Time to get a move on...


Well, as per usual, life and other priorities circumvent my otherwise desire to blog a little more frequently.  What, pray tell, accounts for the delay of about a year?  Good question(s).

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2023 was a busy year for my family and me.  It started out on our first-ever adventure to stay for a week in a theme park resort.  Yep, a year ago at this time we stayed at Universal Orlando.  It was quite a fun and unique experience for us.  We probably walked more in the 5 days we were there than at any other give 5-day stretch in our lives.  We mitigated that with ice cream.  Sure, why not? 

I also joined a band a year ago at this time.  We cover the classic hitmakers of rock, pop, Motown, psychedelia from the vintage era of the 1960s and 1970s (peppered with some 80s and 90s).  Much of this material was what I grew up listening to as a child in the 1970s, but by the 80s and 90s it seemed to me “very uncool”.  I even shared this with a band member at a gig we had last night; in my college days, my friends and I used to watch those k-tell commercials pitching ‘oldies’ compilations late at night (“You can still buy the 8-track!”).  The song “Going Up the Country” by Canned Heat, in which the lead vocalist sings in a low falsetto, got derision and yucks from us punk undergrads.  Ditto things like Roy Orbison (one friend referred to the Traveling Wilburys as the Traveling Sad Asses).  What the hell did we know?  Yeah, boy was I wrong.  Life, man.  It has been such a delight to make this music and be with this group of tenacious, persistent, talented group of guys - I played more gigs in 2023 than in any other given year for any band I’ve ever been a part of (30 years going).  – and we’re looking forward to another terrific, fun, and busy one.

My wife made a big change in her career around June leaving a steady part-time church job as a paid section choir leader.  She’s been moonlighting at other churches – she’s well known in these parts as an exceptional vocalist – plus she now the freedom to devote more time to pursuing even other musical ventures and has several gigs on the books already through August (and looking for more!).

My wife and I also celebrated our 15-year wedding anniversary last year.  We celebrated by dining at a fantastic Scottish restaurant (Balmoral, Campton Hills, IL…IYKYK).  And as we also do, when we’re out together – and we love to be with each other more as the years go by – it gives us a better chance to express our thoughts more clearly.  We love our children dearly, as any parent should, but those ‘together times’ seemed a little fewer and far between last year as compared to previous years.  We’re working on correcting that this year.

And we now have a highschooler!  Yep, hard to believe but they say when you have children, time really does seem to go by fast.  That’s good in a way, too, because I think it helps that as 50-something parents to a teen and pre-teen, perhaps father time hasn’t really caught up to us yet.  I certainly don’t ‘feel’ 50-*ahem*.  I think having children that are at this age does keep us sharp, on our toes, and because the house is filled with sketchbooks, dinosaurs, Hello Kitty posters, and a Nintendo Switch, also somewhat young.  (Just don’t ask me what music they like, emkay?)

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What else? 

I have now been a headhunter (author’s note, that’s probably a term more relatable to Generation X and before) for almost a decade now.  I’ve been partnering with companies helping them hire finance and accounting professionals.  Though not the best year I’ve had – and most of my peers would likely say the same (essentially a downturn in hiring nationally) – it was still a good year.  It’s an interesting occupation, and one that I never thought I’d be doing.  Most people who do what I do would likely say the same thing; one really just 'falls into it' for the most part. 

We’re also about to return to Florida soon, as well as - *fingers crossed* - planning a trip to Europe this summer.  Likely going to focus on Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as touring around that nation.  My wife and kids have never been.  And it’s been 17 years since I was last in Europe – far too long. 

And finally – as I usually blog around this time every year – the 18th anniversary of my first wife’s passing is coming up in a few short weeks.  The dead of winter always rekindles in my mind and heart those last few weeks she had on this earth; up until just a month before she died, she was still driving herself places, we bought a dog, we were going out to dinner on the weekends, and we were still cherishing every moment – scary or otherwise – together.

Kim was an exceptional woman in so many ways.  In our 4+ years together – and only 2.5 months married – I learned a great deal about life, death, pursuing passions, and trying to live life to the fullest.  Her death, like I imagine it would for any younger person to experience widowhood (we were both in our 30s), shaped in me in ways I am confident would never have happened were it not for going through that experience.  I’m proud of some of the things I’ve become, and less so in other ways.  I mean, that’s just life in general, isn’t it?  But though I wish that experience on no person (especially younger couples), living through and witnessing the death of a spouse, really does abjectly transform the survivor. 

 

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So...onward to a new year!  We’re still here!  Live not in fear!

Here’s to it!





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