So this is great for everyone. Well not so much for our bank account (Great school and totally worth it, but seriously who knew preschool was so expensive.) Besides I can’t actually have a breakdown since I am flying solo tomorrow. Melissa managed to pull Jury Duty.

For those of you living in a cave, somewhere outside of the North Eastern United States; the DC Metro area had a fairly significant** earthquake yesterday. While noticeable seismic activity in this area is a bit rare, we did have a much smaller quake last July. Other than college I have spent my life in the DC area, and I can’t ever recall anything like these last two quakes. Nothing that I ever felt, or that I can recall receiving anywhere near this much press.

So on to the psychic detector. Josh has mentioned last year’s earthquake a few times, but not in a long time. It wasn’t as big as yesterday’s, and when your 4, a year is a long time. Yesterday Melissa took the kids to the Chesapeake Bay to visit a friend. We just got back from an wonderful trip to the beach where you have to cross said bay. So if anything would be popping into his head on that trip, you would think it would be our recent vacation. Not so much. When they were driving there, Josh randomly asked Melissa if she remembers the Earthquake from last summer. This was several hours before the Earthquake hit. Then after it happened he told Melissa he knew it was coming; he felt it when he was sleeping.

I love science and I pride myself on my ability to think critically. But I’m not so arrogant to discount the possibility that there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. I understand confirmation bias, and I understand statistically with all of the kids in the area, someone might randomly have asked about last years quake. It could simply be the equivalent of winning the lottery. The title of the post was more than a little tongue in cheek. I have no idea if it was coincidence or something outside the realm of current science. Honestly when I hear about things like this, I tend to dismiss them. I’m a bit cynical, whether by nature, or to many years of doing employee relations/investigations. People’s perceptions are often skewed, and still others are just plain liars. So take this for what it is, a very cool anecdote.

* I picked the picture of Josh passed out at dinner on our recent vacation because he claims to have dreamt the earthquake was coming. That and I think it is adorable.

** I know it wasn’t significant by west coast standards but a friend of mine, Stephanie of Dialmforminky summoned up pretty eloquently why it was significant for us here

On Sunday I took Joshua ice-skating for the first time. Ok technically for the second time. We tried last year, he lasted about 30 seconds and cried the entire time. This time went much better. We went to Cabin John Ice rink for the family session (designed for parents and kids 12 and younger). It was packed! Fortunately we got the last tickets before they sold out. We had tried to go a couple months back and weren’t so lucky, so I don’t think the crowd was an anomaly. I have been going to Cabin John Ice Rink since I was a kid, and I don’t ever remember sell out crowds. But of course, Montgomery County’s population has grown a bit since then. Lesson learned, I’ll get there at opening next time.

Joshua really had a good time and was far more comfortable on the ice than I had excepted. I experimented with a few different ways to keep him up and balanced. What ended up working the best for us (and when I say us, I really DON”T mean my back), was to skate bent over, with my arms through his armpits, providing him balance and stability as he needed it. Joshua loved skating. Despite his typically cautious nature, he tried to hop back in the rink by himself after I pulled us off the rink for a brief back break.

The two hour session (including the Zamboni break) ran us $16 & change for admission and skate rentals. We skated pretty much the entire second half of the session. It was money well spent; we had a blast.

Tonight we are not really celebrating our anniversary. I have an upset stomach, and am decompressing from a hectic day/week/month… at work. Melissa is doing laundry, washing out the many things the kids have thrown up on this week. Seems on my last trip, I brought a bug home with me, gave it to the boys, who seem to have passed it right on back. #KidsAreGermFactories.

We were never really planing on celebrating tonight. The goal was (hopefully is) to have a nice romantic dinner cruise on the Potomac, tomorrow (Saturday).  I had wanted to celebrate our 5th by taking Melissa back to Paris where we honeymooned. For a variety of reasons this is not the year. However, on our honeymoon we had this amazing dinner cruise on the Seine. So we thought a dinner cruise on the Potomac would be an excellent way to commemorate the beginnings of our marriage.  Last year, the night we were supposed to celebrate our Anniversary, we had to cancel our plans last minute, so we could…. well make nice nice with some underserving people who have treated us in an abusive and unacceptable manner (i.e. the stuff I have not been blogging about). So needless to say, come hell or high water, or you know vomit, I plan on celebrating our anniversary this year.

Obligatory 4square check-in to Dulles Int Air

“Duty Free” *smiles to myself*

Holly Crap WTF happened to my macbook battery, was fine when I left.

Looks like the battery partially exploded, still seems to work though. But trackpad hard 2 use

Boarding

Dude in the center seat is huge

OK battery works, but doesn’t hold a charge for long.

4Square check-in Denver International Airport

4Square check-in Caribou Coffee – Mmm Campfire Mocha

Boarding

Second leg, a second huge guy spilling in2 my seat, & this 1 creepy/talkative

4square check-in Bismark, ND Airport

OK 90 mile drive into another timezone? But I’m not leaving ND

Really No @Starbucks in the entire state?

Oh Cool – real live Buffalo

4square check-in Holiday Inn Dickinson, envy my glamourous life.

I love my iPhone but not so much in North Dakota #ATT

4square check-in Sanford’s Grub and Pub – Shockingly good food.

4square check-in Holiday Inn Dickinson – work then Sleep

4square checkin Sanford’s Grub and Pub – Sinfully good steak

OK Change in plans, leaving ND a day early but heading to San Diego-ish

Just tried to return my car rental with the luggage still in trunk #needcaffeine

4square check-in Bismark, ND Airport

About 2 board 4 Denver –  hoping middle seat girl/guy is skinny & pref not smelly or talkative

OK 84yr old lady. Not huge, very nice but did spill her drink on me

4Square check-in Denver International Airport

Ok there’s a flock of birds inside airport near my gate #hyperbole #foulfowl

4Square checkin Caribou Coffee – Mmm Campfire Mocha

The bathroom Denver AP is a tornado shelter #MakesSense #gross

Looks like I got my skinny person wish 4 2nd leg of trip

Yeah I’m in the middle #LastMinuteFlight #CarefulWhatUwish4

4Square checkin San Diego International Airport

Black luggage. #ThingsIWillNeverBuyAgain

4square check-in Courtyard San Diego Rancho Bernardo

4square check-in The Barrel Room, Good Sea Bass

Nice morning for a run outside. San Diego is gorgeous

would totally want 2 live here if not for #earthquakes #mudslides

Off to Gasslamp Quarter for a late dinner

4Square checkin San Diego International Airport

4Square checkin Denver International Airport

Resume regular tweeting

Melissa and I took the boys to Petsmart to pick up some litter and cat food. We were planning to run a few more errands, so Melissa decided to run to the bathroom while I checked out with the boys. She handed me her Petsmart card and I headed to the register, Elijah was in the shopping cart/child seat and Joshua was walking next to me. We buy in bulk so the girl at the register came around to scan the large items in my cart. She also neglected to turn off the conveyor belt. Midway down the belt there was a triangular-ish metal doohickey that is meant to keep things flowing down the center of the belt. Apparently there is enough of a gap for an 18 month old’s pinky to get wedged between said doohickey and the belt. As I was handing her the Petsmart card to be scanned, I hear Elijah screaming.  I saw his finger was stuck, tried to pull it out and realized I couldn’t without doing more damage.  I then forcefully told  (OK maybe I yelled *slightly*) at this girl to shut of the belt. As she was trying to do so, she moved the shopping cart. OK this time I definitely yelled…SHUT OFF THE BELT… DON’T TOUCH THE CART. So she shuts of the belt and I still can’t manage to get his finger out. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really a couple of seconds, I thought to slip my car keys under the doohickey and pry it up enough to safely pull Elijah’s finger out. There was some skin missing and it was a bit swollen, and he was crying so hard he was shaking the entire ride home, but it doesn’t appear to have caused any lasting damage. We gave him some Ibuprofen and let him take an early nap. It is still a bit raw and a little swollen, but he isn’t complaining and it doesn’t look crushed or broken.

OK for the Gender Bullshit part.  We drew a bit of a crowd but things were handled. I kept  my cool (I did not tear up until we were in the car on our way home). I got his finger out (mostly intact) and I was doing a pretty darn good job of trying to soothe him and Joshua under the circumstances.  And, that is when some random lady comes up and asks – “Where is their mother”. I turned and stared at her, expecting her head to explode; that never happened and after a few moments of me staring at her, she walked away.  I’m sure she was just trying to be helpful and she probably didn’t entirely mean it the way it sounded. But on some level I’m pretty sure she did. If this happened under Melissa’s watch, no one would have turned to her and said, Where’s their father. Bottom line, just because I don’t have a vagina doesn’t mean I can’t comfort my children. And of course feel horribly guilty when I ef up.

And yes I know you shouldn’t start a sentence with a conjunction.

She is truly a wonderful teacher so if you have any interest, drop her line at melissa@melissafeldman.com to reserve a spot. I am re-posting her email with all of the details below.
__________________________________________________________

Hello, everybody! Hope you had a wonderful summer.

I know I previously sent out this email at a time when you may have been in and out of town and/or not yet thinking about fall yet, so I wanted to remind you of my exciting workshops coming up! So here is the schedule again. Please let me know if you have questions.

~~~

Dear past, present, and future yogis,

I am very happy to announce my new workshop schedule!

Starting in September I will be offering one workshop each month but I will hold that workshop twice – once on a Saturday and once on a Sunday, and on different weekends. This is in effort to accommodate preferences of which day of the weekend you are available to attend, any travels you may have planned, and I am also aiming to avoid holidays.

Here are the topics and dates for 2009:

MEDITATION & BREATH
Sunday, September 13
and
Saturday, September 26

BALANCE
Sunday, October 18
and
Saturday, October 24

HIPS & TWISTS
Saturday, November 7
and
Sunday, November 15

CORE
Saturday, December 12
and
Sunday, December 6

PLEASE NOTE:
All workshops will be held at my house, 12299 Greenleaf Avenue, Potomac, MD 20854.

All workshops will be held in the morning, roughly 9am-12pm, but I will firm up the time for each individual workshop as the date approaches.

You do not need any experience to take part in these workshops; While some intermediate-advanced poses/techniques may be presented, so are the very basics. Workshops are for dissecting our practice and taking time to talk about and understand what we are doing and why. Everyone finds their own edge and works at their own pace.

Space is limited, so please register early!

The fee for each workshop is $50 per person.

TO REGISTER:
1. Please send me an email that you want to come to a particular workshop – don’t forget to indicate the topic AND date. This will temporarily reserve your space.
2. Then, send me a check for the appropriate amount. (My address is listed above.)
3. Once your payment has been received, I will send you a confirmation email and there are no refunds.

Please forward this information to any friends or family who may be interested in and benefit from these teachings.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I look forward to seeing you!

Namaste,
Melissa

1. Someday I will finish and publish a novel.

2. I have finished many shorts stories over the years and have never attempted to have any of them published.

3. I have an irrational fear of birds.

4. That said very few things in this world truly frighten me. I have driven a buck twenty bumper to bumper on a tortuous road, gone bungee jumping, cliff diving, skydiving and countless other youthful indiscretions.

5. And that said I have been terrified on a couple of occasions. The first was a month before Josh was born and we were driving to Holly Cross to do a tour of the maternity ward. We were stopped in traffic on 495 near magical kingdom AKA the Mormon Temple. Melissa stated screaming as a SVU plowed into us at highway speeds. The accident put her into early labor and it was hours before they were able to stop the labor and give us any assurance that she and the baby would be OK. The second time in recent memory was when I held my son for the first time.

6. Even though I am pro-science and highly critical of religious dogma, I am surprisingly religious. I have never doubted in G-d, only humanity’s ability to understand.

7. Most of my life I preferred to read what Academics call literature and now I prefer speculative fiction. I can even admit to truly loving some urban/dark fantasy that could just as easily be housed in the romance isle.

8. I am a terrible insomniac and Lunesta has changed my life.

9. I have been contemplating giving up meat on moral grounds but am not sure I have the will power to make it happen.

10. I’m a Mac, and a PC and a LINUX

11. As a kid I used to take things apart to to figure out how they worked, I still do.

12. I used to build PCs before it was considered easy.

12. I am very mechanically inclined but have never changed my own oil, mostly because I don’t like getting dirty.

13. I love to garden. I know that sounds contradictory but I don’t mind dirt dirt. It is the greasy and/or sticky things I don’t love.

14. I have studied Christianity more in depth than Judaism.

15. I hated being Jewish as a child but happily identify with Judaism as an adult.

16. My favorite game is Gin provided I am playing with my wife. She is a knocker!

17. My mind works best when I am multitasking.

18. I can listen to an audio book or watch TV while reading and follow both. I know this makes me a little odd but I was a multitasker before modern communication necessitated it.

19. My wife never ceases to amaze me.

20. On any given day Lifeguarding was my favorite job. Bar-tending was the most fun, and Teaching the most rewarding.

21. Even though I don’t LOVE it I am very good at HR an assume I will keep doing it forever unless I do #1 more than once and really really really well.

22. I am terrible with names.

23. Having a child (soon to be children) has changed my life in unbelievable and indescribable ways.

24. Yes I do get asked about the other Corey Feldman all to often and how funny is it that my best friend’s name is Tony Orlando.

25. Most of my life I have shared easily but with few. With Social media (blogging, facebook, twitter) I now share with many but no longer with ease.