Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Beginning of a Great Adventure

In some ways, I consider this the last day in my life of being resolutely childless. My partner and I started talking about having kids several years ago, but financial worries, among a thousand other worries, delayed our decision. About six months ago, we were lamenting how expensive it is to have a child, and I wondered aloud whether there was any way we could have a zero dollar baby for the first six months. Apropos of the times, the first thing we did was search for the website zerodollarbaby.com, which was taken. We would have had to pay a fee to buy the name, which would have been a bit ironic since we hadn't even decided at that point to have a child. But this blogspot name wasn't taken, so we snatched it up.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the first month that we'll actively start trying. I plan to use this blog to document all of the ways that we'll attempt to spend as little as possible throughout this process. We are very lucky people--by no means wealthy, we have a large community of friends and family, many of whom have recently had children. And the generosity that surrounds us is truly astounding. If we are successful in this endeavor, I can only imagine the good will that will flow to us and see us through what will certainly be the most challenging phase of our lives, both financially and emotionally.

I can't get the Lou Reed song "Beginning of a Great Adventure" out of my head...so I'll post the lyrics here. They're a little dark, but I always thought the song was sweet:

Beginning of a Great Adventure

It might be fun to have a kid that I could kick around
A little me to fill up with my thoughts
A little me or he or she to fill up with my dreams
A way of saying life is not a loss

Id keep the tyke away from school and tutor him myself
Keep him from the poison of the crowd
But then again pristine isolation might not be the best idea
Its not good trying to immortalize yourself

Beginning of a great adventure
Beginning of a great adventure

Why stop at one, I might have ten, a regular tv brood
Id breed a little liberal army in the wood
Just like these redneck lunatics I see at the local bar
With their tribe of mutant inbred piglets with cloven hooves

Id teach em how to plant a bomb, start a fire, play guitar
And if they catch a hunter, shoot him in the nuts
Id try to be as progressive as I could possibly be
As long as I dont have to try too much

Beginning of a great adventure
Beginning of a great adventure

Susie, jesus, bogart, sam, leslie, jill and jeff
Rita, winny, andy, fran and jet
Boris, bono, lucy, ethel, bunny, reg and tom
Thats a lot of names to try not to forget

Carrie, marlon, mo and steve, la rue and jerry lee
Eggplant, rufus, dummy, star and the glob
Id need a damn computer to keep track of all these names
I hope this baby thing dont go too far

I hope its true what my wife said to me
I hope its true what my wife said to me, hey
I hope its true what my wife said to me

She says, baby, its the beginning of a great adventure
Babe, beginning of a great adventure
Take a look

It might be fun to have a kid that I could kick around
Create in my own image like a god
Id raise my own pallbearers to carry me to my grave
And keep me company when Im a wizened toothless clod

Some gibbering old fool sitting all alone drooling on his shirt
Some senile old fart playing in the dirt
It might be fun to have a kid I could pass something on to
Something better than rage, pain, anger and hurt

I hope its true what my wife said to me
I hope its true what my wife said to me
I hope its true what my wife said to me
She says, lou, its the beginning of a great adventure
Lou, lou, lou, beginning of a great adventure
She says, babe, how you call your lover boy?
Sylvia, how do you call your lover man?

1 comment:

  1. Hey - I'm really looking forward to reading this blog and about your journey!

    ReplyDelete