The Great Paternity Leave of 2007: Day 1

So this is what it feels like. Being Dead Not Working. Actually not bad. There's just something right about being able to have lunch at the park in the middle of the workday with your wife and kids. I could get used to this.


Never get between a man and his rib.

I remember the first time we went out in public with our little ConMan. He must have been only a few weeks old and I remember feeling self-conscious for the first time in a long time. As new parents, pushing a baby around in public for the first time feels a lot like sporting the Flock of Seagulls haircut for the first day of high school. You know you can pull it off but man oh man it seams as if the entire world is looking at you. I remember Conster starting to cry and thinking...oh shit let's get him home before people think we're unfit parents. It's crazy how things change so fast.

It's crazy how time goes by so fast.

My boy is almost two years old. My daughter is almost two weeks old. My wife is like 1664 weeks old.

I remember being a teenager in the Eighties (cue Ohhhhh Daaaaaad not the Eighties again whine) and yes I know I've been regressing a lot lately but you hit these milestones...like the birth of your kids and you can't help but review your life a bit. You reflect upon what you've done so far. You take a step back and look at it. It's like painting...sometimes you step back and see how you're coming along. You picture where you are going. You reflect upon what you're trying to do. You question what you are trying to say. As a teenager in the Eighties you can't escape that wierd summer you watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off and thought...yeah life does move pretty fast...maybe too fast. To which as a Dad now I would say...shut up and study for your SATs son and don't even think about touching my Ferrari. But today, sitting at the park, I have this non-pharmaceutical perma-grin on my face as I watch my boy eat ribs and my wife smile at ducks and my baby girl scream at everything at the top of her lungs. I think about how that screaming doesn't really bother me anymore...I know when there is something that I can do about it and I have learned the hard way when there isn't. I've also learned that taking a month off of work is something that every Father needs to do as soon as they can. It sweeps away a lot of old cobwebs, old habits, old routines, old thoughts. You have a chance to stand up and stretch, blink a bit dazed in the sunlight, look around...really look around and ask yourself what you are really doing with your life. Where are you going? What are you trying to do? What are you trying to say? If this life is a painting...today I have realized that when it is complete, it's going to my family. Then again...maybe I just don't get outside enough. Either way...today has given me the chance to see this...



Now this is what I call a day off.