I hate riding the NYC subway. Not because I think it's a dirty, crime infested mess (it's not). I mainly hate it because you never know who you're going to see. Sure, there may be the occasional homeless person funking up the train. But I'm not talking about that guy - he doesn't bother me. [...]
Going to the dentist can be a harrowing experience for rational adults, so imagine what it could be like for a four year old. At the dentist's office kids find themselves face to face with big serious looking chairs, strange metal equipment that looks more like it should be in daddy's tool box, suction devices, [...]
A couple of years ago I had my first colonoscopy. No it's not typical for a guy in his mid-twenties to have the marginally annoying anal-probing procedure, but I did. There were two major reasons for me to get the ol' colon checked out: one was my family and the other was my family history. [...]
I thought about this post on the long drive home and stopped at 13 things because it's my wife's lucky number, and it was the one floor that was missing from the resort we stayed at. It's not a profound list, so don't get your hopes up. Let's go... 13. If you are offended by [...]
Five weeks ago I wrote a post about how my wife and I were being proactive in addressing our son's behavior problems in school. I mentioned how I would be leaving work early for four weeks until my wife started her new part time job. (The decision was made for her to go part time, [...]
A few years ago, a little after my son was born, a friend/former colleague, of mine called me kind of out of the blue. He told me that he had a young non-profit that was doing very well and helping a lot of people. He then asked me if I'd be interested in working with [...]
I am a fan of the "timeout." It's not the only punishment in my arsenal, not by a long shot, yet it has a certain appeal. It's a good option for lesser crimes; I stand by it. Many black folk have criticized me for advocating non-corporal punishments as a means of discipline. They talk about the [...]
OK, that may not be true, but don't we like to think that about our offspring anyway? It's kind of like having a kid that's not all that cute and thinking he or she is the next Denzel or Halle. We, as parents, are blind to the reality that our kids possibly have average looks and IQs. [...]
It just dawned on me that I didn't speak to my father this Thanksgiving. The rift between us has obviously grown, and in such a way that it has become something I don't think about much. I'm not proud of the fact that neither of us was willing to pick up a phone and go [...]
I didn't have to go to work today because of the holiday, so I left the kid with his great grandmother and went to the barber shop. It was a lively day at the shop, much more so than usual. We talked about politics, the old timers talked aboout the old days, we discussed racism, sports (which [...]
