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Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States Society

Frighteningly Validating

I’m not sure how I found it, but there is a series of Web sites where one can anonymously post “confessions” about things. There’s one for moms (http://www.truemomconfessions.com/), one for dads (http://www.truedadconfessions.com/), one for people who toil in an office environment (http://www.trueofficeconfessions.com/) and for whatever reason, there’s one for tree huggers (http://www.truegreenconfessions.com/).

Now before you jump over and check them out, let me warn you: THEY ARE ADDICTIVE.

One might immediately read about these sites and think to oneself, “Well, that’s nothing but a way for mental voyeurs to get off,” but in reality, the idea is genius, and of course as a reader, it’s interesting to see if other people are thinking the same things you are thinking.

But there is a dark side to confessing one’s secrets…sometimes your worst fear is realized–that you are alone in your situation. Sometimes when you post, such as the guy who wrote, “Dear Daughter, I’m sorry I ever hurt you,” other people are either too ashamed to publicly empathize (by clicking the “me too” button) or they want to distance themselves from such an obvious confession that they pretend not to see it at all.

Overall, the dad’s confessions are pretty obvious–not enough sex, tired of paying child support, I want to have non-missionary style sex, etc.–so for me, the mom’s confessions are the real cream of the crop.

Primarily, you have SAHM (stay-at-home-moms) complaining about how much their kids drive them nuts or how much they hate their husbands. Some days the vitriol is really almost too much. I don’t know how far-reaching this site is (I have seen posts with decidedly British language used), but a college student looking for thesis fodder would be in hog’s heaven as you get women from all walks of life socially, physically and mentally. Among the daily confessions, one can find women with eating disorders and (lots of) women having affairs. There are also lots of women who have had it up to here with being home all the time and years of jealousy and anger towards their families has built to extreme levels.

But while most of the confessions would tend to leave this writer saying something like, “Put down the prozac or bottle of wine; get off your ass and get a job,” every now and then a true gem of honesty comes out…

I miss the passion in my marriage.

In such a simple, yet touching confession, so much is expressed. It is these confessions that I admit may have changed my life. We are all guilty of “the rut.” You know what the rut is right? It’s doing the same thing over and over and over until it’s ingrained in your day-to-day to the point that you don’t see anything else. You don’t see that while you’re very helpful around the house, maybe you could hug your family more. You don’t see that even though your job sucks the life from you every day, your spouse is going through the same thing and needs someone to talk to about it. And perhaps…just perhaps you see that maybe you should spend a little more quality time with someone in your family even if it means not going to bed at a decent hour.

For these things I would like to thank all of the miserable women who have posted on TrueConfessions.com. Whether their husbands ever read their fantasies, dreams and desires; this one did and I am eternally grateful.

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Dad Blogs Fatherhood Life in these United States

Staying Fit As You Age

Ever since I hit the big “p” (as in puberty), and all the way through high school, I was a tad on the chubby side. Even after I joined the Air Force, I was heavier until one day I’d just had enough of it. I don’t remember the epiphenous (is that a word?) moment, but I’d bet the bag of Keebler Soft Batch I was eating at the time that it had something to do with self-loathing. The next day I walked the 75 yards over to the Army health club on the base I had to live on and made friends with the civilian guy who worked there. Over the next year and a half, I went from 170 lbs of mostly water, bone and fat, to 155 lbs of water, bone and lean muscle mass.

I would like to take moment here and personally thank Cindy Crawford for putting out “Shape Your Body,” without which, my winter workouts (and my fantasies) would have suffered.

Over time though, my overexuberant quest for physical perfection left me with multiple ruptured discs in my back, leading to two back surgeries after I’d left the military (you never let military surgeons open you up unless you have a bullet lodged in you and you’re bleeding out on the table).

It’s been twelve years since I got out of the military and since then I’ve gotten married and now have two kids, which, if you’re married, then you know…if there’s one thing that will derail your health regiment, it’s marriage and kids. I also unfortunately have a metabolism that quickly adjusts to any attempt to kick-start it by going into “starvation mode” and storing everything I eat on the off chance I’ll fall off a boat in the Adriatic Sea and need the added warmth that only a spare tire will afford.

But even with all these excuses, I’ve been pretty consistent, only missing the gym due to surgeries, sinus infections and vacation. But lately, the toll is starting to get to me. There’s not much that doesn’t hurt, my back most of all. Sitting is especially joyful, and working in a cubicle farm is a particular kind of hell from which there is little reprieve.

So my question is, when is enough…enough? At only 34, there’s no way I can give up working out, but at the same time—in my mind—why bother working out at all if you’re not trying to make gains? Sure, I could go in there day after day and go through the motions like all the other zombies, but my heart wouldn’t be in it, and would I really be doing any good anyway?

If my wife knew how much pain I was in, she would berate me to no end with something to effect of, “I don’t want to be married to a 45 year old man who can hardly walk! You need to stop.” At the same time, she also knows I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I had to stop.

So what do you do? I guess it comes down to what’s most important to me. Do I live life with a zealous “carpe diem” attitude and all the pain it entails, or do I listen to my body and take up namaste yoga and accept the inevitable weight gain and mirror avoidance that’s sure to follow?

Is there a happy medium? If so, it’s going to require more than just a change of exercise routine; it’s going to require a mindset change and that’s perhaps the hardest exercise of all.

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Dad Blogs DIY Life in these United States

Old MacDonald had a…container garden?

In my old neighborhood, nary a year went by that I didn’t fill up my 5-gallon bucket with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and sometimes strawberries and go around doling them out to my neighbors. Although I had a fairly small patch of land, two people don’t eat that much and I usually got a really good return. It was always funny watching neighbor’s expressions as they cracked the door open trying to ascertain who I was and what I wanted from them. Confusion changed to excitement (especially among the elderly) when they realized I wasn’t trying to get them to purchase overpriced wrapping paper or stale bars of chocolate for my high school prom.

But, we moved last fall and for many and various reasons, I didn’t do a garden this year. Primarily because (or at least this is the excuse I’m telling myself) I didn’t know how my sun pattern would fall in my yard and I needed to know this before planting. Also, the only flat area available to me currently is at the very back of my yard and I just wasn’t sure I wanted to trek down there daily for weeding and picking.

Since I haven’t not had fresh tomatoes in probably 6 years, I decided to put a couple of plants out in containers on my back porch, where I was reasonably sure they would receive sun. After all, I can’t keep houseplants back there because they get sunburned, so I figured it’d be just about right for my maters. I also used to grow my own plants from seeds, but it wasn’t worth the effort this year for two little old plants, so I purchased some “Better Boy” tomato plants from the local home store and put them in two large square plastic pots right on the back porch.

To say that my yield was less than expected, would be an understatement. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the National Gardening Association called me and kicked me out of their ranks. For one thing, I believe that I put too much natural compost in there right off the bat because within a week of planting them, they were showing signs of burning (too much fertilizer). Also, despite having a single hole in the bottom for drainage, both containers stayed very wet, despite a perpetual drought (until the last two weeks).

At any rate, I got one little ol’ tomato out of it, and it definitely looks more like a Roma tomato than a Better Boy, but whatever. Next year, I’m gonna suck it up and walk down the hill and plant an actual garden. Cuz…this is ridiculous.

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Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States

Who’s Ready for Fall?

Is anyone else ready for fall? I’m not ready for temps in the teens mind you, but humidity down in the lower double digits would be nice. Don’t get me wrong, it really has not been a bad summer here. Despite early drought conditions, we’ve lately been getting at least a smattering of rain each day and this has really helped keep the temperature down. But still, I’m pretty much done with summer and I suspect my recent beach trip has something to do with it.

Been to the beach…been to the pool…got my yard in order…next!

My mom in Pennsylvania might disagree. The average high in July where she lives is only 81 and when we are still hitting mid-80s in September, her highs hover in the lower 70s. Her growing season is also much shorter too, so by the time I’m “over” weeding my yard (pretty much this month), she’s only just beginning.

Also adding fuel to my fall fire, is the bevy of catalogs that have started pouring in. We got our first Halloween costume catalog for the kids the other day. That’s still like 3 good full months away! Then came the inevitable Pottery Barn fall catalog full of really nice brown-toned stuff. The end-all will be when the William Sonoma catalog comes with the inevitable picture of a warm loaf of pumpkin bread (available in-store or online) on the cover. They currently still have ice cream cones as the featured seasonal treat, so we’re still a bit early yet.

The downside to all this happy-happy-joy-joy’ness, is the fact that school will be starting up soon. Now, this only affects me in that traffic will increase, because moms down here (of the stay-at-home variety) will hit the roads with their children because they’re afraid of the stigma that might incur should their precious be seen riding the cheese-wagon.

Sigh…

I don’t know…it’s probably just because this cold has got me down and I just need a little “pick-me-up.” Fall does that for me. But hey, soon enough we’ll be seeing cooler weather and college football. I can’t wait!