A husband's Perspective

I suppose a sub-title to this blog would have to be Long hours, Opera, Girls hair and 20 years is not all that long.

When Lisa told me that I should write the blog for this week I thought, "Hey, no problem, I can just make notes during the week, put together a travelogue of activities and call it good." Needless to say, that didn't happen. This is probably due to the fact that I squished a weeks worth of work into 3 days, took a day of work so I could watch the kids for a couple of days by myself and, let's face it, I forgot. So ready or not, here goes...

My employer, the State of Utah, decided to mandate all available agencies to begin working a four day work week. The hip phrase the governor used when he decided to do this is "Working 4 Utah" (Catchy!). The idea being that everyone would work 10 hour days Monday through Thursday and have Fridays off. According to the Gov this will save the state a truckload of money in utility and maintenance cost and better serve the public by extending our hours of operation into the mornings and afternoon a little more for the days we are working. For me, the jury's still out as to whether this idea will really work or not. Before the days of working 4x10's I was at work at 6:00am and of at 2:30 so I missed traffic both ways (I rode the bus) and I was home close to the time the kids got home from school, now I have to start at 6:30am and don't get off until 5:00 pm which puts me home about 6:15 in the afternoon (I am forced onto the train due to UTA schedules). I admit the Fridays off are nice, but this a change that is going to take some getting used to.

I mentioned that I watched our children Thursday and Friday by myself. The reason for this is that Lisa went to some program up in Logan called "Opera by Children" which is organized by the Utah Festival Opera Company. Ok, I didn't really know what to think about this and I'm not sure if I even do now that she's home and tried to explain it to me. Apparently this program is to teach the teachers how to put on an opera with Elementary school children...One word..."Interesting." Not quite sure how that will work, but apparently they are planning on doing one this next year with the 5th and 6th graders, of which Evan is one, so I guess I'll get to see it all first hand.

As a side note...It seems to me that whenever Lisa is out of town it very nearly always falls over a Thursday afternoon. Sometimes I think she plans it that way. You see, Avery has tumbling on Thursday's and there are certain requirements to how your girls hair is fixed when they come to tumbling class. I know of no better way of saying this than to say simply, "I am hair challenged." Normally a headband will suffice...and does when Lisa isn't around to do some cute thing with her hair. Really, there are many things I do well, however girl's hair is not one of them. On Avery's tumbling days I do give it an effort. After about 15 minutes of me combing, brushing, pulling and tugging on Avery's hair while listening to Avery scream, I can finally get a pony tail in, the problem is it is not very tight, the hair is a little bulgy in places and I still have to get the hairspray to shellac it all down. It's really pretty sad when Avery looks at it in the mirror and says "Dad, you’re not very good at this." I try, but the results are most decidedly not worth the effort I've put into it. I'm just hoping the day comes...and soon, when she can do it herself.

On Saturday evening Lisa and I attended her 20 year High school reunion. I'm not a real connoisseur of reunions, but I do have to say that Lisa's was a lot better than mine was (2 years ago). It took place up at Snowbird in one of their conference rooms and I think there were about 200 people there. Lisa denies it, but I think she was more popular than she let on. There were a lot of people that came up to her to say hi and do a little catching up.."Where do you live, How many children do you have, What do you do, Etc." The usual stuff. If she wasn't popular then she seemed to sure have a large circle of friends, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is the definition of "Popular." In any case, my responsibilities at this function was to 1. Carry the cell phone, 2. Carry the camera, and 3. Carry the pen (for writing down friend’s email addresses). So I was basically the secretary for the calls, (all 7 of them, from our children), Photographer, stenographer for the email addresses and gopher for whatever my beautiful wife needed. I affectionately called myself "the mule." However, despite that, I had a really good time and wouldn't change a thing. I was able to catch up with a few friends I hadn't seen in many years and was able to meet some of those people Lisa had spoken of that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet. It was a very good time and a fun experience I'm sure Lisa will not ever forget.

To wrap up, the week was a busy one, but aren't they all.