We used to read a lot

If you were to ask me what my favorite things are, and said "Being a husband" and "Being a dad" were not allowed, I would tell you three things, in no particular order: Watching baseball, listening to music, and reading (Well, there's another thing. But I'm not going to list that one.)

Let's look at these in order:

Watching Baseball
I still get to do this, to an extent. As you likely know, I am (we are) a Houston Astros fan. One of two that I know in the greater Nashville area. They're so bad, and with moving to the American League West - what I believe is the toughest division in baseball - there was a guy on the radio in Nashville who was an Astros fan, but switched to the Cubs. Which is like deciding to not get burned by hot oil in favor of getting burned with hot wax.

ANYway. We determined that MLB.tv was an unnecessary expense this summer - and most likely an expense that would be left dormant, meaning that I wouldn't necessarily be able to watch the Astros. And since I take each and every one of the Astros' losses (and they are many) personally, it just wouldn't do.

So if there's a "good game" on television, we might watch a few innings. While I can certainly watch the Royals and Twins play a game in September - not that they would be on tv - I don't want to do that to Kami. We haven't watched much baseball this season.

Listening to Music
I do this quite a bit. We have Mog, which is incredible. I don't mind paying $5/month for unlimited streaming music, because I listen at work for 8-10 hours a day (and I have Residual Napster Guilt). This hasn't dropped off. And I can play Emsley our ten favorite albums, which are (and this is tough for me, because 4-10 change on a daily basis):

1) The Pernice Brothers, "Yours, Mine and Ours"
2) Elbow, "The Seldom Seen Kid"
3) U2, "Achtung Baby"
4) The Broken West, "I Can't Go On I'll Go On"
5) Will Hoge, "Blackbird on a Lonely Wire"
6) Gomez, "Bring It On"
7) Josh Rouse, "Nashville"
8) Radiohead, "OK Computer"
9) Wilco, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
10) Rufus Wainwright, "Want One"

Honorable Mentions:
11) Danger Mouse, "The Grey Album" (I have White Love for Jay-Z. One of our biggest regrets is not going to see Jay-Z at Madison Square Garden when we lived in Cooperstown. It would have made for a miserable day at work, getting back to Coop at 5am, but ohsoworthit).
12) Mike Farris, "Salvation in Lights"

Reading
And this is where we stop. Because we're big readers. We absolutely love to read - (Myself? Mainly non-fiction, and the weirder the better.) Let's continue with the pattern of my favorites:

1) Truman Capote, "In Cold Blood"
2) Erik Larson, "Devil in the White City"
3) Jon Krakauer, "Into Thin Air"
4) Nick Hornby, "Fever Pitch" (not the bastardized Jimmy Fallon bullcrap)
5) James L. Swanson, "Manhunt"

Yeah, I like Fiction. Anything by James Lee Burke. The Count of Monte Cristo. But, I love Erik Larson like a brother. I want to be Erik Larson. Perhaps you've heard of him: Isaac's Storm, Thunderstruck, Devil in the White City. Larson takes huge historical events and finds intensely personal experiences that completely sum up that huge event. He writes deeply engaging histories, which is what I ultimately, desperately want to do (I also want to host a bizarre history travel show, for anyone who has any pull with that sort of thing).

The Nashville Library is set up where you can download Kindle Books to your tablet, and I have a crap tablet, which I use to read Cracked.com, check my work email, and read Kindle Books. I'd read a book a week, on average. Sometimes more, but whatever. Erik Larson recently wrote a book called In the Garden of Beasts, about the family of the American ambassador to Germany in 1933 (including his slutty daughter, but that's neither here nor there. Seriously, she banged her way across Berlin like a firecracker). It's fantastic. Yet, I've had to check it out three times, because I can't get through it. Why?

Because there's just not time. I'm pretty sure Kami reads for six minutes a day, now. I could read when I get home from work, but that's when I get Daddy/Emmy Time. I could read when she goes to bed, but that's when I get James/Kami Time ("Daddy/Kami" time sounds weird). So I have two options:

1) Read in the morning. This is an attractive option, but I need time to stretch out my bum right ankle and bum right knee, and I also need two cups of coffee to remember my name. Yet, reading about Nazis is a little heavy at 5am - and I don't want to carry that around when I get Daddy/Emmy Time, after she wakes up (around 6am).

2) Read at night. This is that I've been doing. There's what I call "Dark Mode," which is way more sinister than it sounds, with the white font on black background, and it works great, because Kami falls asleep immediately before waking up three hours later, and every 90 minutes after that to check on Emsley. I sleep like I have a head-trauma.

So I try to read at night. But after nine weeks of having this book, I'm only 27% of the way through it. I make sure that I fall asleep before I turn it off, so this morning I woke up at 12:45am with my head still on my hand - dead asleep, and freezing cold. With a neck cramp.

Get used to it. I'll be reading about Nazis in nine hours. Guaranteed.