Ready for a Single Dad Reality Show?

Here's a note from RJ at SingleDad.com:

SingleDad.com is past the stages of development and is now looking to cast 3 to 4 additional fathers for their TV Reality show by December 4, 2009! I need your help finding the “perfect fit”.

Here is what we are looking for:

• Dads residing anywhere in the Greater Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Diego Counties
• Any type of fatherhood situation that is in the early stages of transitioning to being a single parent.
• Fathers never married with children, newly divorced with children or widowed fathers raising their children.
• To qualify, single dads must have at least 50% custody of their children
• Any lifestyle, color or ethnicity
• Men ages 45 or less are preferred

We will cast 3 to 4 “transitioning” fathers and their children to join an existing group of 2 fathers who have already transitioned into single parenting. This “Dads Club” will require a person with a dynamic personality and openness to sharing the challenges of life as a single parent within the Dads Club and on camera.

To be considered, please send the following to rj@singledad.com. We must cast by December 4th , so don't delay!

1. Picture of dad and kids (please include names and ages)
2. Brief summary of current custody status
3. Contact info (city of residence, email and phone number)
4. All correspondence sent by e-mail only to: rj@singledad.com

www.singledad.com

Happiness is a Song

A few years ago, I was on a road trip with a friend and somewhere about the middle of our trip found myself singing along with the radio. I don't normally sing along when there are others in the car, but we'd ended a conversation and were sort of taking in the sites through the windshield when a song I knew and liked came on the radio, so I chimed in as if no one else was in the car.

Once I caught myself, I apologized to my friend for ruining the song.

"Don't apologize! I like it when people sing, even if they aren't very good."

"Really, why?"

"Because it means they're happy. People sing when they're happy."

I think there was some truth to that. I mean, when I'm furious or upset with traffic, the last thing I do is sing.

I found myself thinking of this conversation tonight because, even during what's been a very tense and anxious time in my home, even though there's been shift for the worse in my teenager's attitude, and even though the majority of our conversations have resulted in an argument, what am I listening to?

I'm listening to the sound of my son's voice coming from his bedroom.

Yes, he's singing.

Kids will carry on with their rebellious attitudes and start as many arguments as they want and claim to hate everything about their lives all day long, I guess (I pray to God that this phase of our relationship passes quickly!).

But after tonight, I believe I can get through it knowing that deep down, and especially when he thinks no one is paying attention, the boy is happy enough with his life to sing.

Wordless Wednesday: 11-25-09

And it Felt Good

I had a chance to finally repair the fence in my backyard today.

I don't think I've ever hammered anything so hard in my life! The wood warped a little from being so wet for so long, but the good news is that it is up--for now.

I never realized how good pounding a bunch of nails into a fence felt. Maybe it's because in the past I didn't have so much pent up frustration.

Wordless Wednesday: 11-18-09

Adios, Nor'Ida

What started on Wednesday finally fizzled into a drizzly mist by Saturday afternoon, when the wind began to die down and the floodwater in the streets had time to recede.

The locals have nicknamed this November Nor'easter "Nor'Ida," since the storm began with the remnants of hurricane Ida stalling over our area, then sitting and spinning for days. The kids got a five day weekend out of the deal (school was canceled on Thursday and Friday).

It felt really good to see the sun again when we headed out of the church for home. Too many days of clouds, wind, and rain can really play tricks with your mood.

While it was still pretty damp, I did get some storm clean-up done. The repairs will have to wait until next weekend, but for now, the broken doors have been removed and the fence propped back up so the wood can dry, the front and back yards have been raked, swept and bagged (11 bags of pine straw), and the small piece of siding that blew off the back porch has been reinstalled.

It took me about four hours to get that done, and I still got dinner on the table by 7pm!

I'm pooped, and have a day-long meeting to prepare for tomorrow. I'll try to get this blog caught up later this week when something that resembles "normal" returns to my life.

Dude... Where's my fence?

We're kind of hunkering down for the next day or so. This nor'easter is pounding Virginia Beach right now, canceling schools today and causing problems on the roads and some damage to our homes. By noon yesterday, part of my fence had blown down, and during the course of the day today, I lost two screen doors, and a portion of siding from the back of my house blew off (it's been recovered!).

Thank God I had those dead trees yanked out of here a couple of weeks ago!

I have posted some pictures on Facebook, but I'll go ahead and share them here as well.

You can see both screen doors smashed up from the wind. The one on the far end had actually been latched shut, but a chair blew into it and smashed it.

The other door just got blown so hard by the wind that it broke apart.

David pulled the chair out of this door before I got home.
In the background you can see the two sections of the fence that blew over.

Dude... where's my fence?

Here's one of the trees I had cut down a couple of weeks ago,
when the fence was intact!

I just got the call that schools will be closed again tomorrow due to the weather. We're being warned that there's more heavy wind and rain expected tonight, with an additional 3-5" of rain falling before midnight. I'm hoping the power stays on and that our neighborhood roads don't become too flooded.

The winds are expected to die down during the day tomorrow, with showers off and on all day.

We're safe and sound, thank God. Thank you for keeping us, and our friends and neighbors in your prayers.

Wordless Wednesday: 11-11-09

Six Successful Words

In a "sermonette" delivered to the children of our parish recently, Father Jimmy made a statement that has been ringing so loudly in my head that I cannot stop thinking about how both profound and appropriate it is.

He told the children, "Obedient people succeed. Rebellious people fail."

Wow. Six words that could change the course of a child's life and they almost seemed too simple to be true. And when he continued to explain, he used examples of high school seniors who take a turn for the worse in an effort to "get back" at the school or a teacher or their parents, and how they're usually the ones who do not get to graduate with the friends with whom they've shared four years of high school.

I swear Father Jimmy climbs into my head sometimes and speaks directly to whatever is weighing on my mind, or whatever is going on in my home or in my life.

Grades are an issue these days, as are a few unwise choices resulting in additional lost privileges, and the week was capped off by the loss of yet another job.

I'll spare you the details, but would appreciate your prayers.

One Year Ago Today: 11-4-08

“If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

-President-Elect
Barack Obama

11/4/08

I'm writing this on 11/5/08 with the intention of posting on 11/4/09.

Alone in front of my TV, laptop open and logged into FaceBook, I waited last night to see if the political machine would devour my vote again this year, or if I'd actually be in a majority of Americans voting for the next President of the United States.

Would this be another chance for the world to ridicule the citizens of our country, accusing us of being idiots because we can't figure out how to work the voting machines in Florida, or stupid because we re-elected a president who had already proved his incompetence?

Would I have to once again attempt to explain to my son how a candidate can indeed win the popular vote but still lose an election? Would the Supreme Court be involved in this one?

Or would I watch history unfold before my eyes?

I was back-and-forth with friends on FaceBook, watching the results roll in on NBC and monitoring local elections to see if I had picked a winner at home. It all seemed so slow, so with time zones being what they are, I braced myself for a late night.

At 11:00 p.m., our local news began, only to immediately throw the broadcast to the network. The next thing I saw was Barack Obama's face, with the words "Obama Elected President."

The same "idiots" that had put a man who causes my father to swear at the mere sight of him in office, the same "stupid" people who had previously voted for a man who promised to bring dignity back to an office tarnished by the dalliances of the previous president, the same nation that had believed in weapons of mass destruction, a connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, and gave the newspapers of the world an opportunity to ridicule us as a nation by asking how so many citizens of one country could be so stupid, became heroes in my eyes when they voted for change and elected Barack Obama.

Was I pleased? I was. I had never been a Bush fan, and was so soured on the political process after the last two presidential elections that I had serious doubts about the process, and had lost hope in not only the power of the American voter, but the direction in which this country was heading. Gas prices were bouncing from one extreme to another, the economy was in the tank, two wars are still raging, and the government in charge of selling this nation on a "morality" platform had been caught up in so many lies that I stopped counting.

But I kept my political views rather quiet until the end. When you consider the voice bloggers have in the country nowadays, that wasn't exactly an easy task.

I mentioned that I wondered if I would see an historic election earlier in this post, and I did. I know the press went wild over the election of the first African-American President, which was an enormous step forward in this country, and something I never imagined I would see in my lifetime.

David had gone to bed before the election was called, so I left him a note that read "Obama won. Looks like tissues for Nicolai." (Nicolai is a friend of his who said he'd cry if McCain lost).

Yes, this was a victory for democrats, it was a victory for African-Americans, and it was a victory for voices both young and old who were ready for a changes in policy, economy and government in general. It was all of those things, and it was an amazing night that gave me hope that if we can turn our government around, we can move our country in the right direction. Yes, we did.

I voted for the guy from Scranton who knows foreign policy, and the man who so many said didn't have enough experience to win. I voted for the team that had the answers to the questions in the debates that I wanted to hear. I voted for my son's future. I voted for the security of this country and a responsible end to a war that has kept so many troops on foreign land for far too long. I voted to bring them back alive. I voted against an administration that created the "Bush Doctrine," and its namesake, whose irrational and irresponsible leadership put Americans at risk all over the world. I voted against a party whose best bet wound up with the lowest approval rating of any president since the dawn of approval ratings. Yes, he did.

I voted for a man who grew up poor, sought education, and through determination and the ability to assemble the right people to do the right jobs, won the highest office in the land.

But to tie this ramble into the theme of this blog: I voted for the son of a single parent who chose a single dad as his running mate.

In my house, that's proof that the sky is the limit... for either of us.

Yes, we can.

Wordless Wednesday: 11-04-09

National Adoption Month 2009

November is National Adoption Month, when we have an opportunity to raise awareness of the children who are still waiting for forever families. In preparing for this post, I ran into a video on YouTube that I thought said it better than I ever could, and showed the changes taking these children into our hearts and homes can bring. I loved the before and after angle, and hope you enjoy it, too.