Every day someone reaches my blog by searching for some version of "Seinfeld you gotta see the baby." I rank in the top few pages in every possible rendition of that search. In a shameless effort to get more accidental traffic I have chosen to use another Seinfeld clip to illustrate my thoughts today.
Friday afternoon the 2010 live thoroughbred racing season begins at Oaklawn Park here in my hometown. Before I moved here I had only seen live horse racing once. Now I absolutely love it. I enjoy the strategy of trying to read the forms and pick winners. I enjoy watching the horses run. I enjoy the sport enough that I watch the triple crown races on TV. Of course I love the social gathering that it brings as well. Just this weekend I will be seeing at least 4 and probably closer to 10 of my old friends and their wives at the track. It's a lot of fun.
If you are not sure why the track can be so much fun just imagine 20,000 people acting like Kramer. Throw in some adult beverages, corned beef sandwiches, and the chance to win a little cash and you have a great time.
I wrote at this time last year about Horse Racing as a New Dad. The racing last year was limited. We only went 2 or 3 times. Hopefully this year Arica and I can make a few more trips. A lot of that will depend on how things go this weekend. I am now under a lot of pressure to make good picks. One bad day can derail a race season pretty quick when you have an expensive diaper habit like me.
Everyone out there wish us luck this weekend, and feel free to pass along any "tips" you might have.
I was watching an episode of Seinfeld recently in which Jerry had to dog sit for a guy he meets on an airplane. The guy got sick and was taken to the hospital leaving Jerry with the dog. A conversation between Jerry and Elaine about picking up dog poo reminded me of some dog watching I had to do in college.
I shared a two room suite with three other guys. One of these guys was my big brother J. Murray. He stayed at his girlfriend's house nearly every night while his Boston Terrier Lynx stayed behind. Since he was never around to watch his own dog the chores fell to us. My little brother Shakey was a pledge and naturally we made him take care of the dog. Remembering his morning ritual has spawned a new, possibly recurring feature here at Life of a New Dad called Family vs. Fraternity. Today we examine the morning chores.
Fraternity: About 7:30 am every day Lynx starts barking at the door. After it gets loud enough to arouse us from our alcohol induced slumber B.A. and I yell at Shakey. Take Lynx outside! Shakey dressed in only his boxers and Doc Martens takes him outside. Shaky weighs about 135 and is white as snow. Imagine everyone going to class in the morning as he stands outside the fraternity house in the aforementioned dress smoking a cigarette and letting the dog relieve itself. Ahhhhh College.
Family: I set my alarm clock every night although I actually hear it go off about once a month. Every day Braden rouses both Arica and I from our slumber. Someone has to get up anywhere from 6 to 7 (we are late sleepers) and feed the poor boy. First we change his diaper. After the bottle we try to get him back to sleep. My how things change.
Braden's new favorite toy is the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Learning Letters Mailbox. Fisher Price really should try to get some longer names for their toys. These are just too easy to remember. Anyway the mailbox is the third in our lineup of laugh and learn toys. I wrote about the Puppy here. We also have the Laugh and Learn Storybook Rhymes. This Fisher Price bunch is a monster.
I know many bloggers out there review products for free samples and other compensation. That is fine with me. After all the only thing better than free stuff is free beer. And the only thing better than free beer is free cold beer. So review to the tune of free stuff if you want. This post is netting me nothing. I just wanted to share a little bit about Braden's favorite new toy.
No matter where we place the mail box Braden finds it. He will roll over onto his tummy and seek it out. Once he finds the toy he makes his way too it by a series of rolling and scooting maneuvers. Using these methods he can reach most places in the living room. When he gets the mail box in his mitts he turns it over, opens it up, and gets the mail. Once he gets the mail he starts trying to eat it. He may be on to something here. Eating bills sounds a lot more pleasurable than paying them. I don't know if Fisher Price meant for the plastic letters to serve as teethers, but they do a good job. Braden loves to chew on them.
The box sings and is brightly colored. I'm sure that the bright colors help draw Braden to the postal receptacle. The songs certainly make him happy too. I still think there might be something more powerful drawing him towards the postal arena. This something is his DNA.
My Dad has been a mail man all my life. It's a part of my family tradition. I once told my parents that I wasn't going to college. I was going to stay home and join the family business. The business was of course delivering the mail. My mother, perhaps worried I was serious, demanded I go to college. So my dreams of following in my Dad's footsteps ended.
My interest in the post office didn't end there though. My two favorite sitcoms of all time are "Seinfeld" and "Cheers". Yes, both shows have mail men as prominent characters. Coincidence? I think not. Cliff Clavin is one of my favorite Cheers characters. He is funny in a helpless loser kind of way.
Seinfeld sports the dark rantings of Newman. He has spouted many great lines on the show. He also has some funny descriptions of the postal service that I always tried to share with my Dad. I don't think he was amused, but I shared anyway. Dad never was stressed too much by the mail, but it happens. Here's Newman's take on that.
My Dad was a mail man. I am drawn to sitcoms with funny mail men. Braden is drawn to toy mail boxes. Our dog likes to raise his leg and mark mail boxes. All these things are too much to overlook. The men in this family must have letter carrying DNA.
I am a bonified sports junkie. I love the big three baseball, basketball, and football. I have followed a team in each of these sports ever since I was a kid. I still do that today, but some other things have changed. I once heard Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio say that as you get older you have to trim your sports tree. I don't always agree with him but he definitely has this one right on. When you are younger and single you can follow every sport you want. You have no real responsibilities so you can spend every night watching TV. As you get older and have other duties with family and work you have to cut back on following some sports. For instance there might not be time to watch the random Saturday afternoon badminton match any more.
There was a time in my life, during college and shortly after I graduated, that I absolutely watched every single Cardinals game. This was before the advent of Tivo mind you. Every summer night during college you could find me sitting on the couch with a cold one tuned into the game. After I graduated I usually took my party to the bar at Applebee's. There I got control of the TV from the bartender and watched the Cards like it was my own personal viewing room. Everyone else had to watch or go somewhere else.
Those aren't the only sports freedoms the younger man can enjoy. I also watched nearly every single college basketball game on TV. I love college hoops so I would watch Big Monday, Super Tuesday, Whatever Wednesday and so on. I was a little over the top with sports, but if I was home that is what I was watching. I didn't watch TV dramas. I either watched Sports, Seinfeld, or maybe a movie. Now with a wife and kid things are different.
Arica is very understanding. She finds other ways to busy herself when I must watch sports. I have trimmed my tree back to the Cardinals and the Razorbacks. For some people that would still be a ton of sports but not for me. That is the bare minimum. I am not complaining. Spending time with my family is much more important than watching total strangers play games inside the television. I am writing about this today because it is one of the great sporting days of the year. Today is opening day of the baseball season. There was a game last night but it doesn't count as opening day in my mind. Today the St. Louis Cardinals will start the season in pursuit of another pennant. If you are unaware of my love for baseball you can read about it here. Being opening day I am sitting at my desk wearing my bright red Cardinals T-shirt today. I may be a grown man, but much like David Puddy, you gotta support the team. I don't know if many of my readers are baseball fans. I do know that my friend over at Daddy Files is a big Red Sox fan so he is probably excited today too.
Later tonight the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship will be played. I haven't missed a championship game in forever. Now the trick for me tonight is to watch these events while still maintaining my duties as father and husband. It is a tricky thing to pull off but I can do it. I am thankful that I cut back on so many unnecessary sports events. Doing that makes nights like tonight possible.
I was driving to work this morning trying to shake off the remnants of another weekend when I heard an interesting commercial. In my morning haze I had forgotten to change the radio station to my normal sports talk show so this commercial was new to me. It was an advertisement for the Garland County Public Library. I have to admit that I don't even know where the Garland County Library is located. It's not because I am against reading or anything like that. I actually enjoy reading every time I give it a whirl, but I enjoy getting my stories from the idiot box a little bit more. When I am travelling I read a lot so I would consider myself an occasional reader. I don't read enough, however, to know where to find the library.
I knew that libraries contained computers and other modern electronics today. The last time I was in the library the most modern thing was the micro fiche. I still think of the library as the place where you take out books on loan by using a library card. As Jerry Seinfeld once said the library is like a government funded pathetic friend. They will let you take anything if you will just be there friend. According to the clip below they might also send someone after you if you violate the terms of their pathetic friend agreement. This clip including the library cop Mr. Bookman is one of my all time Seinfeld favorites.
Apparently the library is trying a little harder for your friendship today. The commercial on the radio was advertising a Wii Mario Cart tournament. What?!? The library is organizing a Wii tournament. You may think the pathetic friend just branched out into nerdy video games, but I disagree. This is a huge change for the library. I have heard and read about the children's programs that most libraries do as well. According to this ad the programs in Garland County are award winning. I am sure they are not winning Nobel prizes or anything but they should be a great service. Since as a new dad I am learning to stretch a dollar it is great to know that the local library is offering such functions. I hope to take Braden to the library for all kinds of programs in the future. All I have to do now is find the place.
With Monday now beating me directly in the head I will try to fondly remember the weekend via this post. We had a good weekend with some negative influence. The best happening of the weekend was Braden rolling over for the first time. I was watching him while Arica was at the movies. He spent a lot of the night on his pallet in the floor playing and watching TV. His favorite activity is laying on the floor and playing. He holds his toys and tries to eat them of course. He rolls on his side trying to roll over. He likes to kick his legs and wave his arms. He laughs at the TV and whichever parent happens to be down there with him at the time. Friday he was doing all those things and laying on his side a lot. Finally he just went on over. It didn't scare him but he eventually got upset because he didn't want to be on his stomach. Arica called to see how he was doing and I shared the news. She was very excited. Later when she came home I went to the door to meet her. She was asking about Braden rolling over as she came in the room. Then we turned around and he had done it again. There he was laying on his stomach. Of course we are excited because every little development is exciting when you have a newborn. Now we will watch as he continues to practice his new skill and wait for the mobilization of Braden.
The bad part of the weekend started Saturday morning. I spent the entire day helping Arica's cousin move into a new house. As Jerry Seinfeld once told us, moving is a big step in a male relationship. You don't help just anyone move, but this was family so I think it is acceptable. For your viewing pleasure I have included Jerry's thoughts about moving in the clip below. It starts after he and Elaine finish the kiss discussion.
After the moving fun I spent Sunday losing money at the track. I figured the horses were hungry so I donated my money to feed them some nice oats and hay. I was afraid if I didn't make my donation they might get stuck eating beefarino like Rusty.
Even with the dual negative forces of moving and losing money it was a good weekend. Any day with Arica and Braden is a good one. I guess that makes me a lucky man because I get to spend every day with them.
A little while back I wondered if my son would enjoy fishing with me. Today I turn my inquisitive nature to a less active pursuit...watching TV. Seinfeld is my favorite TV show of all time. It has been in syndication forever so you are all probably familiar with the show but on the wild chance you are not you can check out some clips here. I used to watch 1 or 2 episodes every day after work. That led to me seeing every episode 10 or more times. Now I have all 9 seasons on DVD and can watch them whenever I want although being a husband and a dad has reduced my time with Jerry and the gang to 1 or 2 episodes a week. The question I have today is whether some day Braden will enjoy Seinfeld like I do, or will he shake his head and say "I can't believe you're watching that stupid show again Dad."
There is precedence for young people watching older shows. They are on TV all the time so they are certainly available. When I was a kid I watched old favorites like "Leave it to Beaver", "The Adams Family", "Gilligan's Island", "The Brady Bunch" and many others. Those shows were family friendly and I watched them at my Grandma's house most of the time. Also during those times there were not too many TV channels so I had limited choices. As an adult I enjoy "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son". You can see that personally I enjoy older shows. I feel that a good show or movie is timeless and should be enjoyed by every generation.
Seinfeld has a lot of adult themes like "The Contest" and others so this question will not be answered for a long while. By the time Braden is old enough to handle the content there is no telling what other media options will be readily available. We can already watch video on the computer at the click of a button. We already have DVRs that will record everything and iPod's that make video download and storage extremely convenient. I hope all this technology and the certain improvements to come will help Braden enjoy some of my old favorites rather than make them obsolete.
I guess the biggest question is how does a brand new person develop their sense of humor. I am sure it's developed mostly based on the environment surrounding the child. I hope being around me will help Braden develop my sense of humor. If he doesn't then he will probably spend a lot of his life trying to figure out what is wrong with me. On second thought my sense of humor could be a curse because it is unique to say the least. I guess the best thing would be for our humor to intersect in just the right places like Seinfeld.
If anyone out there is crazy enough to read this blog more than once you will probably notice that I am a huge Seinfeld fan. We will cover that topic another time, but today I want to use a certain Seinfeld moment to illustrate something about having a new baby. Basically some of Jerry's friends want him to come see their baby. Rather than try to explain it you can watch this clip. It starts bad but clears up after 5 seconds.
In another episode Jerry wonders if these people are having kids just to get people to come see them. If that was the case I promise you it would work. One of the hardest things about the first few weeks as a new dad is the visitors. Here you and your wife are trying to adjust to this new crying, pooping person in your house and all the while you are hosting a house party. We had so many people in our room right after the birth that I lost count. It was all a blur at that point but it did not stop. The next day our hospital room actually got so full that you could not fit another person inside. People started leaving because they were too crowded and uncomfortable. It was crazy.
When we got home the drill went on for nearly two weeks. My wife and I had absolutely zero time to ourselves. We had to postpone starting our life as a family in order to host a baby viewing gala every night. I know the Seinfeld clip takes place in TV land but why in the world would anyone want to insist on people coming to see the baby. I promise they will come anyway. A heavily fortified house surrounded by the national guard, ravenous pit bulls, and land mines could not keep people away from a new baby. I have found so many true comparisons to real life on Seinfeld but this one misses the mark for me. I would never be calling people and saying "You Gotta See the Baby!"
