Tuesday, May 4 2021

Dear Journal,

I'm utterly baffled right now. Is this a mistake? Is today some kind of work holiday that I don't know about? My work calendar is bare. I don't have a single meeting all day. I don't think I was fired in the middle of the night, because my VPN still connects and I have meetings sprinkled through the rest of the week. I think sometimes everything works out, and nobody needs you for an entire day. It's so unusual for me to have an empty calendar day like this that moments ago I accepted an invite to an optional town hall to kick off a new quarter, just because I was uncomfortable with how naked my calendar looked.

What a gift. I have to be careful here. As we all know, when you go from having several meetings in a day to all of the sudden having zero, sometimes the shock can be too much for the human body. Like a pilot quickly ascending in a jet plane, I fear all these sensations of freedom and independence might cause all the blood to rush out of my head and into my feet. I just might black out at my desk. Stay calm, everyone. Take it slow. Just breathe. Remember your training.

I'm grateful for the extra time today. I joke, but there's truth to being measured and realistic with what to do with all this working time. There's a number of things I've been wanting to catch up on around the virtual office. Let's see how far I get today.

Sip. Happy Tuesday everyone. We've already burned a whole day - this week can't be so bad, right? We had a swell Monday. Not the wildest or most imaginative day (the ongoing cold drizzle saw to that) - just swell. I suppose it's telling that one of my highlights happened on Twitter. Buckle up, everyone, Alex has a riveting Twitter story.

Our friend Dr. Parks was having a debate around some Theological nerdery and happened to mention the Nantucket Airport. The official Nantucket Airport account swooped in, taking issue that they referred to him as the Nantucket Airport and not The Nantucket Airport. Nantucket is a small island off the coast of Massachusetts - of course they're the only airport. Seeing all the action, I shot him a text.

"Why was the Nantucket airport talking shit on theology twitter?" I wrote.

Ben posted a screenshot of the text, and that got me in trouble too. The moral of the story is The Nantucket Airport really cares about that T being capitalized, as they are the only airport on Nantucket. It can't be easy running an airport on Nantucket island, I say we just give this one to them.

Needless to say, twitter has crept back into my life. I swore off the stuff a few months ago, but the world was a little scarier back then. These days my timeline is mostly just sports, tech, and more recently professors getting clapped at by The Nantucket Airport. Welcome back, Twitter. I've got my eye on you.

Back in the real world, we had a quiet day. Rodney, still over-relaxed from the weekend, was having a hard time dealing with the rainy weather. Starting from the moment I handed him his breakfast, he protested being left alone.

"OK dude," I said, plunking down his plastic plate and juice in front of him. "Daddy has to go work now. I'll see ya."

"Dada," said Rodney, waving to get my attention. "Why don't you stay here and work on that computer." He gestured over to my writing Thinkpad charging at the coffee table.

"Oh, that's my fun computer. I need to go work on the boring computer upstairs for a while," I replied.

Rodney wasn't finished. "Wait," he said while flagging me down. "Why don't you take your boring computer downstairs in here, and then you can work."

"But then how will I focus?" I asked. "I need to be able to think and talk to people."

"I'll be super quiet!" said Rodney, still defending his idea.

"Maybe another time," I smiled.

Rodney has been all about ninjas. He's fashioned his own ninja gear out of k'nex and he takes it with him everywhere. He wears a rubber k'nex tire around his wrist, a headband made from the chain to his k'nex roller coaster set, a sword, a shield, and more recently a utility belt. I think what caused this ninja life renaissance was when he stumbled onto a Ryan's World sing-a-long video where his family dressed like ninjas. Ninja-ninja-fam-i-ly. Ninja-ninja-fam-i-ly. Rodney watches the video a few times a day, jumping on the couch and enthusiastically singing along, just like he used to sing a long to Blippi.

Sometimes kids are sick of being by themselves, and that's when your patience is really tested. Rodney tried to turn every coffee break into a full blown sparring session. He clambered around Marissa while she tried to work on the computer. In the morning, Marissa and I exchanged a single, deflated smile that silently confided I can't wait to put this friggen kid to bed.

I suppose we should also do a Miles update too, right? Miles is a simple little creature these days. We've roped off the corner of the living room with a plastic fence, and that has greatly simplified his situation. Miles is content to putter around in that fenced corner by himself for most of the day. He only gets into trouble when he tries to stand. He'll use the shelf or the bench to pull himself up onto his wobbly legs, then realizing he can't lower himself back down to the ground, he either shrieks for help or just tumbles to the ground (and then shrieks for help).

Two Fridays from now marks two weeks from my second vaccine. To celebrate, we're taking the boys to Dave & Busters. It's high time that they make their ninja-fighting and shrieking somebody else's problem. Dave and Busters, I hope you're ready for us. It's been a long quarantine.

Thanks for stopping by today, everyone. Happy Tuesday.