snail

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Dear Jack: I Feel Like I’m Getting My Life Back, Part 2

3 years, 8 months.

Continued from Dear Jack: I Feel Like I’m Getting My Life Back, Part 1.

Dear Jack,

snail shell

I sort of feel like an actor who had a steady gig on a popular sitcom that ended.

This is my time to regroup and figure out who I am apart from the magazine I wrote for the past 3 years.

Keep in mind, you are currently 3 years, 8 months old.

That means for the majority of your life, at least two hours of each day of mine was consumed with me keeping the blog up.

I did 25 posts a month; over 1,000 different posts during those 3 years. That’s a lot of hours!

Now that I’m choosing to only do around 3 posts per week, half of what I’m used to, I find myself with more free time on my hands and less stress.

I really paid my dues as a daddy blogger and now I get to be on cruise control. It’s nice to sort of sit back and just watch you be a kid; not feeling that I have to constantly be writing a story about what I see in front of me.

I no longer am preoccupied when I come home, thinking about needing to check my email to see what my editors had to say or how the blog did that day.

Nor do I have to always be writing; sacrificing sleep and quality time with you and Mommy.

Just now, I finished Rocky on Netflix. I have time to watch movies now! That concept is very awesome to me.

I have more undivided time for both you and Mommy. I am liking life a lot more now.

It sounds weird, but I’m realizing that I am laughing out loud and smiling more now. I’m a happier person.

So much stress is off my shoulders and my brain. I feel like I’m getting my life back. And by “my life,” that always means you and Mommy.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: I Feel Like I’m Getting My Life Back, Part 1

3 years, 8 months.

snail California

Dear Jack,

It’s been a month now since I revealed to you that for the past 3 years of your life, I had been the daddy blogger of Parents.com, known as The Dadabase. I will always be grateful for those years; for the experience and credibility I received as a writer.

I also can’t deny that the supplemental income that came with the job was quite helpful. It helped get our family out of debt and has helped us start saving our down payment on our next house.

Not to mention, would I be gaining any notoreity in the car review world if it weren’t for the platform that writing for a major magazine gave me? Nope.

Just a few days ago, I was invited as one of America’s car review bloggers to cover the big Lexus NX reveal. And ultimately, I have Parents.com to thank for elevating my career and giving me the kind of visibility and connections that live on even after the contract ended.

I thank God for Parents.com seeking me out. I have always considered that a miracle; especially because it happened at a dark time in my life. I am eternally grateful for my 3 years writing for Parents.com and will always think the world of them. I still can’t believe they picked me and kept me all that time.

They indirectly taught me to write and think more professionally. I totally see that now.

Granted, I was never famous. (I was, however, a candidate for both Katie Couric’s show and Steve Harvey’s show. They had their people calling me, halfway trying to recruit me to come on their shows. Ultimately, I don’t think I was “shticky” enough for the character I needed to play for their segments.)

Now that I no longer have a major publication attached to my name, I’m finding myself as a regular guy now; a normal dad who happens to have his own daddy blog.

To Be Continued… 

Dear Jack: I Feel Like I’m Getting My Life Back, Part 2.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Readers’ Expectations 3: Mexican Mustaches, Arabian Snails, and W.W.J.D? (What Would Jesus Drive)

 

Friday is typically my slowest day: Less people come to my site on Friday than any other day of the week.  So for the average 168 who do show up on any given Friday, the most hard-core and devoted readers of scenicroutesnapshots.com, I love to share my most off-the-wall Google searches.  Here’s how random Internet searchers found my site this week:

“Mexican mustaches”– This was a popular search on Wednesday, which was Cinquo de Mayo.  Many people out there just wanted to get in the Cinquo de Mayo spirit by reading about Mexican mustaches.  I can’t argue with that…

“will Earl Hickey ever shave his mustache?”– I hate to be bearer of bad news, but the last episode of the NBC sitcom My Name is Earl aired a year ago.  The show was cancelled.  So I think it’s safe to say actor Jason Lee has shaved by now.  Sorry.

“cartoon spoon of sugar”–  Uh, yes, because cartoon spoons of sugar are so much sweeter going down… You’re… weird.

“الحلزون”– When I Googled this, it took me to the Wikipedia entry for “snail”.  This script is Arabian.  It also took me to the link below, which is for some kind of art contest taking place in the country of Syria: http://www.syriacartoon.com/index.htm

“cannabis and me”– I like this.  I really do.  It makes me think of either an afterschool special or an 80’s movie about a kid and his weird alien friend.

“show me, don’t waste”– The new “green” state slogan for Missouri.

“in the temptation of Jesus, Jesus drives”– Man, I don’t know what Bible you’re reading, but when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days, he sure didn’t simply drive off to Italy in a Toyota Camry.

1 Comment Posted on Storytelling, Uncategorized

Pickles Make for Good Reading Material- Episode 5

If the only way you could eat any meat was by actually killing the animal yourself, would you still be a carnivore?

I am aware that I am a hypocrite. Because if I could only eat the meat of animals that I killed myself, I would dang near be a vegetarian. Fish don’t really make sounds or look at me, so I could kill them. And eggs. Plus they don’t have to suffer such a violent death as noise-making, blood-spilling cattle, chickens, turkeys, and pigs.

The thought of eating the veins, muscles, and fat of what was recently a living being is so weird. But still for every lunch and most dinners, I eat a meal consisting of cut-up chunks of animal flesh. And aside from the act of slaughtering an animal, there’s the cleaning and processing of the carcass.

The only animals I have a desire to kill are the ones that want to kill me. And so far no grizzly bears, killer wolves, rabid foxes, spitting cobras, or hoof-punching deer have tried to attack me. Just mosquitoes. And they deserve to die because they’re trying to steal my blood. And blood is life. They are trying to kill me; therefore they deserve to die.

When it comes down to it, I’m a vegetarian at heart. Just not in action. The main reason I’m not a practicing vegetarian is because I don’t see how that would be a practical lifestyle.

 

We plan so much of our lives around eating. When people get together for more than a few hours, a meal is often involved. What if I went to dinner at someone’s house and they grilled out hamburgers for me and there was no salad available? What would I eat, just a bun with ketchup and onions and pickles?

Often vegetarians eat portabella mushrooms instead of meat. Maybe I could do that with pickles. Put a slab of pickles in between two buns. I can see it now, taking the nation by storm: Pickle Burgers, because…

 

“If you don’t hear that crunch, then it ain’t worth the munch!’

Pickles Make for Good Reading Material Table of Contents:

Episode 1 http://wp.me/pxqBU-1X
Episode 2 http://wp.me/pxqBU-20
Episode 3 http://wp.me/pxqBU-26
Episode 4 http://wp.me/pxqBU-4o
Episode 5 http://wp.me/pxqBU-ef