scottwrites.com | official blog of central new jersey writer scott neumyer author of jimmy stone's ghost town » Personal Stories

Little Gyms, Fairs & Wiggle Bears

Scott Neumyer — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:20:46 +0000

Yesterday was probably one of the most enjoyable days we’ve ever had as a family. It wasn’t big and extravagant or grandiose in any way, but it was, instead, one of those rare days where you do a few things together as a family and you just feel great about it. You know everyone’s had a great time and just generally feel the love all around.

We started the morning with The Wiggle Bear’s weekly trip to The Little Gym. It was really fun… for about thirty of the forty-five minutes. After that first half-hour, Wiggles was ready to go. It’s becoming the norm for her lately. It’s not that The Little Gym is boring or the teachers aren’t engaging the kids (In fact, Miss Megan is probably one of the best example of this type of teacher. She’s amazing.) but our daughter seems to have a pretty short attention span and when she’s ready to do her thing, she gets pretty adamant about it. She digs those heels in and gets very independent… just like her Mommy.

After The Little Gym, however, the real fun began as we headed over to the Middlesex County Fair for some games, grub, and farm animals. We go every year, but this is probably the first year that we took The Wiggle Bear that she was actually old enough to enjoy herself. She seemed to have a good time the last few years, but she was really too young to get into the games and food. This year, though, she was shot out of a cannon. Her little head whipped left and right checking out all the prizes, rides, and ice cream booths.

So we traipsed around the fair for a few hours, won a few prizes, and had some great eats (well, the wife mostly… she loves her fair food!). The big prizes this year appeared to be The Smurfs. Stuffed Papa Smurf and Smurfette were hanging from nearly every game. How we ended up getting home without one is beyond me. Especially since Denise is usually a ringer at fair and boardwalk games. We came home with a couple cool prizes for Wiggles, but couldn’t manage to snag a Smurf.

The day was so hot and humid that, by the time we headed back to the car, we were all sweaty and tired. The Wiggle Bear had her ice cream cone (most of it ended up all over her little face) and we headed home where we watched Rio before Denise headed out with her friends for dinner and I put Wiggles to bed.

See what I mean? We didn’t do anything crazy or all that adventurous or wild, but it was a really fun day. I felt close to my two favorite girls and felt like they’d had just as good of a time as I had. It’s a day I’ll remember for quite a while. Check out some more of my pictures of the day below. If you want to see more, you can always find them on Facebook or www.scottshoots.com

dropping the pounds

Scott Neumyer — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:40:38 +0000

I still can’t believe that I was almost 300 pounds at one point.

I started on my journey to getting healthier on 4/6/10. Since then, I’ve lost over twenty pounds and I just feel so much better overall.

Here’s a picture I took near the beginning of my weight loss (it’s post workout so I’m sweaty):

And here’s a picture (also post workout) from the other day:

Twenty pounds doesn’t seem like that much when I say it to myself, but looking at these pictures, you can definitely see at least a bit of a difference.

It feels great! Now I just need to keep it up. I still have another fifty pounds to lose!

Retro Repost: “What I’m Afraid Of”

Scott Neumyer — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:12:42 +0000

I figured, since my very old blog is no longer up and running, that it was time to repost this short essay I wrote for Zulkey, when Claire Zulkey had asked her readers “What are you afraid of?” The original posting can still be found here if you’d rather read it at the site. Nevetheless, reading it again… I actually still dig this essay and it still holds true. Let me know what you think.

“What I’m Afraid Of”

I remember being terribly afraid of burglars and house fires. Nearly every night I’d lie in my bed and imagine what I might do if someone were to break into our house or if the whole place simply caught fire. I slept with a lead pipe under my bed that – by the time I finally got around to repainting and rearranging my room a few years ago – had made a permanent indent in the carpet. Its hollow end was filled with spider webs. I remember imagining scenarios where I’d hide behind my bedroom door, pipe grasped firmly in hand, just waiting for the perfect moment to spring out and surprise the burglar with a shot to the head. (A shot that, in reality, wouldn’t have had much impact at all judging by the weight of the bar and my ability to lift it). In the case of a fire, I’d imagine myself climbing onto the short porch outside my bedroom window and jumping to safety as the flames engulfed all my belongings. In some of these scenarios I saved my dog and – when I had one – my hamster.

While these phobias plagued my nights as a child they did, however, instill in me a great love that I still hold in my heart to this day – rain. Particularly the heavy kind with maybe even a little thunder and lightning added into the mix. My logic being that no one is stupid enough to go out and rob a house in the rain. They’d get soaked. And if my house were to spontaneously combust, the falling rain would surely put it out. Nights when it rained hard and fast and for a long time were peaceful for me. I slept well. I still do.

And although I’ve pretty much worked through these phobias, I still believe I sleep best on those rainy nights when the streets are slick, my driveway is mud, and I can hear the drops on my roof like a metronome or the beating of my heart, lulling me to sleep.