I Want To Hold Your Hand

Greetings friends. Over the weekend, we packed up the car and went to Madison for a beach birthday party for my 6 year old nephew. It was lots of fun swimming and kicking the soccer ball around. Mia, once again was not a fan of the sandy beach, but we remedied the situation and put a blanket down for her to sit in comfortably, while still being able to shovel sand into a bucket. Genius idea Grandma! Well, later we headed to my brother's apartment and had cake. Mia was way more interested in playing with her cousin's legos and his adorable cat Cosmo. Sunday, I worked the night shift and missed soccer. Boo! This week, I turn 30 on Friday. Not too excited about it (Mia even reminds me "Daddy, you're gonna be old) but with some family and friends coming in to town to celebrate with me, I can't help but feel the love. I tend to focus on the negatives lately with this whole turning 30 thing. Not having the job I want plays a big role in it. I want to be able to get up every day and go to a job that I love. That I feel like I make a difference. A job that I can use creativity to my full potential. It is too much to ask? No, but honestly, I can't complain about the cards that were dealt :) I've got a beautiful family, a great house. a supportive family and my health is still pretty good. So I can't complain. Mia and I were dancing in the kitchen earlier today. It was incredibly cute. Makes me a bit sad thinking that some day I'll be dancing with her on her wedding day. While cleaning the kitchen tonight, I thought about how incredibly amazing my wife is. How she's been here for me through everything. She's been there for me in times of great and times of terrible. Through every failed job and been to just about every show I've played (even while pregnant). I couldn't ask for a better wife.

Nothing too exciting to report from my day off. Mia slept in till 11:50AM! ALMOST noon. Easily the latest she slept in her life time. I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive this was the longest she's slept. Missed a nap today too, but was quite tired driving home from our usual adventure visiting Grandma at work/Grandpa at his house and eventually Jill at her studio. At one point she desperately wanted me to find the Beatles on the radio because "Beatles are Grandpa Chicago's favourite Daddy!" While watching Masterchef tonight, Mia took a break and was "making food" in her little kitchen. "Mommy It's really difficult what I'm making!" Hilarious.

Other then that, nothing else to report. Birthday dinner this weekend. Hopefully some soccer action as well. This time I'll try not to run into anyone getting the ball. Cheers, and thanks for reading!

Surfin' USA

Morning. Didn't get to writing last night after an exhausting, yet fun day at the beach with Mia and my friend (with her kiddo) I was just way too tired to write and ended up calling it a night at 12:15am. Last Sunday I got to play some pick up soccer again. It had been a while due to some different things going on, on the weekends, but it totally was a great time. I had some slight issues though. First half, I ran into a striker at full speed. I had accidentally ran into the guy going for the ball, which knocked us both over. It looked so bad, and if it was a real game, I would probably have a yellow card. Had accidentally got his cleats on a 2nd challenge, which caused another foul. Bad Mikey. 2nd half, I did better. Didn't trip anyone. Won't be playing this weekend. Working 2nd shift. Oh well. The legs are still recovering from the collision. It was really great having my family come watch. Especially my parents who haven't seen me play a competitive sport since High School. Mia even watched :) Hopefully they thought I did well. (despite the fouls)

So as I had typed, on my day off we went to the beach. Mia and I met up with my friend Nicole and her kiddo Benny. Mia and I got to the beach and she already was pissy. Before we left, she was super stoked running around the house with her bucket and shovel. Well apparently, she developed a severe dislike for sand. Didn't want to touch it AT ALL. When Nicole and her kiddo arrived, we went back into the water. At first she didn't care for it again, but did way better and we had some fun. I've got a gnarly sun burn on my mid-lower back because I couldn't reach it with my hands. Oops :( Overall, the kids had a wonderful time and I look forward in going back again. Hopefully on a day Jill can come.

This weekend, my nephew's 6th birthday in Madison. Should be a lot of fun. Other then that, nothing else too exciting to discuss. Thanks for reading!

Devotion and Desire

What's up peeps. Quite a few things to cover tonight, so let's get to it. Over the rather steamy and hot weekend, Jill's parents came up to babysit Mia, which allowed us to go see "Wicked" in Milwaukee (for Jill's belated birthday. Let me tell you, it was absolutely fantastic. We haven't seen a play since NYC in 2006 when we saw Spamalot. Anyways, it was an incredibly delightful evening with my wife.  The play was wonderful, acting spot on and the props and sets were fantastic. I easily could recommend this one to anyone. I've heard tons of people who've seen it that have loved it, so going into the play, I knew it wouldn't disappoint. A friend of mine even has a "Wicked" inspired tattoo. :) Sunday, I worked the early shift, and ended up being too exhausted from the crazy day to play soccer. Plus, it was incredibly muggy. I sort of regretted not playing, because I saw the rest of the month I've got 2-10 shifts on Sundays. :( So all in all, not a bad weekend. Got some yard work and laundry accomplished. Totally appreciate my in laws for coming up and taking care of Mia so we can have a lovely rare date night.

Today, I woke up rather sad. Just totally bummed out about things. About turning 30 soon, and not having a proud career. I know I've gone over this before, but it's always something I think about when it's brought up in a conversation. "When are you gonna get a better job?" "When are you going to work in your field again?" It angers me how true that can be. But I have to move on and continue with where I am. Thankfully, listening to Alkaline Trio got me through the morning/afternoon. Mia and I didn't do anything too exciting. She was rather great with my Dad, which always makes the old man happy. Other then that, nothing else going on. Haven't touched this art project in over a month, and decided today to just not look at it for a while. I may scrap it, or continue a little later. I did start a little sketch of Mia that I hope turns out cool.

That's all for tonight. Thanks for reading :)

Best Imitations Of Myself

Hey! Hope every one's enjoying this rather strange week. 4th of July on a Thursday is a bit strange. Some people are getting a full 4-day weekend, others (like my wife) get just Thursday off. Me? I'm not off. Didn't take the holiday off. Used to back in the day when we would go to to catch Less Than Jake every 4th of July at Summerfest. Lots of fun, but as time went on, I just stopped wanting to go to Milwaukee's famous fest. Loss of interest. Would take a lot for me to go now. The Lawrence Arms would guarantee me to attend, as well as probably Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. Okay, that's enough of that.

Over the weekend, we drove down to Illinois Friday after work.  After we gassed up and got on 43, Mia fell asleep rather quickly watching her new favourite movie "The Princess Frog". While driving through Huntley, there were cones and cops everywhere with floodlights in a parking lot. I swear, it looked like border control. Well, they were stopping every single car and did a "safety check", which of course meant they were checking for drunk drivers. Great idea, but crap, they just HAD to shine the flash light in poor sleeping Mia's eyes.  She fell asleep soon after we went on our adventure. Saturday morning, we drove to the Shedd Aquarium. LOVE LOVE LOVE driving through the city. Leanne (one of Jill's friend's) came with too. It was a great time. Was quite blown away by how amazing the beluga whales are. I've seen them there before, but every time we go, they impress me more and more. The string ray touch thingy was actually better then the Milwaukee County Zoo one. Why? Well, the cow-nose rays were SUPER friendly. They swim right up to you like a dog would rub their head. It was pretty amazing. My favourite part of the Shedd (besides the awesome penguins) still is the Reef animals down stairs. Plenty of awesome sharks swimming. Nice 6 foot ones too. A rad part of the experience, was Mia was enthused to shoot some pictures of the coral and fish with our DSLR camera. "Daddy, I take a pictures of this" *CLICK- CLICK- CLICK- CLICK* All in all, great time at the Shedd. I figured something out why Chicago residents drive rather defensive in Wisconsin. In the city, its "drive defensive, or be crushed" as my bro in law puts it. Everyone in the city has to be on their toes to get to where they're going. Cutting people off to make a turn is just part of it. There's no hesitating or middle fingers flying when someone makes a bold move to get in front of you. It's their way of life. So with that, I have 0 hatred for "FIB drivers" here in good ol' Wisconsin.

 Anyways, so Thursday is the holiday. Jill's taking Mia to the fireworks in Waukesha with my parents. We heard some neighbors shooting some off today and it peaked her interest, but of course they stopped. We put on the local news channel that had the fireworks on and I said to Mia "hey, look fireworks" and she responded "Daddy, I'm learning Spanish!" Well alright then! Saturday, we're going to see Wicked. Should be fun. Jill's parents got her tickets for her birthday. I've heard only great things about the play/musical for quite a while so I'm anticipating a wonderful evening. PLUS after work Sunday, I've got soccer. It's been a few weeks, so I'm stoked to play again.  Before I finish this, I gotta bring up this new thing Mia does every once in a while. Maybe once a day. Sometimes when we ask her about something such as for example "what would Daddy say if you fell off the swing?" Mia responds with this hilarious impression or imitation of me saying "Oh no, Mia fell off, don't cry Mia" She imitates Jill and Remi all the time too. HILARIOUS! That's all for now. Thanks for reading!