A Brief Sports Aside

I'm a big sports fan and I wanted to take some time off my regular postings so that I can get a break from writing about my life for a few.

This should be an exciting time of year for those of us who are sports fans: the NFL season is three weeks old, college football is three weeks into their season, baseball season is winding down which means the playoffs will start next week, and hockey has started as well. Normally, I'd be so geeked up I'd have a hard time containing myself, but this year is a bit different for me. First off CSU is 0-4 after losing to TCU, 24-12, and has now lost 11 games in a row. Which leads me to pro football where the Miami Dolphins are 0-3 and are clearly years away from being competitive. Thankfully, the San Diego Padres are on the verge of making the playoffs for the third consecutive year, but they won't win the NL West, which goes to the *@!damned Arizona Diamondbacks. Man, I friggin' hate that team. There's no way in hell they should be winning with that weak-ass pitching staff, Brandon Webb being the exception, and an offense that ranks near or at the bottom of the NL in hitting. It's mystifying. But I digress. If the Padres beat the Milwaukee Brewers tomorrow they win the Wild Card. Here's hopin'. The Colorado Avalanche start their season Wednesday and it looks like they could be real good this year which will make up for last year's missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history (Colorado franchise history that is). So it's a great time of year to be a sports fan, even if a couple of my teams are sucking right now.

Thanks for indulging me this week, it'll be back to my regular postings next week.

Cheers.

Complaints

Well, this week was tame compared to last week, that's for sure. No family emergencies or anything exciting for that matter. The semester is shifting into high gear for me and I have papers/projects due nearly every week in one class or other - like most of us. The biggest hurdle for me in getting my stuff done for school is trying to balance homework with being a dad. Just when I think I have time to read or write, I need to change her diapers or it's feeding time again. This happens off and on all day long - not that I'm complaining, not in the least bit - it's just making this semester more difficult and I'm a notoriously slow starter as it is. This wouldn't be as big of an issue if I could take night classes at CSU while completing my undergrad, but since that's not an option, this is what I'm stuck with. If I had one criticism of "traditional" four-year colleges it's that they're myopic when it comes to those of us who aren't "traditional" college students. Basically this means I can't hold a job that'll pay me more than minimum wage because I'm in school during the day and my wife is the "breadwinner" such as it is in Fort Collins. On the other hand, this is an advantage right now because I'm home M-W-F so I can watch our little one, which means no money out of pocket for daycare so that helps. I s'pose I could have gone to the University of Phoenix, DeVry, or any other quality institution of higher learning that can afford to advertise on television during Springer or any other excellent daytime program (cough), but I didn't, and my decision to attend a known university damn well better pay off because it's difficult right now.

The Week From Hell

I'd like to start by saying that I'd like to forget last week ever happened.

Saturday, September 8, my wife's mom came into town to visit her granddaughter and hang out for a week or so. Let me quickly dispel any thoughts of me not liking my mother-in-law, she's one of the greatest people I've ever met in my life - seriously. Now that we've got that out of the way. So she gets in town and everything is going well, we even order Jason's Deli for delivery - I had a panini, my mother-in-law had a muffaletta, and my wife had a pastrami sandwich. This plays a key role later. Before I get too far ahead of myself, my wife had been complaining of pressure around her chest and it hurt to breath for a couple days prior to her mom's visit. We figured it was terrible heartburn and didn't think too much of it. Fast forward to 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning and my wife bolting for the john ready to yawn in technicolor. And yawn she did. At that point, coupled with her feeling crappy already, I decided to take her into the ER at PVH. Good thing we went. After numerous tests and more barfing they admitted her because her, and I'm quoting, "gall bladder was nearly overflowing with gall stones." So she ultimately stayed three days and had her gall bladder removed. This happens one month after she gave birth to our first child. How much pain can one woman stand?! My wife swears off pastrami for the rest of her life.

So she's laid up with five incisions in her tummy and can barely move, I have tons of homework to do and I can't concentrate, and we have a daughter to take care of. Thank God her mom was here. Things were cruising along, such as it is, and I began to study for my first test of the semester when I could find time to peel myself away from helping my wife or giving my mother-in-law a break. Test came and went and I think it went well, we'll see. Her mom had even decided to stay a bit longer to help us out, but then she got a call from her husband, who has a history of heart problems, and mentioned that he had some test done and needed to have a procedure done soon. So she went back to L.A. Friday to be with her husband. We're not sure how that will end, but we're hoping it's nothing too serious.

That's my week and I'm damn glad it's over.

Brief Introduction

First off, I can't believe how difficult this is for me to get going! I keep deleting entries because nothing sounds good. Maybe I'm being too anal? Yeah, probably. Hopefully this will get easier as I get going, which is the point of my mini-rant here. Moving on.

My wife and I found out we were pregnant back in November of '06 which meant that if the baby got here on her due date, I'd have at least three weeks before classes started for the fall semester. Fat chance. Our little one was due on the 4th of August. She arrived on the 14th. I had five whole days to adjust to being a father before I started school, but I figured it'd be a breeze. I've never been more wrong about anything in my life. I blame television and movies. Everyone said "Oh, prepare for no sleep." Yeah, whatever, my little girl will be different. She'll adjust to OUR schedule. Wrong again. Dammit, was I ever going to be right about anything as far as being a father was concerned? Apparently not. That first week I averaged about three hours a night while my wife averaged about two. That has since balanced out to about five-to-six for me and four-to-five for my wife. And, yes, I'm taking part in the overnight feedings. Well anyway, you get the point so far. But I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. I'm reminded of why I'm doing this every morning when she stares up at me with those big blue eyes. Or when she smiles at me.

Only nine more months of college left and I know it'll be difficult, but in the end it will all be worth it. I'll add more details as I move along throughout the semester.

In case you're wondering, the title of my blog comes from a song by Warren Zevon called Lawyers, Guns and Money. Also, I plan on adding some links, pictures, etc. as we move along.