Goodbye Cool World!
A few days ago I got up to start my normal morning routine. After jumping in and out of the shower, I dried myself off with an R2-D2 and C3-PO towel and then quickly got dressed.
I didn’t think much about it when I sat down to eat my bagel and banana on my daughter’s Dora the Explorer plate and took a double dose of children’s pain reliever with a Strawberry Shortcake spoon.
I was only remotely embarrassed when a tough guy in a new 8-cylinder Mustang pulled up next to me at a stoplight and saw me sipping coffee from a Disney princess cup. At least I knew the coffee was jet black and didn’t have any of those girlie-sweet creamers inside...the kind I like.
I can’t even remember the days of cool. As many of you know, after you meet your special spouse or significant other it seems to be less important to try so hard. I now recognize and gladly accept the fact that I am my wife’s old, comfortable shoe...I hope I am a Nike or at least something sporty and fast. The magic is still...somewhere, but it has been largely retired with the acquisition of marriage, work, kid rearing, lawn mowing and life in general. In the trenches of raising three kids, we acquired new dinnerware, towels, socks, pillow cases, umbrellas and a movie collection spanning two generations, all the while comfortably padding the pockets of the Execs down at DreamWorks (and Disney Pixar). With gym memberships and six pack abs a blur in the rear view mirror, I now simply seek the energy to get through each day and looking and acting cool takes way too much energy.
So tomorrow, instead of jumping out of bed and working out at the crack of dawn like I should...I will sleep in because my little girl will likely get scared in the middle of the night and find her way into our bed and invariably kick me in the ribs for two hours. As a result, I will hit the snooze bar at least four times then jump up to brew a cup of coffee (black) in a Mickey Mouse coffee mug. I will take a shower and dry off with a Spider Man towel and then eat a bowl of Crunch Berries in a Finding Nemo bowl. After all, I gave up cool several years ago when raising kids became the most important thing in the world.
