I think we’re moving next week?

It’s hot in Baltimore right now. If you’re on the East Coast at all, I don’t have to tell you. It’s miserable. Our new apartment has central air. The new apartment we’re supposed to be moving into next week. Here? Well, sheeeet. I can’t hear anything but fans!

And thank God/Jesus/Allah/The Donale for peppermint soap. Oh, peppermint soap. Dude, get some. Get some, and tell them I sent you. Tell them I said HI.

But we haven’t packed a thing. Boxes are on their way. I’m a pretty stellar packer, though. Maybe I’m wired to be nomadic? I have a feeling our distaste for home ownership might be masking a growing desire to move around some more, maybe just travel a bit. Maybe just, I don’t know, change things up?

And we need to measure rooms and furniture and the massive volume of books that we own, go to Ikea (though that part’s fun, and Charlotte likes the colors and the toys she gets when we go there), actually think about what’s going where.

And we need to not melt before then.

This is all cause for stress, but I don’t feel particularly stressed about it. Rather, I’m looking forward to receiving the wood-handled umbrellas we ordered yesterday, in time for a rainy weekend. I spent like two hours researching umbrellas. (I shit you not.) I couldn’t get the color I wanted, and I’m hoping that “khaki” is not code for “off-white.”

Also, all this sitting around sans shirt has me wishing I could lose weight. That I would, rather. That I would.

Would if I could, and all that.

Charlotte’s first time in the big pool.


For Memorial Day, the family had a little shin-dig.  We got there early, for Charlotte’s first time actually getting into the Big Pool.

She’d been in on my shoulders last year, but she didn’t get into the water.  Friday, I held her on the side before I left for camping with my Dad, and she kicked her legs in the water and laughed herself silly.

Good, she’ll like swimming, I thought.

Now this child is (I might have said this before) legendarily only afraid of the vacuum cleaner — nothing else.  Not dogs, trucks, other kids, loud noises — nothing.  Mama and I are both scared people, and we’d like to keep Charlotte from getting that way ahead of time.  I figured that she would get into the water, cling to me and just chill.

I got her in like a grown-up gets into a slightly cold pool: by just jumping in!  She giggled.  She smiled.  She didn’t claw my neck or freak out.  She didn’t just mellow out in the water.

She kept trying to drink the water.  She kicked her legs.  She tried to float.  She went bonkers when I would pick her up and then dunk her.  She got into the shaded and very pink floaty that Grandpa got her and stayed there all by herself.  She had herself a ball.  When I held her up by her little belly, she kicked and swung her arms like a beginning swimmer. My little fishy. I thought we should limit her to a half hour in the water and sun, and I was sad to have to take her out.

She’s a happy little swimmer, and I’m excited about the idea of taking her to swimming lessons within the next year.

She got back into the Small Pool after that and played with her Uncle Tom, Grandma and Grandpa. Her diaper (this time a non-swim diaper) ballooned like a white beach ball.

Of course, being a toddler, she got hungry and cranky after that.  Drank bubbly water and ate veggies and cheese snacks.  Totally orange face.  She fell and hit her head on the sidewalk, but she didn’t get very upset by it.  Instead it was naptime (she always hits her head at naptime), and she fell asleep with me on the couch at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house.  We sweated all over one another. I got up groggily from too much beer and sun and not enough coffee and water.

Now we’re sweating in the Old Apartment, thinking about the central air that will be ours in 2-3 weeks, the hope that keeps our window units in their boxes.

Another thing I learned today: Charlotte sweats a lot, like her parents. When we fell asleep on the couch, that wasn’t all my sweat.

Our little Hotbox.

Lovely to not be dangerously hot outside.

Which meant, today, that Charlotte and I could have breakfast with Grandma and Aunt Sheree and that we get to take a walk later to see Aunt Frannie (Frances, same as Charlotte’s middle name) and Aunt Patti.  We we get to see Uncle Joey later, too, and Uncle Tom and Aunt Heather and Auntie Wu and Grandpa this weekend.

I’ve never liked hot weather.  But 100+ degree heat indices (and even temperatures!) are dangerous for a baby and have kept us indoors a hell of a lot this summer.  It’s even very hot when we do to the farmers market on Saturday mornings very early.

There’s escape this weekend in the form of temperatures in the mid-upper 8os, less humidity and, well, the sheer desire to go the hell outside!

Had good coffee.

I love being a father; I really do.  But I also love getting a coffee and shooting the shit with my pal.  Tonight I got to do both.  Even though it was hot, we enjoyed nice coffee standing around a NO LOITERING sign.  It was fantastic.  Charlotte had a short walk with Mama and got to hang out, since Mama worked very late last night.

I’ve had a rough couple of weeks at work (etc.), and I thought aloud tonight to the Mrs. that I would love a cigarette tonight but that I wouldn’t smoke one.  I did smoke in the past.  Not that far past.  The last time I smoked was June 2009 at a party, and I don’t, uh, remember smoking it very well.  So, to indulge my desire to smoke, I ask if I can light my pal’s cigarette (my brother seldom lets me, you punk!).  It’s fun.

I got a thousand bug bites on my feet and ankles.

And, in the weird light tonight, I noticed that I’m more tan than I’ve been since, well, my early teens.  At my age, that’s probably not the brightest idea.  But, well, whatever.

I am officially between pairs of glasses.  My ultra bullet-proof lenses cracked, from going in and out of the heat and AC this summer, I think.  Turns out that our improved health insurance means my glasses, whatever I want, are $25 (+$50 if I want Transition, and I do).  Awesome.  Only I don’t have time to go to the eye doctor this week or next or last week.  So I’m squinting a lot.

I’m officially finished my AmeriCorps time in two weeks.  My office becomes a library after tomorrow.  I think I might be off-campus the week after, my last week.  Bizarre.  I didn’t accomplish much this year, after a great year last year.  I think I might actually take my Dell Mini outside of my apartment, after owning it for almost six months.  That might be exciting.

I have been drinking more coffee than usual, being online less than usual and reading more than usual lately, though.  That is excellent.

I am in my underwear on my couch now, since Charlotte’s asleep, enjoying the AC and wet hair from a shower.

And now I will stop revealing things for the evening.

“Look at dem blue ayez.”


We took Charlotte for a walk this evening because she’s been fussy from when we get home until she goes to bed all week.  We passed a man who said something about her pretty blue eyes.  I looked at my wife and joked that there will come a time that I would punch someone in the face for that.  Oh, the teenage years will be fun.

But, yes, her eyes really are this blue.

Honeysuckles in the morning.


Charlotte and I took a walk early this morning.  We exchanged many “Good Mornings,” enjoyed a nice breeze and savoured the smell of honeysuckles and freshly-cut grass. If she ever manages to stay awake in the baby carrier, she now insists on being able to look around at her leisure. This requires not only her usual sun-hat, but also sunglasses. Usually though, like today, she is asleep before I even hit the elevator, rocked by the nice warmth and softness of Daddy’s belly.

Hot Jamis.

hotjamis0709
Got to take a short ride with my two bike pals yesterday. It was hot, and we were on a tight time budget, but it was a blast. We only rode about 12 miles, but it kicked my ass around a little. In my defense, I haven’t been riding regularly for three months. I had just re-spoked Zack’s rear wheel, trued both and patched a tire. Wouldn’t you know that at the end of the ride, when we were standing around talking, the HIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSS of a blown tire interrupted us? We had ice water and enjoyed some AC in my apartment. Then we fixed it up over beers.  Had it not blown, I would probably have gone home alone and taken a shower and read for a while.  Having some beer and working on bikes was much better.  Not a bad way to spend the afternoon!

Grey June days.

….always remind me of summer 2002, when I lived  in Massachusetts.  June is lovely there, especially early on.  I remember frequently wearing a sweater there in June.  It’s a nice, relaxing atmosphere today, before Baltimore’s heat and humidity set in.  I’ve been enjoying our window fans at night.  I’m helping with a mural today, so I get to be outside, too.

Fall, where are you?


I’m ready.  You can come out now.

I should be thankful. We had a relatively mild summer, especially at the end. And, really, as far as a hot week in early September goes, this isn’t so bad. But it felt like it yesterday afternoon, as I patched my second tube in three days in the afternoon sun, on the side of the road, after a crappy day.

It rained a lot in Boston.


A lot. This was the end of the first day. But, while it was wet and while my sandals were full of grit and gook, it was cool. I wore a flannel that day, all day.  That was pretty awesome.

The morning we were leaving, this little gal/guy came out in North Quincy.  He was out further, but I scared him when I took his picture.

Didn’t wear deodorant today.

And I don’t stink.  I mean, I didn’t hike twenty miles or go to an outdoor festival or anything today.  But I did ride (as in on a bike, not in a car) out to Towson with my friend to run an errand.  Lots of hills.  Got very sweaty.  Smelled fresh when I returned to have cream soda and fancy cookies.

See, Mrs. P. tried baking soda under her arms last week.  She didn’t tell me until two days later, when she developed chaffing.  Turns out that she didn’t use water and instead let something akin to fine sand rub under her arms.

Mixing with water produced better results.

And I don’t stink.  The expensive so-so stuff I was using be gone.  Turns out that company is gettin sued for basically lying anyway.  (More on that later.)  That salt stuff always worked great for me.  But it took forever to put enough on, and I always broke the damned things.  Or, at least, sharpened them with my hairy pits.

Today, I made a paste of water and baking soda, rubbed that smell-less stuff under the old arms.  Didn’t stink when I sweat.  Didn’t stain my shirt.  Didn’t smell like anything at all.

And I don’t stink!

Chilling, post hiring.


I’m not used to getting up in the morning without having to spend hours job-hunting. I still wake up with that sour taste in my mouth, soon so be replaced with the taste of a purpose and a nice bike ride every morning to get there.  And lots of coffee.

So, my job.  I can’t say too much because I’m excessively paranoid and would prefer that anyone I know at “work” not find this here blog.  Let’s just say that I am going to be spending a year in the “domestic Peace Corps” that is VISTA.  I am assigned to a local university/college, where it’s like I’m an employee while I’m really a government employee.  Makes a lot of sense, huh?

I am going to be working with community groups and local schools to pool resources and foster a sort of service relationship between the two.  You know, schools often float in their surroundings.  I know this from the famous “Goucher Bubble” we used to live in, prior to it’s…bursting.  There’s a lot of work there to be done.  While my relationship with academic philosophy is likely over for good, my relationship with higher education might not be.  I don’t think it’s useless, not at all.  [Not that I think academic philosophy is useless.  I think I got a hell of a lot out of it.]

So I get a nice 4.something ride every morning, and another on the way home, which can be dallied on by taking a few laps around Druid Hill.  The pay is terrible, but Mrs. P. says we can afford it, and she knows.  I don’t.  I don’t know anything about money.  I just try not to waste it.

It’s a good deal.

I am going to Philly next month for  week of training, which is weird.  I don’t like time away from my other half, and I’m very shy about meeting new people.  But I think it will be productive, maybe even fun.  And I get to spend a week in downtown Philly.  Poor me.

The week before that, we are going to do a little travelling.  Hit New York, likely Washington.  Going to a sweet 90s concert in Baltimore.  Gonna be a nice summer.

I suppose I should edit that dissertation draft I wrote nearly a year ago and send that puppy in.  You know, finish my doctorate and all that.

And dude, I get business cards!