Lets Go Kiddo

An election just happened and things didn’t go a conservative as thought.  This is good, in a lot of ways.  The GOP did take the House back, so expect 2 years of political gridlock.  This post isn’t about politics in America however. It’s about us coming back.   Because we’ve been doing this for a year and a half now.  Living and working and experiencing this international thing.   It’s hard to put into words what this experience is and has been.  I’ve blogged about it a bunch, but without experiencing it, first hand, it’s almost impossible to explain it; the joys, the hard parts, the good stuff, the language, culture, and lifestyle changes needed. This experience and the last two years of it have been hard.  On all of us.  J and I have had our tests and disagreements, but we’ve also had some amazing experiences and seen things that most people will never see.  Rooftop bars and visiting places that we’d only ever heard about or s...

Part of being 5 and in Kindergarten is learning and finding the flow and pace of school.  Another side of that is making friends and navigating that dynamic.  There have been days when after school is hard because someone didn’t want to play or wanted to play a different game or something like that. It’s hard, as a parent.  I want to put myself out front and defend her to the death and make her happy.  Because, of course , Kiddo is blameless in all of this.  It’s not that she’s being inflexible or over zealous in her wants.  It’s not her fault. I need to remind myself, that there is two sides to every story.  That there is another side of that coin.   Kiddo can be willful.  Hard-headed.  Stubborn.  She can be solitary sometimes, just doing her own thing and not caring if others want to join or not, she’s gonna just do her own thing. But wait…. There is TWO SIDES to her as well. She can be sweet.  Loving.  Cari...

Writing is hard. I say this with an unusual approach to it. Not only do I mean that writing a blog and forming thoughts into coherent and some kind of structure is difficult, but also as someone watching a child learn to write.  In two different languages, at that.   How do I tell a story, pass on the neatness and excitement and wonder of our adventures or life here and all the cool stuff we’ve done and are yet to do?  How do you make the letter D lower case?  Which way does the bump go?  I can’t even begin to describe the Thai letters and words and learning that. Writing is hard! For Kiddo, she’s got J and myself.  She’s got Nanny Beer.  She’s got teachers, including a Thai teacher.  She is well equipped to learn how to write and to do it well.  At least, on the level of, she can write and make words that people understand and can read clearly.  I’m not worried that she will learn to read and write.  She is well on her wa...

 

Congratulations to the 2022 MLB World Series Champion Houston Astros.  Let’s hope (this time) that it isn’t found that the team cheated to get the ring. As for me, I didn’t watch a single pitch.  Partly because MLBTV, which I pay for, needs their Fox Partners to make their money, so I needed to subscribe to MLBTV at $120 a year, but then, I need to sign up for Fox at $65 for the month or $299 for the year.  F*$K YOU! Also, after the 2017 Astros win, I have ZERO love for that team and their opponent, the Phillies, I have never really cared for as an organization or the team’s fans.  That factors in as well.  When you can’t stand either team, what’s the point in watching? Here’s the thing and maybe someone reading can help me clear something up…. In 1919, the Chicago WhiteSox made the World Series and conspired to throw games, causing scandal and ended up with the commissioner giving lifetime bans to 8 of those players.  The ban, still in place today,...

For the first time since August, I got a chance to shoot hoops last night.  The game started up again a few weeks ago, but I had already booked those dates with other events and appointments, but yesterday I was back in my full glory.  My shot was rusty and I couldn’t hit water falling out of a boat, but it was good getting out there and running about and hoopin’ it up once more.   Kiddo is also excited that I was back at it.  She liked that she got a Mumma night again, but also, she couldn’t believe that her Dada was playing basketball in her gym.  Her real gym.  At her school.  I even promised her that in a few weeks, we could let Beer go home early one day and she could come with me to basketball and play in the gym with me until Mumma was free to pick her up and then the two of them could go out and have a Kiddo and Mumma night. About a half hour into all of that, last night, it all ended. I was getting back on defense and jumped to try to ti...