lifebsideben

Wow, I haven’t felt that “last day of work” feeling over 3-1/2 years. Weird.

Thursday was officially my last day at Yahoo!. There’s a really strange feeling of no longer being part of something that been such a huge part of my life. I vaguely remember feeling this way when leaving other jobs, too. You pack up your stuff from the office, and within hours, things that were constant companions on your desk, now seem like relics from some distant age gone by. People start emailing you with contact details, etc., you say goodbyes, you promise to go out to lunch soon, completely in good faith, but hours later, it rings hollow. I don’t know if this is universal, or just me, but my mind likes “clean breaks” at some deep level. Intellectually and logically, I want to stay in touch and hang out with so many of the great people I worked with… people I geniunely consider friends, and not just “co-workers”. Past experience says it’ll be difficult, and there’s that emotional breeze that says ‘prepare for the new’–clean slate time. As with everything in life, the truth and the path I’ll follow is very likely somewhere in between, but it is a strong, strange emotion leaving someplace you’ve been for so long, and as someone who feels “not very in touch with” their emotions, this is unusual. Slightly unsettling, but simultaneously interesting; something to examine and try to taste, almost to savor intellectually.

Friday, the feeling was gone. I was focused on family, anyhow. We woke up early, and took Alex to ‘Day Out with Thomas’, which is a pretty neat touring event which stops at Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad in Felton, about 45 minutes away. A locomotive decorated like Thomas pushes then pulls you in a line of cars through the redwood forest, and then there’s activities, such as face painting (check!), temporary tattoos (check!), bounce houses (nope–too scary), coloring/painting (check!), pictures with Sir Topham Hatt the benevolent railroad magnate (check!), and of course, retail Thomas products (check! he finally got that Murdoch train he’s been going on about.) We wanted to hit this on Friday, instead of the weekend when I was usually, well, off of work, as last year it was fun, but swamped on a Saturday. We got tickets on the first train of the morning, made an early day of it, and it was great. We managed to keep him in a great mood all the way until we drove back, and then he went down for a nap with no complaints.

In the afternoon, we planned for the upcoming household move 20 miles north, to Millbrae, and realized we were in dire need of packing boxes. I called a couple places and then Val said she thought Ikea had moving boxes. That seemed weird, but sure enough, I found them on their site, and the East Palo Alto store had them in stock. When Alex woke up, we took a trip to the post office (mail security deposit on new place) and then to Ikea. Now, I knew there was a reason to try and leave him at home for this errand–but it didn’t become crystal clear until we had actually brought 40 unfolded boxes to the car. Hmm. About 15-20 went into the trunk, but the rest were going to have to go in the back seat–in front of his carseat. And Alex is really growing out, lengthwise, of that carseat. So… let’s just say, it was cramped. I heard a lot of “DADDY! I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING!” on the (thankfully short) ride back home!

At home, we decided to go swimming, as it was pretty hot out. There were some teenagers we managed to scare out of the pool pretty quickly (I think they were worried our middle-age uncool-ness might rub off our something), and it’s always great for Val to get in the water and take some weight off her joints, back, etc. with the Giant Belly O Pregnancy. That was fun, and Alex didn’t freak out too much when I dunked him, which I feel obligated to do at least once each time we go. We spent well over an hour floating around, diving for weights, splashing, and relaxing. By the time we geared up to go, Alex was getting pretty cranky, so we hightailed it home and made some tasty, last-minute dinner: risotto with asparagus (from a frozen package), spice-rubbed organic chicken breast on the grill, and sauteed fava beans. It was so great to NOT think about work, and I wasn’t even stressed about the move, even though it’s got a lot of stressful aspects. I wasn’t worried about the upcoming trip with Alex, even though that’s not fully taken care of, either. It was just nice to relax. With that meal, and less stress, I almost felt like we were back in Barcelona. It was a fantastic full day, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more satisfying for the day after leaving my job!

Tags: parenting, work, Yahoo

One of neighbors has a son who is 4. My son Alex is just about to turn 3. But what a difference a year seems to make!

The other day they were playing, and both have ‘Transformers’ toys from the movie. As I’ve been reminded, the bad guys are the Decepticons, who just as often take shape of tanks or planes, while the good guys are the Autobots, who are apparently always cars or trucks. When I was growing up I guess I was just a little too old for the Transformers TV show; I remember it being on, but thinking it was too childish. My friends all liked Robotech instead. Well actually, we liked girls by then, but Robotech was a lot more accessible.

Back to the story at hand–so my son has Barricade, the mustang-derived police-car bad guy (Decepticon, sorry) which is a very impressively designed little toy, and pretty snazzy looking. It’s damn near impossible to get back from ‘robot mode’ to ‘car mode’ for me (although his mother seems to manage it fairly well). Anyhow, the neighbor kid has “Optimus Prime. He’s the leader of the Autobots”. Alex, who hasn’t seen the movie (nor will for many more years if I have anything to say about it), said “Oct-o-pus CRIME?” which I definitely got a kick out of. He was pretty confused, though, and the neighbor kid started reenacting scenes from the movie, which just confused Alex more. Understand that Alex really likes to play with this kid, and tries to impress him. Alex starts claiming to have seen the movie (I don’t think he even understands that there really is a Transformers movie.) The neighbor starts in again with “I have Optimus Prime”, Alex responds “I have that Transformer too!” (he doesn’t). The neighbor: “I have another Transformer too” (he does). Alex: “Me too!” Neighbor: “You dooo?” Alex: “I have ALL of them!”, and the verbal arms battle continued, until Alex was practically claiming to own Toys ‘R Us.

Eventually, this devolved into them each transforming their toys into robot mode and chasing each other around doing the “pyew pyew pyew” laser shooting noise, which took Alex all of 16 milliseconds to learn from the neighbor. But they had fun, got a little exercise, and shared pretty well, so it was OK in the end. I just can’t believe the difference a year seems to make in their level of sophistication! It’s going to be another interesting year, it seems, as a Dad. But I can guarantee you Alex still isn’t going to see the Transformers movie anytime soon!

Tags: movies, parenting

Today was the first day in my son’s 10+month life that he really got directly exposed to the word “no”. Seems kind of sad, but it was truly necessary, even if it’s probably my own fault.

A few days ago we were feeding Alex and the cat, as he usually does, came around to see what was going on, and beg for food, what have you. Since we were actually feeding Alex some small bits of chicken, and I was in a generous mood, I gave the cat some. The cat then wanted some more, and it was easier to grab a piece off of Alex’s tray and drop it to the floor for the cat, than get more from the bag. Here the trouble began. Alex apparently saw this, and decided the next day that he’d try and feed the cat too. So while he was eating some veggie puff things, the cat came around, and –plop– Alex dropped on one the floor near the cat. Of course, these being vegetable-and-starch-based items, the cat would have none of it, but it didn’t stop Alex. Another one was dropped. We switched to his main course (something from a bottle) and he stopped, I presume because he liked it too much to try and share with the cat. Seemed to be the last of the cat-feeding behavior…

Until today, of course. Val calls to say “well, I have a lot to thank you for today, including now that Alex won’t eat anything, he only wants to drop things on the floor for the cat!” I thought she was exxagerating, but when I got home and fed him dinner, sure enough, the cat came around, and Alex meticulously picked up the items (more veggie puffs, unfortunately for the cat) and dropped them carefully over the side of the tray. Neither I, nor the cat, was impressed. He seemed very happy with himself doing this, as well. So I looked at him plainly, and as he moved his arm over the edge to drop one, said firmly “No”, and moved his arm back. This just elicted smiles of joy and repeated behavior. I tried not to mirror this, and instead encouraged him when one actually made it into his mouth. But I don’t think this is going to be resolved quite that quickly, unfortunately.

I was sad that I had to say ‘no’, probably 10 times, to him today. But he knew was he was doing, and he needed to know it wasn’t acceptable. But until now, he’s pretty much never done anything “wrong”, intentionally, as far as I could tell. It’s sort of sad, but I guess it’s gotta start sometime. I’m sure, if there is any karma or justice in this world, I’m going to have a bit of a bad little kid to make up for my behavior as a child

Tags: parenting, pets