Goal: Participate in “No Shave November” every year, encourage others to participate, and make donations to “Movember” when funds are available
This morning, I decided to get in the picture with Caleb to show off my beard. The last time I shaved fully was on the last day of October in accordance with the rules of “No Shave November”. Basically, No Shave November entails not shaving for the entire month of November and seeing what one’s beard looks like by the end of the month. In the past, I have treated the month of November as a contest with the goal being growing a better beard than a worthy beard-growing adversary. Last year, a senior student and I both grew beards during November (said student, at the request of his girlfriend, shaved before the end of the month—Mr. Martin=winning). However, this year, I decided to kick my goal up a notch by linking it to “Movember”, a campaign which came first and, in my opinion, is far more powerful. The following is an explanatory blurb from http://us.movember.com/:
“During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.
Once registered at www.movember.com, men start Movember 1st clean shaven. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.
Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.
At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.”
Pretty cool, right? My facial hair/Movember-related plan for the rest of my parental leave is as follows: continue growing out the beard, trimming around the edges weekly; make a general donation to a men’s health-related charity (most likely Movember itself); and trim a moustache out of the mess that is my beard come the end of February, and wear the moustache to school on my first day back. The last item on this list relates to another of my goals which reads: “Wear a moustache to work at least one day (SEE PREVIOUS GOAL ABOUT “NO SHAVE NOVEMBER”)”. This particular goal is inspired by a good friend of mine named Rich Smith, who used to be an English teacher at Livonia. Mr. Smith made a 100 Goals list the same year that I did, and one of his goals included growing a moustache with a friend and wearing the moustache for a day. I was the friend, and he and I sported moustaches for a few days one summer. Originally, this goal was a goofy one intended to be funny and nothing more, but since I’ve learned about Movember, I decided to do the whole moustache thing again but for a noble cause. I hope you all enjoy the ‘stache when the time comes! (Related sidebar: When I was watching the President’s Cup [a professional golf tournament] a couple of weekends ago, I noticed that some of the participants were sporting moustaches—check out this YouTube vid of Australian professional golfer Geoff Ogilvy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZkX1OL8exo).
Goal: Actively clip and use coupons to save $
Have you ever watched the show Extreme Couponing on TLC? Basically, the premise of the show is a person who is a master in using coupons to save money goes shopping with about a billion coupons and a plan while cameras follow the person around. While the couponer is in the checkout line, viewers wait in suspense until the goods are fully processed to see how much the person saved. One time, my wife and I watched the show, and the extreme couponer actually made money at the register. It was ridiculous! Anyway, I clipped coupons today, and in so doing, I came to the realization that I will never make money like the lady on the TV show. I may, however, save 20 cents on a Dawn product (yep, I clipped THAT coupon today—no big deal…).
Goal: Have children and become a successful father
In the Day 8 photo above, you may have noticed that Caleb has a little scratch on the left side of his face. He has the sharpest tiny fingernails, and he woke up this morning with that mark on his cheek. In true “successful father” fashion, I washed up the cut and slathered a little A + D ointment on there. (If you’ve never used A + D, I suggest you do, like, say, next time you get chapped eyelids—believe me, it happens to the best of us, and A + D is there to lend a helping hand.) Then, I had an idea…...Caleb received a gift recently from a family friend. The gift included three CDs of children’s songs sung by one of the family friends himself (he’s a musician), and the other night on the way home, we listened to one of the discs and heard “The Boo-Boo Dance”. Before Caleb goes to bed tonight (and by that, I mean a few minutes from now!), I thought my wife and I would play “The Boo-Boo Dance” for him while we put a little bit more medicine on.
Overall, it was another good day at home. Due to the holidays, which were great (lots of family, lots of friends, and lots of turkey [four full turkeys over five days, to be exact!]), Caleb was a tired little guy today—here he is at 11 AM this morning still sleeping after going down for a nap at 9:20 AM:
Caleb’s lethargy allowed me to finish up another important task today: a letter of recommendation for J.G.!
