caffeine, Death Magnetic, and Randall Jarrell

We caught a nap half-way through Dante's Vita Nuova. Reading is exhausting. Notice the blue glow on Auden's back... the BiliBlanket! We're done with that now though.

The first good shot of Auden's eyes. They're blue. This (as are all the pics here at The Tongue is an Eye) is a camera-phone shot, so it's not very clear.

Anyway, parenting is exhausting, but it's also such a bizzaro-world experience. I never thought I would go to bed one night and wake up the next morning completely and utterly head-over-heels in love with someone I'd never met. Honestly, it's the most surreal and overwhelming feeling. I think the exhilaration of looking at Auden, kissing him, touching him, soothing him is more exhausting than the late night feedings or the many, many loads of laundry and dirty diapers, etc. The most tiring part of being a father? It's the pure, incorruptible sublimity of the experience.

I've been drinking a lot of caffeine. Honestly, all it does is make me shaky. Any parents (or insomniacs or other late-night dwellers) have any remedies for being tired all day? It's awfully hard to focus these days, and Dante and Jarrell and all the other reading I must do for class isn't going to get any lighter!

Reading Poetry and the Age by Randall Jarrell for workshop. Wow. Some really great stuff. And his prose is so easy to read. I love it.

Metallica's ninth (and last?) studio album hits the shelves on Friday. Hell yeah! It's titled Death Magnetic. Holy hell I must buy it at midnight! I'm not necessarily proud to be a huge Metallica fan, but I'm sure as fuck not embarrassed by it either. Rock on, bitches! And the first single ("The Day that Never Comes") is so great. Loud, fast, and angry. It helps me through the rough days.

Back to reading, prepping to teach, Auden watching and playing, etc.