Howefitz Blog

Lesson learned: How Not To Become a Freakazoid!

Published by justin on July 31st, 2009 in Animation, Dad-Blogs, Dude, Featured, lifestyle design, Living, My Kids' Art!.

'Aaah, freak out!' Don't let this happen to you!

I took vacation this week and did a lot of house hunting. Right now we’re in a 2 bedroom apartment, which with the approaching birth of my son, will be waaaay too cramped for a family of five! So we’ve been looking for something a little bigger.

We found a townhome that I immediately fell in love with. Nice grassy back yard, another nice grassy area we can play in out front. (with no mowing by me, FTW!) It’s located on a quiet cul-de-sac, so no crazy drivers. 3 bed, 3 bath, fireplace, and a garage. Perfect. The two smaller rooms even already had a pink shade on the window in one and a blue shade in the other!

We looked at more, but that one was just calling my name. First freak out: I couldn’t remember which number in my phone was the owner’s cell! I left a message on his home phone, with no return call. Then I fumbled through my call history and called what I hoped was his cell. It was! Second freak out: it went to voicemail. I left a message, confident he’d return the call soon. A day passed. He finally called me back to tell me that his neighbor knows someone who really wants to buy it, so he’d rather go that route. They’re looking at it this weekend and he’s putting the renting thing on hold until then. Not so much a freak out as complete and total crushing blow.

One thing about me: I’m not the most assertive guy, nor do I plan for the worst-case scenario. I just knew that was the place for us, and now we have to keep searching. One thing about my wife: She IS assertive, and she doesn’t necessarily plan for worst-case, but she always has a back up. She already had a list of properties she’d seen in the paper, handed it to me and told me to suck it up and make some calls/send some emails. I just checked my emails, and someone sent me a reply at 10:30 at night! Hope springs eternal!

Add to the above destressing situation the new found fact that the doctors are talking like they are going to want to induce my wife a week early, moving the due date from around the 18th of August to around the 11th of August. Mind if I just lie down here for a minute?

Interlude: When I was in High School, I referred to myself as an ‘Amateur Animation Historian’. My love for animation and the history of the art survives to this day. So here’s an antecdote from early Disney history that helps me when times get tough:

The premiere for Fantasia was getting near, and the animators were still filming the ‘Ave Maria’ sequence. The scene required an extensive use of the multi-plane camera, which consists of a camera pointing down through multiple levels of painted glass that can be adjusted depending on the depth desired. So the filmmakers are filming the last sequence when the unthinkable happens.

Earthquake!

The animators could do nothing but watch helplessly as the plates of glass, and all their hard work, danced on the framework of the camera.

The earthquake stopped, they reset the shot, and got the film to the theater just in time for the premiere.

I think about that story and realize that things happen, but everything always works out. Maybe not the way you planned, maybe not without a few heart attacks along the way, but they always work out!

One other thing that helps: Check out Calli’s artwork! She turns three today, and look at the wonderful works she’s already created on a MagnaDoodle!

callirocket Here, Calli demonstrates her ability to achieve motion through speed lines. Dude! She did this all by herself! Major Daddy geek out!

calliduck Calli handed this one to my wife and said, ‘Look Mommy! A duck!’ Tell me this doesn’t look like something by Berkeley Breathed! opus.img_assist_custom