Monday, March 07, 2005
Everyone loves a baby
Babies have a magical way of generating the warm fuzzies, even across long distances. For example, fairly random people (my Mom's cousin, an old friend from Massachusetts, sisters of Nicola's friends, etc.) have sent us baby gifts upon learning of Lindsay's arrival. Not that such materialistic gestures are the only way to measure how people feel about a particular thing, but I think it says something. Maybe people just love buying tiny adorable clothes...how can you pass up those impossibly small socks?
In any event, an online "thank you" to all, even though you'll probably never read this. I never thought anyone would read this...and now I've gone and shared this blog's existence with some family and at least one friend. Let's hope you guys don't look back too far, to where I talked about some embarrassing shit (not literally, although I could probably do that too, starting with the UVa football game in 1995!). That's enough about that. (Oh and by the way, thanks for the comments! Keep 'em coming!)
We got talking tonight at dinner -- Connie and John are here -- about alcoholism and family...prompted by a phone call from my father. He called tonight, and I was sure he was going to tell me the same things he told me last night, when he called past midnight Eastern. Instead, he surprised me by saying he was looking into flights to Oakland for a May visit. That's very nice of him to think about coming here, because we ain't making it there this year, and because, well, it's just nice that he's thinking of us. To go back to the original thought, I'm not saying he was drinking last night, or tonight, but the calls close together prompted a concern and led to us talking about alcohol use in our families. I can remember these nights at Sally's, during my Dad's second marriage, when he would be standing on the stair landing, tilting drunkenly from side to side, barely standing upright, and we kids were laughing and throwing Dixie cups of water on him. Funny at the time, sad and scary and depressing in retrospect. There are too many memories like this for me to just assume that he's going to be fine on any particular evening, whether out to dinner or at home. I think things are better in the drinking department, but it is still definitely an issue to me. I mean, who else's parent went out with the "kids" last summer the night before our wedding. Um, nobody's.
People will be really confused reading the subject line to this post now.
For all my faults, and for the mistakes and decisions I've made in my life that smack of me repeating my father's (and grandfather's? and uncle's? any other Taggart men?) foibles, at least I've conquered the drinking gene in this branch of the family tree. I'm sure there are those who had their doubts. I look back at my early to mid 20s with great fondness -- very good times, living in DC with some of the finest people and closest friends I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I see a pattern of excessive drinking that, with the remove of a decade, was a harmless part of that period of my life. The perspective would be very different if I had a drinking problem now -- that would have been the slippery slope into the problem right there. But I don't. I wonder sometimes about my need...or is it desire?...to still have the occasional binge. New Orleans comes to mind. Nearly 35-year-olds should not necessarily be staying out all night on the last evening of a business trip and then going straight to the airport to fly home to his pregnant wife. I was kind of proud of it, actually, and then I remember telling some friends about it, the very next night, as we celebrated the Red Sox World Championship. They were a bit taken aback, I think. "Oh, you mean you literally stayed out all night, and then flew home? Hmm."
I do it so rarely that I don't think it's a matter to be much concerned about, but it is...interesting. (Nicola, as she invariably does, made me really look at my behavior and motivations, and we had a good talk about it. It's one of the many things I love about us -- nothing is left unsaid to fester, nothing goes unchallenged that should be challenged, no bullshit.) I'm sure I'd be Binging in Boise if was flying there next week, but I'm so glad I'm not. I'll miss going and hanging out with the boys, but can you imagine me leaving next Wednesday night for a 4-day vacation, as Nicola was home alone with a three-week-old Lindsay? Not so good.
Speaking of Lindsay, I should go.
P.S. I posted another photo because the one of her in the bouncy seat makes her head look freakin' huge. It really is in proportion, honest.
In any event, an online "thank you" to all, even though you'll probably never read this. I never thought anyone would read this...and now I've gone and shared this blog's existence with some family and at least one friend. Let's hope you guys don't look back too far, to where I talked about some embarrassing shit (not literally, although I could probably do that too, starting with the UVa football game in 1995!). That's enough about that. (Oh and by the way, thanks for the comments! Keep 'em coming!)
We got talking tonight at dinner -- Connie and John are here -- about alcoholism and family...prompted by a phone call from my father. He called tonight, and I was sure he was going to tell me the same things he told me last night, when he called past midnight Eastern. Instead, he surprised me by saying he was looking into flights to Oakland for a May visit. That's very nice of him to think about coming here, because we ain't making it there this year, and because, well, it's just nice that he's thinking of us. To go back to the original thought, I'm not saying he was drinking last night, or tonight, but the calls close together prompted a concern and led to us talking about alcohol use in our families. I can remember these nights at Sally's, during my Dad's second marriage, when he would be standing on the stair landing, tilting drunkenly from side to side, barely standing upright, and we kids were laughing and throwing Dixie cups of water on him. Funny at the time, sad and scary and depressing in retrospect. There are too many memories like this for me to just assume that he's going to be fine on any particular evening, whether out to dinner or at home. I think things are better in the drinking department, but it is still definitely an issue to me. I mean, who else's parent went out with the "kids" last summer the night before our wedding. Um, nobody's.
People will be really confused reading the subject line to this post now.
For all my faults, and for the mistakes and decisions I've made in my life that smack of me repeating my father's (and grandfather's? and uncle's? any other Taggart men?) foibles, at least I've conquered the drinking gene in this branch of the family tree. I'm sure there are those who had their doubts. I look back at my early to mid 20s with great fondness -- very good times, living in DC with some of the finest people and closest friends I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I see a pattern of excessive drinking that, with the remove of a decade, was a harmless part of that period of my life. The perspective would be very different if I had a drinking problem now -- that would have been the slippery slope into the problem right there. But I don't. I wonder sometimes about my need...or is it desire?...to still have the occasional binge. New Orleans comes to mind. Nearly 35-year-olds should not necessarily be staying out all night on the last evening of a business trip and then going straight to the airport to fly home to his pregnant wife. I was kind of proud of it, actually, and then I remember telling some friends about it, the very next night, as we celebrated the Red Sox World Championship. They were a bit taken aback, I think. "Oh, you mean you literally stayed out all night, and then flew home? Hmm."
I do it so rarely that I don't think it's a matter to be much concerned about, but it is...interesting. (Nicola, as she invariably does, made me really look at my behavior and motivations, and we had a good talk about it. It's one of the many things I love about us -- nothing is left unsaid to fester, nothing goes unchallenged that should be challenged, no bullshit.) I'm sure I'd be Binging in Boise if was flying there next week, but I'm so glad I'm not. I'll miss going and hanging out with the boys, but can you imagine me leaving next Wednesday night for a 4-day vacation, as Nicola was home alone with a three-week-old Lindsay? Not so good.
Speaking of Lindsay, I should go.
P.S. I posted another photo because the one of her in the bouncy seat makes her head look freakin' huge. It really is in proportion, honest.
// posted by Bill @ 8:29 PM 
