Last night on Aug 8, 2024 was the FIRST night Evan and I had a real date night out of the house since Feb 14, 2024. I guess bringing a baby out past 7pm his bedtime is not smart? Where do I start? The FREEDOM, the light-weightedness, the FREEDOM!
I think only moms and dads with newborns and babies can empathize with how monumental last night was. For almost six months, every night you are bound to stay home to take care of any need your baby may have. Your schedule follow his to the T, and even when he’s asleep for the night, you watch the baby monitor screen like a hawk, making sure he doesn’t wake up too early.
Yeah, last night’s standup show was so timely, so perfect for what we are going though, it’s not even funny, haha, it’s on the dot real. He talked about parents being too old, grandparents having alzeimers, abusive dads that he will help to go punch in the face for addicts in group therapy for $42-$44 depending on the plan, he spoke about his 2 year and 8 month old son sleeping in a 100% dark tent and room with the AC blasting to 68 degrees and sound machines at full volume to keep him asleep! Being woken up at 4:30am by his toddler and wanting to play ball outside. The audience, mostly 20-40 somethings with some older folks sprinkled in really laughed because most of them are going through the trenches now.
The biggest epiphany moment for me last night was when I felt the phone pouch vibrating a lot with phone calls and texts, Evan looked at me with a concerned look saying “What if it’s Elaine?” Err… for a few minutes I did get distracted from this awesome show thinking, what if he’s up crying a lot and couldn’t sleep, and she goes up there and holds him and feeds him?! OH NO, that would break my 2 months long streak of the best thing that happened to me since giving birth, successful sleep training. No, I won’t let these fearful thoughts waste our perfectly, great night out with these stupid, unfounded thoughts. I will get my money’s worth! Thus after maybe 2 minutes wasted, I stayed on course, and kept being in the present moment, listening, absorbing, and laughing out loud to Mulaney’s awesomeness.
It worked! Me telling my mind to shut the fuck up, it worked! This experience showed me that I can control my mind, I can chose not to listen to some negative thoughts and move on from them whenever I want. I am in control of my mind, my perspective, and I don’t need to let it rule my life anymore. I know it’s weird to say I thank Mulaney’s show for showing me what Zen Buddhism is all about. Mulaney + Zen Buddhism?! Yes, I experienced my first nirvana through jokes about having parents that are too old to be alive.
Thank you, John Mulaney for your zen teachings. Namaste.
Rajaverse 