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The traveling

Since Lilly was born, we haven't really gone anywhere. I've even begged off on potential business trips because we're having a hard enough time staying sane and on-schedule with our dual commutes, day care and all that.

Yes. We are now Boring People. Fuck you. We're OK with that.

But recently, I was traveling two weekends in a row: a quick one-day trip to see Radiohead in Dallas with my brother and then Lilly's baptism in South Texas the following weekend.

What can I say about the baptism? It was pretty religious. We got to see a lot of family, many of whom hadn't met Lilly yet. She was, incredibly, on her best behavior. She didn't get spooked with a house full of people and she even suffered the heat and the endurance test of being on the road for multiple hours. She's a commuter. She's used to these things now.

We did have one really unintentionally hilarious moment: we took her portable playpen with us so she could sleep in it. When we arrived at my in-laws, she was sleeping, so we put her in the playpen. She she woke up, not only was she in an unfamiliar surface where she never sleeps, but she was in a whole other house. She woke up completely freaked out, crying and just beside herself with unfamiliarity. I snapped a photo of her fear-filled face, but I'm not cruel enough to post it here.

We did, however, get an awesome picture of her wearing a giant sombrero.

Apart from the holy head-soaking, it was nice to unplug from the Internet, or at least from broadband. I was still checking e-mail and RSS feeds on my iPhone, but things slow down on holiday weekends anyway, so I was able to just enjoy myself and hang out.

We took Lilly to South Padre Island for what I hope was the first of many trips to the beach. She didn't like the water (too cold) or the sand (too gritty), but she enjoyed sitting on the blanket we laid out in the early evening sunlight and feeling the breeze.

She's crawling now. It started with her dragging herself along the floor with her arms like some poor, blown-up bastard from Saving Private Ryan, but now she's got her legs working, too, and she's unstoppable. She'll be walking soon, so we'll have to remove all the land mines and bear traps we have lying around. ("Too late already," many parents are already thinking. Yeah. You're probably right.)

I'm done recapping for the summer, so I'm working on a super secret project with my brother, but I'm hoping I'll be able to share it with you within the next week or two. I'm really excited about it, and not just because it's new. I'm hoping it turns into Something Cool.

I wrote a book review that ran in the paper recently, of Jancee Dunn's Don't You Forget About Me. That's about it. All the stories I've been working on recently start running next week after a multi-week lag.

There was something with me in the paper on Sunday, though. I got awarded Employee of the Month for some work I did in March and they ran a house ad about it that I'd been dreading (and sort of anticipating at the same time). Please do not judge harshly:

I know, right? Some funny comments have been posted on the Flickr page.

I hope you're having a good summer. It's fucking HOT here. Too hot too soon. I hope my baby doesn't melt.

posted by Omar G. at 12:40 AM

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