Rob's personal tumblog

I wrote a post on another blog that I have that's just mine. It gets updated far less frequently than this one. You can read it if you want.

Trying to be sad

For Christmas this year, Chelsea got a new game called Gloom and the point is to make your characters as sad as possible and last night, we played with Dallan and Dr. Kelly. The most fun part of the game is coming up with crazy stories about how these terrible things happened. I took this picture of Dallan weaving a hilarious tale of Rastafarian pied pipers and repossessed moats.

It's good to have good friends and silly stories. Come on over and join us sometime.

Ice column!

You know how we had that pet icicle on the front of the house? And how it tragically died? And how Chelsea wrote that great post about it? Of course you do.

Well, around the back of the house, which is perpetually in the shade, we have almost a whole curtain of ice and one of the icicles reached all the way to the ground. And because it's been so shady and freaky cold, it has grown to a formidable column of ice.

The lesson here is that sometimes, what you're looking for isn't in the where you're looking. Life surprises you by giving you blessings in ways you didn't notice at first.

Living the Dream

These cold winter days remind me of my first winter in Ukraine. The temperatures here the last week or so have been in the single digits when I leave for work. Today was 3 when I left. It was a little colder in Ukraine in the winter of 1997, the coldest winter they'd had since the formation of the Soviet Union. And our apartments didn't have particularly good heating. They were probably in the low 60s inside, so every day, when I'd climb into bed, it took a couple of minutes for the bed to warm up under the blankets. And it was hard to get out of bed in the morning with the temperatures that low and no hot water. As I'd lay there, waiting for the bed to warm up enough to be comfortable at night, I would dream about how nice it would be to have someone to warm my bed up for me.

The nights here have been cold too, and the coldest part of the house is where we keep the computer. So I'm there late many nights, doing homework in the cold. But when I go to bed, Chelsea's already there and I can stick my freezing feet on her side of the bed. Where it's pre-warmed. And she doesn't mind.

All I'm saying is that the hard things you do pay off. And don't let anyone tell you that dreams don't come true because they absolutely do.

Max stuff this week

The last couple of days, I've learned some important things that I thought I'd share.

First of all, he has a couple of new swear words. The first is "Box!" He says this when he's frustrated that he doesn't get his way. He also says, "Pay money!" when you say something that he feels is unacceptable to his desires because he thinks you should have to pay restitution for the emotional distress you inflicted by denying him. Yes, they are pretty much the same situation and we hear them a lot. My personal favorite is "Box!"

Second, apparently teenagers are androgynous. See, I didn't know that either. You can be a boy or a girl as a kid and you can be a dad or a mom as a grown-up, but in the middle there, according to Max, it's all kind of fuzzy. I can't remember the exact terms he used because it was a few days ago when this revelation came out that I don't remember the phrasing. But yeah, apparently teenagers are androgynous.

Lessons of the Best Icicle Ever

See our amazing icicle? I love it! Before you get all concerned about our rain gutter ripping off, let me clear a few things up. I do not care about rain gutters; I do think this icicle is great. The only section of our house that has a rain gutter is the porch so, worst case scenario, the rain gutter rips off and my house is at least consistent. Also, if you're going to break something, let it break in a completely awesome way (for example, breaking it with an amazing icicle.)

This picture is about a week old. In fact, our icicle has grown all the way into an ice column. You can tell I think that's cool by the bold letters. But I don't have a picture of the ice column because it broke today. I have learned a few important lessons from my ice.

• Don't put off the little things that secretly make you happy. Case in point: don't get so busy doing the dishes that you neglect to take a picture of your beloved ice column.
• Don't wait until something is perfect before you admit how awesome you think it is. I was putting off taking a picture because the connection to the ground was so tenuous and I just kept waiting for it to be this really impressive, solid column of ice. Silly me. Imperfect stuff can be awesome and amazing and totally lovable too.
• Some things (like rain gutters) are important to people you know, but not to you. That's fine--we need to care about different things. Just remember what you really care about.
• Amazing things always take amazing risk. (Examples: organizing a benefit for National Foundation for Transplants had the risk of failing in a rather public way. When you decide to go back to school there is always a remote possibility that you won't pass/graduate. [I am not talking about Rob. He is doing great!] Growing a column of ice means you might lose your rain gutter.)
• When amazing stuff fails, it FAILS. I'm sad I wasn't home when the column came crashing down because, judging from the carnage, that baby fell. And I bet the fall was just as impressive as the column.
• If your existence matters to someone, your departure will be noticed too.
• Some things you care about are in your life one day and totally gone the next. And you may not ever get another chance so you'd might as well enjoy things while you can.