New Year’s Resolutions

It’s still January (barely) so there’s still time for me to make some New Year’s Resolutions, right?

This year, I want to:

• Go to the gym at least 10 times per month
• Finish my scene-by-scene outline for the second draft of Coven Hill
• Finalize all of the backgrounds for episode one of Rise of the Hidden Sun
• Finish up the episode one animation sequences, too
• Take the kids to Europe, if our finances allow it
• Completely redo my online travel writing portfolio
• Organize the family photos dating back to 2007
• Repaint at least half the rooms in our house

So there: Some creative stuff, some around-the-house stuff, and a couple of personal or family enrichment goals.

I’ll let you know how I did when next January rolls around.

Three Semi-Big Milestones

I get by with a little help from my mommy

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here. 

We took Madeleine for her first haircut over at Snippets. Ethan went first to show her it was perfectly OK, but she was still a little nervous about the whole “scissors near my head” thing, so she ended up sitting in Penny’s lap, looking at a picture book, and sucking on a lollipop. It got the job done! Now she is no longer shaggy.

Another biggie for Madeleine: We moved her car seat around so it now faces forward. She thinks this is the greatest thing ever. A whole lot less screaming during car rides since we did this.

Ethan had a little milestone of his own this week, too. We started reading his first-ever chapter book, James and the Giant Peach, at bedtime.  We’re about 12 chapters in and he’s really enjoying it.

He seems to be following along well from night to night, too. We recap the previous day’s chapters before starting the new one, and half the time he remembers them better than I do.

2010: So long, and thanks for all the fish

2010: The Year in Pictures

So 2011 is finally here, but before I put 2010 completely behind me, I didn’t want to let the opportunity pass to take a few minutes to reflect on the year that was. In a nutshell: Last year began badly but ended well, and in-between there were many little trials and triumphs.

The story of 2010 really begins with the end of 2009. I’ll never forget that Christmas Eve, alone in my living room watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” after Penny and the kids had gone to sleep. The mysterious back and abdominal pain that had plagued me all through 2006 and 2007 had returned, and it was joined by a new and even more disabling pain in my arms and wrists. I had to take an extended leave from work, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to return, let alone live a normal life. The doctors I saw seemed to have no clue. Things felt very bleak, and “It’s a Wonderful Life” (cheesy though it is) stirred up all kinds of emotions in me about my life, my personal goals, and what would happen to my family if I didn’t get better. So it was a difficult time for me.

Yeah, I cried a little

I muddled through the early part of the year at home and work, just tryintg to “get by,” and I bounced from doctor to doctor at Lahey Clinic and Tufts Medical Center without any relief. They threw all kinds of potential diagnoses at me, a couple of them pretty scary, and I rang up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. But there was nothing definitive and no real prescriptive course for how I could get better.

But then I went for another opinion, this time at Massachusetts General Hospital, and things quickly and thankfully began to turn around.

Within weeks, MGH had gotten to the bottom of many of the problems I’ve had for years. Two badly misaligned joints—the sacrum and the pubic symphysis, if you’re at all interested—were the original cause of my lower body pain, and could be easily fixed. (Somehow a legion of doctors, including orthopedists and osteopaths who really should have known better, had missed this over the years.) The other half of the equation was Thoracic Outlet Syndrome—basically some nerve compression around my shoulders—which accounted for much of the arm and wrist pain. It was brought on by my body overcompensating in other areas for years and years.

Since September of 2010 I’ve been going to physical therapy twice a week and doing stretching and strengthening exercises at home, and I’m already feeling much better. But because I was compensating for pain all over my body caused by the misaligned joints, it’s now a longer slog toward getting completely better than it would have been if this had all been discovered years ago, as it should have been. It’s a great start, though, and for the first time in a while I’m actually hopeful. It feels good.

Meanwhile, the world turns, the kids keep growing, and life goes on. Here are some of the highlights of 2010:

I guess you could call 2010 the “Year of the Tornado” for Ethan. My three-year-old has fallen in love with wild weather. Tornados, specifically, but lightning storms and hurricanes, too—any kind of extreme natural phenomenon, really.

Ethan the storm chaser

It took me three weekends and two failed attempts, but I somehow built a 144-square-foot outdoor movie screen for the back yard and my third annual Outdoor Movie Night. This year we screened “The Princess Bride” with about 30 friends. It was awesome, but I have even bigger plans for 2011.

The biggest backyard outdoor movie screen yet!

Shortly after I got into the physical therapy program at MGH, I was able to start working, slowly, on the second draft of my novel. It still needs a lot of work, but that’s another area where I have bigger plans in 2011. 

Madeleine turns one

Madeleine became mobile—she chose her first birthday to start walking. Now she’s unstoppable, not to mention fearless. She’s going to be the skydiver in the family.

Ethan started pre-school three days a week, and he loves it.

I took the kids to the family cabin in Maine, by myself, for the first time while Penny was at a conference in Texas. I love it up there. Happy to say the kids do, too.

Catch of the day

We vacationed at a rental house near Balch Lake, New Hampshire, over the Fourth of July, with Penny’s parents. Great time. Ethan learned to fish.

I made it to two Patriots game this year, both wins. My first Monday Night Football game: Patriots 45, Jets 3.

We took the kids to their first hockey game, a victory by my beloved Merrimack Warriors!

We totally gutted our basement and added 500 square feet of finished living space: a TV room, play room, laundry room, bathroom, and office.

On the career front, I didn’t do much writing, but one article that I co-authored was picked up for syndication by several national media outlets, including Yahoo, which put it on its homepage for a day. It was a fun story to write, too.

The year ended with a trip to upstate New York to visit family and see Niagara Falls. Ethan’s excitement alone was worth the nine-hour drive.

A few other odds and ends:

The best book I read this year was “In the Woods” by Tana French (followed closely by French’s “The Likeness” and “Faithful Place”). Other enjoyable books: “The Passage” by Justin Cronin; “The Lost City of Z” by David Grann; “The Monster of Florence” by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi; “World Made by Hand” by James Howard Kunstler; “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss; and “Hotel Pastis” and “A Good Year” by Peter Mayle. I also finished re-reading Tad Williams’ “Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn,” which has to be one of the top five epic fantasy series ever written.

It’s hard to believe, but I only got the movie theater twice in 2010, and that was to see “Avatar” and the Disney movie “Tangled” with Ethan and his cousins. Best movie I saw on DVD was “The Kids Are All Right.”

Favorite TV show: “The Walking Dead” on AMC. Also good: “Fringe,” “Castle,” “Life Unexpected,” and “Modern Family.”

And I think that’s a wrap on 2010! Here’s to a healthy, happy, and productive 2011.

Fincelfork

Fincelfork?

Ethan: “My favorite Patriot is Fincelfork.”
Me: “Fincelfork?”
Ethan: “Yeah, Fincelfork.”
Me: “… Vince Wilfork?”
Ethan: “Yeah, him.”