Storytelling

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Grateful. Exhausted. Here. (My 3 Word Response These Days When Other Parents Ask Me How I’m Doing)

Grateful. Exhausted. Here. (My 3 Word Response These Days When Other Parents Ask Me How I’m Doing)

It is very important to me when I communicate that I am direct and honest, yet not negative. Therefore, I am currently embracing my new official response to when other parents see me and say, “Hey Nick, how are you doing?”

Typically the person asking this has an assuming smile on their face; that I will predictably reply with, “Good, and how are you?”

But no. I tell it like it is; though with a smile on my own face:

“Grateful. Exhausted. Here.”

So far, it seems people appreciate my sincerity. I crafted my answer in a way where it hopefully doesn’t come across as Debbie Downer, because I am making a conscious effort to remove negative people from my social circle. I don’t want to become the type of people I am trying to avoid.

However, it’s fundamentally important to me that I make my communication impeccable. To me, my 3 word response accomplishes my goal of being optimistic, real, and funny.

“Grateful. Exhausted. Here.”

I start off by being optimistic: Grateful. As a person who chooses to be victorious instead of allowing myself to become a victim, I make it clear that I am thankful for the life I have. I am grateful for my wife, my children, our jobs, our home, and the fact we live in a free country.

Then I immediately follow up by being real: Exhausted. People know that both my wife and I work full time and have a Kindergartner son and an 8 month-old daughter; who is still mainly formula and often catching the newest sickness. So I don’t go into details- I never need to.

Lastly, I cover the funny part: Here. I have to assume it’s a universal part of being a parent in modern-day America that simply just showing up to events is quite a task. So yes, being “here” is an impressive thing.

This past weekend the 4 of us drove over 20 minutes to a birthday party. We were early. Really early.

In fact, we were the first people there. The girl on the front desk of the party place asked my wife, “And you are the party mom?”

That’s never a good thing when you’re already 10 minutes to a party.

My wife checked her phone. Turns out, we showed up at the right time… just the wrong day.

Grateful. Exhausted. Here.

Hopefully here, at least.

Leave a comment Posted on Health, Storytelling, Uncategorized, vegan

The Manly Vegan Vs. 48 Ounce GT’s Synergy Trilogy Kombucha

The Manly Vegan Vs. 48 Ounce GT’s Synergy Trilogy Kombucha

Kombucha has been an important part of my manly vegan diet, going on 4 years now. On average, I drink at least three 16 ounce bottles of Kombucha each week. It’s full of probiotics.

I personally don’t believe in taking supplements, as I believe that would make me a hypocrite: If my whole diet is based on only eating healthy food, I figure I must be doing something wrong if I have to depend on some processed form of nutrition.

But Kombucha is a live and active culture. I always feel great after drinking it- and I believe it further strengthens my immune system, after a previous lifetime of process foods filled with an overkill of protein and cholesterol.

Kombucha is my consumable vice. And I’m proud of that.

The Manly Vegan Vs. 48 Ounce GT’s Synergy Trilogy Kombucha

Last month at Whole Foods, I noticed they started carrying 48 ounce bottles (1.4 liters) of GT’s Synergy Trilogy Kombucha. I thought about how fun it would be to see how much of it I could drink in one setting.

Last Thursday, my wife ended up having to buy her lunch, which cost $11. Our rule is that if one of us has to spend money on food for lunch, the other person gets the same amount as an allowance.

It was quite obvious what I would be spending my money on: The 48 ounce bottle of GT’s Synergy Trilogy Kombucha cost $8.99.

In the event there is no world record for the amount of Kombucha consumed in one setting, I decided to clumsily document the event.

I made it over half-way, yet not quite 2/3’s. I could have done more, but it was starting to turn into too much of a good thing; as I began feeling a bit disoriented.

Buy hey, if anyone beats my record, I’d definitely be up for drinking the entire bottle, or more, if necessary.

 The Manly Vegan Vs. 48 Ounce GT’s Synergy Trilogy Kombucha

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Find My Campbell’s Go Twin: Please Help Me By Sharing My Story #FindMyCampbellsGoTwin

 

No, that’s not me on the cover of the package of the Campbell’s Go soup package. But believe me, I get that a lot from people.

However, my New Year’s Resolution for 2017 is to met my twin, my doppelganger, who can easily be spotted on this Southwest Style Chicken with Quinoa soup package; which can easily be found at most grocery stores.

Here’s the thing: I seriously need your help!

I’ve already done everything I know to do at this point…

Campbell’s Soup is aware of my search. I’ve also contacted BBDO, the advertising agency that handles the Campbell’s account and left messages with the account manager.

I get it. Liability issues. They can’t just hand out the name of the guy on the soup package.

They can’t know for sure I’m just a regular, fun guy who simply wants to meet his twin.

So that’s where you come in. I need you to share my story on your social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtag…

#FindMyCampbellsGoTwin

Find My Campbell's Go Twin: Please Help Me By Sharing My Story #FindMyCampbellsGoTwin

Will you do that for me? Just imagine, if enough people who I do know share my story with people I don’t know who share my story with more people I don’t know… it shouldn’t take too long until finally someone actually knows this guy.

Here’s the strategy:

  1. If you know who my twin is, make him aware of this article and/or the video with it.

  2. Help me research. See if there’s anything beyond the fact that BBDO is the advertising agency. What other clues might we find that will lead us closer to him?

  3. Spread the word. Simply spread the link to this blog post and/or the video version.

I am confident that with your help, especially with you (and thousands of people I don’t know) sharing this story, we can cause #FindMyCampbellsGoTwin to trend on Facebook and Twitter.

And from there, I will ultimately meet my twin. You’ll get to eventually see the next chapter of my story.

I look forward to meeting him, finding out what we have in common, and becoming his friend.

Seriously, this is history in the making. And you play a major part in it! I can’t do this without you.

#FindMyCampbellsGoTwin

Find My Campbell's Go Twin: Please Help Me By Sharing My Story #FindMyCampbellsGoTwin

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Will You and Your Sister Both Adopt the Only Child Mentality?

6 years, 1 months.

Dear Jack: Will You and Your Sister Both Adopt the Only Child Mentality?

Dear Jack,

Back in college, I was really into this book called The Birth Order Connection. It explains the theory of how our personalities are ultimately guided by what order we were born in the family.

It describes how an “only child” is different than a first-born child; but if a first-born child is at least 6 years-old when the 2nd sibling is born, both children ultimately become more like only children because those earlier formative years are not shared with another sibling of the same age.

When I Googled “traits of an only child” just now, here’s the first thing that came up:

“Only children, being firstborn themselves, tend to exhibit traits more similar to those of other firstborn children. However, only children seem to have better self-esteem and are higher achievers than children who have siblings (Brophy, 1989, p. 54).”

When your sister was born, you were about 5 and a half years-old; to be exact, 7 months shy of that 6 year-old mark. So really, you’re borderline on whether you will adopt a first born (older brother) mentality as opposed to an only child mentality.

And then same can be said for your sister, as long as no more siblings are born within the next 5 years. In theory, she may never really develop the mentality of “younger sister”. Instead, the two of you could easily both end up having that ultra-independent personality of an only child.

After all, the two of you will never really have to share your toys with each other. The two of you get to live next to each other, but always in different stages of childhood development.

Earlier this week on the drive to school, I told you, “Jack, when Holly’s your age now, you’ll be 11 years-old; you’ll be finishing up 5th grade when your sister turns 6; the age you are now.”

You laughed at the thought of it.

But that’s the reality. You are her older brother and she is your younger sister, but really the two of you may end up technically more like only children.

Love,
Daddy

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Dear Holly: You are Pulling Yourself Up on Furniture/Puppy Mode

8 months.

Dear Holly: You are Pulling Yourself Up on Furniture/Puppy Mode

Dear Holly,

You are officially in puppy mode. That’s right- with your newfound curiosity now that you’ve learned to crawl, having you around the house is like having a cute little puppy among us.

I’ll be on the floor, playing with you, and then you’ll suddenly start crawling to the kitchen to follow Mommy around as she prepares dinner. You often just like to hang out near her feet…. like a puppy. I always warn her you’re there so she doesn’t step on you.

But right now your favorite thing to do is to crawl over to something you can use to pull yourself up on. You are always so proud of yourself once you are standing up. I can tell that you instinctively know what a big accomplishment it is!

It’s exciting to see how you’re just naturally wired to tackle whatever the next physical challenge is. It’s not like I’m reading articles online to help prepare you for the upcoming stage.

Instead, you just go ahead and get started on it; like it’s no big deal. I love your initiative!

Dear Holly: You are Pulling Yourself Up on Furniture/Puppy Mode

You only recently learned to crawl. It didn’t take long at all before you decided you were capable of more. Now here we are on the pulling up stage, which will lead to the standing up stage, and then the walking stage.

No, I’m not rushing you along in the process of growing up. But… I do admit, I’m looking forward to you turning 1 year old in April. By then, I predict you’ll reach a comfortable balance of increased physical mobility and a dependence more on solid foods (which means we get to save all that money we’ve been spending on formula- not to mention, having to clean all those bottles!), but you’ll still be in baby mode.

Or puppy mode…

Love, Daddy