One Less Semester, One More Baby

[This post was originally written on Jan. 19, 2011, but I just saw it sitting as a draft so I published it]


So the last time I wrote anything here I think it was about 107 degrees outside, we were still sleeping on the floor of the apartment we'd just moved into, Audi was mega pregnant, and Audi and I were both still reeling from having quit our jobs to move cross country for school.

Currently it's about about 40 degrees cooler, we do have a bed now, Audi's pregnant belly has turned into our beloved baby Chloe, and we're pretty settled into the routine of school and parenting.

It's hard to really remember what life was like before having a baby.  I had no idea of how much of your attention a newborn can take up.  If I thought having a wife took up a lot of my time, I had no clue how easy I had it.  That said, I am loving it.  It makes coming home mean so much more.  Even as I write this now, Chloe is seated on my chest, enjoying sleep that she just can't seem to find in her bed at night.

As far as school goes, it's been pretty good.  With only a few exceptions, I really like my fellow students.  Even those exceptions, however, are still smart and interesting people, just hard to work with from time to time.

As I'm prodded more and more by career center staff to pick a focus area I'm finding myself drifting towards the product development/product management side of marketing.  I like the idea of guiding the life of a product from its birth to its maturity.

My Manifest Destiny

After a little over two years in the East, Audi and I finally made our way back to the coast with the most.  Well, almost.  We're about 500 miles short of the coast, but we are where we want to be.  Arizona.  I'm starting my MBA program at Thunderbird in about two weeks and in about three weeks Audi will be having our baby.  I figured I'd either go big or go home.

The weather is about 105 every day, which they say is pretty mild for this time of year.  Coming from Maryland and 95 degree days with 70 percent humidity, it feels amazing over here.  Sure, you'll blister your feet if you walk on pavement without shoes and it gets so hot that if you leave your phone in your car, it will fry the insides, but it feels soooooo much better.  Top it off with our own pool, an upgrade to a two bedroom apartment, and half as much for rent, and I guess you could say things are looking pretty good for our hero.

Girl

Well, the cat's out of the bag and the little bundle of DNA inside Audi's belly has officially declared itself female.  Let the pink fabric, frilly lace, flowery headbands, and other stereotypical female baby paraphernalia fly.  Audi's been chomping at the bit to start sewing and buying everything this kid will need until college and now that we know the nature of our baby's naughty bits, Audi can get to work.

 

Looking at the ultrasound was surreal.  It's no longer just a bump under Audi's bellybutton or what essentially looked like a black smudge in our first ultrasound.  This is a BABY!

I'm honestly really excited that it's a girl.  Not just because this means Audi will have a bit more expertise and confidence when parenting this kid, but I'm really psyched to have a daughter.  It seems like the majority of my friends who have had babies lately have had girls and I've really been jealous.  There's a unique innocence to girls that you just don't see with boys.  Maybe it's residual from how I fell for Audi and have been significantly whipped ever since, but I can tell already that this girl is going to be able to walk all over me, and I can't wait.  I'm also really glad that she can't projectile pee.

Snow daze

As a kid, a snow day meant a lot of things: homework wasn't due for another day, you could build a snow fort in your yard, go sledding, or any of a hundred other outdoor activities.  As an adult, I'm finding that I am no less excited, nay, I dare say I am far more excited about snow days than I ever was as a child.  Strange as it is, a couple days ago when I saw the forecast predicting the blizzard of the decade, my mouth was watering at the prospect of finally having time to do laundry, clean up around the house a little, and throw in a movie somewhere. 

Something else I'm finding interesting about snow is that it seems to in some ways remind me of another ubiquitous white powder with an addictive nature.  I get one snow day and suddenly I start to twitch at the idea of having to go back to work.  I scan every weather website for the one that will predict snow with the highest probability.  I need it.  I start to reason it out in my head every way possible that there might be another day off - snow on the metro tracks, freezing snow-melt on the road, too much snow in the parking lots.  I'm weak, childish, and lazy.  Thomas Edison said that there are two types of people in the world: those who look forward to the alarm clock and those who don't.  Well, I realize all of these things and, you know what, I don't care.  I guess it's a good thing they're predicting another 12 inches on Tuesday.  If things work out, I won't be coming down from this fix for a while.


Picture of my car under 24 inches of snow to follow.

Didn't you know? I'm a freakin' rock star.

So my birthday came around just over a month ago. Due to my less than subtle hinting, Audi managed to figure out that I wanted a guitar for the anniversary of my springing into this world from my mother's womb. Well, she got it for me! What a gal! It's a beaut and for the first time in my life, I'm practicing something (other than religion) without being forced to do so.  My first attempt reminded me how much it hurts to push down metal strings without callouses on your finger tips.  I spent the ensuing two weeks at work, while in class, pushing down on anything with an edge to beat the crap out of my fingers so that I don't want to cry like a little kid every time I push down the high E string (I still kinda want to cry when I push it down with my pinkie... baby steps). 

So here she is.  I haven't given her a name yet, though I am fully aware of the great importance of doing so.  I'm considering Betty or Doris, both in memory of skateboards I owned in Hawaii.  Betty was stolen by a heartless punk kid from Kahuku while I was in the library (I never found out who it was, but I saw his blurry picture on the security camera in the campus security guard's office.  Wherever you are kid, you'll get your comeuppance one day!)

I'm intent on learning without a teacher or book at this point.  I'm practicing a ton of chords and bits of songs I see online and I'm content to continue that way.  I don't mind being a little unpolished and saving a few bucks because I like to be able to say I'm self-taught.  Anywho, some day I'll include a recording on here.  My current endeavor is Free Fallin'. 

Belated Peru Pictures

We saw this double rainbow on the way back from Machu Picchu.  The squeals from the other tourists on the bus was one of the most amusing things that day.

Our day at Machu Picchu was the only good weather day on our whole trip.

Locals get about 30 cents for a photo op.  60 cents if they have a lamb.

We climbed that peak in the background.  Surprisingly, it only took an extra hour each way.

The locals were very friendly.

This was at the top of a bunch of amazing meso-American village ruins.  The buildings are behind me.

That's my girl.

We didn't make it in, but the view was amazing from outside.

Audi likes door pictures.  I like her.

Seemed like the right thing to do.

Last Leg

Holy Hannah! It's been quite a ride this last week. I haven't had a ton of time to sit down at the computer, hence my lack of blogging. Since I last updated you, we visit some ruins up in the moutains, saw the largest market in Peru, traveled to Machu Picchu, got a wicked bad sunburn over my face, arms, and neck, bought heaps of souvenirs, took another 21 hour bus ride back to Lima, and Montezuma had his revenge on me.

This pictures from this trip have been spectacular. They will follow in the near future.

We managed to not get robbed at all this week, at least not stolen from, though some of the prices for things seemed like robbery.

I used up most of a bottle of aloe on my sunburns in 2 days because they were so nasty. We weren't counting on it being sunny at Machu Picchu so we didn't bring sunscreen. Between the intense sun that DID show up that day and what I assume to be thin atmosphere at 10,000 feet of altitude, my arms, hands, neck, and face ended up swollen and red from the burn. The swelling has since then gone down, along with much of the redness, but my nose already feels beef jerky and my forehead and neck will look leperous by tomorrow.

Tomorrow at midnight we fly out. It's been an amazing ride. I'll fill in more details later, but we feel really lucky to have seen so much and done so without serious accident or incident.