Note from Wood: This was originally posted on Oceanside, Nevada, my personal blog. I’m reposting it here as an example for Freak and BBG who I’ve tagged next.
Okay. Those who know me know I don’t like these things. Still, I’m trying to be a good dad and cater to the whims of my middle girl child, so, well. Just keep in mind, there’s a reason I don’t do personal posts and you’re about to find out why. If you want breezy, wacky fun, well…
Just well.
10 years ago: I was working as a pediatric nurse. We lived in Tacoma, WA, and I was going to college for the second time. Flip was four and The Boy was two. He hadn’t received his official autism diagnosis because he was too young to do the kind of cognitive testing required for a definitive diagnosis. Instead, the developmental pediatrician diagnosed Pervasive Developmental Delay. I still don’t understand the distinction: it looks like autism, you treat it like autism, it’s autism. That’s just my opinion, mind you. TJ had her first serious depressive episode (for understandable reasons, I think) and shortly thereafter I had a falling out with my parents that took years to move toward resolution. We moved to Prescott, Arizona.
5 years ago: We moved here to Las Vegas. Prescott was close to TJ’s family but we couldn’t make a living there. After ten years of nursing, I was making less than I did as a graduate nurse and TJ, a surgical technologist (and a damn good one, too) couldn’t get a job at the one significant hospital between Phoenix and Flagstaff. She delivered papers, I worked for a hospice and we paid lots of money for people to work with Fletcher. I went back to college for the third time. Again didn’t finish.
By the time it became obvious that we had to make a change, we were in debt as bad as we ever had been with no hope on the horizon. We came to Vegas so that I could take advantage of an apprenticeship with the local operating engineers. Well, we both signed up for the apprenticeship, but I was picked before TJ and, by the time her number came up, she was making more money than she ever had doing what she’s good at. Which is good, because I was on slave wages for the first few years. It was a while before I actually went to work, so I worked some crappy jobs in the mean time: telemarketing, phone surveys, that sort of thing. One car between the two of us and all four stuffed into a two bedroom apartment, the first year was… a challenge.
1 year ago: There’s less for me to tell about a year ago. Subjectively, I suppose we’re doing pretty good, got some toys, money in our pockets, that sort of thing. TJ was working a ton, I was almost finished with my apprenticeship, not that that mattered because I’d been running the central plant for about six months by that time anyway. Things were starting to sour at my place of employment as my new boss was starting to get settled in. Without dealing in specifics, they got worse over the next year. That and our continuing summer and school vacation struggle with reliable caregivers for The Boy caused us to start looking at ways for one of us to stay home, or at least be able to set our own schedule. Still dealing with that one as we speak. I started this blog as a replacement for iStateYourName, my blogger blog, (blog blog blog) since someone had already registered istateyourname.com. I had developed a bit of a habit of forwarding interesting links I came upon to various friends and family and it got to be too much for me to keep track of. I did the next best thing and started a blog. Didn’t know it would become such a preoccupation.
Yesterday: Hm. Seems the closer we get to today the more mundane my story gets. I finished 95% of the rebuild of my hotel’s primary reheat exchangers (and when I say primary, I mean only). The last little bit happened today, with the polishing and tweaking scheduled for tomorrow. I got a call from my Dr.’s office saying my cholesterol is great, keep taking my medicine and watching my diet. TJ was at work so it was just me and the chickens for the evening, like it is every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We had beans for dinner and Flip made cornbread for the first time. We’ll have to work on that.
5 songs I know all the words to: Just five? Jeez, let’s see. Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel, American Pie by Don McLean, Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby by Counting Crows, Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House and Mack the Knife, the Bobby Darin version, natch. I know tons of others. Someday when I can get enough friends drunk we’re gonna karaoke.
5 snacks: Mmmmmm, snaaaaacks….
5 things I’d do with $100 million: Put in place a foundation so that I would know that The Boy would always be looked after. Give money to parents of autistic children who are facing bankruptcy because of the needs of their children. Create a political body to shame the casino industry and the state of Nevada into providing more funding and better services for disabled children. Selfishly, I’d build a wicked cool house, a cross between a hobbit hole and Bill Gates’ place. And I’d fill it with all manner of nerdishness. And I’d go to Worldcon with TJ and Flip.
5 places I would run away to: Monterey.
5 things I would never wear: Fur. Not because I’m particularly socially conscious, I just can’t think of anything furry I wouldn’t look ridiculous in. Star Trek uniforms because they’re dorky. Camouflage. An inflatable rubber hood—I looked for a picture of one that was suitably frightening, but all I found was silly looking. Houndstooth.
5 favorite TV shows: Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Carnivále, Lost, and Firefly.
5 greatest joys: When TJ first kissed me (she was only kidding). When TJ first told me she thought that, you know, maybe she loved me. When Flip was born. When The Boy kissed me on his own the very first time, just minutes before TJ, Flip and The Boy left for Arizona, leaving me alone in Tacoma to sell the house and pack our stuff. He was not quite three. When Flip would tell me to “make the nest, daddy,” and we would sit together on the couch and watch cartoons.
5 favorite toys: My 12″ G4 PowerBook, my iPod, NetNewsWire, ecto and TiVo.
5 people I’m tagging: Crap. Like I even know five other people who blog who haven’t been tagged. I’m just your average misanthropic bald white guy—I don’t even like people! (ed.: that’s what “misanthropic” means, you dumbass) And now I have to name five, who blog, and haven’t been tagged.
This is so unfair.
Fine then. I tag Rachie, and Fredlake, and Freak, and BBG, and… TJ!
Heh heh heh. See, Teej, now you have to blog. It’s, like, the law.
You’ve been a lovely audience, thank you and good night!
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