Thinkcage

I’ve been busy. Yeah, well who isn’t? After a truly trying stretch over the past few months I’m able to exhale and think about life again. Much of the pressure rests on the shoulders of a very demanding freelance work schedule — you know, in addition to the full day I put in at EF? While the extra income, unique projects, and opportunities to work with people I like and respect makes freelance a part of my life, the amount of my life that it has taken up over the past few months has been far too great.

That said, it is a tremendous relief to have finished up a couple of large projects (and many smaller ones) and start thinking about life again. It is fascinating to me how an inbox full of mail, a desk full of papers and magazines, a news aggregator full of unread posts, and a ever-expanding list of household projects can really add to the stress.

So now it’s time to come down, a get back to normal life. For me that means: Catching up on information (blogs, mail, messageboards, etc.). Finally getting to play World of Warcraft. Taking a little time off and spending it with the family. Working on my long-neglected personal project (like this blog). Restart the book on my nightstand.

It’s good to have the weight lifted.

With Mother’s day upon us, I made the trek to the nearest shopping mall in search of gifts. Buying for my wife is usually pretty easy, but in today’s episode I was shopping for my mom who is impossible to shop for. The older I get, the harder it becomes to buy meaningful gifts for my parents. Heck, I gave up on meaningful years ago and now simply strive to buy something that will be remotely useful or functional. I just hate the idea of giving someone a gift that they will be apathetic towards.

The thing is, when you run out of ideas the mall is full of stores that make things easier — Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, etc. in particular. The problem is these places fail to understand what must be at least half of their customer base: men.

So there I was slinking out of Yankee Candle with a gift pack full of candles and lotions of holistically complimentary scents. Something that I am sure mom will at least use. So slinking, you ask? Yes, because all of this scentedness was carefully packaged for me in a fluffy bag stuffed with pink tissue paper, pretty much the last thing I would like to be seen packing through the mall with. Prior to my purchase I had considered stopping by EB Games for a peek at their used games bin but any thoughts of that were soon dashed by my pink portage.

Similarly, my trip to Victoria’s Secret to buy fine smelling things for St. Valentine’s Day was similarly marked by the frilly gift bag it all was packed in. But to top it off, the sales clerk and Victoria’s Secret took further action and sprayed the fountain of pink tissue paper that erupted from my new pink-striped paper bag with perfume. It spent the rest of the week as the gift sat in my trunk, hidden from prying eyes, making the air in my car barely breathable.

I can’t help but think I am not the only man who is uncomfortable when my purchases are so adorned. In fact, it certainly must cost them sales from the more easily embarrassed. If these stores really knew how to treat their male customers, they’d pack this stuff in a plain brown paper bag. With “Motor Oil” or “Carbuerators” printed on the side.

Seriously.

I have lived in Oklahoma for nearly 10 years now but there is one thing I have yet to acclimate to — the weather. Here, weather is big news. On the local news broadcasts, weather is the lead story most of the time.

And of course tornados are big news. Living in Oklahoma, you can expect 2-4 nights a year (usually in April and May) that your entire family sits glued to the TV watching the weatherman track incoming storms. You stare at radar maps and listen to predictions about which cell has tornado potential, which ones are heading your way, and which suburbs should be hiding in a closet waiting for the worst. It can be quite surreal.

Tonight was one of those nights. Not too bad as these things go, but I rushed out of work to the sound of tornado sirens and constant, pre-empted radio coverage of the growing threat. Traffic was horrible and gave me plenty of time to watch and photography the evening storm. I watched as the storm slowly moved west to east as I drove right under it. Rotating clouds, ever lowering with tornado potential clearly evident. That was followed by heavy rain and hail. On one part of the road, the piled hail was more than six inches deep on the roads, rooftops, and grass. Several drivers got out of their cars to free spinning wheels. I have never seen that much hail accumulation.

That said, nothing serious developed in the area and I arrived safely home to my family. All that remains are a few photographs and the knowledge that a few more nights like this are in store.

My son, Brett, is six years old and in the first grade. He and his sister spend hours and hours every week coloring. Sometimes original works in crayon, but most often they are colored pages from the countless coloring books they have. The wall by my desk at work features several of these masterpieces and I even have an overflow folder in a drawer of dozens of pictures they had sent me to work with for which I have no more space to display. The last thing I want is to not be able to produce such-and-such picture when they come for a visit!

A couple of days ago Brett brought me a stack of pages torn from his coloring book. All were carefully colored with crayons. He said he had decided to put them online to sell so he could make money. I was pretty surprised by this. As parents, we have not done much with him to teach him the value of money. Sure he occasionally has some gift money to spend, but for the most part he has been unconcerned. I was even more surprised to learn that he had chosen a price for his works ($4 per piece) and had even considered what to do with the money: the was saving for college! I can only assume this was some seed planted at school as I cannot remember ever mentioning to him anything about college or its cost. I fully expected to be met with a list of toys or video games, but he blew me away with his thoughtful response.

So, last night we got out the camera and took photos of each drawing and put them up on ebay, sending a link to each of his grandparents. He is very proud of his new venture and eagerly anticipates the incoming bids. Scrapbook material that this is, Holly and I plan to keep a good record of this and any proceeds for when he actually does go to college. Should be a fun memory for him. Kids are pretty amazing.

Those who would like to bid on an original coloring by Brett can follow the links below:

• Police Car Coloring by Brett
• Police Car (cutout) Coloring by Brett
• Double-Decker Bus Coloring by Brett
• Military Helicopter Coloring by Brett
• Military Hummer Coloring by Brett
• Red Pickup Truck Coloring by Brett