A Pretty Good Year

Someone said that to me the other day. "Jay, you've had a pretty good year". My first reaction was to disagree. It's been a year, some good, some bad. If I really think about it though it has been a pretty good year.

At the start of the year my weight was better but not good enough. And my blood tests reflected that. In just 6 months or so I'd drop another 15+ pounds and put my blood tests back into the normal range.

It's been a great year for my bicycling. Very early on with only a couple rides under my belt I pedalled up a long steep hill (6 miles long with 800 foot rise) that I'd hoped I'd be able to conquer "eventually". Instead it was done at the very start. I've cycled either to or from work (about 21 miles) several times this summer and one day biked both to AND from the office. So that means I've been the whole way around the lake twice this summer, another personal best. I've even improved my time going to work over the course of the summer. Lance Armstrong has nothing to fear from me but suddenly a 20 mile ride is no longer some huge challenge. And less than that almost doesn't seem worth doing some days! Too easy. Bizarre.

I checked something off my "Bucket List" (the things you want to do before you "kick the bucket") by getting the chance to act with the kid, my daughter. It was great. And she out performed me! Now I want to do it again and give her a challenge. It felt good to act again and it was just SO cool to be on stage with this amazing young woman.

I got the chance to spend some quality time with my daughter in Pittsburgh, a city we both love. We spent some great time with some of my dad's side of the family and just explored. In fact there were several times this summer that we had some fun as a family. Some of it was just dinner time on the back deck, laughing and teasing. There was the wine festival where the kid got a bit tipsy. Yeah, that part was good.

Any year that has a CREDO week in it has to be a good year. I made some amazing friends and they helped me discover some important things about myself. The path that is still ahead of me has a lot of challenges still but it feels great to be walking that way.

There was the great mini-vacation that my lady wife and I took to explore the wineries of the Niagara Escarpment. The time together was wonderful, we found a number of wines we liked and a couple we like a lot. I'll remember that trip for a long time.

And then I remind myself.....

There's still a quarter of the year to go! So this year can still get better. And better. And who knows, maybe even better still.

Peace

Something of a drought

I realized that I haven't posted a great deal recently other than routine things - resource reviews make up the majority of my posts over the last couple months. Take of the CREDO related ones and there's not much there. If you're still checking this blog you have my heart felt thanks.

So what's up? Not my mood at the moment. I'm feeling dis-spirited at the moment. It's mostly a convergence of little things. Post camp let down after Senior High. Always get that. The sadness that comes with the growing certainty that I'm going to cancel a camp this year. Junior High just has a handful of applications at the moment. We continue to struggle with the "why" question. Lower demographic numbers, bad economy, poor "marketing", combination of all of the above? Don't know. Add in having to do the financial report for senior high camp. Looks like we're close but OK there but it makes me crazy every year. I hate having to scrape and stint to make the budget work. I want to focus on the program and doing it right. SIGH. We're still hassling with a small problem with the mortgage on the house where I live (I don't hold the mortgage but I'm the executor to the estate that does). I wish I were getting clearer simpler answers than I am. And I wish this problem would go the hell away. I'm assured that the house will not be foreclosed upon (which is good since I'm living in it) but it wears on me.

Adding in is something that should be elevating my mood, our upcoming mission trip to New Orleans. I've never done a mission trip, ever. I'm always nervous before the first time I do something so that doesn't help. As a strong Myers-Briggs introvert these "everybody-all-together" events just wear on me. Add in the high heat and humidity down in NOLA this time of year and I have the potential for being miserable. I know, way to keep a good thought in my head, right? :)

In other news my bicycling is going well. A 20+ mile ride on Tuesday in less than 90 minutes was very encouraging. I rode into work without any trouble. Then I did another hour long ride of almost 13 miles two days later. One hill defeated me but otherwise it went well too. Between the weather and the mission trip I'm going to lose two weeks of cycling however.

My weight remains good. Steady at 175, then down to 173 this week with the riding. I'm hoping the work on the mission trip will make up for the lack of workouts. The next doctor's appointment is in 6 weeks. That's nagging at the back of my brain too.

I'm doing a little more creative stuff. Actually practicing my guitar every day for a least a little while. Need to do more of that stuff to balance the financial stuff.

The kid is doing her last weekend at her second summer job. It's a restaurant that is run strangely. They never seem to get around to posting a schedule for kitchen and wait staff (at another restaurant owned and operated by the same folks the staff simply started doing their own schedule and posting it. Management/ownership doesn't seem to care.) Plus strange attitudes on how things get done, decor, food etc. The whole situation was just making her crazy so she decided on her own to drop it. Tonight and tomorrow and she's free. And will be much happier.

I have lots of things to get done. At the moment I can't seem to put my hands on things however. I know I got an e-mail about something left at camp. I have the item, can't find the e-mail. Weird but typical for what's going on.

So hopefully I'll find the on switch again and get moving a little faster. I AM getting things done but slower than usual. I'm thinking about some things to write here but I'm not sure about them. I'll probably post about that process soon.

Pray for the youth of the diocese and the future of their programs.

Pray for me.

Peace

Another Milestone

Today is a very strange day for me.

You see my only child, known here usually simply as "the kid", my daughter turns 21 today.

And that's rather hard for me to grasp.

Isn't this the tiny little premature baby I remember gently stroking through the access port on her incubator? The only slightly larger baby who came home on a monitor that scared the hell out of me because it couldn't here her tiny lungs working so it kept going off? Again, and again and again!

The baby that fell asleep on Daddy's chest, leaving a baby shaped sweat mark on his t-shirt? The one who smiled and smiled and smiled?

Surely this isn't the little pixie of a girl in our favorite Christmas video? The one who was afraid of Santa and who had such fun passing out the presents and unwrapping her own?

The little girl who would hurl herself into my legs when I came home from work with all the force of a mini linebacker? Who picked flowers in the outfield during softball games or who scored that absolutely amazing goal in soccer?

Surely not that little girl in all those calenders that were sent to the grandparents each Christmas?

The little girl who became a lector at church, discovered her singing voice, her acting heart, her joy of writing and music (guitar, piano, clarinet and more).

She's an amazing young woman these days. Still one of the great joys and lights of my life. Still my baby girl though she is patently neither.

And today she is an legal adult.

I'm very proud of her. And every once in a while I still see that little girl too. I hope I always will.

I love you chica. Happy Birthday.

Peace