Since my second son was born nearly three weeks ago, I’ve
been driving straight to work rather than the circuitous route I previously
took to drop my first-born off at school and my wife off at her job. Yes, my wife drives, but we enjoyed spending
our mornings together by carpooling, and it naturally saves on gas. Anyway, she’s been at home with baby since mid-January, and I’ve
been driving a different route straight to work. And I don’t know if I hadn’t paid as much
attention before, but these past few weeks have proven to me that people
drive like idiots. Yeah, I said it. Idiots.
This past week alone I’ve had four people tailgate me
relentlessly, watched three people blatantly run red lights, saw well over ten
people run stop signs in my neighborhood, and nearly saw an accident that could
have been fatal (car turned left into, of all places, a methadone clinic right
in front of a huge box truck).
What’s the rush, people? Traffic signals and speed limits are optional because you couldn't wake up five minutes earlier?
A couple of months ago, some local guy was killed while checking
his mail because a driver was speeding to get to work. I’ve almost been THAT GUY way too many
times. My house sits at the beginning of
a long stretch of flat, straight road, and despite posted 25 mph signs, people
will fly down it at speeds in excess of 40 or even 50 mph. My mailbox sits along the side of the road
right before a bend to the left, and often when another car is coming in the
opposite direction, people will drive off the road to avoid the other car. That is, off the road directly where I stand
to check my mail.
Seriously, what’s the rush, people? Getting to your destination is more important than the life of another human being?
For all my readers out there, please slow down. If you hit someone who is walking or checking
his/her mail, like me, that’s on you.
There’s no defense for driving too fast and striking a pedestrian. And if you know someone that speeds, please
encourage that person to slow down as well.
I’m not done with this little rant just yet. Switching topics completely, I have a
tremendous amount of respect for my wife.
In the three weeks since our baby was born, she’s been up three to four
times a night feeding and changing him.
This baby is the loudest baby I’ve ever been around, grunting and
passing gas and screaming when he gets hungry.
Last night I heard her say, “Please, Ben, I’ve only had an hour of sleep
so far,” and I turned and looked at the clock and saw it was 3:30 AM. I know some fathers get up during the wee
hours of night to tend to newborns, but I’ll admit that I’ve never been great
at doing that. Luckily my wife has been
able to take time off with the baby, and I know that when she goes back to work
I’ll have to start picking up some of the slack (or else we’ll be going to bed
at 8 every night). But my wife is one
heck of a great mommy.
Some women aren’t cut out for motherhood. Some would choose to focus on their career or
are frightened by the thought of raising a little one. And I have no problem with women who personally
decide not to have kids. It’s their
choice, and I have a tremendous respect for people, both men and women, who
make choices and stick to them.
Parenthood isn’t for everyone.
But sometimes I am moderately annoyed over the reasoning
some women use for not having kids. One
of the biggest excuses I’ve heard is that they do not want to ruin their
bodies. I’m sure we all know a woman who
has said this.
Now I don’t personally know this particular unnamed lady pictured
below (minus her head—I don’t want sued!), but in a conversation a year or so
ago, she stated adamantly that she would not be having kids because she didn’t "need a kid ruining" her body.
Seriously? Seriously.
I’m a bigger guy myself, and I’m not poking fun at her size,
but really, lady? You think birthing a
child will ruin your body, but the excess food you consume and your lack of
exercise won’t? She’s not even that big,
apparently, and perhaps this picture isn’t all that flattering, but to say a
child will ruin your body when you’re obviously carrying around quite a few
extra pounds seems asinine to me. And
besides, let me just set the record straight by saying that watching my wife
care for my sons is one of the SEXIEST things I’ve ever seen in my life. Yes, she may have a few stretch marks and a
few pounds to lose to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight, but if you are a
woman who is concerned about changes to your body due to child birth, don’t be.
BTW, that lady above could quite possibly have some other issues
unrelated to children. I know I shouldn’t
judge her, but she seems to have a narcissistic personality. For example, her husband is a very effeminate
man—so much so that many people have reportedly mistaken him for being
gay. I mean absolutely no disrespect by
that, just to be clear. But continuing
on with my point, she also didn’t take her husband’s last name, even in
hyphenated form. Again, no disrespect
there either. But add it all up,
including her comments regarding childbirth ruining her body, and it really tells
you something about her, doesn’t it? I
mean, by all observations, it would seem that she’s simply a strong-willed, slightly masculine, career-oriented woman, and that’s totally cool.
But if that’s the case, lady, don’t tell mothers-to-be that you don’t
want kids because “kids will ruin your body.”
Just say you don’t want kids because that’s the choice you’ve made. End of discussion.
I’ve also heard women say that they can barely take care of
themselves, let alone kids. This one isn’t
quite so annoying, as I’ve seen a lot of women out there who should definitely
NOT be mothers, but shouldn’t that be a bit of a wakeup call for them? If they can “BARELY take care of themselves,”
shouldn’t they take some steps to get their personal lives in better
order? I don’t think I’ve ever been at a
point in my adult life where I could “barely take care of myself.” Yeah, maybe you shouldn’t be having kids, but
maybe you should be getting busy doing other things like creating a better life
for yourself. Just a thought.
And finally, switching subjects completely again, I don’t
understand why restaurants have to use so much sodium in their meals. I’m sure I could Google it, and my inquiring
mind probably will as soon as I’m done typing this, but if you eat out anywhere
in a typical day, you are likely to get two times your recommended amount of sodium. High sodium has been proven to contribute to
high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, and a number of other
nasty, life threatening diseases.
I’ve been tweaking my diet the past few weeks, really trying
to make a conscious effort to go from a bigger man to a, well,
slightly-bigger-than-average-sized man.
I’ve been more active, trying to walk in place as often as I can and
squeezing in twenty minutes or so of exercise every night. I’ve cut out sugary sodas and have cut back
tremendously on sweets. I’ve been trying
to keep my calories below 2000, and I’ve been fairly successful at that. But, wow, my sodium levels haven’t budged.
We grab take-out probably three or four times per week for
convenience. We have always done this,
and when my wife goes back to work, that trend will only continue. We don’t get home until nearly six most
nights, and by that time it takes entirely too long to make a complicated
dinner. I’ve been much more conscious of
what I’m ordering on the menus of restaurants, but since I started tracking
sodium, I’ve been at a total loss. It's next to impossible to get a low-sodium meal from a restaurant.
Take, for example, Panera and their seemingly healthy food
choices. Last night I ordered a chopped
Thai chicken salad, a cup of broccoli cheddar soup, and a French baguette. Sounds like a healthy meal, right? And really, it should have been. In total it was 950 calories comprised of
101g of carbs, 39g of fat, and 54g of protein.
It even had 13g of fiber. Great
stuff…until I looked at the sodium content.
In all, the meal was 3080mg of sodium, the equivalent of one and a half
tablespoons. Yuck.
Aside from the above-mentioned health issues, sodium makes
you retain water. If you eat foods that, in total, contain
the daily recommended allowance of sodium (typically 2500mg), you’ll be
fine. If you eat much more than that,
the next time you hop on the scale you’ll find that you probably haven’t lost
any weight—and quite possibly gained some.
That’s because your body is filled with water.
I looked up all of the ingredients to make the Panera meal I
mentioned above, and the total sodium content I came up with was much, much
less—closer to around 1200mg. So why are
they adding sodium to an otherwise healthy meal? I’m sure it has something to do with
preservatives or taste or whatnot, and I’ll be Googling it like I said, but it
really makes me think that the healthy way to eat is to eat at home where you
can measure out your own fresh ingredients and know EXACTLY what you are
putting into the food you consume.
That’s all I have to rant about for now, I guess. I feel better now. Thanks for reading.
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