State of the Ramblings: 19

I feel like nearly every State of the Union address by a United States president includes the declaration that the state of the nation is strong. Well, I'm not going to write that here. Sean's Ramblings has certainly slowed down over the years. After writing 85-100 posts annually each year between 2017-2021 (well down from the number of posts I wrote for the first decade of this blog), I wrote 71 posts in 2022 and only 64 posts in 2023. I write when I feel like I have something to share and have the time to write, both of which seem to occur less frequently.

Now that this blog is 19, I understand why I’m probably one of the oldest blogs still around. Maybe 10-12 years ago, there was an explosion of “mommy” blogs/bloggers. I remember getting frustrated that much of their content was sponsored. The ones that focused on their kids and kid-related products aren’t around anymore. Maybe it's because the money went elsewhere (hello Instagram and TikTok). More likely, it’s easy to share stories and pictures about new foods for toddlers, diaper explosions (well, not pictures for this one), cool strollers, or activities for 5 year olds. It’s not as easy to write when your kids get to middle school or become teenagers. Your kids don’t want you to share their stories, or you don’t want to share their stories. I’m not going to write about Individual Educational Plans or how my kids are doing in school. Sure, I might write about my 7th grader's recent break-up but that was because of the absurdity of the whole situation. If he was older and really in a significant relationship, that’s not something I would want to share or would be comfortable sharing. It’s not my story.

So what’s next for Sean’s Ramblings? Nothing. I think my quest for a writing award is over after the 2023 Pittsburgh City Paper's Best of PGH and Washington DC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists contest debacles. I’d still love to get media credentials for a sporting event or awards show, but even if I get selected to be on the red carpet for the Grammys, I don’t have time to travel to LA for it. So I’ll just continue to write what I want to write about and when I have time to write. No big goals or resolutions. Just keep going and becoming the only blog around to turn 20. And then maybe a big celebration for 20…or 21!

(Any post about the number 19 must include a picture of the 19th US President, Rutherford B. Hayes. Did anyone ever call him Rutherford Hayes without the B? Or just Ruth? Photo from the White House website.)

Random Ramblings

- The Moose, who just started first grade, is interested in US Presidents and has a couple books about Presidents and likes a few YouTube videos with songs about the Presidents. Because of this, he can now list all of the American Presidents in order. It is really, really amazing, and I felt a little dumb as I needed to double-check if he was right. Do you know that the 11th-14th Presidents in order are Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, and Pierce without looking it up?

- As a bit of a tangent, you don't hear about many (any?) kids named Rutherford or Millard. These could be ideas for names for boy #3.

- Last week, I received a phone call, a text message, and an e-mail all at the same time with my child's bus information. That's efficiency! Of course, he doesn't take the bus to school, but we know the bus number and times if he did.

- The Moose's school had an open house along with a carnival last week. Near the end of the event, Pedro Tulo (age 3) decided that he wanted to climb up one of the giant inflatables. The only problem: he was a little scared about coming down, so I had to climb up and slide down with him.

- Over the weekend, I participated in an auction fantasy football draft via a video conference. At the same time, I was at my niece's birthday party with my The Moose at a trampoline/bounce house place. As expected, both when poorly. I didn't do a very good job with the draft, and I basically ignored my son during the entire party. (He was busy jumping and then eating, so he was fine...I hope.)

- Five years ago, I spent $64 on quarterbacks Cam Newton and Matthew Stafford as part of the auction draft. This year, I got the same two quarterbacks for a combined $6.

- Thanks to a free trial of Showtime, I'm finally watching Homeland. I just finished the amazing first season, but I'm not sure if I should continue. While I've enjoyed the first two episodes of season two, I heard that the show goes downhill after the first season. I guess I'll stick with it.

- I also watched a show called Search Party that aired in late 2016 on USA. Search Party stars Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat and is a "single-camera dark comedy about four self-absorbed twenty-somethings who become entangled in an ominous mystery when a former college acquaintance suddenly disappears." It's an odd show with several unlikeable characters but strangely worth watching because of Shawkat and guest appearances by Ron Livingston and Rosie Perez. The show actually had a really cool ending, and I'm curious to see if there's a season two. I don't know where the show would go from the end of season one, but I would tune it.

- On Tuesday night, 19 year-old Frances Tiafoe took arguably the greatest men's tennis player of all time to a 5th set in the first round of the US Open. I really wanted Tiafoe to win. If you've never heard of him (which is likely unless you really follow tennis), this Washington Post profile about him is definitely worth a read.

- Finally, here's something very random. Someone I know wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about North Korea. I definitely wasn't expecting to see this on my Facebook feed!