Sweet Reunion

Back in 'oh eight I wrote one of my favorite essays entitled Sleeping Jenny. I put the link to it in case you would like to go back and check it out. I reference it now because something miraculous happened last night.

Working the afternoon shift does have some advantages (like shift differential pay and not setting an alarm clock) but it does put me home later than I'd like. Last night my manager invited a few of us to a place called Buffalo Wild Wings which is a bar and wing grill. Utah readers may have gone to Wingers or Pizza Hut to get wings, but it really doesn't compare to what they offer in Texas. In Texas you'd be hard-pressed to find a stripmall without a wing bar and donut shop. Forget the easy decision between honey bbq and regular, Buffalo Wild Wings has a range of spicyness including 14 flavors. Last night I tried the third from the hottest - Mango Habanero.

I could tell you how delicious the wings were, but that really isn't the point of my story. I could also tell you how one of my coworkers sent me home with their Asian Zing leftovers and what a good combination that was to the second showing of The Colbert Report, but that is also beside the point. What I want to tell you is what happened AFTER retreating to the bedroom.

I didn't turn on the light for fear of disturbing Sleeping Jenny. As the girls have grown she has become more tolerable and less violent, but I still don't want to poke the bear if you know what I mean.

I slid into bed about 1 AM. To my extreme surprise and delight, Sleeping Jenny performed a sudden and impressive horizontal 270 until she was smack-dab in the middle of the bed and pulling my arm around her. It's only a Queen so that left me with one arm over her and the other dangling toward the floor. Eventually my leg followed. But, the half of my body that was still on the bed loved it so much that I stayed there and cuddled her until 3, enjoying the scent of her hair like a junkie off the wagon. Eventually the need to return circulation to 115 pounds of me became too great to ignore. But while it lasted, it was awesome!

"Why do you have a hole in your face?"

"Why do you have a hole in your face?" Emma would sometimes ask me. She would sit on my lap and poke at my cheek, a quizzical expression on her face.

"I don't know. It's just always been there I think." I would say.

"It looks really funny," she'd reply.

A while ago I was talking to my dad and he stopped the conversation to say, "Whoa, you're a pit viper just like me!" pointing to a hole in his face in the exact same spot. I guess the medical term is "Dilated Pore" but what it really looks like is a gaping hole. I think he meant to say something more like, "You've got a viper pit just like I do!"

Hole. Viper pit. Dilated pore. Genetic blemish. Sunscreen storage for later applications.

Call it what you will. It was annoying.

Today, I ventured beyond my blue-collar range into a land of Range Rovers and raspberry-infused water. I cast aside the shackles of lower-middle class to join the ranks of the rich and micro-dermibrased. I went to... the dermatologist.

I didn't really get microdermibrasion. I don't actually know how that works. I picture tiny surgeons driving Micro-Machines around your face with very small cheese graters attached to their bumpers like snow plows.

My dad said a dermatologist could do a punch biopsy to cut out the area around the hole and just throw in a few stitches to close it all up. Sounded pretty easy.

So, today I did. I sat in the waiting room (where they offered the standard magazines but also a surprising amount of C.S. Lewis) and read BusinessWeek in hopes of fitting in more.

The whole process was quick and fairly painless. It is strange to get a numbing shot so close to your eye but I would do it a thousand times before getting numbed for a vasectomy again!

While I was in the shop, I decided to get a mole on my back removed. Piece of cake. They were done before I realized they had started.

While the doctor was stitching my face she said, "We have to make sure we leave the smallest scar possible and avoid bruising. People may not be pretty when they come in here but they're pretty when they leave!"

That comment worried me a little as I began wondering if I was pretty enough for them to let me out, or if they caged the ugly people in back until nightfall.

"Mmmmmmm, cheese!"

Jenny and I have done a much better job of limiting the amount of TV the girls watch. They usually get a show in the morning and one at night. Emma gets to watch a few shows and read books during her "quiet time" while Abbi is napping.

The winter months are difficult, however. Additionally, in our current living situation, it is very hard to keep the girls quiet while Daxton is napping if they're not engrossed in Dora or Mickey Mouse.

With my work schedule Jenny and I have not been getting enough sleep. The mornings we can both wake up with the girls and have breakfast before 8 AM are wonderful because they give us more time to enjoy each other's company before I have to be out the door for another 12-hour shift. Working 10 to 10 only feels good when I'm looking at my paycheck. Aside from that minute or two of excitement, it blows.

I would love to spend every free moment creating lasting memories with my daughters. If I could we would always be learning valuable lessons together, bounding through meadows and expanding our minds. But, the reality of life is that sometimes you just want to be able to all pile into bed together and cuddle and doze while Nick Jr. does the entertaining.

As much as I love getting drawn into the storylines myself, I have been trying to use that time to read. Lately Abbi has discovered that my back makes a suitable lounger when I am lying on my stomach. She stretches out and plants her little head between my shoulder blades. I stare at my book and pretend I'm not listening to Handy Manny's building tips.

Today Jenny brought the camera into the bedroom and started snapping photos of Abbi on my back. Abbi kept saying, "CHEESE!! CHEESE!! CHEESE!!" the way she normally does when someone is taking pictures.

I guess she was hungry because after a second she said, "Mmmmmmmm, cheese. I want some cheese!"

It was adorable.

Oh, yeah, and before I left for work... I brought her some cheese.