Business Trip… Round 1

So, last week, I flew out for my 1st business trip in… forever.


Due to the struggles of Pacific Standard Time (West Coast issues)… I had to fly out on a red eye. Got in a 1am local time. Then, couldn’t sleep until 4am local time. Woke up at 6am EST to grab some continental breakfast which… essentially destroyed me the next day (LOL!).

Housekeeping staff came in at 10-1030am. I jumped out of bed and enthusiastically greeted them, thinking it was my business partner.

Made them jump. Heh. OH Well…

Finally around 1030-11am, he shows up, we get some work done… and, head out for an afternoon long business meeting.

The meeting went smoothly, and, we went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff, check out the Kentucky Derby, and finally, head out for some grub. Not knowing how close Louisville is to the Ohio River, we crossed over the bridge into Indiana! At least in Southern California, crossing borders of any type doesn’t come as easy as such.

Finally having had a night out on the town, I stumbled back into the hotel with barely any sleep under my belt. Thanks a lot, jet lag. Well… the 2nd night was no different. I fell asleep from 1030pm-11pm… because, that felt like a nap in Pacific time. Then, from 11pm til 3 or 4am, I watched bits of HBO, spent some time chatting with my wife via Snapchat, surveyed social media… and, waited for the sandman to arrive.

Up early the next day for the flight home, I probably only for another 3 or so hours of sleep.

By the time I was on the 1st plane home, I was so zonked the flight attendant asked if I was okay. 🙁

AND, the 1st flight started in awful condition as the plane had yet to disembark the passengers before lining us up for boarding. Boarding took soooooo long that it delayed the flight to the point where I had only 5 minutes to hoof it over to my connecting flight from Denver back to San Diego.

Seriously… I was worried I was going to miss that flight.

All in all, 3 days for an afternoon meeting. HAHA. Such is life!

I missed my family with immensity. For two years straight, we’ve been around each other every calendar day. In fact, I believe my wife and I, until this point, only spent two calendar days away from each other since we got married.

So yeah… the missing was bad. Real bad.

Well… it won’t be the end. I have a business trip next week, and, more to come throughout this year. Both good & bad, such is the price in working at home. Personally, it’s worth it. Instead of spending 40+ hours a week away from my family, I spend less than that away every couple of months. It’s not a bad deal 😉

Not bad at all.

Joy And Sadness

So, as you can imagine, the 1st week away from home… working in clinic full time (for just that week) was rather “life changing” for my family. Rather, it was changing in terms of the fact that my being gone shuffled EVERYTHING around. And, it accentuated certain parenting patterns.

During one our play times last week, I realized from tussling with him along with a reaffirming conversation with my wife… that I am truly Joy & Sadness to my boy.

Whenever I get a chance, I try to play and be as happy as possible. So, whenever I’m stern… it MEANS something. My wife takes the brunt of the disciplinary presence… remorse comes from me… she get’s anger and resentment from our son.

*sighs*

I suppose that’s just how it kind of “is.” It’s a bit emotionally tragic as Nathan basically gets the “best” and “worst” emotions from me. It’s a huge responsibility. When I rebuke him, it basically shatters his soul. But, if I don’t, then we reinforce bad behaviors. For the moment, I guess this is how things are going to go down. Hopefully… it’s just a phase & these toddler emotions will even out.

Until then… I remain yours, emotionally dynamic…

Joy/Sad/Dad–dyInTheRaw

An Apple A Day… In Bed

One of the funnier things Nathan likes to do is finding his “toy of the day” and bringing that back to bed with him. While this was originally a TBT post, the behavior remains true.

Yes, waaaaay back when, he decided that he loved apples. In fact, at the time, he loved apples so much, he’d bring them in bed for nap times. Just once? No… no, no. Many times. And, he’ll stash them, too! We’ll wake up next to a juicy apple. Our poor bed 🙁

The good news is that he loves fruit. The bad news is, he’s still a total sneak!

Common is the day that I’ll be cleaning up toys and what not, only to find some hidden chunk of apple he decided to bank away between his toys and stuffed animals.

Yay…

Still, the good news is that he never fixates on just ONE thing for a long time. Typically, it’s some toy or object of the day.

Yesterday, we were shopping, and all he wanted was “the paper.” The paper, being, the card stock postcard ad for us to change our internet subscription. But, it DID have one of his favorite Pixar movies stamped across the top so… I get it 😉

Either way, my thoughts simply go to feeling thankful. I’m thankful he doesn’t fixate on just ONE toy forever. I’m thankful he loves to eat heathlyish foods. I’m thankful that he has the preloaded habit for saving things away for later… let’s just hope that doesn’t turn into hoarding -_-

I’m thankful, that while catching up on these blog posts through March, going into April, I get to reboot everything and realize the tremendous blessing my family has experienced through this work-at-home experience.

I wouldn’t give it up for the world. And, I intend on doing this — or — something like this, for as long as I can!

Beating the Binky

So, we weren’t the most disciplined going into age 2 with dealing with the “binky.” He really relied on it a lot during the teething stages. And, well… life. So, we weren’t disciplined. We chose not to. Eh.

However, come early January, our entire family caught the flu. We were all sick for 2 weeks. In fact, Nathan even got an ear infection. Funny enough, all this got us to beat the binky, coooooooold turkey. This is how it went down: