Life as we know it ...

... has changed!

I find myself thinking about things far different than I used to. Tonight we watched a movie called "Life As We Know It" and, while it was a good movie, it really hit home. The movie is about a couple with a daughter who are killed in a car accident and left their daughter to be raised by their two best friends (who at first are not fond of each other so on and so forth) -- and honestly, it was a funny, good movie. But it was hard to watch.

It was hard to watch because the entire movie I was thinking about Reid. What if something ever happened to Laura and me? I can't bear the thought of leaving him, Laura or any of my family but leaving him is the absolute hardest to think.

I'm his dad. Period. With Laura, he'd raise up just fine and deal without his father. Without either of us, we now have little/no control. Who will raise him? Is it fair to hand him off to his aunt, uncle, grandparents? Would they take him... yes, I don't doubt that. But still -- that's my boy!

It sounds so strange to think about it, maybe even morbid. There are things I never thought about before, or if I did think about it, I wasn't really truly scared of the consequences. For instance:
1) Having life insurance - I now think about how my wife and son would live without me.
2) Having a living will - where would he go? Who would take care of him? How do we decide this?
3) That car 100 yards away swerved a little, I better get over - honestly, never would have worried too much about this or really even noticed, but when Reid is in the car (and now even without), all I can think is how I can keep him as safe as possible .. it's a good thing but so different!

Life as we know it ... has changed!

But on an unrelated note: funny story -

Today, I went to Kroger to get some stuff for dinner and while in line at the self checkout area, a couple of guys walk right up, ignoring the line and get next to a self-checkout.

I always assume the best in people and thought this to be an honest mistake. Since I was in a line of apparent passive aggressive people, I said, "Hey, the lines back here." The alpha of the two looked up, stared at the line and said, "No, we don't need to do that." Typically, I am rather passive and let things go, but this time I just couldn't. I said, "There's nothing special about you, asshole. Get in line." The shock on everyone's face was rather great and without a word, he got in line.

Life has changed indeed.

Do you like... magic??

I have to say, the magic in being a parent is 2-fold.

1) an unexplainable love... that while an unconditional natural love, still has conditionality that is relative to the decibel level of cries (kidding... sort of)
2) watching the amazing development day-by-day!

At the moment, he is discovering his hands. The best depiction of his hand-oriented motor skills right now comes from a classic, modern masterpiece -- Telladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

You don't need to understand the movie, just watch his hands. I almost think Reid is trying to mimic him even though he has yet to see the movie.

Pod people know adventure!

Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.

Have you seen the movie 'Up'? If not, it's good, so check it out. It inspired me to write this.

I am only 28 years old. I have a beautiful wife, an amazing nearly 3 month old son, 3 cats, a nice house, a good job and all in a crappy economy. What's to happen next?

For me, that is my adventure. So many people think of an adventure in literal terms or like Hollywood - you know, hop on a plane, travel the world, hike mountains, see everything the world has to offer. I'm not sure I really care what the world has to offer, but really care about what is in my life. It may come from the world in some way as it's all connected, but I've seen the Eiffel tower in pictures. That's enough for me. What I want is to experience life ... not the world. And I am in the middle of that now with my wife, son and everything I have. Each day is something new even when it seems the same.

Maybe people prefer to experience the world because it is easier to do so. It's much easier to enjoy something we know is there and something that we know how far it is, how tall it is, when it was built, that it was built by people or built by nature, but it is so hard to enjoy what you don't know or don't know what to expect. That's how life is, you never really know what to expect.

Will I grow old?
Will I ever get seriously sick?
Can I be sure I'll watch my son grow up?
Will my car die tomorrow?

It seems like life is tough to focus on because we wonder if bad things will happen to us. Notice each question above is focused on a fear of something that life can bring. But is that a bad thing? I say no. Each is another chapter and you can carry on. Sure, eventually we all reach our last chapter, but I believe we all have a sequel that we don't find out about until after the end.

If you watch 'Up', I think you'll see this as its moral -- this is my interpretation of course -- but I think this movie tells us it is not what we do in our lives but how we live it with those that are in it that is the adventure.

Laura asked me to write about pod people. She is... an adventure...