The other day while I was looking through the medicine cabinet for my nose hair clippers, I came across my hair brush. It's been awhile since I'd seen it. It's been even longer since I've used it.
If you haven't seen me in a while, say about a decade, you might be surprised to know that I am nearly bald.
My hair brush hasn't had much to do lately except act as a stand for our tube of Neosporin. In fact, I can't remember the last time I used it. I got to thinking, have I even used it since we moved into this house? I used to use it, so when we moved here, I likely put it in the medicine cabinet out of habit. But we moved into this house in 2000. That's nine years. I don't think I've used my hair brush in nine years.
Then I got to thinking about all the other things that don't seem like that long ago but are almost nine years old too. I started dating Rebecca in 1998. That's eleven years ago! We've been married since 2000. I've worked for the IRS since 2000. That's nine years! I've been listening to the music I've been listening to for years. I've been wearing the clothes I've been wearing for years. The people I know, I've known them for years.
My life has moved into the "decade" phase. Most of the things that I've done can be measured in decades now.
"I've known her for about a decade."
"We've lived in Alexandria for about a decade."
"Remember that time . . . when was that? About a decade ago."
"Gosh. I haven't brushed my hair in about a decade. There just hasn't been any need."
I'm not a sentimental guy. I realize it's time to move my brush from the medicine cabinet where it is taking up space that can be more productively used by a box of Dora the Explorer band aids to a less intrusive spot in the linen closet. But I haven't done it yet. I feel like there needs to be some fanfare. My hair is gone. Did it have to take my youth with it?
The Long, Dirty Winter
I started a new job last week. I am not going to bore you with the details except to say that I now get to go to court for the IRS and get after the folks who are screwing this country out of what is rightfully hers. You know, tax cheats like the octogenarian who had two heart attacks but failed to report the settlement he got from his employer as income on his Form 1040. And the guy who operates heavy machinery but can't stay awake on the job because he's got narcolepsy so he had to retire early and didn't pay the 10% early distribution penalty on the payments he received from his pension plan. And the blind, bed-ridden woman with cancer who never bothered to show up for her court date because she never knew she had received a notice to appear in court because she can't see. And even if she could read it, she can't get up.
Well, those are all true cases and I'm not proud of it. But it is also true that we are going after a multi-millionaire athlete who decided he didn't have enough money and needed to create some offshore accounts to hide his foreign earnings and make it appear as if he was paying expenses from his U.S. accounts to his own foreign accounts to create deductions to reduce his U.S. income. A real American hero.
But the interesting thing about this job is the neighborhood. It takes me away from the downtown area of D.C. that I am accustomed to and where all the government buildings and yuppies are to a less polarized quadrant of our great capital. Sure, there's a fair share of yupsters, but this morning they had to weave their way around the man sleeping or dying or whatever it was that he was doing lying there motionless in the middle of the sidewalk. Careful not to step on him, he might actually be dead and how would that look?
There is always someone standing outside the metro doing something interesting. My colleague saw someone taking a leak there. Not hiding behind a newspaper dispenser or a parked taxicab, but right there. I listened to one wizened soul lamenting all the pretenders who tried to be his friend. He wanted none of it. He let them have it. Last time I say good morning to him.
The best, in my opinion, is the two guys who play a bevy of five gallon paint buckets like a drum set. Talented, motivated, entrepreneurs.
In the other direction from my office, towards the Tax Court, is a homeless shelter. Couple of guys sitting on the curb smoking a joint the other day. Me walking past them didn't seem to matter. I mean, sure, I don't care, but they were the ones who were smoking and they didn't care either.
A woman wearing two or three torn skirts followed us back to our office from the liquor store where we go to get lunch. There's a deli in the back. You walk down aisles of gleaming, rounded bottles for your tuna salad on wheat. She didn't ask for anything. She didn't shout any nonsense. I guess she just liked what she saw; I was wearing a suit that day.
I have a view of Capitol Plaza from my office window. There is a building in the way so I can't see the Capitol. Beyond Capitol Plaza is a triumvirate of Senate office buildings where I had the opportunity last week to go and witness a hearing sponsored by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Permanent, I guess, because temporary just isn't going to get the job done. On the hot seat the day I visited was one of the uber-executives of UBS. He testified in front of a panel of very irate and photogenic Senators that yes, indeed, his company did proactively solicit and assist tens of thousands of U.S. citizens in hiding assets from the U.S. government and the IRS. But, no, we will not give you their names. Here's $728 million to make it better. Yawn.
On my way back to the office I crossed Capitol Plaza. In the Spring time it will be green. The fountains will be full. The homeless people can finally take a bath after the long, dirty winter.
Well, those are all true cases and I'm not proud of it. But it is also true that we are going after a multi-millionaire athlete who decided he didn't have enough money and needed to create some offshore accounts to hide his foreign earnings and make it appear as if he was paying expenses from his U.S. accounts to his own foreign accounts to create deductions to reduce his U.S. income. A real American hero.
But the interesting thing about this job is the neighborhood. It takes me away from the downtown area of D.C. that I am accustomed to and where all the government buildings and yuppies are to a less polarized quadrant of our great capital. Sure, there's a fair share of yupsters, but this morning they had to weave their way around the man sleeping or dying or whatever it was that he was doing lying there motionless in the middle of the sidewalk. Careful not to step on him, he might actually be dead and how would that look?
There is always someone standing outside the metro doing something interesting. My colleague saw someone taking a leak there. Not hiding behind a newspaper dispenser or a parked taxicab, but right there. I listened to one wizened soul lamenting all the pretenders who tried to be his friend. He wanted none of it. He let them have it. Last time I say good morning to him.
The best, in my opinion, is the two guys who play a bevy of five gallon paint buckets like a drum set. Talented, motivated, entrepreneurs.
In the other direction from my office, towards the Tax Court, is a homeless shelter. Couple of guys sitting on the curb smoking a joint the other day. Me walking past them didn't seem to matter. I mean, sure, I don't care, but they were the ones who were smoking and they didn't care either.
A woman wearing two or three torn skirts followed us back to our office from the liquor store where we go to get lunch. There's a deli in the back. You walk down aisles of gleaming, rounded bottles for your tuna salad on wheat. She didn't ask for anything. She didn't shout any nonsense. I guess she just liked what she saw; I was wearing a suit that day.
I have a view of Capitol Plaza from my office window. There is a building in the way so I can't see the Capitol. Beyond Capitol Plaza is a triumvirate of Senate office buildings where I had the opportunity last week to go and witness a hearing sponsored by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Permanent, I guess, because temporary just isn't going to get the job done. On the hot seat the day I visited was one of the uber-executives of UBS. He testified in front of a panel of very irate and photogenic Senators that yes, indeed, his company did proactively solicit and assist tens of thousands of U.S. citizens in hiding assets from the U.S. government and the IRS. But, no, we will not give you their names. Here's $728 million to make it better. Yawn.
On my way back to the office I crossed Capitol Plaza. In the Spring time it will be green. The fountains will be full. The homeless people can finally take a bath after the long, dirty winter.
Snow bunnies!
(By guest blogger, Rebecca)
Here are some pictures and movies of our mini-vacation in the Poconos last week.
Maya geared up and ready to hit the slopes:
Jonah looks like he was born to be on skis:
Maya, Hunter Peterson, his little sister Kaitlyn, and Jonah:
Maya and Hunter had a blast together!
Wow, a family picture!
Maya has been asking to go skiing for some time now, and it turns out the place where we were staying (Split Rock Resort) was next door to Jack Frost ski area. So we had no excuses. On Monday, we took the gang skiing.
We had just put the skis on the kids and they looked to be doing okay going down the beginner slope, so I pulled out the camera to film their first run. Paul, who was a bit rusty after not having skied for almost 4 years, didn't exactly think it was the right time to be filming and instead wanted me to give some sort of lessons to the kids. As you can see here, Jonah didn't really need much instruction:
We started skiing around 11:15am, then took a break for lunch. This next movie is Maya at around 2.30pm. So she's been skiing for around 2 1/2 hours at this point:
This was Maya's last run of the day. She wouldn't stop skiing and we were the last ones on the hill:
As we were leaving the resort that afternoon, Maya wanted to know when we would be going again. The next morning, she woke up and wanted to ski some more, so I took her for a second day:
We got a nice dumping of snow today - great light powder - but it doesn't do us a lot of good here in Alexandria. So we're going skiing tomorrow. When Jonah woke up and saw all this snow, he said, "Are we going skiing today??" He was so excited. Maybe we'll have more movies/pictures tomorrow.
Here are some pictures and movies of our mini-vacation in the Poconos last week.
Maya geared up and ready to hit the slopes:
Jonah looks like he was born to be on skis:
Maya, Hunter Peterson, his little sister Kaitlyn, and Jonah:
Maya and Hunter had a blast together!
Wow, a family picture!
Maya has been asking to go skiing for some time now, and it turns out the place where we were staying (Split Rock Resort) was next door to Jack Frost ski area. So we had no excuses. On Monday, we took the gang skiing.
We had just put the skis on the kids and they looked to be doing okay going down the beginner slope, so I pulled out the camera to film their first run. Paul, who was a bit rusty after not having skied for almost 4 years, didn't exactly think it was the right time to be filming and instead wanted me to give some sort of lessons to the kids. As you can see here, Jonah didn't really need much instruction:
We started skiing around 11:15am, then took a break for lunch. This next movie is Maya at around 2.30pm. So she's been skiing for around 2 1/2 hours at this point:
This was Maya's last run of the day. She wouldn't stop skiing and we were the last ones on the hill:
As we were leaving the resort that afternoon, Maya wanted to know when we would be going again. The next morning, she woke up and wanted to ski some more, so I took her for a second day:
We got a nice dumping of snow today - great light powder - but it doesn't do us a lot of good here in Alexandria. So we're going skiing tomorrow. When Jonah woke up and saw all this snow, he said, "Are we going skiing today??" He was so excited. Maybe we'll have more movies/pictures tomorrow.
Washington, D.C. before the storm
Today, Rebecca and I picked up her tickets for the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday morning. Rebecca was able to snag eight tickets from Senator Bennett of Utah by usurping her Aunt Ellen's and Cousin Scott's names. Her theory, correct as it turns out, was that folks from Red states like Utah couldn't give two shakes of their wives' tails to attend the inauguration. Fortunately, Rebecca has about 80 relatives who live in Utah and two were willing to risk breaking Federal statute and allow her to use their names to secure tickets to the event. Actually, Aunt Ellen and Scott seriously planned on coming to the event themselves. We can't wait for them to get here late on Monday night.
Here is a picture of the Dirksen Senate office building where they would have had to go to get the tickets if they had gotten here today. Instead, Rebecca had to go in and get the tickets for them.
This is what the inside of the Dirksen Senate Office building looks like with Rebecca smiling inside it.
Here is a picture of Rebecca moments after she was handed two manilla folders that had been saturated with ether. We'll have to send a thank you note to the two girls in the background who were able to revive her so she could get the manilla folders that had the tickets in them.
Temperatures in D.C. today were in the low teens. The forecast for Tuesday is low 30's. This picture is of the front of the Capitol where a lucky few will be able to have their buttocks frozen to their chair while they witness the historic moment when Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, belches into the microphone.
There will be speakers and jumbotrons so the other lucky few who don't have seats and have to stand way back here will be able to see and hear the historic event as well, all while having their arses frozen off.
Here is a picture of Rebecca with her coveted ticket, standing in front of the reflecting pool. Doesn't she look cute? This is where she will be standing on Tuesday with Aunt Ellen and Cousin Scott. Obviously, President-elect Obama has better friends in the Senate than Mr. Bennett.
After the swearing in ceremony there will be a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House. The Newseum fronts Penn. Ave and Rebecca purchased two tickets to the Newseum so that she would be assured of "being there" if she wasn't able to score tickets to the swearing in. Because the number of people allowed to view the parade from Pennsylvania Avenue will be limited to 300,000, she is not sure she will be able to make it from the reflecting pool to the parade area before the parade area has maxed out. So, she is contemplating selling the Newseum tickets on Craigslist to support her new ether habit.
Rebecca took this photo of the Newseum while she was driving to the Dirksen Senate office building. She's been a bit over the top about this whole thing, even going so far as to purchase a red carpet to roll out on the front walkway of our house for the Inaugural Ball we are hosting on Saturday night. Today, she had tears in her eyes as she drove along Pennsylvania and saw all the bunting and flags blowing in the wind and contemplated the great moment she will be a part of on Tuesday.
Here is a picture of the Dirksen Senate office building where they would have had to go to get the tickets if they had gotten here today. Instead, Rebecca had to go in and get the tickets for them.
This is what the inside of the Dirksen Senate Office building looks like with Rebecca smiling inside it.
Here is a picture of Rebecca moments after she was handed two manilla folders that had been saturated with ether. We'll have to send a thank you note to the two girls in the background who were able to revive her so she could get the manilla folders that had the tickets in them.
Temperatures in D.C. today were in the low teens. The forecast for Tuesday is low 30's. This picture is of the front of the Capitol where a lucky few will be able to have their buttocks frozen to their chair while they witness the historic moment when Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, belches into the microphone. 
There will be speakers and jumbotrons so the other lucky few who don't have seats and have to stand way back here will be able to see and hear the historic event as well, all while having their arses frozen off.
Here is a picture of Rebecca with her coveted ticket, standing in front of the reflecting pool. Doesn't she look cute? This is where she will be standing on Tuesday with Aunt Ellen and Cousin Scott. Obviously, President-elect Obama has better friends in the Senate than Mr. Bennett.
After the swearing in ceremony there will be a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House. The Newseum fronts Penn. Ave and Rebecca purchased two tickets to the Newseum so that she would be assured of "being there" if she wasn't able to score tickets to the swearing in. Because the number of people allowed to view the parade from Pennsylvania Avenue will be limited to 300,000, she is not sure she will be able to make it from the reflecting pool to the parade area before the parade area has maxed out. So, she is contemplating selling the Newseum tickets on Craigslist to support her new ether habit.
Rebecca took this photo of the Newseum while she was driving to the Dirksen Senate office building. She's been a bit over the top about this whole thing, even going so far as to purchase a red carpet to roll out on the front walkway of our house for the Inaugural Ball we are hosting on Saturday night. Today, she had tears in her eyes as she drove along Pennsylvania and saw all the bunting and flags blowing in the wind and contemplated the great moment she will be a part of on Tuesday.
Christmas, New Years, and January 6th
The excitement that Maya and Jonah showed in anticipation of Christmas this year was contagious. Even Rebecca, a notorious scrooge (albeit, a scrooge who continually outdoes herself in the gift-giving category. See below.) caught the bug. For the first time in our history, my Christmas stocking did not hang limp and forlorn on Christmas morning. Courtesy of Rebecca, it was brimming with all the sundry items that make Christmas morning magical – socks, a “Dumb and Dumber” DVD, and Clementines.
We spent Christmas Eve at our house with Opa, PoPo and cousins from Hong Kong – Eliza and Diana Chu. Diana just completed her first semester at Washington University at St. Louis, which is located in St. Louis. Eliza, her mom, was of course coming to visit and spend the holiday with her after not seeing her for four months. Eliza and Diana, and Alex, the dad, lived in Blacksburg, Virginia for a number of years before moving to Hong Kong about a decade ago, right when I started dating Rebecca. In fact, while they attended Utah State in the 1980’s, Eliza and Alex lived with the Eichlers. When they moved to Blacksburg, Virginia to become professors at Virginia Tech, the Eichlers were living in Woodbridge, Virginia.
Now, Virginia is not like New Jersey, you can’t drive through it in two hours. But even though Blacksburg and Woodbridge aren’t the closest of towns, Eliza, Alex, and then baby Diana were still the closest located family to Rebecca during that time (other family being in Utah, on the west coast, and in HK), so they spent a fair amount of time together. Being able to host Eliza and Diana added a special element to our Christmas celebration – it brought back feel-good memories of youth for Rebecca and we didn’t have to host only Opa and PoPo, who we see all the time.
While we waited for dinner on Christmas Eve we watched Santa’s flight across Asia and Europe on the computer. The look on Jonah’s face as he watched Santa’s sleigh make its way in and around the Roman Coliseum was pure wonderment and joy. It’s nice to see that technology has added something of value to life besides “Dancing with the Stars”.
On Christmas morning Maya woke up before everyone, as she typically does, and claims she heard someone eating cookies in the living room. Being the bold spirit she is, she came halfway down the stairs and saw 1) Santa’s hat, or 2) Santa’s whole being. She changed her story so I’m not sure what to make of it.
On the topic of Rebecca’s gift giving, she got me an even more awesome present this year than she got me last year. I think I’ve blogged about the gift she made last year, a family camping flag consisting of an acorn (representing Jonah Oak) sewn onto a purple background with snowflakes (representing Maya Snow). We hang this from something near our campsite when we go camping and it’s totally cool. Well, this year Rebecca managed to format the entire “Adventures of the Cuy” blog that I wrote this summer while we were in Ecuador and bind it into book form. So, now it looks like I actually wrote a book this summer instead of complained and got drunk. It’s sweet.
Though, I have to admit, I felt a bit like a geek when my friend Adam asked me what I got after he came rolling down the street on his brand spanking new adult size scooter that his wife MaryAnne got for him and then told me about the rock and roll DVDs and the New York football Giants jersey that his kids got him.
“Uh.” I said. “A book.”
Then he took my lunch money.
On New Years Eve, we decided to host a party. This was actually a good idea. We invited all the families with kids from our neighborhood, so it had potential to be a relatively early night. It was a pot-luck and we have some amazing cooks in our neighborhood so we had a good spread too. At nine o’clock, we celebrated the New Year arriving in Greenland by popping the cork to some Sparkling Apple Cider, making a bunch of noise, and throwing confetti all over our living room. Then we sent the kids to bed and everyone else went home.
Some girls that live up the street were having a party so after Rebecca and I got the place mostly cleaned up I went over there with Adam and managed to avoid having to do any Karaoke. It was a pretty good way to send off the old year.
I guess the expected thing to do now is to spend a bunch of lines reflecting on the year, but I don’t really feel the need. Life goes on, right? I’m thankful that we continued to be very fortunate in 2008, and I expect all the good things that happened for us in 2008 and all the positive momentum that we built up as a family to keep rolling along with us. Hopefully, that type of thing doesn’t recognize artificial stops and starts like New Years Day. Two-thousand and eight rocked. If we just keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing, 2009 is going to rock too.
And so far so good. The kids recognized the hilarity of the pictures on the cover of the Dumb and Dumber DVD (in particular, the one of Jim Carrey giving Jeff Daniels a wedgy) so we watched some of that on New Years Day. Maya made us turn it off because it was scaring her.
We’ve gotten back to eating right, alfalfa sprouts and garbanzo beans, after the indulgence of the holidays.
We continue to have dance parties as time permits. Last night we were listening to the Warren Zevon album “The Wind”, which has some good dance songs on it. After we rocked out to “Disorder in the House” which has a guitar part by Bruce Springsteen like nothing I’ve ever heard him play before, we were catching our breath on the couch listening to Zevon cover “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”. Maya asked me, “Who’s Kevin?”
Speaking of Maya, she recently went to the dentist and came home with three cavities. Rebecca blames this on me and my habit of giving the kids ice cream nearly every day this summer. Well, I say, what else are summers for but eating ice cream? Perhaps, brushing your teeth? I thought we did that. Anyway, the cavities are in baby teeth but it is still a bit disconcerting because Rebecca has a mouth full of cavities. Repairing her teeth has cost us a pretty penny. I hope Maya’s cavities aren’t a sign of things to come with her. It is also disturbing because, rather than being contrite; Maya is wearing her cavities like a badge of honor.
Six Years in Suburbia
One of the things Rebecca and I like best about our home is the location. A fifteen minute walk in any direction will bring you to all that is great about America – chain department stores; Home Depot, chain restaurants; Chinese take-out; and clear-cut, 20x20 fenced yards with one piece of plastic playground equipment. We are also a short walk from Metro – the easy-to-understand, color-coordinated public transportation system that serves Washington D.C.
We all know the many wonderful things that “The City,” as folks who grew up around here call it, has to offer. And I’m not even talking about the young co-eds and drugs. But while it may rank as the top one or two power cities of the world, I recently saw that Teen Beat did not rank it in the top fifty as a destination for night-life. This may be why Metro closes at midnight on most nights.
But, seriously, the fact that we can, if we choose, go days without having to get in our car to drive somewhere to partake of one of life’s necessities – the 99-cent Taco Bell menu, seeing Archie Bunker’s chair, a Starbucks mocha latte - has been an essential element in why Rebecca and I haven’t upgraded to a place that would make us house poor like so many of our friends.
Now, Rebecca and I realize that we are giving up something by living in the yuppie suburbia that we do. A move to the country would grant us access to air that contained fewer toxins, provide us the ability to see cows and smell manure whenever we wanted, and maybe even have a P.O. box as our mailing address. It would also probably increase our chances of being grandparents while Maya and Jonah are still in their teens.
Which, finally, brings me to the point of this blog post. Yesterday, December 14, we celebrated Maya’s 6th birthday. 
Because we’ve gone ice-skating a few times recently and she’s gotten pretty good at it, Maya wanted to have an ice-skating party. Here she is carving it up yesterday.
Because none of the local ponds were frozen over, and anyway, I can’t think of any local ponds, we had to go to the local skating rink. In keeping with the theme developed above of how great our location is, how many of you reading this live near an ice-skating rink that is accessible by public transportation?
Having the party at the ice rink rather than a local pond was fine by me since it set my mind at ease that none of our guests would fall through the ice and get trapped. What a head-ache that would have been for us!
After deliberating over who to invite for two or three days, Maya settled on ten of her friends, including Jonah, her cousins Gabriel and Bella, five of her classmates, and Celeste, her friend from our street. Rebecca sent out the E-vite and we were all set.
The way it went was this, we rented a “party room” at the ice-rink that consisted of four cinder block walls, three folding tables and enough folding chairs. My mother-in-law made a tray of baked ziti, Rebecca made some cupcakes,
I poured the drinks, and my father-in-law provided the entertainment.
Thus fortified, the skaters strapped on their skates and headed to the "sheet" to flop around on the ice for a couple of hours. Of the young ones, only Jonah had skated before. But, I’m happy to say that no one hurt themselves except for Bella (no stitches were involved). There were also a few of us old folks that were lacing up skates for the first time in years (my sister Cathy)
or, in some cases, ever (my cousin Mike).
Neither of them admit to any bumps or bruises.
After skating, we came back to our house and gathered around the Christmas tree while Maya opened her few birthday presents. We had asked folks not to bring presents, but no matter how many times you tell that to grandparents, they don’t get the message. And anyway, Maya has been to a few parties recently where the parents did not tell folks not to bring presents, so she was excited to have some presents to open.
Maya was really excited to get a jewelry box from my parents and a camera from me and Rebecca. When Rebecca was tucking Maya into her bed last night, they debated keeping the night light in the room on or off. Maya wanted to keep it on in case she woke up and wanted to take some pictures.
After Maya opened her presents, she, Jonah and Celeste ran around the house crashing into things. This prompted my Dad to remark that someone was going to end up in the emergency room. That would have been no problem, from our house we can catch the 9A bus and be at the hospital in 24 minutes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
