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 |  I blog therefore I (r)am(ble). |
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Poems, Prose, and Promises. My name is
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Given to me by susanL  --- Created by kelly1202I write songs
I write poetry
I write short stories
I'm in love with susanL
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Something happened to our laptop computer yesterday. Susan thinks it may have had something to do with a spill she had near it, but honestly, I didn't see any sign that anything had gotten underneath the keys. And even if it was caused by her spill, the computer is almost three years old and is starting to act up. Last night, when she told me about what happened, she was mad at herself and the look on her face made me want to cry. The only thing I could do was hug the hell out of her and make her understand that no matter what, she is worth more than any silly old computer. When we went to bed last night, the U, I, and G keys were not working. Earlier the F key hadn't been working either, but it started responding after we had come back from dress rehearsal for that play we're doing for St. Patrick's Day. So, since the F key started working again, and if the keys not working were because of a spill, I thought there might be a chance of the other ones coming back as well. I talked to Susan at lunch and she said that it's still not working right. We need a computer though. So at lunch, I went to Best Buy and bought a new one. Due to the economy, it wasn't the best one they have or as fast or powerful as I would have liked, but it is better than the one I bought three years ago and it will keep us computing for the time being. Even if I couldn't have afforded to get a replacement, though, there is no way that a silly machine could ever be worth more than the wonderful woman named Susan who shares her life with me.  |
| Picture the scene: thousands of enthusiastic fans, chanting and waiving their arms, hollering, singing, and cheering as a group while their hero, YOU, walks out on stage and does whatever it is you do so well. Then, silence. Every eye is upon you. Every being in the packed venue waits at rapt attention while you pan the room, taking in the adulation. Some would want the above and some would not, but lets face it, don't we all have a certain longing to be recognized as the best, or almost the best, at something? Isn't there some aspect of our lives, some feature of our dreams that wouldn't shine with some well-earned recognition? I think most, if not all, would answer with an honest yes -- as long as it didn't go too far. What's too far? If you and your significant other have a child and the wages that one picture of your newborn garners would elevate a McDonald's cashier up and out of President Obama's $250,000 tax break window, you're fame has gone too far. If the only things on the planet too expensive for you to purchase come with a numbered seat at the United Nations General Assembly, a Capitol building, and a constitution your fame has gone too far. If you give up a successful, award-winning career as a motion picture actor in exchange for jumping around on a stage, sputtering unintelligible phrases, and picking fights with drunk concert-goers, your fame has gone too far. Joaquin Phoenix, dude, please, whatever it is you took, whatever it is you swallowed, no matter what the source was or how much you trusted the person who gave it to you, please, put down the pills, put down the needle, put down the bottle, put down whatever and GET HELP SOON! |
| Last night we attended the awards ceremony for the 2009 Chi-Shu Award Writing Contest. Helen Chen, the founder and organizer of the event, decorated the library's auditorium and brought cookies and coffee. She also brought her signature enthusiasm for writing and writing oriented events -- she's a fabulous hostess. After warming up the audience with a short speech, sprinkled with humor and humanity, she introduced the three judges and directed them to introduce the four winners. First up was Faith Slater, winner of the honorable mention with her story, Lest Thieves Find a Way. She was introduced by judge, David Fingerman. He mentioned his love for horror stories and science fiction and compared her story to a coming of age Harry Potter. Helen handed her a manila envelope that held her certificate and shook her hand as she approached the podium to read her winning entry. Afterward, Helen invited another of the judges, Penny Duffy, to introduce the third place winner -- ME! Her words for my story nearly brought tears to my eyes. Here they are, exactly as she said them: Up a flight of steps to his destiny. This is the story of Pedro Jimenez. We are immersed in Pedro's desperation, longing, his fears, frustrations, and high and low expectations from the opening paragraphs -- every well-chosen image and detail adding to our sense of the man and his plight. Equally important, we are transported into his world view through the expert rendering of his narrative voice on the page. What drives a story? Is it plot or character? Well, it's both. We want to find out what happens to Pedro, yes, but we care what happens because from the start our heart goes out to him. When you care enough, the character's fate stays with you long after you reach the end of the narrative -- in this case, long after Pedro descends the stairway -- and that is the mark of a really good story. Let's listen as author Tom Harper starts Pedro on his journey in his well-crafted story, "The Red Stamp." WOW! I approached the podium, still awed at the wonderful introduction Penny had given me. Helen handed me my envelope with my prize money and certificate and then I read my story. I don't know how many things in life are more satisfying then sharing a creative piece of myself to an appreciative audience, but I'm sure that I could count them all on my hands and toes. As I shared my story to the audience, which consisted of Susan and her daughters -- Rachael and Sarah -- my mom, members of the three writing groups I attend, and others who I'm sure will one day be friends, I felt so warm and at peace. After I read my story, Helen once again called for David to come up and introduce the 2nd place winner. The third judge, Ryan Shriver, couldn't make the ceremony due to his wife having given birth to their third child a few days earlier. Again reminding us of his love for horror stories, judge David told us why he had chosen Betty Benner's warm-hearted story, The Unexpected Gift, as one of the best of the contest. It touched him. Betty, with her warm, welcoming smile that reminds me of everything good about grandmas and chocolate chip cookies, made her way to the podium, accepted her prize envelope from Helen, and shared with us her touching story. Then it was time for an intermission. There were plenty of cookies and plenty of coffee and plenty of people to mingle with while enjoying the goodies. The intermission lasted about fifteen minutes and then Helen called the meeting back to order. She invited Penny, once again, to introduce the first place winner, Kit Rohrbach, for her psychological thriller, The Red Hat. Penny did another marvelous job introducing her and Kit grabbed the hall's attention with the reading of her fast-moving, spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat-inviting masterpiece. We congregated for a half hour or so after the ceremony to talk and then eight of us, the four winners included, made our way to Perkins for a celebratory late-night snack. The food was sumptious. The atmosphere was delightful. But most of all, being with friends, fellow creative souls, sharing jokes, and poems, and pieces of what makes us tick added the most delicious whipped cream topping to the chocolate sundae that was last night. And the cherry? The cherry of the evening was getting to go home afterward with susanL and fall asleep in her arms. |
| I promised alfred booth, wanbli ska that I would sharpen my pencil and make an attempt at his latest favorite, the Cleave poem. So it is only fitting that my first one be dedicated to him. Master Cleaver Alfred Booth twitters -- the whole world flitters across the daunted page -- as though upon a stage with words so rich with meaning -- of drama's din not weaning never failing to enthrall -- right through the curtain call |
Word Theatre Supposition, I suppose, is worse than puppy pantyhose. Indecision, I decide, is something I sometimes deride. Aberrations, normally, are things I follow faithfully. Prevarications, I attest, are often more true than the rest. |
| Susan doesn't like to cut her toe nails. I didn't know this when we first started dating but it didn't take me long to figure it out. NO! Not like that, you perverts. I found it out in a round about way. I was looking for her and couldn't find her. "Have you seen your mom," I asked one of her daughters. Sarah or Rachael or Liz or maybe it was the dog -- or the cat? -- shrugged and said, "She's getting a coconut." I replied, "She went to the store?" Whoever it was, pointed to a tall Palm Tree that lined our street and responded, "No, she's climbing that."  Yeah, they really do get that long.  Because she doesn't like to cut them herself. She's not too thrilled to have me do it either, but then there has been a precedent set. I have been known to go for more than just the nails. That's what you get when you get a non-union pedicurist.  Do pedicurists belong to a union? If they go on strike, can they do their own feet? If they don't do their own feet, isn't there a danger that they could cross the picket line unintentionally?  |
| How do you people who blog every day do it? How do you find so many things to talk about? I'd love to have a topic du jour but some days I simply don't have anything to say. Well, that's not totally accurate, but I don't have anything to say that I feel is particularly interesting. Do blogs have to be interesting? Do I have to make a point or announce something or share a piece of long lost wisdom? Because I don't see how I'm going to manage thirty-one days of blogging in a row if each one of them have to make sense and make a point. So please tell me: Do I have to make a point? Do I have to be interesting? Do I have to be funny, engaging, or informational? Because if I do, I think I'm way over my head here. |
| We had our second rehearsal for the play last night. It went very well although I still don't have all of my lines memorized. We have two more full practices before going live so I'm not too worried about that yet, but I will need to find some time to get my lines embedded in my brain this weekend. I talked to Debi Neville, the organizer of the play, and she said that we should be able to film and stream to YouTube at least the first showing. I'll let everyone know more about that as soon as I do. A story about the play, as well as a photo of the cast, was in yesterday's paper. The story is on-line too, but unfortunately, they didn't put the photo on-line, so I'll have to scan if I want to upload it to the web. Thanks for the wonderful comments everyone. I appreciate them very much.  |
| I had a wonderful privilege last night. I was blessed to watch my favorite poet read her work. I didn't even have to travel that far as it happened at our local poetry group. Our group, Southeastern Minnesota Poets, meets the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm. We usually spend the first half hour or so taking care of whatever business we have, like dues, upcoming conventions, or art shows we'd like to take part in, and then we dive into the poetry reading. We take turns, round robin style, and usually go around to or three times so that everyone can share their latest masterpieces. Last night, my favorite poet, susanL , read two of the poems she wrote when we went to the Wood Tick Poetry Retreat last July. I so adore watching her read. She has the most darling look on her face and she pours so much emotion and imagery in such a small amount of space. It's a truly wonderful sight to behold. |
Céad MÃle Fáilte - Irish Greeting Last night we had the first dress rehearsal for O'Riley's Riot, the play Susan and I will be performing in for St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, due to an important meeting regarding Sarah's dance team, Susan couldn't attend. But the rest of the cast had a very nice run-through and everyone's looking forward to going live on the 14th and 17th. May neighbours respect you, Trouble neglect you, The angels protect you, And heaven accept you. Irish Blessing The scripted portion of the play is rather short, about a half hour, but we will be on stage, as it were, for somewhere around two to three hours. I guess you could call what we're doing dinner theatre, because we'll be performing while the guests are eating, but it's actually a bit more than that. Our aim is to create the feel of a secret potato party during the Irish famine of the 1860s. From the hushed manner we greet the guests at the door, demanding a password, to the playful way we engage them during dinner, we're going to attempt to bring the audience back in time. It's no use boiling your cabbage twice. - Irish Proverb Even the dinner will be part of the props. The main course is corned beef and cabbage with lumpers (potatoes) on the side. There will be cheese blocks and bread at each table and the serving wenches will be passing out water and coffee. Actually, all of the people, with the exception of O'Riley himself, will take part in the serving. This will provide us the opportunity to share a limerick or a wee bit of Irish wisdom with the people. There are only three kinds of Irish men who don't understand women: young men, old men, and those of middle age. - Irish Saying We have a three piece band, a jig performing bard, and more Irish wit and wisdom than a convention of Leprechauns. There will even be a special appearance by the Molly McQuires. And let me tell you, a homiler bunch of faux-women has never been assembled. I wish everyone reading this could attend, but for those of you who can't, Susan and I will be sure to regale the highlights, and lowlights, in a couple of weeks. Wherever you go and whatever you do, May the luck of the Irish be there with you. Irish Blessing And if you're wondering about the meaning of the greeting at the top of this entry, Céad MÃle Fáilte - well don't you have the luck of the Irish, because I'm about to tell you. It means one hundred thousand welcomes in Irish and is a fairly common greeting in Ireland to this day. There was a young lady of Trent, Who said that she knew what it meant When men asked her to dine With cocktails and wine, She knew, oh she knew! But she went. |
In honor of the late Dr. Seuss's birthday and the final entry in Special Kay 's blog, "Invalid Entry"  Do you know of a lady who calls her-self Kay? Do you know of the mission she's called for to-day? She's called for a mission to honor the Seuss. To honor the wonderful male Mother Goose. To the ends of the earth her comission was sent. Through the hands of the earthlings, from missus to gent. It went to the keepers of quarries and frogs. It went to the writers of stories and blogs. When the keepers of quarries examined the call, When they'd studied the words from the large to the small, They had to proclaim, "this just isn't for us.” "The only skill we have with words is to cuss." So the keepers of frogs took a look at the job. With a fervor they studied the job as a mob. But to their dismay they just could not create, A single last paragraph, sentence or phrase. It was then that the writers of stories arrived, With their pens and their paper and heroes contrived. They set forth to write a short story to show, To show that they know how a story should flow. "In a far away land," they began their brief tale. "From a long time a-go," their brave hero set sail. He battled large dragons and saved a fair lass, He traipsed and he traveled and talked to an ass. Before anyone knew what had just taken place, The short story had grown at a quite daunting pace. The number of pages continued to rise, Surpassing five-hundred and seventy-five. When they finished the rough draft they set out to see, How much time it would take them to edit the beast. But editing quickly was not possible; With typos and plot holes the story was full. Now the writers of stories all re'lized their goof. So they packed up their bags and took off all aloof. That left just the bloggers to tackle this task. And bloggers are willing, you just have to ask. |
| Last Thursday I received an email from Helen Chen. She is the organizer of our local library's writing group and the underwriter of an annual short story competition called the Chi-Shu Award Writing Contest. The subject of her email was Congratulations!!! I won third place. This is the third year of the contest and my second time placing. I placed third the first year it was held with "Invalid Item" . I wasn't organized enough last year to enter but four good friends of mine placed or received honorable mentions, three of which are part of our local writer's club, Writer's Ink.My story that won third place this year was "Invalid Item" . It's about a young Mexican National going through the harrowing and disheartening process of seeking a VISA to the United States. My other story that won was also written from the POV of a minority of which I'm not a member. It was written about a young black boy wanting to attend an equal rights demonstration during the '60s. Apparently, I do a better job when I'm writing from a different POV than my own. |
| Susan loves High School Speech. She participated in it as a student, with many trophies, plaques, and ribbons to show for her efforts and then taught it as an instructor and coach. So it was only natural for her to sign up to be a judge once she moved here to Minnesota. Yesterday, she had her first meet and I drove along with to give her support. It turned out good that I went, too, because they were short assistants and so I was able to help her time the performances. Minnesota has 13 categories of competition, from creative expression to original oratory. Each student presents their speech with other contestants from the same category to three separate judges over three rounds. Because of the large amount of students participating, each of the categories had multiple competitions taking place at the same time. Susan judged a different category for each of the three rounds and was also assigned one for the finals. The first category Susan covered was Extemporaneous Speaking. Those of you who have participated in high school speech competitions, will probably know exactly how that works, but here's a brief explanation for the rest of you. The school chose fifteen different topics and provided research material for each of the fifteen. Basically, each student selected a topic randomly and then had a half hour to develop a speech based on their experience and the material available in the research bin. Before the competition, each student was assigned a time to perform their speech and the times were staggered so that no student would have more than the allotted thirty minutes to undertake their research. As you can imagine, all of the speeches were kind of choppy but it was still very easy to tell which of the students had received quality coaching and which had not. The second category that Susan covered was Great Speeches. The students had to choose a famous speech from history and in eight minutes, explain why that speech could be considered great. The students dissected speeches from FDR, Hilary Clinton, Patrick Henry, Charles Darrow, and others. I enjoyed this segment of the program very much and learned a bit both about the mechanics of speech development and more than a little history. The third category that Susan covered was Dramatic Interpretation. The students had to choose a play and after a brief introduction on what the play meant to them, perform a section of it. They had eight minutes. This was the category that had the widest divergence of talent and quality. I enjoyed it very much but all of the contestants except one, chose to do a monologue scene. I was kind of hoping to see different characters but I did have a good time watching the performances and two of them, especially, left me awed. After each of the three rounds, Susan had to turn in her scores to the tabulation table. I can't remember the name of the guy in charge of tabbing, but he used one of my jokes when we first met him and it gave Susan and I both quite a chuckle. Not that the joke is that funny, mind you, but it's kind of cheesy and I'd never heard anyone else do it before. Once the rounds were completed, lunch of Sloppy Joes and baked beans was supplied to the judges and they let me take part as well. Then we had to play a waiting game. Not all of the judges would be needed for the final round and since a judge couldn't oversee an event where a student from the same school made it to the finals in that category, they had to wait for the tabulation to be completed before they could assign the judges. Each of the thirteen events was tabulated separately and then the judges for that category chosen and hung on the wall of the judges lounge. By the time we finished eating, the results for four of the categories had been determined. Susan wasn't a judge for any of those. The rest of the categories trickled in, about one every five minutes or so. She wasn't on the fifth or the sixth. She wasn't on the seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth either. The eleventh didn't need her. Nor the twelfth. Then they hung the final sheet. And sure enough, there was N6, Susan's judging code. The category was OO (Original Oratory) and Susan was excited about it because it was the very same category that her daughter, Rachael, competed at back when she was in school. I'm not sure exactly what they judge on when it comes to this category, but all of the eight speeches were good. My favorite was an upbeat talk about the importance of tolerance. There was one about human trafficking, one about the prevalence of sexual themes in children's advertising, one about the importance of growing food at home, and four others ranging from politics to positive thinking. Once the judging was complete and the scores turned in for tabulation, we headed out to the parking lot for the hour drive back home. We could have stayed around another hour to see the award ceremony but we were both beat and since this was Susan's first time judging for Rochester John Marshall, we didn't know any of the students who were competing. Even though I was little more than a spectator, I had a lot of fun. I loved seeing Susan do what she excels at and I was so proud of her as I glanced over her shoulder and read the comments she made on the various critique sheets. Her caring and kindness showed through brightly. No matter how good or bad the performance was, she always found at least one positive thing to mention about each speech. She's a true treasure and I'm so glad I spent my Saturday watching her shine. |
| Formalities First I haven't posted a blog in nearly three weeks. On top of that, I didn't visit anyone's blog except Susan's last week. I'm in the process of catching up on my blog visits, so I hope to see yours later today or tomorrow. What's New It isn't especially new, but I hate winter. I hate the decreased sun time and I hate the dry, cold air that plays havoc with my psoriasis. Historically, February and March are months where I have to push myself harder than other months and so far, this year is right on schedule in that regard. But even though I haven't felt much like blogging recently, I have been quite busy. Liam O'Shaughnessy Debi Neville, one of my writing group friends, is producing a play for St. Patrick's Day. There will be two shows, one on March 14th and one on the 17th, and I'll be playing the roll of Liam O'Shaughnessy, story teller and member of the Molly McGuires. All of my lines are in rhyme and during the meal, I'll be spouting out at random times with various limericks. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Susan will be in full costume as a serving wench. Harry Potter I wasn't going to read the seventh Harry Potter novel until it came out in paperback. I don't like the feel or weight of hard cover books, but since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be out in paperback until July, I finally broke down and read it. It's definitely my favorite of the series. After reading it, I was bitten by the Harry bug and decided to re-read the entire series. I finished my re-read of book seven about two weeks ago and mercifully, the Harry Potter themed dreams have finally stopped. The Great Gatsby In order to jump start our writing, Susan and I assigned each other a project. I charged Susan with researching and writing about Audrey Hepburn and she charged me the same regarding F. Scott Fitzgerald. She's already finished her assignment, "Invalid Entry" , but I'm still working on mine and to make my research complete, I'm reading The Great Gatsby. I know I was supposed to have read this in high school but I think I must have blown it off as I'm currently about half way through the book and I'm not getting any pings of recognition. I'm planning to start on my writing assignment, when I finish the book.Being a Step Dad Susan's been asking me to write a blog on being a step dad. She's sure that many other guys are in my situation and would enjoy, and possibly learn, from my take on things. I haven't yet formed what I want to say on this subject, but I feel that empathy is vital for a step-parent. Teenage life, with its challenging and at times, unwanted change, is hard enough already that throwing a "replacement" parent into the mix can become very difficult to cope with. A little empathy can make all the difference. The Stimulus I'm glad the stimulus package passed. It isn't perfect but it will infuse a lot of money, very rapidly, into a wide swath of different industries. That is quite unlike last year's bailout which was directed almost exclusively to the financial sector and which has proved to be more of an embarrassment than anything else. |
| Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The American holiday that almost wasn't. Some of the people who chose to oppose honoring Martin Luther King Jr. on the third Monday of January probably won't surprise you but some of them might. Well-documented racist and US Senator from North Carolina, Jesse Helms, led the charge against creation of the holiday on the purported grounds that King wasn't important enough to warrant his own holiday. Many politicians, including Ronald Reagan and John McCain, agreed with Senator Helms' position with President Reagan threatening to veto the bill if it were to be passed. Reagan recanted, however, when the bill passed with such an impressive majority that a veto override was assured. He signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983. John McCain was also a vocal opponent of the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. His state, Arizona, being one of the last of the fifty to recognize it. He eventually came on board, though and attempted to convince his constituents to pass a proposition in 1990, to recognize the holiday. That proposition failed, however, and it cost Arizona more than just their reputation. Superbowl XXVII (27) was scheduled to be played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, home of the Arizona Cardinals. Due to Arizona's refusal to honor Marin Luther King Jr, however, the NFL relocated the game to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed on January 20, 1986 by 27 of the 50 United States. Now it is observed by all of them. The last two to recognize the day as a holiday were Arizona and New Hampshire. The last one to recognize the day as an official state holiday was South Carolina. How fitting that the inauguration of our first African American President would come on the day after we honor the man who paved its way, Martin Luther King Jr. |
| So how is your morning going now? I'm on fire here. I just finished inhaling air into my lungs, extracting the oxygen from it, sending that along to my heart via my bloodstream and then, as if all that wasn't enough, ejecting carbon dioxide and other waste gases out of my body by the process of exhaling. It was pretty amazing. Picture if you will, seventh grade health class. Do you remember the large diagrams of pale, peach-colored humans with those red and blue streams of arrows going through their body? Do you remember that? Well I've been LIVING it. Oh yeah. That's right. I'm sure you're jealous but there's no reason to be. For just $14.95 plus shipping and handling, I can send you a free kit whereby you can undertake this wonderful adventure yourself. All in the comfort of your own home. Quick! Act fast! This program won't last forever. And if you act now, I'll include, completely free, for only an additional $9.95 more, my complimentary program, Is Poo For You? That's right, you'll travel along with a simple grape as it makes it's way from the mouth to the butt, and everything in-between. You'll see it pulverized by the teeth, broken down by enzymes in the stomach, and finally, converted to that normal everyday human substance that never gets talked about on TV or the movies -- poo. You'll spend hour after hour learning about the intricacies of human fecal matter. But that's not all. If you act now, I'll even throw in, at no charge to you, but an additional $14.95 charge to your credit card, my one of kind program, Burps From the Middle Ages. That's right for the absolutely free price of an additional $14.95, you'll hear 100 percent accurate imitations of what burps might have sounded like coming out of the mouths of William Shakespeare, Henry the VIII, Joan of Arc, Queen Isabella, and my personal favorite, Richard the Lionhearted. The burps are so accurate that you won't be able to tell them apart from those of your friends and family. Do not let this order pass you by. Order today! |
| Debi Wharton sweetly reminded me that I haven't posted a blog yet this year. So here goes. A few days ago, alfred booth, wanbli ska mentioned the website http://www.wordle.net in his blog. It took me a couple days to get to it, but when I finally found the time, I was very glad I did. I had a great time tossing my poems into the hopper and seeing what came out the other end. Here's some examples. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Created from: "Invalid Item" ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Created from: "Invalid Item" ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Created from: "Invalid Item" ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Created from: "Invalid Item" All of the above poems were written for my soul-mate, susanL . I also created one for my "Invalid Item" poem, but I haven't uploaded the image yet. If you haven't made it over to the site yet, I highly recommend it.Now I want to try and see what it would do with one of my short stories. I'm not sure what the word limit is, but I think it would be a fun way to view one of my tales. |
| 2008 started for me at my friend Shannon's New Year's Eve party, surrounded by people I had just met that evening. Luckily, everyone was very nice. Shannon is a comedienne who does a lot of shows at the local comedy club, Goonies. That's where I met her and when she found out I didn't have any New Year's Eve plans, she invited me to her party. I had a good time. I was working at Panera at the time. My job title was Associate Trainer, but I spent most of my time checking in the orders and putting them away. I didn't mind that so bad but I had an issue with one of the managers who felt that I was out of line for asking for a lunch break for a seven hour shift. Current Minnesota law states that they don't have to give you an actual lunch break unless you go over seven hours. It's a very backwards law that hopefully will be overturned soon, but one that caused me much trouble as I start to get light-headed when my blood sugar gets low. I decided it was time to move on. Taking some advice from some friends, I cleaned up my resume and submitted it to a number of online sites. I hand delivered it to every computer company in town and within a couple days, Miracle Computers gave me a call and set up an interview. The interview went well and I received the job, but pay, which I unfortunately didn't discuss during the interview, turned out to be way below industry standards, especially for someone with my experience with the computer. I took the job though, because I needed a break from Panera. One week later, I received a call from a headhunter out of Atlanta. She was looking to fill a position working for Xerox at IBM. It was an 18 month renewable position managing printer queues. My expertise was in network administration so managing a few hundred printers shouldn't be any problem. And it wasn't. I started working for Xerox at IBM during the second week of February. About that same time, I started seeing a therapist to try and work through some leftover baggage dealing with my time in the cult. Those sessions turned out to be very useful and by April, I felt I didn't need them anymore. I began to wonder if I ended it too soon in May when Xerox began to shrink its workforce and things were very stressful for those of us who were temp employees. To my credit, though, I chose to simply not worry about what was out of my sphere of influence and I was in the perfect frame of mind for what happened next. June 1st. My 42nd birthday. I'd been chatting with susanL on and off for most of the day while working on various writing projects when all of a sudden, she started flirting with me. One second we were just chatting and the next we were flirting. Somewhere around that point, myriads of lights shone down from heaven, all the creatures of the field and forest began singing, the flowers of a million gardens joined together, and my heart became permanently intertwined with hers. Bar none, that was the most amazing event of 2008.A week later, I drove down to the Quad Cities to see Susan in person for the first time. We had an amazing weekind, spending time together, buying chocolates from Wal-Mart, visiting the library, and realizing how well-matched we truly are. On the way back to Minnesota, I stopped for gas at Center Point, Iowa. Shortly after I filled up, a huge thunderstorm hit the area and I could barely see more than a few feet ahead. I continued on slowly and finally made it to Waterloo, where the rain finally let up. Listening to the radio, later that day I learned that a tornado had touched down in Center Point. I checked my gas receipt and gasped when I realized that I had missed the tornado by less than twenty minutes. The next weekend, Susan drove up to see me. She drove up the following weekend too, even though it started out as a comedy of errors starring her SUV. Both of those weekends were fantastic and I wouldn't trade the memory of them for anything in the entire universe. Then it was the 4th of July and I drove down to spend a long weekend with her. I met her daughters for the first time that weekend. Sarah still remembers how I bought them ice cream. The next weekend, Susan was staying at our friend Iowegian Skye 's place while she searched for a house. She started to drive up to see me but her car broke down near Boondocks, Iowa and when I found out, I donned my silver armor, I drove down to rescue my fair maiden. We had the most amazing weekend. The next weekend, due a lot to my insecurities and bad experiences with women, we had our first fight and almost didn't make our first poetry retreat. Luckily, Susan is an amazing woman and even though I was being a bit unreasonable, she helped me see that I was reacting to her as though she was someone from my past. That wasn't fair of me so I apologized and she accepted it. We went on to have the most amazing weekend at the poetry retreat. Susan wasn't having any luck finding a place in Ames, Iowa to live so we talked about it and in the first week of August, she moved to Rochester so that we could be together. We lived in motel rooms while we searched for a place of our own. I was nervous and worried whether we'd find a place in our price range and a myriad of other issues that Susan wasn't worried about hardly at all. She just kept telling me that she knew this was the right thing for us and that the right place would show up. And it did. If you haven't noticed yet, Susan is right a lot more than I am. But she's rubbing off on me. Things moved so fast. We got Sarah enrolled at John Marshall High School and Rachael started working at Target. Susan wasn't used to having a man in her life who stood by her and supported her decisions. Liz didn't like the idea of obeying her mom without lipping off and giving her the infamous eyeroll so she stayed a couple of weeks and then decided she'd be better off living with one of her friends from Iowa. Unfortunately, the friend expected Liz to help out with the chores and to get a job to help pay the bills. That lasted a month and she moved in with her dad. That lasted a week and she was back up here with us. She had a breakdown shortly thereafter and was taken to a residential treatment facility where she still is. She still has a long way to go, but she's making progress. I hope that one day she'll be able to take responsibility for herself and live a productive life. Before we knew it, Thanksgiving had arrived. We had it at my mom's house. Liz wanted to come too, but the facility she stayed at said she couldn't go unless she attended group therapy sessions for the week prior. She hadn't been going to any of them up to that point. But she pushed herself and earned the day pass and we all had a great time. I found out on the day after Thanksgiving that Susan's ex-husband had gotten himself kicked out of the army and that he would no longer be sending child support and alimony payments. Just like that, our family income had practically halved. It was a tough time and we're still dealing with it, but we've found creative ways to cut back and we're determined to get to a point to where we financially do not need to depend on anyone else ever again. Slowly that is happening. Then came Christmas. We had Christmas Eve with my mom and then the kids left to be with their dad. Even though he was being difficult regarding the child support, we still felt that the kids should be able to see their dad during the holidays. And to his credit, he is trying to help out a little when he can. He even bought the kids a digital camera for Christmas and gave them some pocket money. Christmas day we opened gifts at the house and then the kids went out with their dad again. It was so fun to see Liz open up her House Season One DVD, Rachael open up her Criminal Minds Season 3 DVD, and Sarah to open her NCIS Season 5 DVD. The kids got us gifts too. Collectively, they gave me a Hersheys Fondue Pot. (I looooooove chocolate). Rachael gave me a clip-on book light, Sarah gave me a caribou gift card, and Liz drew me a Festivus card. All in all, it was a simply amazing Christmas. And now it's New Year's Eve. 2008 was a difficult year in some ways but it was a magical year as well. I'm still stoked that we elected Barack Obama as President. I'm still worried a bit about what the world's economy is going to do in the coming year, and I'm still excited about where time will take Susan and I. And what else happened last year? I took part in NaNoWriMo again, won again, and was featured in the paper twice. Susan and I attended two poetry and one mystery writing class. Yep, it's been a magical, wonderful year. |
| My uncle Johnny passed away earlier this year. His sister, my Aunt Tilly, passed away this Christmas Eve. It was sad to see both of them go but I'm happy too. You see Johnny was 96 and had been driving his own car up until a year earlier. He was still volunteering at Pine Haven nursing home at the time that he'd fallen and broken his hip. That led to a stroke and finally to Johnny going to be with his wife Margaret. Tilly passed away on Christmas Eve. I guess some would think I should be sad about it, but Tilly had just had her 104th birthday in October. She was having trouble talking and remembering things toward the end but her daughters, Helen and Ethel, were with her when she died. Since it was Christmas Eve, many other family members had been to visit her earlier in the day as well. My Grandma, Joyce, turned ninety this year. She was the youngest of all the kids and her 91st birthday will be here in less than a month. Her mother, Josephine, lived to be 105 and was walking to the end of the driveway to get the mail up until the year before she passed away. The Hegseths are a hardy lot. So why am I happy? Well it's not that we no longer have Johnny or Tilly with us but that such wonderful people managed to live such long lives. It's hard to be sad for someone who makes it to that age and still has most of their faculties. I love you Uncle Johnny. I love you Aunt Tilly. I miss both but I'll never forget the stories. |
| susanL and I have had a lot of firsts this year: our first date, our first kiss, our first house, and now our first Christmas. Still needing a few gifts for the girls, we went out shopping last night. It was so much fun. We started off at the Apache Mall, looking for a perfume that Sarah put on her list, but they had already sold out on the aroma that she liked best. So after looking around a little more, we made our way to Wal-Mart. From books to hardware and hardware to toys, we made our way through the store, stopping at school supplies, ladies wear, sports wear, cosmetics, jewelry, and Christmas supplies too. Before we were through, we covered nearly every inch of of the store. And we had found nearly every last minute gift we were still looking for. Ahh, but there was something missing -- a special book for a very helpful young lady. Wal-Mart didn't have it. They probably had it at Barnes & Noble, but it was getting late and we both had to be to work early this morning. Maybe Target would have it. I'd seen a collection there earlier. So nearly exhausted, we made one final trip to Target. Holding hands and singing Christmas carols, slightly off key, we made our way to the book section and to the end stand where this particular book had last been seen. And there was one left. Whew! We scooped it up and made our way to the checkout lanes. The first one we came to had a long line. The second one had a shorter line, but the cashier must have been waiting on a price check or something because she just stood there, conversing with the lady checking out. All of a sudden, a young man with a rather new beard called out, "I can help you over here." It was the next aisle over and it didn't have any customers at all. The young man was friendly, considering how late it was, and before we knew it, we were out the door and on our way home. But as we left the Target parking lot, the Taco Bell across the street called out its Siren's Song. As I drove past the entrance-way to the quasi-Mexican restaurant, I said to Susan, "I just about pulled in there." She gave me the look and I glanced around. There was nobody on the street. So a quick U-Turn later, we found ourselves in line at the Taco Bell drive through. Yeah, that's just what we needed after a very busy night of shopping. We finally made it home and brought the presents up to our room. The girls weren't home yet. They were still out with their dad who drove up to see his girls over Christmas. I'm glad they were able to see each other on such at such an important time of year. I love those girls a lot, but they'll always need their daddy too. Only one task remained -- wrapping the gifts. For some reason, even though I am actually a guy, I fell in love with the art of gift-wrapping a long time ago. From measuring the paper to ensuring that all of the corners of the package are crisp and smooth, I just adore wrapping presents.Susan, on the other hand, merely tolerates the concept. Her opinion is, "why put too much time into wrapping presents, since they're only going to rip off the wrapping paper in a couple days anyway?" I understand her point. But for me, wrapping gifts isn't just about other people. It's something that for some very strange reason, I enjoy all by itself. Before too long,all the presents were wrapped. We set them on the dresser and lay back in bed, waiting for the activity of the day to give us its permission to drift off to sleep. And laying there, I realized how truly lucky I am. Other than a multi-book publishing contract, I have nearly everything I've ever wanted. Merry Christmas Everyone! |
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