On Motherhood

Well, it's that time of year again. Mother's Day may just be an over commercialized way to sell flowers and cards full of cheesy prose, but it does remind us to pause and give thought concerning where we came from.

"Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope
outlives them all." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

For all intents and purposes, your mother is singlehandedly responsible for your existence. Call it a blessing or call it biology, either way we all popped out of someone else's torso. Like some strange, gooey Matryoshka doll, we all emerged with the world our oyster. In and of itself, that's quite an accomplishment.

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother.
I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical
education I received from her." -- George Washington

The first five years are a blur. None of us remember much from our birth years. Maybe a bad dream, a birthday, or that moment where we barely opened our eyes as our father's carried us off to bed. Yet for our parents those years hold the most valuable memories. Memories of us from a time when we were perfect, innocent, and needed them the most.

" Who is it that loves me and will love me forever with an affection which no
chance, no misery, no crime of mine can do away? — It is you, my mother."--
Thomas Carlyle

Now, our lives are our own. We make our choices. Some stayed, some left. Many of us, myself included, have families of our own. Our lives branch out infinitely, splitting our focus and our priorities to ensure continued growth. We try our best to make sure we work toward a positive future, while not relegating our past to time forgotten. Trying to remember family and old friends, while raising families and making new friends, is never an easy thing.

"I think my life began with waking up and loving my mother's face."-- George
Eliot

All the while, our mother's one focus in life was to ensure that our happiness in all things preceded her own. Even in the countless situations where she knew the outcome of our naivety, she watched knowingly, giving us the chance to learn from our mistakes.

"Making the decision to have a child-it's momentous. It is to decide forever to
have your heart go walking around outside your body." --Elizabeth Stone

Truth be told, they aren't always perfect. I've lost many a fight to the trump card of motherhood, many a fight that under any other circumstances I would win. At the end of the day there are few things I wouldn't do once she plays the mother card.

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." -- Lin Yutang

Now some may not fall so easily in to this honored category. Some may be unknown to us, some have passed, and some seem like they're out to ruin our lives. But love or hate, you are always hard pressed to identify someone in your life who has more to do with who you are than your mother, whether because of her or in spite of her.

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."-- Abraham Lincoln

So thanks Mom, and thanks to all mothers. Without you there would be no me. And since I'm pretty fond of this existence, I owe you quite a bit. Enjoy your day, it's the least we can do.

Sorry about the morning sickness,
Jimmy

The Weekend Cometh

Well, here we go into another weekend. After work today it's off to the house for some much needed family time. Tomorrow it's more of the same as I return to work a half a day or so, since I took Wednesday off for those Children's Concerts and to run my laundry list of errands. After work I'm off to play with the LCSO for the family concerts, basically the same as the Children's Concerts but open to the public with cheap tickets. Prior to the concert we'll do a petting zoo for instruments, where the kids and hold and play with the instruments. No playing the wind instruments this year due to Porkatosis spreading around, but it's still a great way for the kids to interact with the instruments and ensures we'll have replacements someday when we go to that big rehearsal in the sky.

Tomorrow night, a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday of course is Mother's Day. So I'll save my sappy emotional material until then. Plans are take out mom and dad to see Star Trek, while Crystal and Caitlyn head over to her grandmother's house to celebrate there. We'll meet up in the middle, do some dinner, and then probably sit around, sip on some coffee, and shoot the shit. Maybe on Saturday I can do something for Crystal, since Sunday is already pretty full with family. I'm not sure what yet, but I'll think of something.

The rest of the month is shaping up to be rather uneventful. Concerts with the Juarez Symphony have been shifted to June due to Mad Sow Disease, so my workload has shifted a bit. We'll probably hit up the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival over Memorial Day weekend. I'll have a 3 day weekend so it should be a whole lot of fun. Let me know if you need me to ship you over a bottle or two of New Mexico's finest. Please abstain if expecting, you know who you are.

More to come,

Jimmy

A Week in the Life 20 - A Case of the Mondays

Another weekend come and another exciting week ahead. Today is ho hum. It's Monday and I'm a bit on the sleepy side, but I'll get to that later.

While we're on tangents here, do you ever look ahead at your week and try to pinpoint chunks of time when you might be able to catch up on sleep? I see the future and little lines shoot out at specific moments like connecting stars in a constellation, mapping my zzzz's like some distant cosmic event. I see naps this evening as a possibility, think Wednesday afternoon perhaps, maybe Thursday night... who knows.


But back to reality, I'm sure none of us really gets as much sleep as we'd like. That's what death is for. Soon will I rest, yes, forever sleep. Earned it I have.

Last weekend was the final season subscription concert for the Las Cruces Symphony. That officially marks the end of my fourteenth season with the Symphony. This week we'll be playing our Children / Family concerts. We round up all the 5th graders from all of Las Cruces' elementary schools on Wednesday morning, bus them in, and play three concerts in a row. It's a great opportunity for us to reach out to the community and provides some insight for those children who are about to undertake an instrument of their own. On Saturday we play a family concert at 3pm as well. Families can bring their children for the concert and the kids can hold and see all the instruments to get a better feel for them.

This weekend also marks the release of the revamped Star Trek franchise. On Sunday I'll be taking my parents out to see the movie. It is a fine coincidence that Sunday is Mother's Day, as my mother is a huge Star Trek buff so it's an easy gift.

At some point this week I'll finish up my online class, get an oil change, get a haircut, and apply for a Passport card to enable travel to Mexico come June. Somewhere in between I'll be hanging out with Caitlyn and Crystal, watching the NBA playoffs, finishing Children's Week, and hopefully adding a couple of posts.


Busy busy busy.


Oh yeah.. I said I'd get back to the "I'm sleepy" thing later. So, um, yeah. I'm sleepy.


So have a great week, and best of luck in all your endeavours.
Jimmy

P.S. Still not dead of swine flu, and still eating bacon like it's breathing air.

WTF 15 - Swine Flu Part 2

Ahh, nothing quite like the breakdown of civilized society. As Porkatosis continues to ravage the western hemisphere, 9/11 style paranoia again graces the streets of America. Nothing sets you up for the 4th of July like a scared American ready to shut down his or her borders to protect themselves from dark people.

Meanwhile, "Patient Zero," as he is lovingly known, sits at home in La Gloria, Mexico, unaware of his inevitable impact on Ben and Jerry's stock portfolio.

In the meantime, even I must admit that the probability of a swine flu outbreak has increased my hermit-tude a little. Something about having a 6-month old child that forces you to be concerned about things you once brushed aside as mere inconveniences.

I'm just saying that you won't find me throwing Caitlyn into a crowd of sneezing children anytime soon. I might have considered it in the past to test her immune system, but I'll probably just keep her home and watch Spongebob. She'll thank me later.

Fortunately, swine flu has managed to take our minds off of the economy for awhile. Personally I'm moving my investments over to pharmaceuticals and surgical masks and away from pork futures, it just seems like the right thing to do.

In other good news, pork spare ribs are buy 1 get 2 free at Albertson's. I'm ready for the 'itis motherfathers! Nothing says fight back like three juicy racks of slow roasted pork ribs slathered in sauce. Hell yeah!

So yeah, fight back by eating pork!

The more we eat = the fewer there are to make out with = swine flu free America.

Later on today I'll be watching Fox News, only to see how they can spin this into somehow being the fault of Barack Obama. My guesses for their reasons why:

• Higher taxes take your money preventing you from buying flu remedies.


• A soft stance on border protection allowed swine flu to cross over unchecked, where it has induced illness and stolen jobs from hardworking Americans.


• Patient Zero, Edgar Hernandez, hails from Mexico, but only recently moved there. He is originally from a pig farm in Portugal where he once herded pigs with his pet dog. Upon further investigation it has been determined that his herding dog was in fact a recently born Portuguese Water Dog adopted by ... you guessed it... Barack Obama. Swine flu came not from Mexico, but straight from the First Dog.


• Patient zero was released from Guantanamo Bay.


• Swine flu backwards is Ulfeniws, the name of Obama's imaginary childhood friend.

So I'll continue my verbal assault on swine flu unabated. It's kill or be killed at this point my tasty friend.

More to come,

Jimmy

In case you didn't notice.

New page header. Figured you were tired of the initial shock of my head on a naked body. This one's a little less personal. It's a bit evil for my taste, because I'm really only that evil on the inside. We'll see how she goes.

Once I link the image online it should be a bit larger.

WTF 14 - Swine Flu

Well, nothing says we're all going to die like a nice swine flu epidemic. It's been way too long since we were impacted by some random animal-transmitted disease. Used to be every other week we were swarmed by Africanized honey bees, tormented by avian flu, or making our death beds with the Hantavirus.

But time passed and man soon forgot that his relationship with the animal kingdom is 80% delicious, and 20% super fucking deadly.

And by 20% I mean 10% from eating a steady diet of bacon and 10% from the swine flu that will ravage your immune system, and eventually you'll end up as a dotless marker on a long forgotten Google maps epidemic tracking page.

Curious, click HERE!

Now I'm all for death by bacon ingestion. Sounds great. And who's to say that you can't just get rid of the old artery, grab one from the leg, and send that bitch upstairs. Lo and behold, you're back at Wendy's the next week chomping on the Baconator™. You just have to love science.

What I don't like are these animal related diseases. What the hell did we claw our way to the top of the food chain for only to be taken out by French kissing a pig. Hell, if I had known French kissing a pig was going to kill me someday, I'd have left the beer goggles at home years ago. And Swine Flu? Can't we come up with something a little more elaborate than Swine Flu? Swine Flu is like half a step above calling it Pig Sick. "Yup, poor Clamentine done bought the big one on account'uh the Pig Sick. Yeh caint be swoonin' over dem hogs like you used to could."

Let's make it a little more interesting... call it:

• Porcine Influenza
• Bacon Fever
• Porkatosis
  
• Wilbur's Revenge
• Mad Sow Disease
• Pigletitus: The Reckoning
• PAIDS

See, it's easy. A properly named disease will incite fear in all but the most cynical of bloggers.

So good luck surviving the latest animal related disease!

Stay tuned for the poultry induced rheumatoid arthritis... Chicken Fingers.

Or Veal Parmaseanorrhea, Duck L'Orange You Glad You Didn't Die of Swine Flu, and my personal favorite... Burgerpes.

Here's to hoping the vegetables don't turn on us again,

Jimmy

A Week in the Life 19 - Rising From the Ashes

Ahh, good ol' blog. Long time no see.

After a lovely weekend, I return for another week of musical goodness. Last Saturday was spent in Juarez, Mexico playing Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsikov. Sunday was an off day, spent enjoying an otherwise uneventful day with Caitlyn and Crystal. We just vegged out all day and watched the NBA playoffs and Sunday night FOX animation. Here's a quick clip of the piece performed by the Moscow Symphony.



This week is the final concert for the Las Cruces Symphony's 08-09 season. The highlight of this coming weekend's performance will be Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. Haven't played that piece in over a decade so I'm looking forward to playing it again. Here's a rare video of Stravinsky himself conducting the piece.




So again you may see me only intermittently, as I'll be busy juggling the goodness that is life. Other than work and symphony, there's the usual school which is wrapping up next week. I'll also be working on making the magical switch from the heater to the air conditioner. I'm pretty sure we're through all the cold fronts mother nature wants to send our way, so it's the balmy sizzle of summer from here on out.


Apologies in advance for what will no doubt be a slow few weeks on the blog.


I'll try to throw up whatever interesting crap I find online. I always have that uneasy feeling that you've all seen everything I post up here somewhere else on the Internet, but I'm going to do it anyway just to look like I'm keeping up with my end of the deal.


So here's to another week! Caitlyn turns 6 months on the 29th. You know, they do really grow up too fast. I wasn't sure after hearing it 15,000 times, but it all makes sense now.


Hope life finds you well, and if not, best of luck in the future. I'm going to spend the last 10 minutes of lunch grabbing a warm cup of coffee, and searching for useless junk to toss up on the blog for the rest of the week.


Take care,

Jimmy

Hooray for micro blog posts! Halfway through Juarez Symphony rehearsal. Whatever shall I eat on the way home?

Sweet, testing out the new phone posting feature.

A Week in the Life #18 - Happy Feaster

Yes, happy feaster is right. Your friendly neighborhood Jimmy is officially stuffed with honey glazed ham, corn on the cob, potato salad, innumerable Chinese food dishes, and assorted grilled meats. All in a couple days work for this Easter weekend carnivore.

So now, back to the grind. After a lovely weekend off, including Monday, it's back to work. Have to make a living somehow, and for the time being it seems that the best way to do that is by working. Personally, I'm hoping that whole concept changes in the future. If I'm lucky someday you'll be able to make a living by sitting in the comfortable corner of the couch and falling asleep on a partly cloudy afternoon while watching The Simpsons.

Someday.

Not a whole lot going on this week. I had Monday off and I'll have Thursday and Sunday off this week as well, so my work week is split right down the middle.

This week my priority is cleaning the house and reassembling a computer I've been working on. I received a nice little piece of work the other day, and I'll be doing a complete tear down and rebuild since it wasn't posting. I noticed a couple of inconsistencies (i.e. improperly seated RAM, video card power cable plugged in 1 notch off) so I'm just going to dismantle the whole thing and start from scratch. Wish me luck.

As far as cleaning the house goes, I need to take out the trash and wash the dishes (I'm way overdue, it's totally my turn). Likewise I need to get rid of all the clutter surrounding my computer desk. I need to file away the important stuff (W-2's, paper copies of taxes) and throw out the rest.

This will be my final rest week before heading into the home stretch for symphony season. Juarez next week, Las Cruces the following 2 weeks, then Juarez again for two more weeks. The whole thing is already making me a bit sleepy. However, I'll stay active and alert if only to avoid the inevitable "Slowpoke Rodriguez" references.

Speaking of which, at some point I should acquire some credentials. I've been border-hopping the last 3 years pretty regularly and have yet to procure myself a passport. If I'm not mistaken I'm going to require one here shortly or they won't let my ass back into the country. Fortunately there's that new border crossing card which covers you for land travel to Mexico and Canada. It's cheaper and more efficient than a traditional passport, so I'll probably go that route. Especially since I won't be taking my European vacation anytime soon.

Caitlyn made out like a little pink Easter bandit. Chocolate bunnies, creme eggs, handsome little outfits, and even some delicious rice husks. She still seems to amaze us everyday, and I'll tell you right out that I totally don't deserve this kid.

Speaking of which, it's high time I put up some damn baby pictures. I talk and talk about her like she's Snuffleupagus. Add that to my list of things to do this week. Clean house, fix computer, post baby pictures to blog/Facebook page. Done, done, and done.

More to come,
Jimmy

P.S. I ate this bunny too.....