When I was a kid, I lived in the same house from a few months before my 4th birthday until I moved in December of the year I turned 18. That was 20 years ago this month. I lived in that house for 179 months – just shy of 15 full years.

In the 20 years since I moved out of my parents house I’ve moved 17 times if you count the short stays at hotels when we’d make big moves. If you ignore those month-long stays and just count it as part of the moving experience then I’ve moved 13 times. Of those moves two were short stints back to the parents for a total of 3 months. Those moves take place over 6 different cities/areas.

We bought this house three years ago and as of this month, it’s the longest I’ve lived at one address since leaving home as a kid. In April, the Dayton area will serve as the area I’ve spent the most time since then.

I guess for us this area has slowly become home. Both my wife and I were born and raised in western PA. Different areas, but still western PA. My daughter still identifies with western PA to a small degree. She was born there, although I doubt she remembers it as we moved when she was about a year and a half old. But we returned in 2003 and stayed until we headed out here in 2006. She’s 14 now, but she was 8 when we moved here. She was a third grader starting at her third school in 4 years. My son however, pretty much knows this area as home. He was born in Jacksonville, FL. We left there before he was two months old. When we came to Dayton he was just 4. He’s 10 now. It’s all he knows. The only school he’s ever gone to is the one he’s at now.

It probably seems crazy to move around that much, but I don’t think it was bad. It’s easy to get complacent and jumping around as much as we did for so long kept it exciting. We generally followed the opportunity first and foremost. Now that the kids are older, the focus has shifted more towards stability. When you’re the ages of my kids, moving would suck balls. However, I do think all the moving when they’re younger is good. They see a lot of things, meet a lot of different people – generally learn to be adaptable.

We don’t really have a hard, concrete plan looking ahead. The general goal is to try to stay here until the kids are adults…which means 8 more years for the youngest to hit 18. Realistically 9 for him to finish school. After that, who knows? Suddenly, we’re not quite as tied down any more. Possibilities are endless…except for Florida. Florida is the worst. We’ve gone twice and couldn’t wait to escape both times.

At any rate, it’s weird to think I’ve spent more time in this house than anywhere else I’ve lived since that house I spent my childhood in. Even if we do stay here another 9, that puts us up to 12. I wonder if I’ll ever live at one address as long as I lived with my family in that house as a kid?

Interesting.

I think being ‘self-aware’ more often than not borders (or crosses into) what I tend to feel is overthinking things. And when you’re overthinking things, you’re over-complicating them.

That’s not to say there isn’t ever a time and place for that kind of processing, but I’m not sure it’s a regular part of the flow.

I tend to trust general instinct – and either I’m too stupid to know it doesn’t work or it does. And if it does, maybe it’s just an innate ability to do that same kind of processing without being so ‘self-aware’ about it? Which would mean that in the big picture it is a necessarily part of the flow, I guess. So who knows?

And by general instinct, I mean I don’t need many periods of reflection or sorting out thoughs, ideas, situations and things. Am I too dumb to know I’m not as happy and my situation not ideal as can be or am I smart enough to understand that it’s never going to be perfect and worrying about wringing every last ounce out of it is a perpetual excercise in frustration?

Which leads me to an interesting observation I made long before this conversation. Compared to my online circle of influence, I’m a balls out impulsive, just go-for-it type. But compared to my real-world (you know what I mean) circle of influence, I’m an overthinker – very precise and thought out. Not sure what that means or if it matters, but it’s always been interesting to me. And if I think back, it seems I’ve always held two circles of influence like this – even when “real world” was all that there was. I wonder what that says about me?

It’s also a pretty good time to be a parent. I just can’t imagine starting a family ten years ago.

It made me chuckle because every time he posts something about his little guy on his blog or Facebook I find myself going, “No way in hell at this age.” The funny thing is that I don’t think I can name many of our friends (any?) that had kids in their 20′s. We were the first – by a long shot in many cases. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

We did it old school. I know the new trend is waiting until later in life. It’s an interesting dynamic. As his post mentions, you’re a pretty different person at 25 than at 40. I think that I think the 25 year old is a better match to what raising a kid is all about. I can’t imagine how different I’d be with a small child now than I was 14 years ago. I’d literally raise a whole different kind of kid, I think…and I’m not sure it’d be better…or worse…just different. Seems there’s a different relationship between a child & a parent who is 40 and a relationship where a parent is 25. I not sure I know how to describe or quantify it or that I’m going to try, but there’s certainly a different dynamic. Even on a fairly superficial level – a child born to younger parents goes on the journey with them. Establishing a life, resources, security along the way. They’re there for the trip. Kids to older parents are born into a situation where that all has been locked down. Things like that – it’s a totally different situation to put a tiny human into on a lot of levels.

He continues with:

I was not well equipped for life at that age, let alone for another life. Again, experience comes into play.

I don’t have that feeling of being ill-equipped or unprepared. I feel like I’ve always been ready and handled it and passed with flying colors. Smug confidence or naive lack of insight? I suppose you could argue either way.

Experience is a whole different beast. You certainly gain experience over those years, the catch is that I’m not sure it applies. While I feel I was prepared for life back then, I was certainly inexperienced compared to now. However, I was pretty experienced then compared to who I was at 18. It’s a sliding scale and at 24 when I had my daughter, I wasn’t as far along as I am now, but I was certainly a long way from zero and – I think – past the line needed to keep from fucking up this little human that was now mine to care for.

I don’t know if the trend to wait until later is a extended youth thing (it feels like today’s childhood drags on far too long) or a general caution to be as prepared as possible in all aspects (I’d argue overprepared) or just a general ‘selfishness’ of sorts where people want those years for themselves…or a combo of the above in some ratio. I’m not gonna knock it. There’s certainly enough people doing it. It’s all good.

I see my friends hitting their late 30′s/early 40′s with preschool aged children and think, “Fuck, they got a long way to go. I’m almost done!” I mean I’m 38 and my youngest is 9. In 9 years, I have two adult children. At 47, I’m free to do whatever I want. I get to live those years that people seem to cash in on the front end these days by waiting for children…and I get to do it with all the experience and resources I could’ve only dreamed of as a kid in my early 20′s.

Now that may seem like the same ‘selfishness’ I throw out as a reason for waiting, but it goes back to the belief that those extra resources and experience being overkill for the parenting gig.

I generally accuse society of overthinking everything these days and maybe it falls into that category. Sometimes you just gotta lead with your balls instead of your head. (feel free to substitute “heart” or “gut” for balls in that line) I’m more of a ‘just do it’ kind of guy…I think. I was laughing with my wife recently. In my circle of real-world friends – the people we’ve known for a long time and who have been there in some capacity over the years, I’m generally the thinker. The one who doesn’t live in the moment. While in contrast, in a newer circle of friends that I’ve sort of gathered as essentially online relationships, I often feel downright impulsive and impetuous. The funny thing was that my wife totally got it.

I like to think I’ve developed a keen sense of when to analyze and when to go all in, balls first, on fire, without checking the depth of the water before I dive. Sometimes you just do it – whether you think you can or not. Hell, sometimes you just do it even if probably shouldn’t. I happen to believe being a parent falls into the latter category. It’s art, not science…and anyone can create art. It takes resources to do science shit.

So yeah, there are my little words of wisdom. They may or may not apply to your life.

Here’s where I should point out that since we got the new car, the old car has been sitting out and the new car goes in the garage. Not sure why we’re not putting both in (still issues with getting comfortable with the fit, I suppose), but when we take the new car, the old car gets parked along the curb right at the end of the driveway by the mailbox. Everytime we return home and turn into the cul-de-sac, I get that quick startled rush of “Who is parked at the house?” because nothing really changes on our little street and it stands out like a sore thumb. It’s happened every single time I make the turn up our cul-de-sac since we’ve been putting the car there.

So tonight I turn in and have that moment when I spot the old car up at the end of the street near our driveway, but also notice another car at the opposite corner of our lot, closest to the turn in to the cul-de-sac. This really caught my attention because at 11pm, cars parked in front of the house are certainly out of place. But it was pretty far down – almost to the next house’s driveway. I chalked it up to company at their place parking there which is not unheard of, but is rare and super rare late at night. Needless to say, the car caught my attention and I looked at it as we approached and passed. It was empty. Which is what sort of solidified my initial guess of neighbor company.

So I continue past our house into the ‘circle’ of the cul-de-sac. Our driveway connects to the circle so essentially pulling into our driveway is like making a u-turn. Come up the street towards the circle at the “6 o’clock” position, hook a hard left and hit the driveway at the “8 o’clock” position. Our mailbox is just to the left of the driveway (when you’re facing it). It’s one of those birck column mailboxes with the actual mailbox built in. The old car gets pulled just past it. Kind of what would be the “7 o’clock” position, if you will. Make sense? Got the visual?

Anyway, I continue past our house into the circle, hit the garage opener, hook the hard left and as hit the driveway and get right next to the mailbox this girl in a black hoodie pops up and starts walking away. She was kneeling behind our mailbox/car. I’m like, “Whoa! What the fuck!?” My wife hadn’t noticed and I’m going, “There’s someone hiding there!” She’s all, “What!?”

I pulled into the garage and she jumps out of the car hitting the ‘lock’ button for the old car on her keychain making the lights flash and horn beep repeatedly as if throwing virtual punches of some kind. Next thing I hear is, “What the fuck are you doing near my car!? Get the fuck away from my car!” (my wife is so badass)

I hear a raspy female voice going, “I know! I know! I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I mean you no harm.” I hesitated a moment as I got out of the car. The kids were still in the back. I had a moment of pause, not sure whether to go out around the garage with my wife and confront the girl or to stay with the kids or what.

The girl went on, “I got into a fight with my grandmother and she called the cops.” She gave her address, which if I remember correctly, was for a house on the other side of the woods behind the house on the main road behind us. (but I’m not entirely sure if I filled in that blank correctly or not, in the confusion no one was taking notes).

She kept talking, “I climbed over the fence and I’m waiting for my ride.” Now that’s interesting because there is an old, rusty wire fence along the top back park of our property that kind of turns to barbed wire and disappears. Barely a fence, really.

While this is happening, I told the kids to get out of the car and got them inside then walked out to my wife.

At the same time, my wife with her cell phone in hand starts dialing 911. The girls goes, “Oh there it is now” and beelines for the car parked at the other end of the yard. My wife tells the 911 people someone was messing around our house but they’re leaving. She hangs up. The girl gets in the passenger side of the car and it takes off and makes a left out of the cul-de-sac.

We’re both like, “What the fuck was that?” She goes over to the car and looks for a minute then unlocks it and I say, “Go try to find them” and she’s like, “Yeah!” and off she goes.

I go back into the garage and grab a flashlight and start looking around. Shining the light into the woods, I noticed I left the shed open when doing some yardwork earlier. I hear a little movement, but nothing that couldn’t have been a critter or something. Still I wasn’t going back in there by myself to lock it up. I pulled out my cell and called my wife who had circled a few of the streets around us, but saw nothing. She was just coming back. I had her high-beam the woods where the shed sits and I went back and locked it up.

She pulled into the driveway and we grabbed flashlights and circled all around the house and yard, but saw nothing and nothing looking particularly out of the ordinary. Satisfied that whoever was there was all gone, we realized we left the kids in the house alone, closed up the garage and came in and looked around the house just to be sure.

I have to admit it was a little unnerving and pretty fucking weird. It doesn’t sound like much, but the 10 minutes of that confused rush was really crazy.

We settled down and tried piecing the weirdness together.

We all agreed the girl was in a black hoodie and my daughter said dressed all in black. My wife saw her the most and said her hair was either blond or very light brown and she had light eyes and was scared shitless at being conforonted and was shaking. He tone of voice sounded as much to me from the garage. She would have put her in her mid-20′s age wise which suprised me because from the rapsy quality of the voice, I’d have said grizzled 40-something. But I didn’t see her well. I would have called her blond from what I did see.

As for that car, I’d put the percentage at 90% to 95% that it was empty when we pulled up the road. I’m pretty damn sure someone wasn’t reclined or ducking. We both agreed that it was a small black (dark colored?) Toyota car – based solely on the emblem on the car. Neither of us thought quickly enough to get the plate number…and that pisses me off the most.

What scares me the most is that if the car was empty (and like I said 90% to 95% sure it was) and the girl got in the passenger side when it took off, who else was there and where were they as we pulled in and confronted the girl?

If I’m remembering the address she gave correctly, the fight-and-left story sort of adds up right until she hides behind our mailbox/car as we pull up our street. Why would she be hiding from cars if she was waiting for a ride? The psoition she was in would have been a perfect hiding place for anybody coming up the cul-de-sac with the sole exception of us coming home. And why would she leave a main road, cut through the small woods and wait for a ride on a small, side cul-de-sac? And why didn’t she see the car that was supposedly her ride sitting there before we pulled up? The car was clearly parked and turned off and empty when we pulled in. Why would her ‘ride’ be empty waiting for her?

I dunno. Something doesn’t add up. I generally don’t get wigged by much, but the whole thing felt “off” to us. So her I sit at 2:30am putting these thoughts down so I don’t lose them and sharing the story. I did turn all the outdoor lights on and closed up the windows and turned the air conditioner on. Don’t know why. If anything the moment you confront someone suspicious and they bail, is probably the time there’s the least chance that someone is nosing around outside.

I jokingly told my wife I think it was adisgruntled Meijer employee because earlier today I filled out one of those survey things they print on the bottom of receipts and ripped them a new one because they’ve fallen so hard. You have to add you name and address on those before you submit them. Clearly it was a disgruntled deli employee with a grudge.

I think I’ll stay up extra late tonight, just to be safe.

…

Since then there’s been a lot of discussion over the reaction to his death. I’m of the mindset that most of it is too touchy feely for me. The guy’s dead. Good. I don’t care if it was a revenge hit. I hope it was. It’s one of the few moves Obama has made that I can actually appreciate. Fuck with me and I fuck with you.

I suppose there’s two ways to stop people from fucking with you:

1. Make sure they never have a reason to.

or

2. Make sure the consequences make them not want to.

Simple enough. The problem is that no matter how much you do #1 (heh) there will still be someone who wants to fuck with you. So I guess #2 works for me. There will still be those someones who will want to fuck with you, but at least you stop them…even if it takes a decade.

It’s old school and I make no apolgies for that. I think the ability to kick ass is what this country has lost. And being all touchy feely about someone who wants to cause you harm isn’t helping things.

Fuck Bin Laden. I want Call Of Duty: SEAL Team 6 where you get to go in and pop him in the noggin yourself.

My wife just left for the fourth time this year. This upcoming Friday is the 42nd day of the year and she’ll have been away from home for 24 of them. For 14 others she was working an ‘hourly employee’ schedule, so things were still messed up around here. I need to get back into our normal life flow. Hopefully we start establishing that again next week.

Last week the big ice/snow/rain/sleet/snow/rain/ice/freezing rain/snow/ice storm came through. Usually I love that shit…and I did. I go some nice photos of ice on things. It’s so pretty when the ground is snow covered and everything is shiny. Everything was covered in ice. I went out with the kids and we had a blast sliding on the ice-covered driveway and cul-de-sac. That night it got windy. We supposedly saw gusts of over 50mph. That’s when it got real annoying, real fast.

First the power went out. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve gotten soft over the years and I’m raising my kids to be nothing like I used to be and totally like I currently am – soft. It was like the world came to a fucking end just because the power went out. We found candles, flashlights and blankets and shit and moped and complained to each other.

And with the general darkness and silence we were free to hear all the fucking trees in the yard coming down. Yipee. Actually, it wasn’t all the trees. Only one really big one in the front and it fell away from the house and onto the street (where it still lays), but we picked this house for the privacy (or perceived privacy) of the mature wooded lot…really a find for a house that was only 14 years old. They took great care to preserve as many trees as possible when they built this place and we dug it for that reason. Once this tree is cleared out (hopefully this weekend) we’ll have a gaping hole in our tree cover.

In the back we had another big hunk of tree snap off into the neighbors yard – at least 25 feet long and maybe a foot thick…maybe. and another similary sized ‘branch’ split longways up the middle. So a decent hunk of that privacy tree will be lost too. So that kind of blew.

Turned out that the electric was only out 3 hours, but it sucked. We’re wusses. The temperature dropped 5 degrees in that time and I was wondering what we’d do if it laster all night at that rate completely oblivious to the fact that both the living room and the basement have fireplaces. That’s just how much of a fireplace person I’m not. We could’ve simply fired up the fireplace for light and some heat but neither me nor the kids ever thought of it. It wasn’t until the next day that the idea popped into my head.

The whole situation was made worse by being here alone with the kids. Not that the kids are a problem, but the best part of having a significant other is being able to share the shit with them. Being the sole adult sucked. I don’t like playing grown up by myself.

Then we did some shopping at Meijer on Saturday and the store is officially the worst. It used to be the best when we first moved here. We loved it. It became our go-to place. Over time it seems to have decreased in quality on all levels. One summer a fw of the air conditioning units went out and never seemed to get fixed. It was always too hot in there and it made the fresh food smell funny. (At least funnier than it normally does – I don’t do most fresh things there because they’re of questionable quality)

Just lots of little things – sale items never stocked, employees that are jackoffs, the worst deli service known to mankind. It was a long and steady decline. Then last year they closed a Meijer store that was a few miles down the road in the next ‘town’ over. It was a less desireable area and it always seemed weird to us that there were two Meijer stores so close. Apparently, Meijer thought so too and decided to keep the store in the affluent neighborhood and close the one in the less desireable area.

This had the follow-up effect of – and I hate to say this, but it’s true – driving the folks from the ‘less desireable’ store in the ‘less desireable’ neighborhood to our store. Almost immediately you saw a change in the crowd visiting the store…and oddly enough, the store seemed to reflect the change in its visitors. There were more crimes reported there (and in that area). You see police cars there more. You have a different ‘vibe’ inside the store. You have a less enjoyable shopping experience.

On top of that, the prices seem to have risen much more than at the other stores in the area and were thing used to be a bit of a bargain or deal at Meijer, that’s no longer the case.

Our stop on Saturday seemed to be the culmination of all of the above. Just a horrible stop. There’s a good chance we won’t be shopping there much anymore. It took almost 5 years of steady decline, but they finally lost us.

And then the world’s worst Super Bowl extras happened on Friday. The game was decent enough. A little sucky that the Steelers lost, but whatever, it’s irrelevant to my life in general. But the commercials sucked sweaty, tumor-filled ball sack. Seriously the most unfunny, uncreative, uninspired buch of shit advertising ever to run during the big game. And the halftime show by the BlackEyed Peas was without a doubt the worst one I can remember personally. It was toal and absolute garbage. It was fucking horrible beyond horrible. I’m totally ok with the current state of pop music. Really, I am. I get that you don’t have to have much more than looks anymore. It’s about being an entertainer, not a musician…or even talented musically. That’s fine. Just don’t try to pretend you are. The Black Eyed Peas tried. They tried to sing. They tried to be musicians. They failed spectacularly – like I’ve never seem on such a large stage before. All they had to do was perform and they’d have blown it out of the water. No one expects them to do any more than perform. Canned tracks, canned vocals, pretty lights, oooohh futuristic looking set, Fergie, stupid samples and rip-offs masquarading as new songs – it’d have been great. Instead they tried to pretend they were something they’re not (ironically, but not pretending….wrap your mind around that) and it was a fucking joke. Literally, the single best word to describe that whole thing was “garbage” – it was garbage. Fuck Black Eyed Peas. I wish we lived in a world where there would be accountability for such a performance, but we don’t. They’ll just find another old song to yell over and things will be back to normal.

So yeah, lots of shit annoying me…that’s just the tip of the iceberg, but writing this is starting to annoyme too, so I’m done for now. Fuck this blog.

Report card came home this week.

Daughter – Straight A’s
Son – 4 A’s and a B

Awesomeness.

My son’s gym class has had a student teacher helping out for the past several months. One of the things they’ve been working on is various “gymnastic” moves. The student teacher needs to videotape what she taught the kids to take back to school and she chose my son and a friend because they were showing the most progress and getting the concepts down the best.

Nice.

(and yes, I’ve already made the 1001 ‘afterschool special’ or ‘very special episode’ jokes about the gym teacher wanting to videotape some friends ‘doing gymnastics’ together – and it’s hilarious)

He’s also excelling in art (according to the art teacher’s feedback on his report card) and he’s gunning to get something in the district art show again this year.

Rockin’ it on two totally different levels.

That’s why he’s awesome.

My daughter tried out for (and as of today was chosen for) the “Power Of The Pen” 7th Grade District Team at school. Basically, it’s a competitive writing team. They go to District competition in February and then can move on (on an individual level) to the Regional and even to the State level if the do well enough. It’s new to me, so I have no idea what exactly it encompasses. But it’s pretty kickass for her. She also came up with the slogan that’s on the team shirts this year – “Exceed The Limits”

Sweet.

On top of that she got the most points in her class in some monthly math competition they were doing in school and being in first scored her a pass that gets her to the front of the lunch line. (like a Fast Pass for school lunches)

Kick Ass.

The thing is she gets all kinds of things – little awards or perks for doing well – so much that she doesn’t even care anymore. She just handed over a “Student Of The Month” award from November that she forgot about. I was like, “Well, this is cool.” and she was all, “Whatever.”

That’s why she’s awesome.

What can I say? My kids are almost as awesome as me.

(I suppose my wife has a little to do with it too)

you are a director

As a DIRECTOR, you combine an unusual openness and passion for beauty and style with confidence and a down-to-earth sensibility that allow you to realize your vision.

You are practical and pay attention to the details that others tend to miss.

By focusing on what is real and concrete, you achieve more than those who always have their heads in the clouds.

When it comes to what really matters in your life, you are confident in your ability to succeed.

Having beautiful things in your life gives you pleasure and satisfaction – you have a keen eye for style.

Even when problems present themselves, deep down you know you will overcome these challenges.

When routines get too familiar, you become bored and start looking for ways to spice things up.

You are open to new types of experiences – you are not afraid to take a risk on something new.

You have a highly developed sense of taste – you know what looks good on you, in your home, and in the world at large.

Your independent streak allows you to make decisions efficiently and to trust your instincts

You are balanced in your approach to problem-solving, not letting your emotions hold you up.

You prefer to have time to plan for things, feeling better with a schedule than with keeping plans up in the air until the last minute.

You do your own thing when it comes to clothing, guided more by practical concerns than by other people’s notions of style.

Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

you are cautious

Being independent, practical, and somewhat guarded with others makes you CAUTIOUS.

You tend to keep to yourself, wary of trusting others with personal information.

The values that you hold are central to your identity—you are a very principled person.

You have respect for the natural order of things, and a good sense of right and wrong.

Investigating the world through observation, as opposed to interaction, is preferable to you.

You have an appreciation for those who have attained a certain level of accomplishment, particularly the rare few who have succeeded honestly.

You are efficient—when you work with others, you get down to business, and fulfill your obligations.

You sometimes wish that others would be more like you—less hindered by their emotions, more respectful, and more private.

Not sure why I dig things like this, but I do. This one uses a great slider/grid system for answering.

See, I like that something like that happens. It makes conferences and divisions matter.

Otherwise, why not just one big group of 32 teams and the top 8 go to the playoffs. But then people would say it’s not accurate because every team doesn’t play every team – strength of schedule would be an issue.

I’ve never believed sports were supposed to be black & white. The thing that makes me love most sports is the grey areas. We’re slowly taking all of the human factor out of a game played by humans.

I like wacky scenarios like this – it makes divisions matter. I like when a questionable call is made. It makes referees matter. I like when players mess up and drop the ball. It makes players matter. Let’s not remove them from the equation too.

How far do you go to make everything ‘right’ and where do you stop?

I hate this new idea that in sports everything has to be as perfect as possible. Hell, on a larger scale it’s even an idea that seems to have permeated society in general. We’ve reduced everything to a certain way of doing it or feeling dicked if certain expectations aren’t met or something out of the ‘plan’ happens. It’s this overthinking thing that has been bugging me for a few years now. Quit overthinking it people and just fucking do it. Go with the flow.

More people need to take the chance to lead with their balls once and a while and not with their heads – it’ll do you a world of good.

And if you’re not comfortable with that, at least compromise by leading with your heart…or something below your shoulders for once. Just once today, that’s all I ask. Get a taste of it. Go for it. Just fucking do something.

(And for the record, I don’t care too much for college ball, but I hate the idea of a playoff. The fun with the bowl system is in that it’s open ended and you can endlessly debate who the best team may be.)

I dunno. We’re in danger of making it (football and life) too sterile.

This year we didn’t go apeshit like last year. We still got great gifts, but did it with more laser-like precision as opposed to last years bulldozer-of-goodies mentality. My son got the laptop he’d been begging for since summer. (we’re now a three laptop/one desktop family) My daughter got the iPod upgrade she’d wanted. She now has a sweet new 16GB nano that she loves. And we finally moved totally into the present and replaced the last old-school CRT TV (in our bedroom) with a sweet 42″ LCD. Now every TV in the house is HD.

It was a very efficient Xmas. Stuff went up (admittedly half-heartedly) on the 11th and it came down the 27th. 16 days.

It always seems weird to me that people totally redecorate their house for 8 weeks out of the year. This year we cut it very short, but I’ve never been a “Thanksgiving to New Year’s” kind of guy.

We’ve done real trees since moving to Ohio (before that it was usually fake) and this year’s was the saddest of all. We waited so long that unless we were willing to pay a small fortune, we got stuck with an undersized, underloved piece of shit tree…and that’s what we got. I’ll maintain until the end of time that it was the worst tree ever. And I felt kinda bad because my son seemed so into it this year, but we’re finally getting to the point where we can drop the Santa pretense next year and I think that’s going to shift the focus and tone of the holidays for us. We’re becoming older as a family.

I already want to go back to the artificial tree, but I want a really nice one and I want at least a 12-footer and I want to put it in the entry and I want decorate the fuck out of it next year. And everyone can grab presents from the tree and bring them into the office/sitting room or the living room and open them. I’m creating a new level of Christmas in my mind. And upon sharing that thought with the wife (and kids to lesser degree) I can see the light bulb going off.

It feels like change is in the air. 2011 starts with my wife beginning her new job. (her last day at her current job is Friday the 31st) and she starts by flying to St. Louis for two weeks. This is the first year we have no plans to buy a season pass for any amusement park and no plans to travel in any meaningful way during the summer. We hopes to finally get a lot of stuff done around the house and spend more time outside. We’re going to get back on track with our weight (which we semi-abandoned in the fall). I haven’t had a haircut in months and am sporting a beard. My wife just went from her natural color with blonde highlights to a darker base with beautiful red streaks throughout and a modified style. My daughter continues to excel in school and is on the yearbook staff and joined a group that does competitive writing. She’ll find out if she made the actual team that travels to compete in mid-January. My son continues to enjoy artistic pursuits (he’s already gunning to get something in this year’s district art show again at school) and is evolving with his interest in football wanting to actively prepare for the 2011 season.

None of it was conscious either. It just seems like this is all happening and when I sit back and assess it, it’s all coming together organically. On all levels from big important things to little stupid things. I’m not sure what it means or that it matters. But there’s something there.

2011 motherfuckers.

Hoping it will turn into this kind of bearded situation for me soon:

Our new monthly payment is 11.6% lower than our old one. It puts a decent chunk of money in our pockets each month…which is a good thing. Time to play debt catch-up.