Several Random Thoughts From the Past Week or So

We’ll be back to our regularly scheduly, pop culture-centric broadcasting in a bit. In the meantime, enjoy:

• Simon — who is one week old today — has officially become our baseline for judging all other babies, and not just in terms of cuteness. He’s just under four pounds right now, which means that every other baby we see looks absolutely ginormous by comparison.
• Hospitals play some of the greatest muzak known to mankind over the PA, no joke. I suppose it’s all an attempt to keep the folks on bedrest as pacified and numb as possible, by sucking any and all energy from the room. During Renae’s stay, we heard countless pop songs, not to mention the Days of Our Lives theme, recast as elevator music par excellence, with string arrangements saccharine enough to make Burt Bacharach’s teeth rot clean through.
• Does anyone know a quick way to get from downtown Lincoln out to 70th street? Because I sure can’t figure one out. I’m sure that for some of you, a 45-minute commute across town is chump change, but in Nebraska time, that’s equivalent to 3 years.
• It sucks to leave your baby behind in the NICU, more than you could ever imagine. Yes, he’s absolutely healthy and getting all of the care that he needs, but dammit, he belongs here with us.
• The breakroom talk at my workplace has become dominated by baby-related topics. Which isn’t surprising when roughly 73% of the company is pregnant.
• Finally sleeping in your own bed after spending the last 3 weeks sleeping on a hospital couch is like getting a massage from God.
• Commercials with babies and little kids can now sometimes affect me in ways never possible before. Curse you, Madison Avenue, and your emotionally manipulative ways.
• We got finally got cable TV installed about a week after Renae got into the hospital, which means that we didn’t get to play with our DVR until tonight. Yes, I’m a luddite, but I’ve never had a DVR until now. The first three things we recorded? Why, MythBusters, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, of course.