Our Latest Outing

I guess the word outing is strange for someone who never leaves the cramped quarters of the womb, but I can still tell when we are in a different environment than home. Home is usually pretty quiet. Mom will sometimes put on some music while working around the house (and her music is often prettier than the louder stuff Dad likes) or drive around to various real estate appointments, grocery stores, or shopping areas. The loudest thing at home is usually Eddy The Dog who barks instead of talking. Dad attached a picture of him to this blog. Whenever there is a loud noise outside, Eddy The Dog barks furiously in order to drown out the noise. He also seems to either predict the future or control people with his barking because sometimes people show up in our house right after he barks a lot. When we go on an outing, however, things can get pretty loud. My first big outing was while we were in Oklahoma over Christmas, but I was too young then to even recognize things such as sound or light. I mostly know about it because I've heard Mom and Dad talk about it a lot since. We spent some time in Okarche with Mom's family where Mom and Dad spent a lot of time playing a game called Pass the Pigs. I can't wait to play it with them someday. They also spent a lot of time trying to get Cousin Maddie to dance, which actually got pretty loud at times. Then we spent some time in Ponca City with Dad's family where Dad brewed beer with Grandpa and Uncle Greg (and Cousin Lily, but I don't think she helped much), while Mom and I shopped with Grandma and Aunt Karen. They played a lot of games there, and I got to experience my first Oklahoma thunderstorm, which they say was pretty loud. We then went to Tulsa where I had to be kept a secret because I was still too young for everyone to learn about me (I was around 6 weeks old at the time). Mom and Dad watched an Oklahoma State football game with a lot of their friends from school they hadn't seen in a long time, but I have heard that the game didn't go too well. I still look forward to watching some Oklahoma State games someday, no matter how the team plays. We spent New Year's Eve in a land called Bricktown where we heard a loud country band called No Justice followed by a crazy band called The Flaming Lips. Mom says she was once on stage with the Flaming Lips, but I don't think it was at this show. Then we finished the trip back in Okarche where Aunt Vanessa also had a baby in her belly. I'm going to have a lot of cousins to play with someday.

Our next big outing was to hear a band called Frightened Rabbit in a little shop in Philadelphia with Mom and Dad's friends Jason and Hallie. This show wasn't very loud, but the people there sometimes got loud. Mom was now telling people about me, and everyone was very excited when they were told. The guy selling tee-shirts for the band was so excited that he gave Mom an extra tee-shirt she could wear when I got bigger (which would make her bigger). Mom and Dad got to meet the band at this show, and Dad talked to them about what they thought about the United States with Obama as president. They had funny voices because they were from the Scott Land.

The next month was probably our loudest outing. Mom and Dad took me to hear the Ting Tings perform in Philadelphia. The band that played before them was called Hottub. They were three very loud and crazy girls that sang a song about a manbitch making someone a sandwhich. I don't really know what all that means but Mom and Dad and Jason and Hallie think it is funny and say it a lot. The Ting Tings also had funny voices, but in a different way than Frightened Rabbit. Mom and Dad said they were from England. I think Uncle Kenny might also be from England, but his voice doesn't sound funny like the Ting Tings.

Also in March Mom and Dad took me to Vegas to meet up with more of their friends from school. They decided to stay at the Mandalay Bay so Mom could enjoy some warm outdoor weather. The winter is very long in Pennsylvania, and Mom wanted to bask in the sun. We spent an entire day at the hotel pool with our own private cabana complete with a dedicated waitstaff. They say you can live like a king in Vegas, but I think Mom felt more like a Princess. She and Dad even got massages at the Luxor spa (Mom got a special kind of massage because of me, and I think she really liked it). Dad said he talked politics with the Asian woman giving his massage and thought it was funny everytime she pronounced Obama like Omaha, Nebraska. He said that Omaha, Nebraska is already making some important changes that have even affected Las Vegas. This Omaha must be pretty impressive. Mom played some games with Jack Black, but said she wasn't as lucky with Jack Black as she had been in the past (one time Jack Black won her $600, which Mom and Dad used for watching movies outside). Dad played with crap and was very lucky. He got over $400 from crap, and his friend Kyle won over $200 from one of the tables of crap. His friend Chad found a lucky table of crap that gave him around $700. I don't know what this crap is, but it sounds pretty exciting. Mom and Dad also got to see the fountains at Bellagio for the first time on this trip. They'd been to Vegas before but for some reason just never made it to Bellagio. It sounded like the show was pretty impressive, but I guess it's one of those things you have to see to appreciate because I definitely did not appreciate the music of the first show (a country song about 'this kiss', not really something that makes me think of beautiful fountains, whatever they are). The other highlight of the trip was something called Fwa Gwa. I don't know what that is, but Dad and his friend Jared laughed about it the entire trip. Must be pretty entertaining.

The next week Mom took me on another outing to Oklahoma to meet my new cousin Garrett (the last time we met he was in Aunt Vanessa's belly, just like me). Vegas made Mom excited about warm weather again, but when we got to Oklahoma there was an ice storm. This made Mom upset because she thought it was supposed to be warm. Unfortunately it never got warm the whole time we were there. Luckily for me Mom is warm, so I'm always pretty warm. For her to stay warm she needs things called heaters and coats. She didn't want to use heaters and coats. She wanted to wear flip-flops. This same week Dad told her that Pennsylvania was having some warm weather and he was able to wear flip-flops. Mom wasn't too happy about what she called the irony. Aside from seeing Garrett we also went to a party for Aunt Dianna and future Uncle Brenden. It had something to do with them being together someday, but they were already together at the party, so I don't quite understand what the party was about. Everyone was happy, though, including Mom (even though she still wasn't warm). A picture of her with Cousin Maddie and Cousin Garrett is attached.

The next outings didn't come until April when Mom and Dad both celebrated their birthdays. Mom turned 27 and Dad turned 30. For part of Mom's birthday we went to the basement of a church in Philadelphia and heard Ice Palace, the Cloud Cult, and Margot & The Nuclear So and So's perform. This was a pretty loud place, and Mom had to sit down in the hallway for a while because I make it hard for her to stand in one place for too long. I liked the music of this show because it was pretty. Mom and Dad got to meet some of the Nuclear So and So's, and they signed some records for Mom and Dad's collection. Dad buys a lot of records and has two turntables so he can play two records at the same time. He practices mixing them together to create new songs, and he says that after I am born he'll take me to a Halloween party where he will mix his records in front of people as DJ Hazbro. There's a picture of his mixing station attached. I can't wait to see what these records look like. I hope they look as pretty as they sound. When Mom and Dad are driving somewhere they put the records into something called an iPod, but the music sounds better when the records are in the turntables. Turntables must be the newest technology because not everybody has them. Jay and Hallie just got their first one in April and are excited about how good their music sounds now. I hope that when I am older everyone has turntables so music will sound good everywhere.

For Dad's birthday we didn't go to a show, but we did go to the Grey Stone. It is a place where people talk so much they get very thirsty. They have to keep getting drinks all night long so they can talk more and more and louder and louder. Mom must have had at least 5 glasses of water, and Dad had a new type of drink called Corvosee Yay. It must be a fun drink to be called Yay. He also had beer, but I don't think it was the same beer he made with Grandpa and Uncle Greg. This one was called Ying Ling, so I think it comes from China.

The next week, however, we did have another outing in Philadelphia. We heard a band called Travis, although I don't think anyone in the band is actually named Travis. This band was also from the Scott Land, but their voices only sounded funny when they talked. They also had really pretty music, and it wasn't too loud because we were in the balcony where Mom got to sit down and Dad got to enjoy something called Newcastle Brown. That night we stayed in one of the King of Prussia's hotels, and the next morning Mom and Dad shopped in his mall. The King of Prussia must be an extraordinary man to be able to provide such accommodations. Mom actually got to pick out the camera that day that will be taking all the pictures for my blog. I can't wait to see the pictures someday. Mom and Dad really seemed to like how the camera made them look. Later that day Dad got to eat one of his favorite sandwiches called Pastrami and got to visit a whole store filled with records. While Dad was looking at records, Mom read a book outside next to a crazy woman who was talking to invisible people. The lady kept shouting bad words when people didn't give her change. Mom's book was about meditation, but I don't think it was working too well because the lady was yelling the whole time. That night we heard more bands from the Scott Land. I want to visit this place someday, as it must be filled with beautiful music all the time. The bands were called the Twilight Sad and Mogwai. The Twilight Sad had the Scott Land sound in their voice even while singing, and Mogwai didn't ever sing at all. They just played loud and powerful music. If I had ever been able to see anything but soft glowing light and darkness I probably would have had lots of pretty images in my mind because of it. Instead I just tried to remember the prettiest color glow I'd seen so far. Someday I will recognize this as a shade of purple.

This brings me to our last outing. Friday night we went back to the church in Philadelphia where we heard the Cloud Cult. This time we were in the sanctuary instead of the basement. Mom liked this because she was able to sit down on the pew during the show if she got tired of standing. Dad liked this because he thought it was fun to drink Ying Ling in a church sanctuary and he thought the sanctuary was a beautiful place to see the band perform. The band was Bat for Lashes, but I'm still confused about whether that is the band's name or just another name for the lead singer, a girl named Natasha. She has a very pretty voice, and I think it would be wonderful to be able to sing like that someday. First I'll have to figure out how to use my mouth to make sound. I don't understand how people do it. Jay and Hallie went to this show, as well, as they were the ones who actually introduced Mom and Dad to Bat for Lashes. At the end of the show they all waited around for a while so they could meet Natasha and get her to sign their records. Dad got a picture of Mom and Jay with Natasha that is attached to this blog. There's also a few other pictures of the sanctuary, the show, and Jay and Hallie enjoying some Ying Ling in their pew and a video of Bat for Lashes performing Glass near the beginning of the show.

The next day Dad got up very early to spend the day playing paintball. Mom took the opportunity to catch up on some rest, as she has found it hard to get good sleep lately. I think I might be partially responsible, but I'm glad she was able to find some rest, as it makes me feel better too. Then after Dad got home and rested some (he said he was sore in muscles he didn't even know he had - I guess even after you are born you are continually learning new things about yourself) we went to visit Mom and Dad's friends Bryn, Tamara, and Matt. They must live at a place like the Grey Stone, because everyone there also talked so much they had to keep getting drinks. We all went outside at one point and lit a fire. I don't know what this is, but I know that it was warm and had a pretty glow. Dad took a couple pictures of this, too, as he is excited about playing with the new camera and likes to test out the different modes with different lighting conditions. There is one picture of Dad attached that shows how tired he was after a Bat for Lashes show, 3 hours of sleep, a day of paintball warfare, and an evening at Bryn and Tamara's. Mom said he also took some funny pictures of her burning marshmallows, which are also attached. I can't wait to see those someday.

So that pretty much sums up all our major outings so far. I like when we go on these little trips, but I also really like the quiet restful times at home, especially when Mom puts on her music and gets good rest. Mom and Dad say they will be going back to Oklahoma again this week for Aunt Dianna's wedding (part of the 'being together with future Uncle Brenden' party where I think he officially becomes Uncle Brenden), so I'll probably have another good outing to write about next week.

See you around the end of August,
A. Dunham