Good Mojo

Did you ever experience a period of time when things just seemed to be falling into place? I am in the midst of one such period - this is a very good thing and is the result of much hard work. However (there's always a "but" isn't there?), I've been ruminating on how these periods are defined. There is always a beginning and an end that are the opposites of, and which define, the period in between as either positive or negative, good or bad. The same old-same old, gray or so-so periods in this case are often unremarkable and are seldom noticed by me, even though they make up the bulk of life. Thus, a run of good luck begins with the cessation of bad luck and continues until an instance of bad luck occurs again. This may sound like I'm waiting for the other proverbial shoe to drop, but this is not the case at all.

This is mainly due to the fact that I've been thinking about it all in terms of Karma and, to a large extent, I believe that we make our own Karma, reaping that which we sow. This is the real beauty of simply putting one foot in front of the other and doing the next right thing - it is a recipe for good Karma. The trick seems to be to keep on-keeping on. Sure I can stop and enjoy the mojo, but I know I need to keep sowing the right seeds if I want more of what I'm getting now. Just thought I'd share that with you - peace, love and special sauce.
P.S. as an added bonus, I get to see my two beautiful children tonight from 6 - 8!

Graduation Monkeyshines

Last Thursday, Zach "graduated" from preschool and the William O'Conner School had a ceremony to comemerate the occasion. We all showed up at St. Patrick's Auditorium in Bay Ridge at 10:30 and were treated to quite a show. There were about 200 people in attendance and another 150 students and staff, so it was quite a full house.

It was a very cute affair though somewhat quirky - let me elaborate: Many of the kids that go to this school are on the autism spectrum and have the corresponding issues. Thus, when they were marching the kids in and Pomp and Circumstance started blaring over the PA system, many of the kids started clutching there ears and looking about to find the source of the offending racket.

Getting a bunch of special needs kids to do a coordinated show is a lot like trying to herd cats - and I give the staff great credit for not only trying, but actually succeding in pulling it off. Zach's class did "The Stick Song" and each kid had two wooden sticks that they tapped and banged in accordance to the words in the song. Zachy did pretty well, but seemed to lose interest about half way through the song, at which time he put his sticks down and covered his ears. You could tell that it was well rehearsed, however, as he and the other kids knew the song and were able to anticipate the lines and manipulate the sticks accordingly.

Miranda came suitably attired and was a bouncy joy to sit with. She watched her Zachy do his song from Daddy's shoulders and clapped along with everyone else.

We were also treated to "The Potatoe Song," "The Monkey Song," and a host of other fine selections. The proceedings wound up with a long slide show of all of the kids in the school set to music, followed by cake and soda. After the show we were reunited with our Zachy who seemed quite happy to see us and equally ready to go.

Father's Day Monkeyshines

Well, if I don't get this done today, I'll have had another visit before telling you all ("y'all" to the Carolina contingent) about the previous one. So, in the interest of expediency, this ain't gonna be pretty but it'll have to do.

The first thing that I must mention are the beautiful Father's Day art projects that Zachy made for me at school (pictured above). I'm not quite sure what to call the popsicle stick and seashell creation (lots of glitter of course) but it's definitely a keeper!















The second thing that I must mention also concerns Zachy (Miss Miranda was charming, sweet, beautiful and funny as ever - don't worry pumpkin, your turn is coming). We went to the park by Zach's school Saturday morning because the kids got up very early and wanted to go out long before it was time to leave for the Sensory Gym. When we got there, Zach took off and went straight to the big kids' side of the playground and got on a big boy's swing. The last time he tried this without an adult, he fell off backwards and banged his head on the rubber mat. This time he got on by himself, held on to the chains the whole time and was able to actually swing by leaning into it. It was amazing! This time I got pictures to prove it (above).

We also were sporting a new set of wheels this weekend - a new double stroller, well actually it's sort of a single stroller with a rumble seat in the back where Zachy can either sit or stand. They both seem to like it very much and it certainly is an improvement over the side-by-side that was bio-degrading as we strolled - check it out! (above)

The rest of the weekend was really fun, but not that much different than many of our weekends - we spent a lot of time at various parks, ran through the sprinklers, went for a bunch of long walks, had our quiet time, our art time, our music time, watched a lot of Thomas the Train, played with our toys, and cuddled etc.

I won't bore you with all of the little things, but I will mention that Miss Miranda likes to pick the clovers that grow (in abundance) in the front lawn of my building and sometimes we sit outside and make clover jewelry. When I was sweeping up the apartment after dropping the kids back at Monkey Central this Sunday evening, I kept finding piles of partially dismembered clovers and realized that my little one has been smuggling them in and hiding them. I'm in the process of finding a suitable clover repository so that my little clover smuggler can go legit and keep her ill-gotten booty.





















Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Tune in again for more Monkeyshines.

Faith, not Religion

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
~ Steven Weinberg

Slow Progress

The whole idea of existence is that you're not a snowflake. You're simply another generic idiot in the long line of mutated monkeys, and if left up to you, you'd be flinging your shit around just like your ancestors. ~ Mad Magazine

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there. ~ Richard Feynman

What ever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Busier Than My Bumblebee

I am in the midst of an exceptionally busy week - the kind I used to call a "week from Hell" - and it is only going to get busier. Strangely, I seem to find this comforting - at least I'm not at a loss for things to do.

I spent a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon over at Nathan, Stephanie, and EJ's house. We talked a bit while Nathan updated the operating system on my laptop (to Ubuntu's Fiesty Fawn release of Linux) and Stephanie worked on a book she is writing. EJ and I played some games with miscellaneous objects in the house and made up the rules as we went along, as the smell of Caribbean food wafted in through the window (everyone thought it smelled like ass, but I couldn't smell it). We ended up flopping on the futon and watching an Australian movie called "Candy" which was a story about a heroin addicted couple whose lives spiral into chaos. It was kind of disturbing, but made us all feel pretty good about our own lives. Besides, what could be better than lounging around on a Sunday with an incredibly cute two-year old curled up on your tummy?

I was in court all morning on Monday (I thought it went well) which was pretty fascinating and nothing like what you see on TV. The court rooms themselves were really small and not particularly well furnished and the people (lawyers and litigants alike) were kind of a trip to watch, both in appearance and behavior. There was a lot of sitting and waiting, but I brought a good book to read so the time passed rather quickly. As I watched the cases that went before us, it was fun to imagine what the lives of those involved were like and what their issues were. Anyway, it was all over by 11:15 and I went back to Bay Ridge to go about doing the things that I do to "stay on the beam."

Yesterday I had to get up and take a 2 and a half hour train ride to get to Bronx Community College (at 200 Zillionth Street) where I was putting on a mathematics workshop and attending a conference. After that I had to rush back to Harlem to teach my night classes. Today I am cleaning up the mess that results after two days out of the office and I have to leave early to scoop the kids by 6pm (I have them from 6 to 8). Tomorrow is another full day and night of teaching, then the week culminates in a conference at NYU on Friday, followed by a mad rush home to get ready for the having the kids this weekend. It is all good, but I am as busy as can be.

Heat Wave Monkeyshines

Well, another weekend has come and gone and it saw yet another great visit with our two favorite little people. Daddy stopped by Monkey Central Friday night at 7pm and picked up young Master Zechariah and younger Miss Miranda. We strolled up Ridge Blvd. to Daddy's house and let the good times roll. Friday night was pretty uneventful - just some playing with our toys, some story time and of course we watched some of our favorite videos. The little ones were pretty worked up, so bedtimes were a bit on the late side, but we were up and at 'em the next morning in plenty of time to make it to the Sensory Freeway for Zach's therapy session. Yours truly had one of those unique "Daddy moments" when we arrived at the gym and Miranda's mother informed me that the cute little dress I had picked out for her to wear was really her nightgown - Oops! But really, look at the pictures and see if you would have known. Miranda was happy with the choice so it really didn't matter, but I found it pretty amusing.

While Zach climbed and jumped and bounced on the trampoline (pictured above), Miranda and Daddy went to Daddy's cookie meeting. Miranda loves it when everybody claps (when the list of anniversaries are read, etc.) and enthusiastically claps right along. While at the meeting (we only stayed for a short bit) she enjoyed all of her favorites: bagel, doughnuts and cookies. Once we were properly fueled up, we made our next port-of-call: the pet store, where we said hello to all of our friends - the kitties, the puppies, the birds, the lizards, the mousies, the hermit crabs and the bunny. We also made a new friend which was a chinchilla, and found out just how soft her fur was. The animals all seemed happy to see Miranda and she was certainly happy to see them.


We left the pet store in time to go collect our Zachy and, because of our late breakfast, decided to go straight to the park in order to take advantage of the nice weather. Saturday was extremely hot (in the 90s) and was very humid. We decided that it would be coolest down by the water, so we went to the Shore Road Promenade Park at 79th Street. We made sure to slather on plenty of sunblock, then headed directly to the sprinklers to cool off. While the best sprinklers in Bay Ridge are at Owls Head Park, this is probably the second best place to cool off and even Daddy got into the act. From the sprinklers we went to the swings, with Zachy leading the way. All of the little swings were taken at first, so both children swung on the big kid swings. This was the first time I saw Zach do this - he actually held on and even seemed to enjoy it - unfortunately, I was surprised and didn't think to get a picture of it until it was too late, but I did get one of Miranda.

After quite some time at the park, we went home for some lunch, some story time, an art project and music time. Our art project consisted mostly of stickers from Miranda's big book of stickers (she was nice enough to share with Zach and Daddy) and our growing collection of felt tipped pens. Of course two beautiful masterpieces were created.

After all of that, we went out to take care of a couple of errands (like paying Daddy's rent). Miranda was so worn out that she fell asleep in the stroller ("scroller" as she pronounces it). This gave Daddy and Zach a chance for some special father-son time, which we spent at home playing with his cars and trains

Saturday evening we went to a carnival at Saint Anselm's at 4th Avenue and 82nd Street. It was really cool! We played some ski-ball and were persistent enough to win the blue dog - which Miranda promptly named "Bluedog." Zach went on the Pirate's Cove, which was a "ride" that involved traversing a maze, wading through a treacherous bog of colored balls, climbing a net to the second story of the ride, crossing the rickety bridge, sliding down the gangplank and finally knocking through the punching bags. Zach made it most of the way then decided to turn around and hang out for a while on the net. He ended up coming out the way he went in, but no one seemed to mind. All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday evening.


Sunday was not as nice, but also not as hot. We decided to go to the park early, in order to avoid the rain (which never really materialized). While we were there, we saw the Tour de Brooklyn Bicycle Classic going past - bikes kept going past for what seemed like days and days. There's not much else to report on this park experience - so I wont report it.


We left the park as we found it and walked around for a while. Daddy was trying to teach the little people the names of all the different trees and other plants we encountered and eventually we found our way home. We played in the front yard for a while with Neil and Lydia and some of our other friends, then went inside for lunch and some quiet time.












As the afternoon wore on, the moisture in the air became more and more rain-like, which kept us from going to the big 5th Avenue street fair, but one festival in a weekend is probably enough. We stopped for some balloons on the way back to Monkey Central as a consolation, and both little monkeys were delivered safely back to Mommy by 5pm. Do weekends really get much better? I should note here that I did see the kids last Wednesday (May 30th) for the every other week mid-week visit, but got so busy that I didn't get time to write about it - suffice it to say that it was jam-packed fun! Please check back in two weeks when the monkeys ride again!