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It was a good weekend to get dressed up in funny costumes and drunkenly pull a shopping cart around Portland. That’s what I did this weekend anyway by participating in the Portland Urban Iditarod. Some friends of mine did most of the work of getting the shopping cart and planning costumes.

We were greek gods. I wore my lion costume top which gave me big muscles to go with my gold, Playboy brand sheet. Our shopping cart wasn’t even close to as ornate as other people’s, but it was a nice, fluffy white cloud that we randomly attached a teradactyl and tinkerbell to. At the last minute I went to the dollar store and got some swords that made bubbles, which was probably most others’ favorite part of our getup.

The creativity of some of the other participants was amazing! The tea party cart had clever signs, the my little ponies were awfully cute, I saw the Oregon trail cart tip over a few times and reminded me of my attempts to ford the river in the game, there were way to many Mario brothers carts, there were a few carts with fire including devils and oil rigs, the WWF cart put on one hell of a show at the stops… The list really goes on and on for impressive weirdness.

At each of the stops was a chance to socialize with the other participants and, of course, drink. It was especially odd and fun to be at a dance club around noon with sunlight streaming in on a tables full of german barmaids, 1800′s settlers, ninja turtles, superheros and Kill Bill characters dancing on tables to techno and pop.

Kim met me at the end of the race to see the costumes. I guess it’s not much of a race. It’s definitely something that I can’t imagine in most US cities, but it’s great to see Portland staying weird.

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• Geneveve's first fever, probably tooth related. Thank goodness for 24 hour pharmacies and ibuprofen. She's back to sleep #
• Not even 7 months and Geneveve is pulling herself to standing. Pillows in the bed don't work as a barrier anymore. #
• I just saw Batman pee on himself #
• Mario just lost his mustache riding a pornstar #
• I just put bacon up for crowd surfing #

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I’ve been playing with the Zeo sleep device. I’ve always been fascinated with brain wave monitoring, so when I saw the price had come down so far I finally got one of these. Looks like I’m about average for my age, which I think is pretty darned good considering Geneveve sleeps in bed with us.

It’s a bit annoying that you have to manually upload your data from the alarm clock device to a website to get decent graphs, but the sleep data visualizations are pretty good.

From Sleep Graphs

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• Realizing I need to up my meditation back to at least 30 min. Being short on time I switched to 15 but don't get to really beneficial state. #
• Geneveve swallowed her first solid food tonight without choking – sweet potato #

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I did my second float in a sensory deprivation tank tonight at Float On. This consists of floating on your back for 90 minutes in a tank of salt water (you’re very buoyant in salt water) that’s a bit over a foot deep, keeps all light out, and wearing earplugs to block external noise and keep salt out of your ears. Both experiences were very different, but very worthwhile.

My first float it took me a little while to get used to the idea of being in a new space and in salt water. I quickly found out that you shouldn’t get the salt water on your face since it dries later and becomes uncomfortable. I had to get out of the tank to wash my face with fresh water before going back in. The other thing that was notable was that I was sore from some recent exercise, so I had trouble letting go of the awareness of the soreness and found I needed to stretch a lot to be comfortable. I finally settled into a relaxed state, lost track of time, and then felt like it was too short by the time it was done. They play some gentle classical music when it’s time to get out.

Tonight my brain was on a rampage all float. It wouldn’t quiet down. I started off trying to make the session like one of my meditation sessions where I notice the thoughts to start, focus on breathing, and by the end have a much more focused awareness and fewer stray thoughts. That didn’t go well, and for a while it frustrated me. Then I gave into it and let my mind wander. I started contemplating all sorts of possibilities and questions. I thought about trying to do a stand up comedy act, building an android app that interfaces with a Zeo headband that could monitor brainwave activity all day, different ways to solve work problems, some books I’d like to write, implications of genetic technology, photo projects I’d like to complete and even what I was going to write in this blog post. I had a few moments of quiet relaxation, but every time I thought I’d settle into that mode it was like my brain got a jumpstart. By the end I was a little tired from thinking and ready to get out have some sensory distraction again.

It’s a really cool experience in a complementary way to my meditation time. It’s a bit pricey at $40, and leads me to wonder about building my own tank, but I can definitely see it as a tool for achieving desirable states of mind. A few tips I’d share to make the experience better: blow your nose, go to the bathroom, stretch and do anything else you’ll need to do to be comfortable for 90 minutes without moving much. It’s kind of obvious if you think about it, but it’s worth reminding yourself before you go in. And don’t get salt on your face.

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Of course, having a baby means not having enough time to write about having a baby. Geneveve just celebrated her 6 month birthday and is a completely different person than she was a few months ago. She’s crawling, babbling, laughing, putting everything in her mouth, peeing and pooping in the potty a good percentage of the time and just has a lot more personality every day.

It truly is amazing to watch how quickly she’s learning new things. And she’s excited to learn them. She wakes herself up sometimes to practice crawling because she’s so pumped to be able to do it. I woke up this morning and she was banging her head against me in bed while rocking back and forth on her hands and knees to practice her crawl pose.

I’m thankful that I have a flexible enough job that I can do a bit of work from home so that I can be with her in the mornings, and that Kim can be with her all day. Even though she’s much more independent now with the ability to sit up and play on her own a little bit, she’s still a real handful and requires pretty constant attention.

Overall, I’m a lot more comfortable and confident having a baby than I was when she was born, but there’s still plenty of new challenges all the time. She often fights naps and then gets grumpy, she’s teething and that makes her cry sometimes, her hands are getting a lot more coordinated so we need to watch her more carefully to see what she might put in her mouth, and, of course, now that she’s becoming mobile we need to start child proofing.

I suppose there’s always going to be something new to enjoy and deal with as children grow older, but I don’t suppose the changes will be as fast paced and noticeable as they get older. I really like this age Geneveve is at right now, and better just enjoy it while I can.

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• Finally took the Christmas tree down. It was getting too dry. I like having trees indoors, they're like giant air fresheners. #
• Don't get Amtrak seats at the front or back of the car for overnight train trips. The door constantly going makes it hard to sleep. #

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• I just did my first sensory deprivation float at http://floathq.com/ and liked it a lot – best meditation I've done since the baby was born. #

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• Geneveve is practically crawling. It's a slow process now, but she can scoot herself a foot or so on her belly to grab stuff. #

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• Greyhound has mobile wifi. Pretty cool #

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