Orange You Glad I'm a Cowboy?

Hey there followers, friends, family, familiars, fans, and found-by-mistakers! It's Azja again with another installment of my weblog. Since Pennsylvania is far away from most of you, Dad has been pushing me to keep the blog up to date on a more regular basis. He says the public awaits, and I have an obligation to supply them with pictures and info. No paparazzi needed, just an enthusiastic family always ready for their next opportunity to capture my various poses and expressions as a set of zeroes and ones and ship them off to the rest of the world via a series of tubes called the internets. So we have a bit of a feast for you this time around.

It is Labor Day weekend, and it is also the last weekend Grandma and Grandpa Vogt get to spend with me until the end of the month (when we road-trip it to the land of the Red Earth). Also, Dad gets Monday off, so he gets to spend more time with me, as well before going back to work for four long Azja-less days. Also, and this is the big one, college football season started! And what an exciting day it was yesterday. Oklahoma State had a big game against Georgia, and everyone had their orange shirts extra orangey for the occassion. I personally went with the white and orange style, as I heard something about not wearing white after Labor Day and wanted to take advantage. But before getting my game colors on, I had to try on Mom's favorite summer outfit before the embers of summer were extinguished under the vibrant leaves of fall (which are already all over our yard due to the summer being extra cool and confusing the local folliage).

Mom and Dad set the chair up like a little photo studio prop and tried to get some pretty pictures of me. Unfortunately I was hungry at the time and was a little less than cooperative. The pictures you see are the best of the bunch. I personally like the one where I'm playing with my feet. See, I forget they are there from time to time. You may think that is weird, but when you haven't ever used something, how is it really that meaningful to you? I don't walk around on my feet, and about the only time I ever see them is when I'm getting my diaper changed and have to keep them out of the way. Then I remember I have these things down there that have short little fingers on them that I can't control as well as my hands. So it's fun for me to see a picture where I'm in the middle of appreciating these mysterious appendages. By the way, I am now getting better at controlling my hands. I've recently discovered that I can use them to interact with my environment. I haven't quite figured out how to time my movements correctly to actually make this realization useful, but I have learned that if I see something near me and bring my hands close enough, I can actually touch it or even grab it (if my fingers cooperate). Just today I actually grabbed my pacifier while it was in my mouth. I consider this a major breakthrough in what gamers call "hand-eye coordination". In this case, I guess it would be hand-mouth coordination.

After the photo session, Mom cleaned me up and put me in my Cowboy colors. Everyone was pretty excited about me being the newest initiate to Cowboy football, but once the game started I quickly realized I had no idea what was going on. For one thing, I can't focus far enough yet to make sense of what was on the television. Dad would probably be upset if he knew this, as he was very excited about seeing an Oklahoma State in beautiful high-definition and might take it as an affront to his technological alter at the head of the living room. What can I say, I'm a baby. I wasn't designed to watch TV. I was designed to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, cry, stare, cuddle, and generally just try to process the world around me. And I could not process football. I could hear the announcers talking about the action of the game, but none of it made any sense to me. Flags, downs, turnovers, field goals, receivers, special teams, pass interference, and rushing. What does it all mean? I tried to get excited when everyone else did, but in the end I just decided a nap made a lot more sense. When I woke up I learned that the Pokes had indeed won the game and that this was an important win for them. It was also apparently an important win for my family, too, as they were very happy. Mom might have mostly been happy to finally drink a couple beers, but everyone else seemed to be ecstatic about the fact that OSU seems to now have a defense. And there was much rejoicing and passing around of the little lucky charm (me) for post-game pictures. I've attached the pictures I took with everyone as well as the picture of me trying to make some sense of this crazy game and the picture of the nap I took right after I gave up trying to figure it out.

I was awake for the next game and was even more perplexed by the fact that everyone seemed to be cheering against Oklahoma this time. Maybe it was a different Oklahoma. Anyway, this was a loss for Oklahoma against BYU, and everyone pointed out how this was an important loss, as an undefeated season was already out of their grasp. So apparently losses can be just as important as wins, and consequently just as celebrated. Hmm. I have a lot to learn about this world.

Today, Dad stayed at home with me while Mom, Grandma and Grandpa Vogt all went to church. I'll go there someday, but today it might have been a little much, with me being so young. I'm interested to see what it is all about. It must really be something important, as everyone was dressed up to go. Dad took care of me and read me a Grimm Fairy Tale. It put me to sleep. It was something about a poor farmer who was smarter than everyone else and kept tricking them in order to get the things he and his family wanted. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to try to be like that or try not to be like that. This Grimm guy doesn't really tell you if things are good or bad, so you have to reason it out for yourself. But I'm too young to reason, so I'll just wait until Dad tells me one way or the other. In the meantime, back to sleep. When everyone got home, they finished the game of Mexican Train Dominos they started the night before. This time I got to join in. I can't say I was a lot of help, as I once again had no idea what was going on. I liked the pretty colors of all the dots, but that's about as far as my understanding went. Dad felt I was lucky, though, as he won several rounds in a row, and eventually the game, with me sitting at the table. I'm not lucky, I just rigged it (although I'm not even sure how I did it). Anyway, I'd better get going. They all want to cook some steaks pretty soon. We've been enjoying the day outside, and grilling steaks seems like the logical way to prepare dinner in such an environment. I can't wait to smell the steaks (I've already gotten used to the fact that it will be a long time before I actually get to taste such wonderful smelling food). Until next time, Dad will keep the camera handy.

See you next time,
Azja