revjim.net

Ignoring Thanksgiving entirely was impossible. So, instead, I just dodged it as best as I could and accepted what I couldn't dodge.

Thursday morning, before heading to my mom's place to spend the day, we went out for a nice hike along the Trinity River. The sun was out and, given the colder than usual temperatures, I knew that many cold blooded creatures would use the opportunity to warm themselves on the rocks and the river banks. The path was covered with the recently fallen tree leaves posing even more of a risk. Knowing these things, I was extra cautious to keep an eye on where we were putting our hands and feet.

Jess and I stopped near the water's edge to peer over the banks when I noticed a snake coiled up under the leaves about 6 inches from Jess' left foot. I tried to mention this calmly to her, but, it resulted in panic and her jumping 2 or 3 feet into the air anyway. Thankfully, the snake didn't budge. Wondering if it was dead or sleeping, we found a long stick and I poked under the leaves a bit. Suddenly, it woke up and headed quickly for the river. As it fled I got a pretty good glimpse of it: a mature "Western Cottonmouth":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_piscivorus_leucostoma.

Having such a close call with such a dangerous snake, I was pretty much ready to head home for the day. I decided to take the old road back instead of the trail because it would be wider and with less leaves. We only saw one other baby snake before making back to the truck

Being so freaked out by the first encounter I was reluctant to do any more hiking at all until the weather got a bit colder. But I eventually got over my fear and Saturday morning we visited the very beautiful "Cross Timbers Trail" along Lake Texoma. I'll surely be back there some time soon for some more exploring.

Thursday we spent time at my Mom's house and finished the night off at IHOP, the only place in town open, with my sister and her fiancee.

Friday was Turducken, lots of drinks, and Karaoke at Justin's place. Very good times.

Saturday night we went to Cantina Laredo with some friends where I had just about the worst service I've ever had in a nice restaurant. So bad, in fact, that I tipped only 10%. Those of you that know how well I usually tip will realize how upset I was. Jess was even so upset that she *stole* an avocado from the bowl in the middle of our table because she felt she deserved it. She was surprisingly sneaky about it too. I didn't even realize until we were walking back to the truck and she pulled it out of her purse and let out a victory "ha ha!". After dinner we played poker where Jess proceeded to whoop everyones ass. Her near-death experience must have really given her a new perspective on life.

Your tongue is a rudder.
It steers the whole ship.
Sends your words past your lips
or keeps them safe behind your teeth.
But the wrong words will strand you.
Come off course while you sleep.
Sweep your boat out to sea
or dashed to bits on the reef.

– from Play Crack the Sky by Brand New

Sunday was Thanksgiving for us. We spent time with my family, helped make dinner, played cards, ate too much, cleaned up the mess, played more cards, and talked a lot. My mom's been applying a lot of pressure on me lately to have children and Sunday night was no exception. I keep telling her that I'm ready and that I'm just waiting for my situation to be ready too. Well, this time she pushed it into a full blown conversation. I ended up spilling my guts about a lot of the things that I told myself I should never speak of. In the end, my mom seemed to both understand and at least slightly agree, though it did require a bit of help from my dad and my sister to get her to see the light.

The gist of it all is simply this. I'm ready to have children. However, I will not *plan* to have children without at least making an attempt at planning beyond the few minutes of thought required to knock my wife up. I would to like to at least consider providing me with an opportunity to raise my children too. I want to know that I'm not going to be handed the titles of "bacon bringer" and "punishment issuer" and then that's that. Otherwise, why have children in the first place? I want to have some sort of agreement in place amongst all of those involved regarding where we should lay down our roots. I was glad to hear my Dad agree that, while Dallas has a lot to offer a new family, given the options we can create for ourselves, Dallas isn't exactly the best of them. I need some things to be worked out before I will actively work towards making babies. I've tried to work these things out on my own and I have failed miserably despite being led to believe that I was doing pretty damn good. So, I've decided that I'm waiting until an opportunity falls in my lap, until someone else makes plans for me, or until someone other than me is willing to think about it instead of just saying "I want it".

Some of you will make some argument about how babies don't need to be planned. Or about how no time is ever the right time. Or perhaps that we can always move after we have children. Or that moving into the middle of no where with a least a day's drive from anyone that we actually know is a good idea because it's at least closer to more of our family. Or that I'll find time to spend with my kids on weekends. And maybe you're right about all of those things. And maybe I'm willing to accept some of those things. But not until I can at least talk about them. That seems fair and reasonable to me.

We've got a pretty full week ahead of us, and the rest of December is filling up very quickly with the wedding and all. However, I'm making it my own personal mission to make sure I take some time out to make photographs. It's important that I nurture this or it will crack and fade. I have to remember that. So, those of you that are up for offering your company, encouragement, or patience, let me know.