Holy shit, I'm - eh, forget it.
I guess I'm a little late this time around - I usually write this on New Year's Eve.
To call 2010 a busy year would be a significant understatement. I'm really not even sure where to begin, other than the chronological beginning.
In January of 2010, I was riding an unusual wave of confidence - things were going right for me - my son was healthy and had just started smiling at us, and my credit was in a position that would make me able to soon buy a home. I'd gotten a couple of certifications and by the end of the month, had gained my third.
In February, Kristen began complaining of abdominal pain - a kind that could be explained by indigestion, but did not go away no matter how many antacids were eaten. Worse, the pain was getting worse, on an almost daily basis.
At the beginning of March, it had gotten bad enough to warrant being seen by a doctor. A bad situation seemed to be made way worse by the misinterpretation of a side-effect of pepto-bismol. We went to the ER. The attending doctor didn't seem to have even a question in his mind as to what was wrong: gall stones. One ultrasound later, and it was confirmed. Surgery would be required for the pain to end; a prescription was ordered and an appointment was made.
A week or so later, the prescription is running out, and the pain is getting yet worse. The scheduled out-patient surgery was at the end of the week, so the decision was made to ride it out. A day or so later, the pain escalated and she became jaundiced. The end of the week was too far away. We went back to the emergency room.
I could write an entire post about this particular visit, but I'll sum it up: Kristen was in EXTREME pain, and the wait to be seen by a doctor was about 7 hours (triage was barely minutes). Once she was finally seen, it was only 90 minutes and two full doses of dilaudid (with barely any effect) later that an emergency procedure was being set up to removed a stone blocking her bile ducts. Admission for observation until her previously scheduled surgery was ordered.
Kristen had her gallbladder removed on my 30th birthday. It was easily the crappiest birthday ever. My 19th birthday (working KP at Ft. Gordon) was way better. Though a little sore and medicated, I would get to take my wife home the next day. Given the previous couple of weeks, it was the best present I could hope for.
At the end of March, a house that Kristen and I had been admiring for a little while went up on the market. In pursuit of my next certification and out of hope to find another job soon, I'd decided to postpone trying to get a mortgage to buy our first house.
Kristen wasn't having any of that. A few weeks later, we closed on the house we'd been dreaming about.
When you first think about it, it seems like it would be relatively easy to move into a house that's not even a quarter-mile down the same street, but let me dispel naivety here and now: that was, without a doubt, the hardest move I've ever made. We decided to do the moving ourselves. NEVER AGAIN. Hopefully, NEVER AGAIN. I had help with the furniture, but the rest was all us. Terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible! Not getting a chance to rest was simply brutal.
The day after we completed the move-in, a storm blew threw town. Lightning took that opportunity to blow through the 40-year-old red oak in the back yard.
The following late spring/summer was defined by record-breaking heat and back-breaking work. I'd decided to try and save some money by switching to Geico.
Long way to go for a joke. But seriously, I decided to try and save some money by hiring someone to only cut down the tree, opting to cut it up and haul away the branches myself. I'm some sort of glutton for punishment. I'm going to have to be flat broke before I go through that again. The whole summer was a battle to try and find time that wasn't hot like the lava in Metroid and going outside to do work that made it feel that hot.
I earned the CCENT certification in June, then left Hilton for a contract position with FedEx, participating in a product development cycle for a service named SenseAware.
When the temperature finally broke, I still had the bulk of work to complete. With some help from Kristen's aunt Julie's family, I managed to split up most of the wood and stack it at the back of the yard. In my off time after work, I hauled branches to the street. Bit by bit, the job was getting done.
With cooler weather, the hectic pace that pushed most of the year was finally slowing down. When I stop and recount it, I got a lot of other awesome stuff done, like painting and putting together our living room and my office, not to mention all the little things that made our house a home.
Around the end of summer, amidst our insurance crisis, we scheduled physical exams with out doctor. Yeah....
So I had blood in my urine and Kristen had an enlarged heart and thyroid problems. In my case, I had to have an ultrasound, which found nothing, and in Kristen's case, she went to a cardiologist, who found nothing wrong. The endocrinologist, after a couple of visits, diagnosed her with Graves Disease, which actually explained a large number of other little problems we'd noticed over the previous spring/summer.
There are so many things I haven't even gone into, like Kristen's reconnection with her mother that was broken by the return of the man who essentially drove the wedge between them even deeper, or the insurance woes we've been going through. Some things are better forgotten to time.
But all this time, I got the distinct pleasure of watching my son grow and reach new milestones in his development, most notably the transition from crawling to walking. Watching him grow makes me ever more aware of myself in profound ways. I'm grateful for this.
The end of the year came and went sweetly. It was pretty damn nice compared to what came before it.
So now I'm working on the CCNA certification and looking for a new job. My contract expires in a couple of weeks. I'm in limbo right now. I feel like I'm really just about ready to take the exam, but on the other hand, I really need to start searching for another job. Knowing that unemployment should be a viable option for me isn't helping a whole lot.
We've also started attending the Life Church and have been getting involved there. After so many years of abjectly ignoring the Word and spiritual growth, we've been blessed enough to find a place we feel called to. It's amazing how much I was missing and didn't even realize it.
So if everything I've typed so far doesn't spell it out, I've been in a reflective mood lately. I miss some old friends, and I wonder if it's possible to rebuild a burned bridge. There are things we want to explain to them, that there were a lot of strong emotions going on back then, and just the thought of being looked down on... it was more than we could bear.
But we do still care. I've taken days to write this and make sure it's been a thoughtful update. Hope you receive it, and that all is well with you.
To call 2010 a busy year would be a significant understatement. I'm really not even sure where to begin, other than the chronological beginning.
In January of 2010, I was riding an unusual wave of confidence - things were going right for me - my son was healthy and had just started smiling at us, and my credit was in a position that would make me able to soon buy a home. I'd gotten a couple of certifications and by the end of the month, had gained my third.
In February, Kristen began complaining of abdominal pain - a kind that could be explained by indigestion, but did not go away no matter how many antacids were eaten. Worse, the pain was getting worse, on an almost daily basis.
At the beginning of March, it had gotten bad enough to warrant being seen by a doctor. A bad situation seemed to be made way worse by the misinterpretation of a side-effect of pepto-bismol. We went to the ER. The attending doctor didn't seem to have even a question in his mind as to what was wrong: gall stones. One ultrasound later, and it was confirmed. Surgery would be required for the pain to end; a prescription was ordered and an appointment was made.
A week or so later, the prescription is running out, and the pain is getting yet worse. The scheduled out-patient surgery was at the end of the week, so the decision was made to ride it out. A day or so later, the pain escalated and she became jaundiced. The end of the week was too far away. We went back to the emergency room.
I could write an entire post about this particular visit, but I'll sum it up: Kristen was in EXTREME pain, and the wait to be seen by a doctor was about 7 hours (triage was barely minutes). Once she was finally seen, it was only 90 minutes and two full doses of dilaudid (with barely any effect) later that an emergency procedure was being set up to removed a stone blocking her bile ducts. Admission for observation until her previously scheduled surgery was ordered.
Kristen had her gallbladder removed on my 30th birthday. It was easily the crappiest birthday ever. My 19th birthday (working KP at Ft. Gordon) was way better. Though a little sore and medicated, I would get to take my wife home the next day. Given the previous couple of weeks, it was the best present I could hope for.
At the end of March, a house that Kristen and I had been admiring for a little while went up on the market. In pursuit of my next certification and out of hope to find another job soon, I'd decided to postpone trying to get a mortgage to buy our first house.
Kristen wasn't having any of that. A few weeks later, we closed on the house we'd been dreaming about.
When you first think about it, it seems like it would be relatively easy to move into a house that's not even a quarter-mile down the same street, but let me dispel naivety here and now: that was, without a doubt, the hardest move I've ever made. We decided to do the moving ourselves. NEVER AGAIN. Hopefully, NEVER AGAIN. I had help with the furniture, but the rest was all us. Terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible! Not getting a chance to rest was simply brutal.
The day after we completed the move-in, a storm blew threw town. Lightning took that opportunity to blow through the 40-year-old red oak in the back yard.
The following late spring/summer was defined by record-breaking heat and back-breaking work. I'd decided to try and save some money by switching to Geico.
Long way to go for a joke. But seriously, I decided to try and save some money by hiring someone to only cut down the tree, opting to cut it up and haul away the branches myself. I'm some sort of glutton for punishment. I'm going to have to be flat broke before I go through that again. The whole summer was a battle to try and find time that wasn't hot like the lava in Metroid and going outside to do work that made it feel that hot.
I earned the CCENT certification in June, then left Hilton for a contract position with FedEx, participating in a product development cycle for a service named SenseAware.
When the temperature finally broke, I still had the bulk of work to complete. With some help from Kristen's aunt Julie's family, I managed to split up most of the wood and stack it at the back of the yard. In my off time after work, I hauled branches to the street. Bit by bit, the job was getting done.
With cooler weather, the hectic pace that pushed most of the year was finally slowing down. When I stop and recount it, I got a lot of other awesome stuff done, like painting and putting together our living room and my office, not to mention all the little things that made our house a home.
Around the end of summer, amidst our insurance crisis, we scheduled physical exams with out doctor. Yeah....
So I had blood in my urine and Kristen had an enlarged heart and thyroid problems. In my case, I had to have an ultrasound, which found nothing, and in Kristen's case, she went to a cardiologist, who found nothing wrong. The endocrinologist, after a couple of visits, diagnosed her with Graves Disease, which actually explained a large number of other little problems we'd noticed over the previous spring/summer.
There are so many things I haven't even gone into, like Kristen's reconnection with her mother that was broken by the return of the man who essentially drove the wedge between them even deeper, or the insurance woes we've been going through. Some things are better forgotten to time.
But all this time, I got the distinct pleasure of watching my son grow and reach new milestones in his development, most notably the transition from crawling to walking. Watching him grow makes me ever more aware of myself in profound ways. I'm grateful for this.
The end of the year came and went sweetly. It was pretty damn nice compared to what came before it.
So now I'm working on the CCNA certification and looking for a new job. My contract expires in a couple of weeks. I'm in limbo right now. I feel like I'm really just about ready to take the exam, but on the other hand, I really need to start searching for another job. Knowing that unemployment should be a viable option for me isn't helping a whole lot.
We've also started attending the Life Church and have been getting involved there. After so many years of abjectly ignoring the Word and spiritual growth, we've been blessed enough to find a place we feel called to. It's amazing how much I was missing and didn't even realize it.
So if everything I've typed so far doesn't spell it out, I've been in a reflective mood lately. I miss some old friends, and I wonder if it's possible to rebuild a burned bridge. There are things we want to explain to them, that there were a lot of strong emotions going on back then, and just the thought of being looked down on... it was more than we could bear.
But we do still care. I've taken days to write this and make sure it's been a thoughtful update. Hope you receive it, and that all is well with you.