J.J. Goodman: Writings, Musings and More

  This post is about a month overdue. Not because I was being lazy, or was too busy, or didn't want to write it, mind you. If you've been a regular reader over the years then you know that every year I try to choose a song as the basis for my annual birthday reflection and introspection. I had started giving this some thought well before my birthday last month, but I simply couldn't find the right words this year. 2020 has been without a doubt an incredibly trying and difficult year thus far. The global health crisis has clouded nearly everything I've done, from my regular employment, to my work with That Hashtag Show, to personal and business travel, right down to my roles as father and husband. Personally, this past year has been, remarkably, positive. Just in the last six months alone we were able to take a beach vacation just before the world shut down. Likewise, we sold our home and moved to a new one with more space for our growing family. And yes, growing, it i...

  Soooooo remember last time when we discussed whether or not I could handle two miniature human beings as a parent? And how we collectively decided that   yes, yes I could? Well, about that…. (Oh no. What happened?) I'm glad you asked. (WAIT! Never mind. We don't want' to know.) Too late. I'm going to tell you anyway. Twice, within the last four days, offspring number one has had a meltdown. Not just a meltdown, mind you, but a meltdown of epic proportions. A meltdown of Trump on Twitter proportions. A meltdown of such proportions that my beloved first born was so inconsolable that neither mommy nor daddy nor mommy and daddy nor mommy and daddy and all the kings horses and all the kings men could put the humpty dumpty of her tiny little dilemma back together again. There were tears. All around. AND IT FUCKING SUCKED. That right there is one of the those things that they don't tell you about that I'm telling you now. Sure it's funny to see meme...

So here we are at week twenty-three and offspring number two is now the size of a mango and offspring number one had a waffle with mango slices for breakfast and honestly that whole mango-mango offspring scenario kind of weirded me out this morning. (I… don't even know where to begin with that.) *sigh* I know. It's a mango thing. You wouldn't understand. (Please get help.) Sure. In my spare time. Of which I have zero to the trillionteenth power. I think you might have gathered by now that I've had a busy summer thus far. Between dad duties, work duties, general pandemic-related family duties, dad-to-be duties, and selling house-buying house-moving duties I forget to do certain things. Like sleep, or, you know, breathe. Thankfully the human body generally handles the whole breathing thing automatically. Point being… I have a lot going on and it's hard to focus. But… I have another little one on the way, so I have to focus. Thankfully, most of the above is...

You know what sucks? Global pandemics.   (Um… yes?) Yes. I last worked a full day wearing dress shoes and a button-down shirt on March 11,2020. We left for vacation the next day, and the day after that the world went off the rails on a crazy train to hell and forgot the handbasket. When we returned, we went into quarantine and never looked back. I’ve maybe been in the office a half a dozen times since, for no more than an hour or two at a pop, to retrieve or print documents. Otherwise the wife and I have been home, each of us working full-time from our respective spots in the ol’ homestead. And you know what else is hard? (That’s what she said…) *gives stink eye* What else is hard is trying to work full time, juggling two, full-time schedules, and caring for a toddler who had entered the “why” stage of her sh ort-to-date life span like the f***ing Kool-Aid Man busting through walls. “Why daddy?” “Why mommy?” “Why you go upstairs?” “Why mommy tired?” “Why daddy curled up i...

[EDITOR’S NOTE, i.e. I gotta tell you something before you read further: I wrote this piece a couple months ago. Yeah I know I need to do some catching up. Be patient.] So… this post is a little long, because it’s the first in a new series and I’m a wordy guy and I have thoughts and such. With that said…. Thus begin…   The Ramblings of an Expectant Dad, Part 2 . Hey, you know what? I’ve been at this parenting stuff for over two years now. Sure, the “Terrible Twos” are starting, but you know what? It’s not really that bad. We adjust our parenting style, we’ve read up on some measures we can take to mitigate what our daughter is going through, and we cope. Thankfully I have an incredible partner in my wife to help get us through whatever comes our way! So, of course, this is right about the time my world gets turned ass-side upwards. (Ass-side upwards??) Come on, admit it. It sounds better than saying “turned upside down.” (Okay, we’ll give you that.) The parenthetica...