Picture Proof!

My wife opposite Tony Hale
Originally uploaded by CyberJazzDaddy.

My wife was in a show I wrote and directed for my final project in Grad School playing opposite Tony Hale. The show was an adaptation of a legend commonly known as The Clown of God. And yes, it's that Tony Hale---one you may know from Arrested Development where he played "Buster" and recently was in Stranger than fiction with Will Ferrell.

Checking IMDB he's keeping busy. He's on Andy Barker P.I. as a re-occurring character and he's in 6 films coming out. Go Tony.

(I bet he wouldn't remember me if I walked up and shook his hand. He seems like he's still a nice guy though.)

My daughter came in as I was brushing my teeth this morning and said that when she told her boy that Thursday is a good night for her because it's Doctor Who night, he teased her.

"Oooooh, Doctor Who----take me with you Doctor Who."

He chuckled and she gave him a sock in the arm. He's a good kid that just isn't totally in touch with his inner geek. He's a big Star Wars fan, so we know it's in there, he just has to dig a little deeper. I gave her the best fatherly advice I could.

"If he starts to do that again just tell him, Excuse Me! But my fictional character crush is on Jack Sparrow, thank you very much!"


The from the other room where my wife was just waking up, she called out to us;

"Yeah, tell him it's your mother who has a crush on Doctor Who!"

Yes, this is us.

I like us.

Hard Day's Night

Today is the first day of High School lonely for my Kitten.

Yesterday was the last day of school for her boy. Now he'll graduate on Saturday and move on into the big wide world. He's a bit shaken himself. The world is very big. How does one know which way to go when structured rights and wrongs and quantitative scales of success have been removed, leaving a vacuum of "how do I know what to do and how I'm doing"?

She's cried in anticipation of this coming day, calling her father at work just to hear his voice in the hopes it would steady her nerves a bit. She's cried in the shower so no one would see. But her mother still knows the signs.

I drover her to school today. The boy wasn't picking her up since he didn't need to be at school. I could tell she felt him not there.

And I know she'll feel his absence in the halls between classes. When he's not there to share lunch. When she's sitting trying to listen to her teachers, knowing he's not even in the building. And when the 3 0'clock bell rings and the end of the day smile isn't there that says we can finally be together again while I drive you home, she'll feel it.

I did, so many years ago.

It's funny how my daughter's life parallels mine in so many ways. My best friend in High School (later to be her mother!) and my girlfriend at the time both graduated a year ahead of me. I felt all the things that my Kitten is feeling, and then some.

It all speaks of his impending departure at the end of summer, when he goes off to college. She'll feel it in the fall when he's far away and she has to go back get used to the new normal of High School that will never quite be the same. But she'll make it.

And oddly enough, Kitten's boy is going off to the same college that my wife-to-be went to the fall after she graduated. And interesting to note, it's the branch of state Uni that is in the town where my brother lives 3 hrs to the west.

My daughter and the boy sat on the curb later last night, eventually laying back onto the grass to look up at the stars and listen to the breeze and try not to think about everything.

My mom has promised that in the fall, anytime grandma and grandpa take a trip to see my brother, Kitten is invited to go with them so she can visit her man.

In my life of changing jobs and moving and teaching and chaperoning, it feels that more and more of life is about having to say good-buy. Hello always seems to hide a good-bye. After leaving public education years ago, where you can count on seeing 90% of your acquaintances year after year, more or less, I have just never felt entirely prepared for wave after wave of separations that life brings.

Unlike my experience, however, she'll be visiting the person that she's been emailing, and chatting with, and myspacing, and videochatting with and calling on skype, and texting, and blogging to. . . .

I'm not quite sure how they'll really be able to tell they they're actually apart.

The day the music (almost) died

IF you listen to streaming music on the Internet, You need to take part in this.

Today was to be that day that all went silent as Corporate Greed Insanity bankrupt all the people trying to help them by bringing you the music you like that they produce. Apparently the ties are cutting off blood flow to the brain. Someone in the government stepped in and gave a reprieve till July---but we're not out of the woods yet. C'mon--join the revolution.

Make a difference. Save Net Radio.

Yep

Yep
Originally uploaded by CyberJazzDaddy.

That about sums up my Jr. High dating career.

New Music Tues---Neon Horse

I haven't done this in a while.

These guys are my newest find. I love finding new bands I really click with. Their CD came out on Tues---which is when I clicked on 'post to blog' on YouTube. They came back with a cheery "This will appear on your blog shortly". In this case 'shortly' meant two days later. Sigh. Gotta love Web 2.0.

In case I gave the impression with the last post made it seem that my musical tastes were softening with references to Leigh Nash, this should set the record straight again. This is another band my brother won't understand my attraction too. ^-^

Ok, this is really making me crazy. YouTube and Blogger aren't playing nice together, obviously. If there is no video to click on above, you can find it here. Sheesh.

Coming up for air

Whew.

So then, here I am. On the other side of a wild ride that started last . . . say, October.

My daughter's sweet 16 part, then a play, then anniversaries and my birthday, the holidays, New Years, a birthday for my youngest, my wifes big 40th birthday party, another play, the annual basketball tourney video, first prom, ---not to mention visits with schools and psychologists getting my youngest prepared to start going to school in the fall with his special needs---followed by a couple of weeks to try and collect the fall out that was pushed aside as a result of all this.

If God, the Universe and everything were consipiring with my wife to get me looking forward to the simplicity of doing yard work, all these months heavy programing may have just done the trick. She'll be glad to hear that. She already has a list.

But apparently my busy-ness and my constant mental preoccupation with what needs to get done has earned me the reputation of being a person who doesn't stop to smell the roses. Or even notice that there are roses there, for that matter.

For the record, I do.

I just don't talk about it much. Its like to comment or draw attention to what is stirring me will somehow deminish the moment. Listening to remixes of Leigh Nash on my iPod put me in the mood for remembering. Her music feels like it’s made of the parts of a day that still have optimism in it.

Just before dawn
Just as dawn breaks
When arriving in the morning where every one feels so polished to present themselves for the day, all perfume and candy coffee
A sunny noon in the shade of a tree
3:00 when the bell rings
That hour between work and a night out where you're getting ready and fill with anticipation
Dusk
Sunset on a swing
When the first stars come out
Deep in the night with the moonlight on the garden and the lawn

Or perhaps:
A cool fall hand out the window drive
The first open window drive in the spring
During a silent snowfall
A clear night on summer break laying on the warm hood of a car to just look at the stars away from city lights
When the wind pushes in the first sent of a coming summer rain

The last hum of summer heat in the eve after the sun slips away

A wood fire after dark

I do notice. I do. Just read my blog.