Wow…I never thought I’d see the day.
My wife and are having “our” weekend this end-of-week. “Our” weekends is something we devised because our lives are so damned busy that if we didn’t set aside some time just for ourselves, we would never get time to re-connect as a couple, spend time together, or just concentrate and have fun being married. So, we went through the summer calendar back in May and marked off one weekend a month that was strictly “our” weekend, not to be touched by anything that wasn’t just she and I. So far, we’re still working on getting the hang of it, but we’re getting better and better at only concentrating on each other during those weekends. We still have some outside activities, but they’re carefully scrutinized to prevent them from overrunning the entire time.
So, today we spent sleeping in late (12:30ish for Landa) and then proceeding up to Clear Lake to sit by the beach and sun ourselves. The weather on the way up was rather cool, so we were uncertain as to whether or not we would have fun or freeze our bits off. However, once we arrived at the State Beach, we noticed that it was, indeed, a gorgeous day.
The sun was bright and warm as long as you were in it…the shade was cool and peaceful. There was a gentle breeze flowing over the shoreline and people were out, sunning themselves, playing in the waves, or generally screwing around. We parked our blanket (1970’s vintage bedspread) under a great oak tree and laid back. The sky was the color of blue that makes poets orgasm, the blanket was warm and soft, the ants were friendly, and the clouds had wonderful shapes. A truly beautiful afternoon.
After baking quite thoroughly in the sun (I’ve developed a reddish face from the experience), we headed into Mason City to shop and such. Wal-Mart for some stuff (including pants I needed), and then on to Advanced Auto for car parts and Perkins for dinner. Then to KMart to look at sale stuff and Target to browse.
One overall theme that was prevelant is that we were looking at baby stuff. Now, to explain to those that don’t know, my wife is obsessed with baby stuff. In fact, she has already amassed enough clothes to cover many of the children of the world, even though we have yet to have a kid…let alone even seriously consider it. She has told me that this is her way of getting used to the idea of having a kid, and self-preparation for the event. Now, while I don’t know how much preparation one can make for the event of pushing a watermelon-sized object out a hole the size of a dime, whatever works for her is great.
However, until today, I’ve been rather reluctant to look or at least pay attention to baby stuff. But, given the fact that I’m starting to reach the age at which I might give a shit about this stuff because I shouldn’t go too much longer without thinking about reproduction, I guess I made the unconscious effort to listen and pay attention and let Landa (who knows shitloads more about this stuff than I) tell me some things about the whole idea.
Really, to be true, I learned a lot, and no doubt I’ll learn a lot more. Here’s a few revelations I’ve had about having children (inexperienced as I am):
- Kids are fucking expensive. Every time you look, you have to buy something. Let alone pay to even have them. And they go through diapers and clothes like the U.S. goes through combat soldiers.
- Baby stuff is made to appeal to women. Baby stuff is never patterned to appeal to men…if it were, it’d have a) a lot of really cool digital displays and stats that didn’t matter and b) interesting colors (like black, blue, and chrome). But no, baby stuff is pastel or rainbow or something with Fucking Elmoâ„¢ printed on it. Landa says that pastels are soothing to a child…ok, so I don’t want it crying all night. But at the same time, I don’t want it growing up with a complex.
- Baby stuff is pathetically boring to a computer geek. You can guarantee that there will be enhancements to things that we buy for both my benefit and my future geek child. When my wife was showing me baby monitors, I politely told her that I had every intention of hooking up a webcam with sound so we could monitor the kid from anywhere in the world via the ‘net.
- I have a lot more to learn. But I don’t think it’ll all be bad. And once I get the hang of it, we’ll be cruisin’. (But don’t call it a Snugli in the presence of my male friends, please.)
Anywho, I didn’t really think I’d get into the mood to think about children quite this much…but here I am. Where we go from now is quite up to other things.
