Weird.  My daughter is an American.

Not bad weird.  I love a lot of Americans and I have a deep appreciation for this land of possibilities.  I used to commit a lot of energy toward everything that’s wrong with America.  A lot of that is still here.  But so am I, and I’m doing alright for myself.  So while there may be a lot that’s broken (hello, health system) and a lot that is painfully out of balance (hello, financial system) but it would be hypocritical to claim it’s all gone to hell.  Any American who says it has hasn’t spent much time in a third world county.

But yes, given who I am and where I’ve come from, philosophically speaking, it’s weird to see her name on a New York birth certificate and attached to a social security number.  Of course, it’s totally awesome that it says “Official Business” right above where it says “Peppermint”.  I bet, if there are any real people still working in Social Security Administration, that will bring them a smile.  Nice.

I think she will have the best of both worlds.  A wealth of opportunity and choice.  I’m really excited for her.  I think, as her parents, we carry a big responsibility in making sure she experiences some of that choice.  Advantage tempered with perspective.  Her mom and I have both traveled, both studied some culture.  We have some sense of global community.  It’s going to be important to share that with her.  When you’re not only in the States, but in New York City, it’s easy to feel the world revolving around you at the epicenter.  That said, New Yorkers have a reputation for being more liberal, more globally aware, than much of the rest of the country.

Did you catch the 2nd Presidential Debate this evening?  President Obama showed up for this one.  Guns blazing.  If the event had gone on much longer they may have come to blows.  Awesome.  For me, it’s about time the Democrats started swinging back.  I just wish it didn’t have to be a dirty fight.  Still, if you keep showing up to a gun fight with a sternly worded letter… I digress.

Let’s just leave it at how very lucky Avery Peppermint is, and how it weighs on me to help her have some sense of that.  Not tomorrow, mind you.  Girl’s just figuring out how to smile.  One step at a time.  Such as her first step.

Meanwhile, the Taverners senior joined the New York Taverners (that always includes Marjorie, for anyone keeping track) for a long walk up 5th and into Central Park.  We explored around Rock Center and cursed the scaffolding obscuring St Patrick’s, and we appreciated how so many premier brands have to have a flagship store on 5th or they’re just not premier.  Like H&M.  Apparently.  Yep.  And how Swatch is right across the street from Rolex.  And then Mother/Gramma needed to go inside the Tiffany store, naturally.  I visited the Frank Gehry ring I’ll never buy.  Dad/Grampa and I paused to admire the improved Apple cube.  We were denied permission to enter by the ladies.  Boo.

Central Park is huge (though technically not as huge as Stanley Park).  We’ve been in there a dozen times and still haven’t seen more than half of it.  And we’ve tried.  Keep getting lost.  So we aimed to just give my folks a sense of it.  The “Central Parkescence”.  We saw some horses, and the wet pavement that will soon be an ice rink.  The lack of ice demanded a response, so we had ice cream from a vendor.  We passed the Sheep Meadow, and eventually made it to the Bethesda Fountain.  We were all about done with walking by then, and that’s only a quarter of the way up the length of the park.  And we only saw a bit of that quarter.  Call it a micro-metaphor for my parents’ first visit to New York.  There’s just so damn much of it.  Avery saw none of it, zonked out as she was in the Baby Bjorn.  Just awesome, that thing is.  We took some pictures as we went, but y’all are going to have to wait til tomorrow.  This daddy is due for bed.  Should get a good 15 minute nap in before Avery wakes up for her first meal of the day.

It was a gorgeous day!  I kinda paid for it this evening – working for the last six hours on graphics for CB’s new site.  But the day was great.  My family is great.  Life is great.  After you read this, say within the hour, tell somebody you appreciate them.  Pass it on.

No words.  Just awesome.  Four weeks old and counting.

She’s never far from the action.  A real people person in the making.  Try to give her some alone time – some peace & quiet – and she will inform you of her desire to the contrary at the top of her lungs.  Not interested.  Much happier amongst the noise.  So she’s a New York girl already then.  This could be a long childhood.

I thought for sure today might be the day I miss a post, yet here I am.  A full day of hanging out with my girls (including baking brownies, yessir) followed by a birthday gathering for Lee.  Happy birthday, Lee!  Business partners for years; dj/bartender rockstar team for years before that.  A creative team destined for greatness heaped on awesomeness (partnered with the indefatigable Matt Kennedy).  Working on set with Lee is a pleasure.  He has that instinctual sense for where the camera is looking…

Ahem.  You can never tell where a proper night out with Lee will go.  As it turns out, the six of us (Tom, Janice, Lauren, Anthony, Lee, myself) – by all accounts pretty awesome and fun people – talked about Avery for a surprisingly long time.  A dad knows how awesome his girl is, but it’s nice when everyone else knows it too.  =)  Of course we talked about our current projects as well – Lauren’s short needs a Kickstarter boost to get to the next stage, so even if you don’t have $10 to support our production, pass this link on to those who might be intrigued by the idea of helping produce a film: You Are Not Special.  Please do it now.  Thank you!

Anthony (Antny to us) tossed his steady job editing for the networks earlier this year to chuck his energy at developing independent work, and it’s certainly coming along.  Whenever we get together we come up with new ideas, and we always swear we’ll all shoot something together… just as soon as we have time.  The trick, obviously, is to just shoot.  Time will sort itself out, for the most part.  So it comes down to locations and talent.  We definitely have all the gear and the skills covered on the production side.  But  to our mind, actors deserve to get paid, so… tricky.  We’re working on it.  I believe I have mentioned that if you are a talented producer we can make you both busy and immeasurably wealthy.  Come on board.  You’ll mostly love how busy you will be.  Mostly.  Bring a great agent with you.

And in the interest of not being up writing all night, let me jump right to this:

Look at her!  My girl!  Completely present and alert, about 4 months ahead of schedule.  And not yelling through a diaper change!  I kid you not – this kid was all there, loving her mom and hanging out.  Briefly.  Marjorie practically dragged me over so I could share, and I’m sure Avery was nearly as happy to see me, but I didn’t get that same 100% happy focus that Mum did.  And that’s as it should be, I think.  I take every moment I can with our little girl, but I’m never going to have that same my-blood-is-your-blood connection.  They have hours every day when no one in the universe could get between them.  And I love that despite living in Americaland we work for a company that makes sure we don’t have to sacrifice that relationship.  In Canada Marjorie would have a year off with pay, or we’d each take six months, or however we wanted to break it down.  Don’t tell Harper I said that.  Guarantee that will be on the chopping block lickety split.  1940s living moron.  Hey, you voted for him.  Moving on…

My tired eyes are practically rolling back in my head – just like Avery trying to resist the inevitable – so I’ll keep plunging forward with my last revelation.  Despite little Peppermint and Marjorie having an unassailable bond, there are still ways she shows me that she is most definitely my little girl.

At every opportunity she will plongée dans la décolletage.  Is that accurate French?  Does it matter?  No.  My girl knows what she’s doing.