KS 107.5 Summer Jam

The big Summer Jam was last night...Lil Wayne, Ice Cube, Wyclef Jean, Danity Kane, Day 26, Ray J, 2 Pistols, Colby O'Donis, Flo Rida, David Banner...basically this was the hip-hop event of the year for Denver. Stephanie gets free 'events' from the Diana Price-Fisher foundation due to the cancer thing, so she requested 2 tickets. There's something intensely odd about being among the older demographic in the place, in the minority racial demographic, and in the handicapped seating section for the gang-banger event of the year. But it was an entertaining evening that was certainly memorable.

First the music...I've never been to this kind of show before. I'm used to rock concerts, with instruments and such. Obviously this is not the case with rap, but what a difference it makes. Instead of getting up on stage and creating music, the performers (specifically Flo Rida, Ray J, and David Banner) get out on stage and show off their CDs. The DJ plays the hit track, and the rapper sings along with himself, throwing in the odd Unnh or unhhuhh. That's weird to me. There's the occasional freestyle moment, but that's not the same as musicians jamming, at least to my admittedly raised-on-rock ears. To me it felt like the show was more about the artists showing off (look at what I recorded!) than musicians sharing their music with an audience. It's a totally different vibe. Later in the evening Wyclef and Ice Cube performed in the "old skool" way, actually rapping the lyrics to their music over a music-only backing track. So maybe it's just a generational shift, and the newcomers to the music scene are just more afraid to forget the lyrics. Wyclef even got out a couple different guitars for various songs!

So then there were the people...it was an amazing evening for people watching. Memorable folks:
The mid-40's ish white woman who sat down next to me for 10 seconds while she dumped what looked like an 8 oz. bottle of vodka into her coke before running away.
The 13-15 year old gangsta wanna-be girls who intruded on our space for almost the whole show, until I snapped at a girl who decided that she could jump up on Steph's seat to watch a fight.
The Mexican kid in front of us...so many memories of him. His girlfriend started the evening shoving her tongue down his throat, but by the time we left she wouldn't touch him. He was flashing the "Westside!!!!!" sign constantly (including persistently to show support for Wyclef...who is from Haiti...by way of New York). He bonded over something gang-related with a couple big-ass dudes next to us and spun a purple bandana over his head off and on (the Crips are in Aurora. Yep.). His girlfriend was not amused.
The attitude of most people was quite respectful, notable only because most rock concerts I've been to have inevitably involved some asshole being an asshole. Looking back Steph thinks this might have been because so many people recognized the potential for a violent outbreak and didn't want to piss anybody off. But the crowd was cool, until some guys behind us on the lawn started messing w/ the event staff. We saw a trashcan lid thrown at one point but we couldn't see the whole drama. By the middle of Ice Cube's set the crowd was starting to get louder and more tense and it felt like something could break out at any minute. Steph was exhausted anyway from the radiation, so we headed out. (Neither of us were there to see Lil Wayne luckily.)

All in all it was an enjoyable afternoon/evening. It was a fun experience, if a little out of our element. Good time though. I don't know that I could do a Jay-Z concert though, as much as I'd like to.

History is made

I haven't mentioned politics on here in awhile. Tonight though...wow. Obama has clinched the nomination, by all counts that matter. His speech from Minnesota this evening was everything that it needed to be and the man has proven once again how eloquent and inspirational he can be. Put up against McCain (or Clinton for that matter), there is no question who is the more electrifying presence. It's 28 minutes, but watch if you can spare the time:



There are moments where you just *know* that you're watching history happen. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the chaos of the 9/11 coverage...there are moments that have that sense that kids will be learning about them for years, and political science classes will be dissecting them for a generation. Tonight was one of those. K1 and K2 sat down with Steph and I for a good 10-15 minutes to watch Obama speak, and I think K1 at least will remember this for a long time. It's a magical feeling, knowing that a chapter in history is beginning before your eyes.

I don't know what will happen with Clinton. She practically submitted her resume for VP consideration this evening, while refusing to concede. We'll see where that goes...a joint ticket would be a dream for party activists, but whether that would appeal to people outside of the Democratic Party is a different question. Obama may have to look elsewhere for a veep, and after her comments tonight Hillary would be hard pressed to NOT bust her ass on the campaign trail supporting him. Her actions will have an impact on what her followers choose to do. I hope that if she's not the VP candidate she'll do the right thing with respect to Obama.

So we'll see what happens in the general election. I think I'll request the Monday and Tuesday of election week off so I can do my part on those days at least. This is going to be an exciting election, and I have to get involved where I can!

Tattoo forthcoming

Way back when I started this blog, I mentioned that the image over there to the right was going to be my next tattoo. This is still true, but the meaning has evolved a bit.

The original reasons for the tattoo still hold true. Humans are amazing creatures. There's more now though. When I sketched the artwork during staff meetings, I always started with one person in the middle of the image, bearing the brunt of the weight. At one point that was the person leading the effort to lift the burden. Now though I think it's the opposite...the person in the middle is far too close to being overwhelmed with the burden placed on their shoulders. That person has realized that they can't achieve their goal alone...they need the support of the people on the sides, or they will inevitably be crushed by the task they have undertaken.

The sun now seems to represent cancer. The person in the middle...well, depending on your point of view it could be Stephanie or anyone fighting such an illness. It's all about perspective. Any major stress in a person's life is made easier to bear and overcome by the presence of outside help and understanding. For me, on my body, if that guy in the middle is me, the people helping are Stephanie, K1, K2, and my family and friends. I haven't been going through chemo myself, but I've certainly had my own stresses with my new wife doing so. It would have been crushing, had I not had the support of amazing people in my life. This definitely includes my new family, who have supported me through this with acceptance and love. I can't think of a better thing to commemorate in a tattoo.

Heard louder than a gun
The sound they made was love love love love love love love love

Trees, apples, and the distance between

When I was younger, oh so long ago, my father purchased an electric lawnmower. I think it may have been one of the earliest non-gasoline-powered mowers. It was a quietly humming Black & Decker that ran on an extremely long extension cord. My brother and I complained mightily about this contraption, deriding the choice and lamenting openly about the hassle of dealing with a 75' extension cord whilst doing laborious yard work. My opinion of my dad's poor decision making in lawn-care equipment was solidified when that mower died and he went right out and bought ANOTHER Black & Decker mower that ran on an extension cord. It was the silliest thing I think I ever saw him do.

So last weekend Steph & I had to acknowledge that we desperately needed a lawnmower. I'm on the liberal-tree-hugger side of the spectrum, so I didn't want a gas mower. Battery-powered mowers (at least the ones available in nearby stores) were all a bit more money than we wanted to spend. So I consulted the ever-trusty Consumer Reports (a purchasing habit I learned from my parents) and came up with...the Black & Decker corded electric mower. Which I now own. With a 75' extension cord.

While I was dealing with lawn-care and other home-owner-related things that used to be my dad's job, he was participating in the Colorado Democratic Party Convention. This is a fairly significant thing...up until the 2006 election my parents had both considered themselves Republican. One evening I asked my dad "So, what is it that the current Republican Party believes that you agree with?" I don't know if that was the exact conversation that changed his mind, but shortly after that he became a Democrat and is now to the point of being a delegate at the state convention. Not only that, but being an ALTERNATE delegate, which means showing up and hanging out all day waiting to see if anybody even cares that you're there. I was impressed, and I like to think that I contributed to one person's delegate-hood even if I couldn't actually go to the convention this year.

Life is funny sometimes.

A proud moment in daddyhood

While going through K1's backpack last weekend I found a project from Earth Day at school. It's a standard kindergarten worksheet: "I can help the earth by..." with a blank page underneath. His response was "Git red av bad on gas cars" Get rid of bad on gas cars. There is a large vehicle with flames coming off of it, that has apparently been 'sploded by the eco-terrorists (it says 'CABOOM' and there's a smiling guy saying 'YAAA!') Around it are the non-flaming good cars, including HOONDA, TODAYOODA, and SLG BAG (Honda, Toyota, Slug Bug) all with smiling people and their own "YAAA!"s.

I don't know where this started, but K1 developed an interest in fuel efficiency several months ago. While driving from the old apartment to the daycare, he would point out cars on the road and ask if they were a "bad on gas car" or not. Obviously we established that Honda and Toyota made more efficient cars than others, generally speaking. The Slug Bug thing came up literally once, about a month ago when we were out exploring our new neighborhood. His friend in the car with us did the "Slug Bug no tagbacks!" thing and K1 just said "Anthony, is that a bad on gas car?" It was an old diesel Beetle, so I told him it was not a bad on gas car. I guess that was enough that it stuck.

I will do my best to teach him that blowing up Hummers is probably not the way to accomplish his goals, but this is still a piece of kindergarten artwork we will be saving.

Arlo

Yesterday it was time to put Arlo to sleep. Steph and I took him to Adam's so the kids could say goodbye, then we took him to the vet and let him go.

To understand what this meant to me you have to understand my relationship with significant dogs in my life. There was the boxer we had in Topeka until I was 4 years old...he was such a non-presence that he didn't move with us to Kansas, and the only memories I have are from the pictures. There was the little dog next door who bit me on Thanksgiving one year as I played in the street. There was the dalmation who attacked me on my paper route and would have torn my throat out if I hadn't gotten my arm in the way. Then there were my grandparent's various moderately-insane boxers I dreaded being in the same room with every Thanksgiving in McPherson. Because of these early examples I was afraid of dogs until 2001 or so...that was when I met Freckles, Sarah's dog, and decided that canines as a whole maybe weren't entirely evil. Freckles was still kind of there but not terribly significant. She lived w/ Sarah's parents and I saw her occasionally, but that was it. In my years in Oklahoma I took her for one walk, and that was to escape the house on Christmas one year.

Then there was Arlo. He was there early on when Stephanie and I started doing things outside of work hours. He went on those early hikes with us, and watched us fall in love. He was the only other living creature on the trail with us when I asked Stephanie to marry me. He was there the night we got married, sleeping in the car as we signed on the dotted line and panting on the floor of the pet-friendly Loews Cherry Creek when we slept that night. He was the first dog I ever let out to pee at 3 am, picked up poop for, fed, watered, petted endlessly, snuggled with on the couch, told to shut up at 5 am, and took for more than one walk. He was the first dog I ever referred to as "mine," and the first dog (second animal) that I would say I loved.

It was his time to go. There is no doubt about that. In the past couple weeks he stopped eating his dog food, then ground beef, then the chicken thighs I boiled for him. He started falling on the hardwood floors and gave up on climbing the stairs under his own power. For the last days of his life Stephanie and I had to carry him up and down the stairs so he could be near us when we slept. The decision that is was time to do the humane thing had to be Stephanie's, but I didn't realize how much it would affect me until it had been made. Arlo was a wonderful dog, and a loving member of my new family. I loved him and I miss him, and it will be a long time before I stop shuffling my feet in the dark so I don't accidentally step on his massively sprawled paws. The old boy is in a better place now, but that doesn't mean it was any easier to let go.

This post needs a picture. This is Arlo, smiling approvingly (in my mind) from the back of the CR-V on the night we were married:

There is no point to this post. This image (from the lovely world of icanhascheezburger.com) just made me laugh. I miss Falkor.

Scouts

Last Thursday K1 came home with a sticker on his shirt. See, with the little ones you don't send notes home anymore...those get lost, forgotten, used to blow their nose, something. So this was a sticker reminding parents about the Cub Scout Night at the school at 6:30 that very same evening! (Yay for temporally proximal reminders!) So when Steph got home we decided that K1 and I would go to this thing and check out the local Scout troop.

See, my relationship with Scouting goes back a ways. I started as a Tiger Cub, as the son of an Eagle Scout who had 3 brothers who were also Eagles. My dad was my scoutmaster or assistant scoutmaster for much of the time I can remember, and I don't recall there being much question about whether I would stay involved. I worked my way up through the ranks to Eagle, which I got at 14 (pretty darn young for an Eagle Scout.) Then we left Kansas to move to Colorado and I never got involved again. Band took over my life and I spent my high school years mostly as a music geek.

Since I left, Scouting has been kind of a fond memory as well as something that other people do. I have several uncles currently involved in leading Scouting groups at various levels with their kids, and they all have a great time. So now my stepson wants to do Cub Scouts. This could be really fun and really good for us as a bonding sort of thing. I'm excited that he's interested in this. At the same time though I have my reservations. The Boy Scouts were all over the news a few years back because they had fought for (and won!) the right to exclude any of those Gay folks from their ranks. Also they've never been shy about the Christian and military undertones of the whole experience. So I don't know how I feel about that.

I'm not about to let my personal potential political qualms get in the way of being supportive of K1 and his friends. It's just strange to be conscious of the fact that this very unique experience comes with these lurking undertones of things that I won't always agree with. Which in itself is somewhat silly, because the things I remember most about my own Boy Scout days are the camping and the dirty jokes I pretended to understand and the hiking and the day camps and the kids who were always pushing the rules to see what they could get away with. I'm glad I did it though, and I'm glad my dad was there and willing to support me in my Scouting days. I wouldn't deny K1 that for a second, if this is something he's wanting to try out.

Another anniversary

Tomorrow is K2's 1/2 birthday. One year ago when she turned 2 1/2 Steph invited me over to meet her kids for the 1st time. I was still adjusting to the idea of dating a girl with kids and it was a big step. A year later I love both of the kids like my own and I'm proud to call myself a stepdaddy. Who knew?

In other news The Office is back on next week. That's exciting. It's been gone too long. What happens next?! Also in entertainment news, I discovered last night that Gnarls Barkley released a new CD and failed to personally tell me. Bitches. Thanks to iTunes and instant gratification, I have it now and it's great. I think better than the first, but without a real breakout single. It's a more consistent batch of songs, and they seem to have found their groove. Good stuff all the way through.

Anniversary post

One year ago tomorrow, our fathers brought forth on these tubes a new blog, conceived in Hope, and dedicated to the proposition that breaking with the past was an appropriate way to move forward.
One year ago yesterday, this amazing woman I now call my wife took a chance and went against her own utter distaste for intraoffice romances to date a younger guy. Over a pizza at Old Chicago.

I could never have predicted how the year would turn out from that point forward. Anything I write here about it would sound cheesy and repetitive. So I won't do that. If you know anything about me you know what an amazing and mind-boggling year this has been. There are lots more wonderful years to come.