Kick in the face

I got kicked in the face tonight. Have you ever been kicked in the face? Typically, getting kicked in the face is not a fun experience, as I can attest from going three seasons in the Octagon. There’s usually a lot of dizziness and bruising involved, and, inevitably, someone asks you some stupid question the next day: “Hey man, what happened to your eye? It looks like you got kicked in the face!”

Like I said, not a fun experience… except, that is, when the person that is kicking you in the face is inside your wife’s belly. Such was the case tonight. So if I’m smiling tomorrow, feel free to ask, “Collin, what happened to your face?” The reply will be, “My baby is a ninja-daddy-face-kicker.”

Resolutions

I’ve given a lot of thought to resolutions this week… but not that much or I guess I would have made some by now. Honestly, I’ve always had a real dislike for resolutions, mostly because I thought they were cheesy and meaningless. But I do like the idea of a New Year being a new start… so here’s some resolutions that may or may not be my own:

1. First, I have to get this out of the way; it’s a not-so-clever joke that my more geek inclined friends will get: my New Years’ resolution is 1024x768.

2. Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way. I decided this week that I should start running again, but I didn’t want to set a goal for myself that would be totally unachievable, so I resolve to go for a run at least once this year. Maybe next year I’ll double that, but for now, I’m shooting for one good run before 2012, which is more than I can say for last year.

3. I resolve to write a PhD thesis. This is something that I really should get done this year, so tomorrow I’m gonna go get started :).

4. I resolve to have a baby, which requires very little from me until about June-time, so this one shouldn’t be too tough, that is, until June.

5. I read something the other day that was a “fill-in-the-blank resolution” – “The person I want to be more like this year is ______.” High on my list would be Superman and Spiderman, but if I were being more serious, I would probably say I’d like to be more like Candice… she’s way more thoughtful and a much better listener than I am. In fact, if you’re thinking, “Wait, I think Collin is pretty thoughtful.” That’s probably because at some point, Candice reminded me to be thoughtful.

Jean Louis as 'the man'

We went to John Lewis (big department store in the UK) today… we had eaten lunch and didn’t have anything else to do. There are 4 floors in John Lewis, and even though we’ve been there a hundred times, I don’t think I’ve seen everything Johnny has to offer. In fact, I had never walked through the baby section before. Recently, however, my interest in all things baby has gone up considerably. I considered my stroll through the baby section as an opportunity to do a little research, something I like to do before spending a lot of money on an item.

So… there we were… standing in front of what felt like an ocean of baby strollers, pushchairs, buggies, car seats, and prams. At first it felt very foreign… but then, I noticed the showroom like arrangement, the different makes and models with their various features and accessories, and slick-looking salespeople walking around showing potential buyers the new features on the latest models. Suddenly, a warm feeling came over me and I knew exactly where I was: a car dealership!

For some reason, people take on a certain persona when they walk into a dealership shopping for a car… and I noticed that my attitude toward the showroom was beginning to change as well. I was scrutinizing different designs, taking the pushchairs for test drives, comparing the handling on different models, and admiring the suspension on the high-end strollers, all the while eyeing the salespeople suspiciously, wondering if I could talk them down from their asking price.

Unfortunately, there’s no wiggle room on the prices… and these puppies were expensive. In fact, the car analogy isn’t too far off when you consider that for the price of one of these strollers we could have paid for our Happy Honda six times over! It’s pretty bad when you’re looking at a stroller and all you can think about is how many cars you could buy for that price!

It’s not just the stroller, though, it’s the carrying cot, the car seat, the car seat adapter, the rain cover, and on and on. The salesman did show us a cheaper solution that was more of an all-in-one package kind of approach, but the handling was awful, like a front-wheel drive KIA. I wanted the Mercedes with the nice tires and aluminum wheels… glides along effortlessly and turns on a dime with one hand! Of course, if you go for the strollers that actually have tires, it’s possible you could get a flat… I wonder if they sell roadside breakdown assistance for that?

You would think people are crazy to spend that much money at John Lewis on a stroller, but ‘the man’ knows what he’s doing. Johnny will tell you that your kid’s spine won’t develop correctly if you don’t buy the special infant carrying cot. Then Mr. Lewis will point out that if you loved your baby as much as the other parents, you wouldn’t have a problem giving him your money to assure your child’s safety… “After all,” he says, “how can you put a price on your own child’s well-being?” Well, as it happens, they have put a price on it, and it’s around £1000.

Thank you for your help in the store, Mr. Jean Louis, but I think the Bullards will be looking on eBay to see if they’re selling our child’s well-being for around the price of just one car.

Have a favorite stroller/pram/buggy that you would recommend? Or have any tips on finding a deal that will help us stick it to the man? Leave a comment…. we could use the help.

2010, a summary

I thought about several different ways to summarize the year… going month by month (too long), giving just the highlights (too repetitive, since that’s what our blog was supposed to do all along)… then I thought about what I will really remember from 2010. What will I tell my kids about 2010? Essentially, the whole year can be boiled down to two related stories.

Story 1: On the one hand, you might say the story of 2010 was the story of us adjusting to Cambridge. You might think about our first couple of months in Cambridge as a ‘trip’, where we were observing a foreign country as outsiders while trying awkwardly to fit in. And after three months, we went ‘home’ (to the US) for Christmas. This meant that we started January 2010 with a return to Cambridge after feeling very much at home in Oklahoma… in short, Cambridge didn’t feel like home. It felt cold and dark, which, sadly, is not a metaphorical way of saying that it was lonely, it was really cold and really dark.

We’ve come along way from last January to this one. Building meaningful relationships makes a world of difference. We just finished an absolutely lovely Christmas holiday in Cambridge where we felt very much at home… mostly because we had people to share it with. Cambridge has never seemed so bright (unfortunately, in this instance, I am speaking metaphorically).

Story 2: On the other hand, you might say the story of 2010 was the story of us trying to have a baby. Trying to trust God and have patience within that process is not an easy thing. It’s the kind of thing that drives you to throw yourself on the mercy of God continually. The waiting is also the kind of thing that drives you to depend on community more and more. Looking back now, God’s provision seems so clear that I’m embarrassed I ever doubted it… our journey towards building meaningful friendships became more and more life giving at the same time that trying for a baby became more and more exhausting. Of course, at the end of our waiting, you can imagine how sweet life seemed when our good news brought relief and tears not just to us, but to our friends, who, we realized, had been waiting and praying along with us. At this point, having to wait two years seems a small thing compared to the challenges others face, and we count ourselves blessed.

So, in summary, 2010 was like a pair of shoes that you try on and at first don’t know if you like them or not. But as you wear them, you like them more and more.