Informant 4

February 12, 2016

Friday Feb 12th, 2016 Didn’t get much sleep last night but enough I suppose. Stayed up late watching the Bernie Sanders vs Hillary Clinton debate and watching my 6 month old daughter through the night because my fiancée works 3rd shift at a nursing home. My daughter, L.J, fell asleep around 11p and woke up again around 3:45a and stayed up until 5ish. Mommy came home around 530 and Daddy got to sleep until about 645ish before getting up to get ready. Woke up and didn’t have to watch my middle school daughter get on the bus this morning because she was still sick from the day before and stayed home today. My 8 year old son woke up when I did so I fixed him a bowl of cereal, and made a pot of coffee. While waiting on coffee, I did a quick mindfulness meditation and prayer lasting only about 5 minutes. Quickly checked facebook account and Twitter, noticed an email notification too. Headed upstairs to hop in shower and direct my son to get dressed. Mama and baby are sound asleep. Rushed out of shower, got dressed in warm clothes, checked my sons attire, ran downstairs to make his lunch and fill my travel mug with the Caffeinery’s roasted slow drip home brewed coffee and bounced out the door. My son L. asked me for a dollar for hat day, we hopped in the car to go to school, in a hurry, held hands and said our daily morning prayer. Pulled up to school, gave him my chocolate mint chapstick to put on his dry lips, and told him to try and be good today for his teacher and good luck on his spelling test. Rushed over to McCulloch Park to meet people at 8a, got there exactly at 8a, which was unexpected. Met some people there to start our day for the 1st annual “Kick Ash Campaign”, where local businesses donated a whole day of cutting down dead ash trees for the city of Muncie to help keep our park safe. Some showed up late, but got a good start on the day at the park, did a quick Star Press interview on video, and watched some large trees get cut down. It was cold! Around 19 degrees. Chatted with a committee member then went to the office at City Hall. Got in, checked email, then had to go home on lunch break to pick up Mama and baby for 6 month check up at doctor office. Kept the van running because its cold and went in the house to help get baby ready to go outside. Got to Doctors office, checked in, and went to 2nd floor. Called in for check up, got weighed, measured, and passed with all good reports. Had to get 3 vaccinations shots in her legs. Chose not to get one yet and had the reoccurring thoughts about vaccinations. Kind of a fearful worry but let go for trusting science and medicine. Baby L.J cried, got her bundled, signed up for a free book program for 5 year deliveries funded in part by Dolly Parton. Pretty cool. Left to drop off family and head back to work. Got back to office and caught up on some email before having to run over to the Sanitation barn to make sure lunch was ready for volunteers. All was good after small hiccups, talk to some people at the barn breakroom I hadn’t seen in awhile. One was recovering from a motorcycle wreck and showed us a picture of how the tailpipe put a hole in his face. Crazy. Chatted some more with someone who just got a new car. Took off to go back to my office to turn in an abstract submittal for a conference in September that I will be presenting at. Checked the local paper for interview, found it and watched video, and shared on Facebook thanking people for their participation and to help support the local businesses. Got off at 435p and headed to pick up my son L. at the Buley Community Center where he goes afterschool. Had a conversation with staff about him keeping his hands to himself . Came home after that around 445 and came upstairs to check on mama and baby who just woke up from a nap. My son brought Mom flowers for VDay and we read his school Valentines, giggling and eating candy. Laid on the bed chatting about what to do this evening for Vday because S. has to work Saturday and Sunday. She was a little upset with me about not having a romantic plan I tried to make it up to her. We called Domo Restaurant to make a reservation and I waited for her to get ready. when she came downstairs she looked fantastic and then we packed up the baby and went to Domo for sushi and hibachi grill food. it’s a special treat for us. Had a pretty good meal in a couple of Japanese beers. Although for some reason they didn’t give us the fried rice that we ordered and it was interesting why they had forgotten it. S. made comments about getting weird looks. This happens a lot in Muncie because we are a bi-racial couple. We finished our food and bundled up to head out. Got home and was pretty tired and decided to have everyone go to bed and I laid down in my bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. I had a jam packed morning for Saturday getting up early to walk a mile in my shoes for the Muncie mission and then being on a panel about the LGBTQ community and the Christian church. I was a little nervous because I was going to be the only one there as an Ally for the community in the church, while others were talking about praying an helping them change their “lifestyle”. We have very different beliefs on the subject but I thought it was important to be there to stand up for those who would not be there.