Been a minute

It's been several months. Life has returned to the pattern of father son. By that I mean, work, chillin with mini-me, repeat. Good News I am under a pack of cigarettes a day. Bad news, I am now addicted to breath mints.

Mini-me and I made it through the year of firsts since his mother's passing. We had a private ceremony to remember. I had a really nice "Memory Box" made. My thinking is that in it, we'll put those things for him to remember her. Yet also it will serve as a repository of moments of his life they could not share together. I hope it will become something he'll treasure for the rest of his life.

Other than that, nothing has really been going on of importance. We survived the year of firsts. He survived school. Given that it had been several years since he had seen family, and after talking with family..he has gone to visit them for the vast majority of the Summer.

On one hand I get a vacation, on the other hand, and don't ever tell him this, I do miss him. Having said that however, I have started the necessary clean up this new start requires. This part was something which best be done alone.

I'll be back to writing on this, more than likely on a weekly basis. Perhaps I will throw in some politics..it is the Presidential season after all. I am hesitant to do that though as one always tends to come across those "True Believers" with whom having anything remotely resembling an intelligent conversation is rendered moot.  Sadly though, I think I am related to a lot of those, on both sides of the political spectrum. We'll see though.

Haven't cooked in the last week or so as I went from the ER to bed rest. Hell of a way to spend Summer with mini-me gone for 6 months huh? Although right before that I did make a nice blackened salmon I served with some dirty rice.
I've got some ideas for more cooking. Getting into some claypot cooking, and more international cuisine. We'll see where it goes.

So it's been awhile

Well it's been awhile since I last posted to this journal/blog whatever you want to call it. Life rears its ugly head at time. Well that is not entirely true. Life is what you make of it. The real reason is that I have just been enjoying the life of being a dad. Mini me and this age are refreshing. Nerve-racking at times, but refreshing nonetheless.

I think of the quote from Jim Morrison, " I think the highest and lowest points are the most important ones. Anything else is just "in between." Not really sure I agree with this at the moment though. To be sure, as I look back on my life so far, it's exactly those points that come to mind. The birth of mini me, was definitely a high point, the death of his mom, definitely a low point.  But others are not so easily categorized.

For example: His first day of school. It's both good and bad. I readily admit, I had to take the day off from work for his first day. It just seemed different starting school as opposed to taking him to daycare. Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that daycare was just people watching him to make sure he didn't hurt himself or others, whereas school was the start of the process of him ultimately achieving independence after the long educational road.

While I will agree that the highs and the lows are the important parts, or at the very least, the most memorable. The last week or two has been the "in between." While we tend to remember those life markers, it's the "in between" that is the stuff of life. I'm glad mini me is here to make the "in between" meaningful.