will grow to understand them all over again. As I get to be a father Dean will get to be an older brother. Ah, siblings...the joy and the pain. A blog for another day.
Enough babbling, I see an old friend who has not heard me update them with information that they neither asked for nor care to hear.
keep in mind when I write this that I am a social addict! (which has always been a bit of a hassle since I don't like people, but I need the interaction, a painful paradox) so don't think that I have gone COLD TURKEY on saying hey to people. just last week I interrupted Stevie G while he was having lunch with his co-working peeps at the Vietamese restaurant and then the next day, yes the next day, I sat myself down with Luke from many years ago at Big Wheel Bikes and interrupted his girl watching!