Don't fret

I haven't forgotten about you. My goal over this Thanksgiving break is to compose a meaningful post. So don't criticize this weak excuse for an entry, just consider it a teaser.

Ya growns up

Pretty monumental event this past week...

Moments

Soon, back to your regularly scheduled programming. But first, I want to post the perfect follow up to my previous post.




If you are not familiar with WNYC's RadioLab, I suggest you become familiar with it as soon as possible. It's probably my favorite podcast out there.

Senses

The human body is a physiological wonder. The fact that we have five different manners of experiencing our world is truly fascinating. The idea of losing any sense is an unbearable thought for most people. Some argue that there is even a sixth sense, some unknown way in which we experience the world around us; a source of feelings that cannot be described by the identifiable modes.

Throughout time, the human sensory system has evolved away from being a natural survival tool. While the primal, survival intent is not gone, it is muted by the human realization that senses are the basis of our reality. They are the foundation of human experience, something that should be celebrated and dwelt upon. In the natural world, we see many species that also share our sensory perceptions. We even see fascinating instances of senses which are non-analogous to our own, such as echolocation or electroreception. But the thing that is unique to humanity, is the ability and desire to express, absorb, and appreciate the stimulation around us. The defining human experience, which is not some objective experience. Two people can experience the same input, yet have varying responses and interpretations of that experience. This is the beauty of our cognitive minds.

Two of the senses to which I am partial, and there is no surprise here, are sight and sound. Music and photography, in some way, have been a part of my life, for almost as long as I can remember. I’ve been thinking lately about why I have a particular fascination with these modes. Music fascinates me from a constructive standpoint. From nothingness, order and harmony can be built. Tension and dissonance can crescendo and satisfyingly resolve. Music is about defying the natural world, and putting order in place. Photography, on the other hand, I love for the opposite reason. Everything around us, at any instance, is experiencing atrophy and decay. Photographs allows you to freeze time; to stop a frame of the world from descending into chaos. It allows one to appreciate that instance that will never again exist in the world.

While I am certain that there are forces within our realm that affect us which cannot be described by the litmus test of the human sensory system, I know that the combination of our senses can elevate feelings to a level far beyond what each sense can provide independently. A synergistic physiological experience. And the combination of sound and sight is evocative in a way that cannot be experienced through any other combination.

The South is growing on me

I can hardly believe that the summer is wrapping up soon. After this week, I have one more week with Kristy and the boys, and then they head back to Indiana. I have two more weeks of work after that, then I have one day to zip back up to good old West Lafayette to get started on year two.

We have had a blast down here! The fact that these 10 weeks have felt like a long (working) vacation has not helped our checking account, but we'll just ignore that fact for now. So our summer has definitely been fun filled:

• Went to Michigan to visit family, and have lunch with some old friends, including The Last Angry Man.
• Down to Nashville to meet up with the college crew and have a good time. It wasn't quite The Hangover or anything, but good times were had.
• Road Trip to Atlanta, with a stop at Mammoth Cave along the way.
• Started my internship at Bank of America (I hope to get around to talking more about this after it's over).
• A visit to (racist) Stone Mountain, just east of Atlanta. Laser Light Show!
• A great long weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Shoeless Joel and Amelia.
• A road trip for Kristy and the boys back to Indiana to meet our new nephew, Cade.
• A road trip for me to spend the 4th of July in Brunswick with Shoeless Joel and Amelia.
• An official screening of ATL with Daniel and his wife Katrina, a internet friend of mine (nerdy) who I met in person for the first time this summer.
• A visit from Tracy, which included cliff diving in the Hooch, and a trip to the Georgia Aquarium.
• A road trip back to Brunswick as a family to visit Shoeless Joel and Amelia and take the boys to the beach.
• ...and this weekend: Shoeless Joel and Amelia are coming back to hang out with us, which will include an IKEA excursion, a double date (no kids! woot!), and a picnic/party with Daniel and his wife, and some other internet friends we've never met (nerdy). Also, maybe a game of Settlers of Catan (SUPER nerdy).

So we've spent so much time with Joel and Amelia that they'll probably never want to see us again! But we've had a blast. After this weekend, I imagine we'll mostly just chill at our pool, and get some family time in before Kristy and the boys head out a week earlier than me--they're going back to meet the other new nephew, coming soon! After that, I have two weeks alone here, which hopefully will involve a little bit more adventure for me. I'm thinking of a couple photo excursions, plus I still need to visit Ann's Snack Shop, which is reportedly the place to get the best hamburger in America, known as the "ghetto burger".

Apparently Ann is like the soup Nazi, too. Eight people in her restaurant at a time, no swearing, no special orders, stuff like that. So I'll try to take pictures, but maybe that's not allowed either?

So the verdict on Atlanta? It's pretty fantastic. I'd be totally fine with coming back down here in a year, if that's what works out for us.

Making this list is helping me realize that I have plenty of stuff to blog about. I need to get better at doing this regularly.

Sight without Sound

I was on a roll after the last post. I've revived my photo blog by posting a few recent pictures. Hopefully I will keep things going there, so subscribe to the feed or check back often. I'll try to mention it here when I make updates as well.

Losing teeth, spelunking, and swimming

So I know it's been ages since I've posted pictures of the kids. Since Halloween, in fact! That's pretty pathetic. To make up for it, here's a quick slideshow of some of our recent adventures. I tried to get the slideshow to play from oldest photo to newest, but it only works in reverse chronological order. So bear with me:

While I've been settling in to my internship, the kids have been spending a TON of time in the pool. The pool here at our apartments is fantastic. There are actually two pools, and one has a waterfall that the kids can play in. The best part? They are next to our building, so we don't have to hike across the (huge) complex to go swimming. Also, apparently 90 degrees isn't quite hot enough for people to swim here in Atlanta, so we've had it all to ourselves for the most part. And as you can see, the kids are getting pretty good! That picture of Jaden jumping through the waterfall? Yeah, he jumps off the top of it now. And he's mastered the cannonball as well. Zane absolutely couldn't wait to try out our new pool toys the evening we bought them, so you can see him testing them out in the bathtub. My kids are awesome.

On our way down to ATL, we decided to stop for a day and take the kids to Mammoth Cave. I think we enjoyed it more than they did, but there's a few snapshots from our trip. It was pretty fun teasing them while we were down in there, pretending like a dragon was going to leap out any second. And don't let my wife tell you for one minute that she wasn't actively participating in the teasing.

And before that, a momentous occasion: Jaden lost his first tooth! He's getting so big. I can't believe he starts Kindergarten in the fall!

So yeah, that's what we've been doing. Before we came down, we spent some time in Michigan with family. I had a chance to meet up for lunch with Mike and Steve B., which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, I spent a week with my college buddies in Nashville, which was about as sophomoric as it sounds. In other words, it was awesome. Maybe some pictures from that trip soon. I'm not promising anything, though.


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