What a Difference a Day Makes.

I managed to shake off my stupefaction fast enough this morning to limit my exposure to the highly contagious theme song to “The Big Comfy Couch.” For those who haven’t heard it imagine a song as catchy as Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” or The Cardigans “Love Me,” but sung by children and you have an idea. I decided I needed a hair cut so I wouldn’t look like a dork in the photos that most certainly will be taken during Ella’s first birthday.

My local barber Illiana is from Russia and is so sweat and dear. Seeing her is like visiting a childless aunt who loves to take care of you. I guess I looked as bad as I thought I did because she offered to get me some coffee. I accepted and thanked her when she returned. I sat pushing Ella back and forth in her stroller waiting for my turn. I have had insomnia of late, or at least that is what I can figure out based on the untold hours of Lunesta ads I have watched in the past few months. As Chris Rock joked, “Do you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning? Oh Shit! I got that! I need that pill!” Not being able to sleep really sucks. It was easier when Ella took more than one nap a day but now she only sleeps for an hour or so a day which leaves me with a dilemma, eat, or nap? I usually eat.

After my hair cut and lots of love and encouragement from Illiana I decided to head up to Carroll Park for some time out with Ella. Illiana told me about having her boy when she lived in the Soviet Union. She was given a year off at full pay (not that that Rubles were worth anything) and her job back after that year. At work her child had day care on sight that cost 10 Rubles a month. This included a laundry, a kitchen, clean sheets on a bed for every child in the day care, a nurse, and a teacher. Illiana was just a working gal. Imagine what a facility like that would cost in the U.S.? She was shocked to see day care so second rate in America. Granted Illiana lives in the United States now and her son is in the Marine Corps serving in Japan, so no love lost, but, I have to say we are so worried about “family values” in the U.S. We blame Hollywood, the Liberals, the Conservatives, gangs, drugs, pornography, TV, and video games. People like Michael Medved rant about “Kill Bill” but don’t make a peep at the high cost of medical care in the U.S. How are people able to have a family with which to instill values if they can’t make ends meet? I know this seems like a liberal thing to say but I am a parent now. My wife and I are extremely lucky to live were we live and are able to live and save on one salary. How can a family stay together if both parents have to work, not chose to, have to. I know a lot goes into having a family and one shouldn’t jump to conclusions but we need to think about these things as a nation.

I reached Carroll Park smirking at a very old joke I have between my friend Larry and I. We used to make up scenes from a porno produced by a socialist Ministry of Pornography, “Eh…Alexi you blow me like tractor on glorious collective farm!”

The park was full and the day was beautiful. I got Ella to her usual place on the jungle gym in the shade. I was happy to see Nancy and her little girl Sue. I know Nancy from the dog run and we caught up since the last time we saw each other. I was satisfied to hear that she has the same feelings about Carroll Park and our hood in general. She told me that out mutual friend, my neighbor, Cathy, goes to a moms group in Park Slope, and that there is a very friendly play ground on the Promenade in the Heights. Apparently it’s true, Park Slopes is the place to be for parents in B’Klyn. I admit I haven’t been to many places and met to many people so I vow to get out more and see what B’Klyn has to offer my gal and me. Nancy said that she and Cathy and I should get together and go Prospect Park and so on. After yesterday this was just what I needed. When Nancy left I felt happy to have meet another B’Klyn parent who felt the same way I did, then you know what happened? I had a conversation, with a stranger. I had to say hello to any mother who put her child in a “It’s hard out here for a chimp” t-shirt. We chatted and I ended up giver her my dentist’s card.

I don’t think people a basically good or basically bad. People are people. I know I can find like minds if I look for them. I try and be flexable it isn’t always easy but I try. I know Yoda would say, “Do or do not. There is no try.” But Yoda was a puppet and I don’t recall him having to make friends wile pushing his daughter in her stroller with one hand and pounding a ice coffee with the other desperately trying to think of any song to block out “The Big Comfy Couch.”