the baron and the husband have spent the better part of the past week rearranging their very small house to accommodate the arrival of their very small new family member. the doing of this - the rearranging - mostly entails the cleaning and purging of the office... here forward known as the baby's room.
the cleaning out of dark spaces is always good for surprises, and reminiscences, and memories of walks down rosehill drive. see the below video, from november 9, 2003.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
do androids dream of electric sheep?, or, baby's first playlist
there are big changes happening at the baron and the husband's house*, not the least of which has to do with the baby kicking forcefully enough to be felt by hands on the baron's belly. because the baron and the husband are original thinkers (wink, wink), and because the baby is at the stage where he can (supposedly) "experience" things outside the womb, they have lately been reading to him. 'shouts and murmurs' mostly, but also 'the westing game'. most recently, they've decided to introduce the baby to music; the baron fell asleep last night with a pair of huge headphones securely affixed to her big, big belly. baby's first playlist looks a little something like this:
good day sunshine (the beatles)
near wild heaven (rem)
shine a light (wolf parade)
find the river (rem)
country feedback (rem)
shine a light (the rolling stones)
dream operator (talking heads)
one fine day (david byrne & brian eno)
stay (faraway, so close) (u2)
the funeral (band of horses)
heroes (david bowie)
*other changes include a new roof, 9 new windows, a new refrigerator and stove, and a new car. it's been a busy month. also, this past weekend dumped a huge amount of snow on maryland. see photographic proof, below.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
camera ready, oh yes he is
readers,
the baron will post something soon. she promises.
in the meantime, see the husband, expertly hocking his social media wares, here.
the baron will post something soon. she promises.
in the meantime, see the husband, expertly hocking his social media wares, here.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
the long hello
reader, the baron has been scarce around these parts lately; she doesn't really have good reason for it. lots and lots of things have happened since last she checked in - but she doesn't really have the energy to fashion them into a pithy story. instead, can she just recount them for you, list-style?
-the husband left for egypt on november 22. he's having a time ('a time' being the average between 'a good time' and 'a lousy time', which are the two poles the baron can glean from his emails) traipsing up and down the country. evidently there are donkeys everywhere, and he'd kind of like to bring one home.
-the brother came for thanksgiving, arriving the wednesday before and leaving the monday after. the baron had high hopes that she'd be able to entertain him, or at least muster up the energy to get up and out of the house, but not so much with either of those things. they mostly sat on the sofa, watching season 1 of 'dexter', which the brother brought to the baron and the husband as a gift. the baron, having so far dodged 'dexter', was surprised to find that she liked it, so much so that they bought season 2.
-the baron had the 20 week sonogram this past monday. the husband could not attend, but the brother was able to, and the baron was glad: she did not want to go to the appointment alone, particularly when such big news was to be revealed. reader, the baron and the husband will soon be parents to a baby boy. yes, they have a name. no, they will not tell you. they think it's jinxy to share it just now.
-the baron and the husband have settled on their new car, though the purchase of this car is postponed until the husband is back from his trip. the baron, though she likes the honda pilot, is still having a hard time with its cost. and gas mileage. and size. and also, the husband? what's wrong with the crv again? can't we revisit it?
-the baron is lonely. or specifically, the baron is missing the husband, and the missing him makes her feel very, very lonely. internet connectivity is, evidently, spotty in egypt, so she's heard from him only intermittently. thus, she's been rereading some of their email exchanges, both from this trip and before, just to have a little electronic taste of him in absence of the real thing. the husband has a facebook page, and from it he sent her the below list of 25 things that he reported about himself. she likes reading these things about the husband, partly because she likes seeing him as he sees himself, and partly because she believes it's a supremely accurate representation of his awesomeness. read on to see for yourself:
1. I love a good fight. More precisely, I enjoy conflict -- especially a verbal argument that forces me to think about my position on something and have to defend my beliefs. Conflict is growth and the foundation of all natural processes. It isn't a bad thing. And I rarely care if I “win” the fight. I do get snarky when the fight is trivial and not worth it.
2. I was an avid reader until college beat it out of me. I still like to read, but not as much as my wife would like me to. New Yorker magazine helps as I am reluctant to pick up modern fiction and would rather keep rereading classics like a dork.
3. Used to blame PG county schools for a negative disposition towards public education –I would spend the odd (3,5, 7, 9, 11 ) years in TAG (Talented and Gifted) classes, and the even years in SLRD (Slow Learning and Reading Disabled) from elementary to high school. There was no “normal kid” class and I bounced from one end to the other because I tested well but was disruptive. As an adult, I realized this pendulum affords one variety and a depth of understanding most don’t have opportunity to see. Read – I can see from many perspectives.
4. I am physically clumsy, mostly because my mind and body tend to do separate functions (ask any drummer about this) at the same time. I was persistently clumsy as a youngin’ – so much so that a lot of what parents and teachers thought was “acting out” was in reality accidental mindlessness. It earned me a reputation as a temperamental and destructive person, which helped keep people from criticizing me for my clumsiness. So…it kinda works for me.
5. Went vegetarian in 1990 in part due to poverty, animal rights, bad memories of my mother's cooking and a faint idea of right behavior (reading a lot of Thoreau and watching Taxi Driver will do that). I went Vegan in 1992 for same reasons but with more education due to animal growth hormones in dairy as well as understanding of dairy industry practices. I am still vegan and keep finding things in diet that aren’t (Curse you Guinness!). I don’t lecture people or judge them on their choice to eat meat or not. It is antithetical to my beliefs to think I have a right to tell another person what they can do with their body (outside of not using it to hit me).
6. Never thought I would live past 18 -- those who knew me in high school know why. If not, read number 1 and number 4. Seriously, all this life since then is butter.
7. Was an altar boy and very religious until 12 when I became frustrated arguing with the dogmatic speeches of priests instead of having a dialogue with the church. Never had questions answered and have been more engaged in Taoism as a belief system for the past 15 years. For me, religious experience is about finding the right answers to the right questions and not about dogmatic repetition of unoriginal thoughts that are then used to judge others and limit how they use their time on the planet.
8. I grew up in Japan before moving to MD when I was 7. I have always had an affinity for Japan. I have a tendency to move at least every 2 years. This somehow answers a need for curiosity, but becomes costly. I now just accumulate more homes each time I move. (I am so looking forward to my tax rebate – that stuff is all deductible).
9. Lived in San Francisco and would live there again if could afford it. It is, in my opinion, the best city in the United States.
10. Want to retire to Samos ,Greece, were my grandmother came from. I can’t read, write or speak Greek. That stuff is hard! But am willing to learn to live an agrarian life on my own little farm with orange trees and goats.
11. I have been shot, stabbed, hit by cars, beaten by gangs with bats, struck by bottles and cigarettes thrown from vehicles and had an all around joy of being alive. I can laugh at all these things and isolate their occurrences from the individuals involved as part of what it means to be in the human experience. Most likely, I had all of those things coming anyhow.
12. I have totaled 6 cars so far...reference item number 4. (Don’t let me borrow your car.)
13. Been fired from more places than most people work in a lifetime. All non-professional service industry jobs. To name a few: Brass Duck, 7-11 (seriously, 7 –11), Shoneys, Red Lobster, Bennigans and an auto salvage yard. Reference topics 1 and 4.
14. I broke my arm when I was 4. I was on the swing in the playground when the teacher announced it was snack time. I slid off the swing at its apogee about 12 feet in the air and landed against a pole. I flattened another kid and broke his leg. Not my greatest moment and I never got that snack.
15. I love my job. I worked professionally in the private sector and was miserable. I believe in the value of civil service, the mission of my agency and my efforts. I think have the best job in my office because I can be creative, proactive, engaged and involved in a lot of things that really affect other people. If I do my job right, it affects them in a positive way.
16. Knew I wanted to be with woman who is my wife moment I met her. (She wishes to remain anonymous on the Internet, though) She, however, was not initially so certain of my particular value. She thought of me as that kid who talked too much and should go get a room with his beloved James Joyce and leave the rest of the class to discuss real topics. I won her over with Pez during the final exams. They’re vegan, sorta.
17. I really like and respect my parents. They are incredibly good people. I am always shocked when I think of how smart, caring and law-abiding they are. Sometimes I think they adopted me and I didn’t deserve parents that good.
18. My greatest fear is being homeless (again). I was on and off homeless for several years after high school and into college (house rule was out at 18 and be an adult). I spent months living at my job (where I didn’t get fired from) and out of my van (which I parked on the Mall and not down by the river) and friends' homes. This was not so dire for a young man who thought he was living a near ascetic life of a Taoist monk. But as I grew older it all just got too annoying. (That and having to use campus rec centers for all your hygiene needs will cause you to make a lot of new friends you really don’t want). But it isn't the fear of losing everything, which I have done many times, it is the fear of letting down those who depend on me that scares me.
19. I am happiest when playing music. Even if it is bad music. I can get lost in time and thought just playing the drums.
20. I am most comfortable in chaos. Order disturbs me. Limits and boundaries seem arbitrarily imposed when I don't feel as if I had any participation in their establishment. This may be a juvenile sentiment, but the philosophical extraction is that order imposed is tyranny. And therefore open for revolt. Chaos is disorganized revolt and only the truly organized can find meaning and direction…
21. I rarely get sick and I get very little sleep. I get injured a lot, but that natural disconnect between mind and body lets me not think of the pain or recognize a serious injury until my wife makes me go see a doctor. Although last year I had trigeminal neuralgia which was total crap to deal with. They gave me dilaudid, oxycontin and valium for a week. I was not very productive.
22. I have traveled a lot. Personally, professionally – there are few places in the US I haven’t gone through. Seriously. I have yet to finish South America and Asia, have yet to go to Africa and India, When I travel for fun I backpack and don’t know where I will end up…which is why the wife goes on separate vacations to nice destinations.
23. I believe in all rights for all creatures, so this means animal rights, human rights, civil rights, gay rights, religious rights, whatever. So long as another person’s practice doesn’t prey on the rest, then they should have equal rights under the law.
24. I alternate between simplicity and over complication in art and appreciation -- My favorites are Burroughs and Bukowski, along with Joyce and Shakespeare; The Stooges and the Misfits, along with Brian Eno and Stereolab; Picasso and Matisse, along with Howard Finster and "found objects". It isn't that odd-- if it is straightforward it has to have a lot of energy to affect the body; if it is obtuse, it should spark the other parts of the brain that don't get regular exercise.
25. My family is my everything, Sounds lame, but they are my reason why. And I am lucky to have them….the ever growing lot of wife, dogs, cat … donkey? goat? potbellied pig?
-the husband left for egypt on november 22. he's having a time ('a time' being the average between 'a good time' and 'a lousy time', which are the two poles the baron can glean from his emails) traipsing up and down the country. evidently there are donkeys everywhere, and he'd kind of like to bring one home.
-the brother came for thanksgiving, arriving the wednesday before and leaving the monday after. the baron had high hopes that she'd be able to entertain him, or at least muster up the energy to get up and out of the house, but not so much with either of those things. they mostly sat on the sofa, watching season 1 of 'dexter', which the brother brought to the baron and the husband as a gift. the baron, having so far dodged 'dexter', was surprised to find that she liked it, so much so that they bought season 2.
-the baron had the 20 week sonogram this past monday. the husband could not attend, but the brother was able to, and the baron was glad: she did not want to go to the appointment alone, particularly when such big news was to be revealed. reader, the baron and the husband will soon be parents to a baby boy. yes, they have a name. no, they will not tell you. they think it's jinxy to share it just now.
-the baron and the husband have settled on their new car, though the purchase of this car is postponed until the husband is back from his trip. the baron, though she likes the honda pilot, is still having a hard time with its cost. and gas mileage. and size. and also, the husband? what's wrong with the crv again? can't we revisit it?
-the baron is lonely. or specifically, the baron is missing the husband, and the missing him makes her feel very, very lonely. internet connectivity is, evidently, spotty in egypt, so she's heard from him only intermittently. thus, she's been rereading some of their email exchanges, both from this trip and before, just to have a little electronic taste of him in absence of the real thing. the husband has a facebook page, and from it he sent her the below list of 25 things that he reported about himself. she likes reading these things about the husband, partly because she likes seeing him as he sees himself, and partly because she believes it's a supremely accurate representation of his awesomeness. read on to see for yourself:
1. I love a good fight. More precisely, I enjoy conflict -- especially a verbal argument that forces me to think about my position on something and have to defend my beliefs. Conflict is growth and the foundation of all natural processes. It isn't a bad thing. And I rarely care if I “win” the fight. I do get snarky when the fight is trivial and not worth it.
2. I was an avid reader until college beat it out of me. I still like to read, but not as much as my wife would like me to. New Yorker magazine helps as I am reluctant to pick up modern fiction and would rather keep rereading classics like a dork.
3. Used to blame PG county schools for a negative disposition towards public education –I would spend the odd (3,5, 7, 9, 11 ) years in TAG (Talented and Gifted) classes, and the even years in SLRD (Slow Learning and Reading Disabled) from elementary to high school. There was no “normal kid” class and I bounced from one end to the other because I tested well but was disruptive. As an adult, I realized this pendulum affords one variety and a depth of understanding most don’t have opportunity to see. Read – I can see from many perspectives.
4. I am physically clumsy, mostly because my mind and body tend to do separate functions (ask any drummer about this) at the same time. I was persistently clumsy as a youngin’ – so much so that a lot of what parents and teachers thought was “acting out” was in reality accidental mindlessness. It earned me a reputation as a temperamental and destructive person, which helped keep people from criticizing me for my clumsiness. So…it kinda works for me.
5. Went vegetarian in 1990 in part due to poverty, animal rights, bad memories of my mother's cooking and a faint idea of right behavior (reading a lot of Thoreau and watching Taxi Driver will do that). I went Vegan in 1992 for same reasons but with more education due to animal growth hormones in dairy as well as understanding of dairy industry practices. I am still vegan and keep finding things in diet that aren’t (Curse you Guinness!). I don’t lecture people or judge them on their choice to eat meat or not. It is antithetical to my beliefs to think I have a right to tell another person what they can do with their body (outside of not using it to hit me).
6. Never thought I would live past 18 -- those who knew me in high school know why. If not, read number 1 and number 4. Seriously, all this life since then is butter.
7. Was an altar boy and very religious until 12 when I became frustrated arguing with the dogmatic speeches of priests instead of having a dialogue with the church. Never had questions answered and have been more engaged in Taoism as a belief system for the past 15 years. For me, religious experience is about finding the right answers to the right questions and not about dogmatic repetition of unoriginal thoughts that are then used to judge others and limit how they use their time on the planet.
8. I grew up in Japan before moving to MD when I was 7. I have always had an affinity for Japan. I have a tendency to move at least every 2 years. This somehow answers a need for curiosity, but becomes costly. I now just accumulate more homes each time I move. (I am so looking forward to my tax rebate – that stuff is all deductible).
9. Lived in San Francisco and would live there again if could afford it. It is, in my opinion, the best city in the United States.
10. Want to retire to Samos ,Greece, were my grandmother came from. I can’t read, write or speak Greek. That stuff is hard! But am willing to learn to live an agrarian life on my own little farm with orange trees and goats.
11. I have been shot, stabbed, hit by cars, beaten by gangs with bats, struck by bottles and cigarettes thrown from vehicles and had an all around joy of being alive. I can laugh at all these things and isolate their occurrences from the individuals involved as part of what it means to be in the human experience. Most likely, I had all of those things coming anyhow.
12. I have totaled 6 cars so far...reference item number 4. (Don’t let me borrow your car.)
13. Been fired from more places than most people work in a lifetime. All non-professional service industry jobs. To name a few: Brass Duck, 7-11 (seriously, 7 –11), Shoneys, Red Lobster, Bennigans and an auto salvage yard. Reference topics 1 and 4.
14. I broke my arm when I was 4. I was on the swing in the playground when the teacher announced it was snack time. I slid off the swing at its apogee about 12 feet in the air and landed against a pole. I flattened another kid and broke his leg. Not my greatest moment and I never got that snack.
15. I love my job. I worked professionally in the private sector and was miserable. I believe in the value of civil service, the mission of my agency and my efforts. I think have the best job in my office because I can be creative, proactive, engaged and involved in a lot of things that really affect other people. If I do my job right, it affects them in a positive way.
16. Knew I wanted to be with woman who is my wife moment I met her. (She wishes to remain anonymous on the Internet, though) She, however, was not initially so certain of my particular value. She thought of me as that kid who talked too much and should go get a room with his beloved James Joyce and leave the rest of the class to discuss real topics. I won her over with Pez during the final exams. They’re vegan, sorta.
17. I really like and respect my parents. They are incredibly good people. I am always shocked when I think of how smart, caring and law-abiding they are. Sometimes I think they adopted me and I didn’t deserve parents that good.
18. My greatest fear is being homeless (again). I was on and off homeless for several years after high school and into college (house rule was out at 18 and be an adult). I spent months living at my job (where I didn’t get fired from) and out of my van (which I parked on the Mall and not down by the river) and friends' homes. This was not so dire for a young man who thought he was living a near ascetic life of a Taoist monk. But as I grew older it all just got too annoying. (That and having to use campus rec centers for all your hygiene needs will cause you to make a lot of new friends you really don’t want). But it isn't the fear of losing everything, which I have done many times, it is the fear of letting down those who depend on me that scares me.
19. I am happiest when playing music. Even if it is bad music. I can get lost in time and thought just playing the drums.
20. I am most comfortable in chaos. Order disturbs me. Limits and boundaries seem arbitrarily imposed when I don't feel as if I had any participation in their establishment. This may be a juvenile sentiment, but the philosophical extraction is that order imposed is tyranny. And therefore open for revolt. Chaos is disorganized revolt and only the truly organized can find meaning and direction…
21. I rarely get sick and I get very little sleep. I get injured a lot, but that natural disconnect between mind and body lets me not think of the pain or recognize a serious injury until my wife makes me go see a doctor. Although last year I had trigeminal neuralgia which was total crap to deal with. They gave me dilaudid, oxycontin and valium for a week. I was not very productive.
22. I have traveled a lot. Personally, professionally – there are few places in the US I haven’t gone through. Seriously. I have yet to finish South America and Asia, have yet to go to Africa and India, When I travel for fun I backpack and don’t know where I will end up…which is why the wife goes on separate vacations to nice destinations.
23. I believe in all rights for all creatures, so this means animal rights, human rights, civil rights, gay rights, religious rights, whatever. So long as another person’s practice doesn’t prey on the rest, then they should have equal rights under the law.
24. I alternate between simplicity and over complication in art and appreciation -- My favorites are Burroughs and Bukowski, along with Joyce and Shakespeare; The Stooges and the Misfits, along with Brian Eno and Stereolab; Picasso and Matisse, along with Howard Finster and "found objects". It isn't that odd-- if it is straightforward it has to have a lot of energy to affect the body; if it is obtuse, it should spark the other parts of the brain that don't get regular exercise.
25. My family is my everything, Sounds lame, but they are my reason why. And I am lucky to have them….the ever growing lot of wife, dogs, cat … donkey? goat? potbellied pig?
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