God & Caffeine

As I had mentioned in my last post, Missy and I decided it would be best for Riley if we drove through the night to Michigan for Thanksgiving. We left at around 6:00 pm on Tuesday night. We promptly ran into a wall of traffice 10 minutes from our house. We were 25 minutes behind schedule before we paid our first toll. HOwever, from that point forward, it was pretty clear sailing. I had nervously anticipated this trip for several weeks. I was excited at the prospect of roadtripping with Missy, drinking bad coffee and 24 hour gas stations, and seeing the sun rise. The anticipation of seeing family that we had not seen for a few months also helped. I was also nervous as to how Riley would do with riding in a car..........for 12 hours..........backwards..........strapped in.

As it turned out, the trip went very well. I drove the first 9 hours or so with little problem. Missy jumped in and promptly drove for 3 hours in the rain. But she did great. And I think the big reasons for our great trip are listed in the title of this blog.......in that order.

We had a lot of people praying for us (including us) that our trip would go smoothly and we would stay awake. And we did. I could feel the prayers as we went. I could also feel the 32 oz. Coke I drank along the way. That kept me awake without any problems.

The problems came when we decided to take the same strategy home. We determined that to keep Riley's schedule as normal as possible (and thus keep us as sane as possible), we would drive through the night again on Saturday evening.

This time Riley had contracted what sounded like emphysema. I was sick (a lack of sleep on Tuesday night combined with sharing a room with a sick child did me in). The anticipation of seeing Missy's family was gone. No part of us wanted to leave on Saturday night. But still we left. And once again we relied on God and caffeine....in that order. I honestly had a bad feeling about going back. We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Ohio to sleep for an hour. At which point, I was convinced we would become a CSI case. But we didn't. Riley had one coughing fit at around 4 am. This prompted us to roll down the windows to get him some cold air which was great for him but the frost on my hands just thawed yesterday. But other than that, the trip was even smoother than our trip out. We even stopped at Bob Evans for breakfast. And I got to see the sun rise.

I hope we won't have to make a trip like that again for while. I am looking forward to this weekend to finally catch up on sleep (though with a child that may have to wait a few years to actually happen). However, when we do have to roadtrip it again through the night, I know that we will be able to make it through because of God and caffeine.....in that order.

Two Worlds.....

I met Josh the first weekend of my freshman year at college. We had our adventures from dodging trains to dodging trucks to dodging class. I made a trip, along with a few other friends, to Korea to see Josh and watch a few World Cup soccer matches. He and his wife now live in Boston and have made a few trips down to see us. Just as we have made a few up to see them.

Josh was the first college friend I told that Missy and I were pregnant. I did so mainly because only a few weeks earlier he asked flat out if we were pregnant and I had to lie and tell him no. We hadn't reached the magic time threshold when we could tell people. I called him back because I felt guilty. Nonetheless, he was the first.

And this past Monday, he was the first college friend to meet Riley in person. Josh was passing through for a day or so on his way to (eventually) the West Coast and he wanted to see our little guy. Riley was a little shy at first. Then after about 45 seconds of shyness he warmed up to Josh. Well, actually, he just kind of stared at him. Then he would smile. Then he would stare. Then smile again. (I think I had the same reaction when I met Josh) Eventually he would warm up to him enough to play with him (see pictures below). By the end, they were old friends.

For me, it was a somewhat surreal experience. It was sort of like my wedding day when people that are near and dear to me from all different times of my life all of a sudden were together at the same place and at the same time. For the past (almost) 8 months, Riley has been our world. He has changed our lives in ways I cannot begin to describe. He is our life. And all of a sudden he was playing with a guy that I've known for over 10 years and have shared many great memories and conversations with.

I loved it. I hope that he will be able to meet some of my other friends as he gets older. And hopefully he can laugh with them and have fun with them the same way I did (and continue to do).

Just maybe this time without the trains.......

Road Tripping.....

First, just to throw it out there:

The Delps are taking their first real road trip next week with young Riley. We are driving to Michigan to spend Thanksgiving with Missy's family. To help keep Riley's schedule as normal as possible, we are driving through the night so that he can sleep and we can (hopefully) stay sane. Actually, as I write this (at 10:14 pm), one week from now, we will hopefully be approaching the PA/Ohio border.

Part of me has this excitement of doing the old road trip, stopping at gas stations and getting bad coffee at 3 in the morning. I love doing road trips with Missy. We have a blast together. However, another part of me is worried because I have NO idea what to expect. 11 hours in a car with a crying child could send me to the mental institute. Also, I have visions of driving with the gas light on and seeing a sign that says "Next gas station: 50 miles".

So if you think of it, pray for the Delp family as we embark on a new exciting journey (twice actually because I think we are coming home at some point). It could fun. It could be a disaster. I am confident that it will be a time to remember.

Let's just hope it is for the right reasons.

College Flashback

no not that kind. sorry.

Last week, I took my first step to get letters after my name. One of the designations you can get in the insurance industry is that of a C.I.C. Quite frankly, I am not sure what C.I.C. stands for - Certified Insurance C...something, I think. But to get it, you must take five - three day courses and pass a 20 question essay test. It is miserable. I mean it is terrible. Someone described it to me as "torture" and that was pretty much what it was. And really, the worst part was not the fact that I had to sit through 20 hours of lecture on commercial property coverage and what endorsement to a policy will provide additional coverage if you must build to meet updated building codes - Ordinance and Law. It wasn't the 100 or so notecards I had stacked up to help me review the mountain of information. It wasn't even the two hour essay exam. The worst part of the whole time I was gone actually surprised me.

I was lonely. Obviously, I missed my family. I broke the land speed record coming home on Saturday. However, it wasn't JUST that I missed my family. I missed social interaction. That may sound weird from someone who spent 20+ hours in a room with 100 other people. But the thing was no one talked to anyone else. Many of the people there were taking the exam and so whenever they weren't in class, they were in their hotel room studying. During breaks, everyone would go out and call people on their cell phones. People didn't really talk to each other. I sat in class, then had lunch by myself, then went back to class, then had dinner by myself, then studied.....by myself.

I was very surprised by how much I longed for social interaction. I found myself chatting up the waitresses at the restaurants and front desk people at the hotel and the cashier at Starbucks just to have SOMEONE to talk to. It was very odd. I have always considered myself an introvert (my Meyers Briggs test confirms that). However, as I get older, maybe I am getting a little more extraverted. I must be because this conference was a wall flower's dream and I was bouncing off the walls.

So while this weekend brought back memories of finals week except in this case, the class started AND ended in the course of less than a week (and there were no runs to late night showings of Braveheart or The Matrix), the one major thing that was different was the time in between class. Where I used to spend it with friends, here I spent it alone.

I hope and pray that I passed that test and will only have to endure four more of those things. Not because I would hate studying and taking the test again (which I would) but I don't want to spend three more days feeling like I am on a desert island. I need to have some human interaction.

Well, I have to go. I'm going to go see what Missy is doing.......

That was easy.....

Last weekend during my Saturday morning errands (an odd favorite activity of mine), I went to Staples to buy a much needed filing cabinet as our current ones are overflowing. While waiting in line, a little boy was standing with his father behind me. The little boy said to his dad, "Hey Dad, this is the 'easy' place!" The boy, of course, was referring to Staples marketing campaign that includes the "Easy Button" and how if you hit the button (i.e. go to Staples and buy their products) things will get done quickly and easily and the slogan at the end of the commercial is, "That was easy". My parents actually have one of these buttons in their house. It serves no other purpose than to sit there and utter Staples slogan when pressed.

A couple of things hit me when this kid made this statement. My first comment to the person behind me after he said this was, "That's good marketing". I (very naievely) for a very long time felt that commercials and marketing campaigns and slogans were ineffective. At least to me. However, I now believe that those things absorb themselves into our culture and our subconcious without us even being aware. We associate certain products and certain companies with certain lines of thinking. The one that hits me first is Geico. Immediately when I say that name, people probably think of that little green reptile with the British accent. Being in insurance myself, I have had many conversations with reps from other insurance companies who speak positively about their company as opposed to "that gecko". Everyone in the room knows who they are referring to. Geico has flooded the market. They are everywhere. They are in print ads, radio ads, tv ads, billboards - the cavemen ads have even been spun off onto their own show. I am just waiting for the gecko to get his own late night talk show. The thing is, it works. The ads are funny. They have catchy music. And lots of people are switching to Geico for car insurance. They may not have the best prices or service but it doesn't matter.

As much as we may think that ad campaigns don't have an impact on us. They do. Going back to my first post where I talk about what "dry in rain" means. Thinking that we can exist in this world and not be affected by ads is like saying that we can stand in the rain and not get wet. They are everywhere. And they are relentless. I would be shocked if not one person who reads this blog does not either have Geico or hasn't at least checked out Geico's website.

Secondly, and this is the scary part now that I am a parent, kids minds are like sponges. If they see something, hear something, read something, they are going to absorb it. That kid in line didn't just come up with the fact that Staples was the "easy" place because he and his father found what they were looking for in an efficient way. He heard it or saw it somewhere. Or maybe both. He probably saw a funny ad with a stressed out office worker who hits the Easy button and Staples comes to the rescue. And while having a kid say various slogans from national companies is not a bad thing, there are implications that go a little bit further. The ad campaign that scares me a little bit is for the spray Tag (Axe is another one). It is used by guys (from my experience teenage boys) as sort of a cologne. In the ads, the guys who put it on are promptly attacked by women. The ads are about as subtle as 2x4 to the face. The message: use this spray, girls will flock like the salmon of Capostrano (thank you Dumb and Dumber). The hormones of teenage boys are crazy enough, do we really need an ad to push them even further? And the thing is, have you ever smelled Tag??? It reminds me of one of Riley's diapers after he has eaten butternut squash. But obviously Tag is doing something right. If they can sell something that smells THAT bad, their ads are working.

This isn't supposed to be a monologue on the state of children and media in the 21st century. I think that subject has been touched on ad nauseum. I think I just have gotten so used to hearing the conversation about kids and media, I had grown numb to it. That is until I heard a slogan come out of a little boy's mouth.

Thanks kid. Hey did you know 15 minutes could save you 15% on car insurance???