I don’t know anyone who thinks 2016 was a great year. Multiple popular celebrities have died. Half the country is angry and scared about an angry, giant cheeto running our country. The other half of the country is happy, but angry at people like me calling the president elect an angry, giant cheeto. The country seems even more divided than ever and it doesn’t seem like it will be better any time soon. But, this post is about none of this. This post is a self centered look at my personal 2016.
While considering this post I realized I don’t really remember much about the early part of 2016. This isn’t too surprising since I tend to hibernate as much as possible in the winter. I can remember two events from the winter. My son went skiing and fractured his shoulder, but didn’t realize it was that serious for a month and we had a storm that gave us over 30 inches of snow. I do enjoy the peaceful, snowed in days but I don’t know if I can deal with the shoveling or the walking around in snow drifts for clear vents again. I’m too old for that. I do enjoy being trapped at home. I’m still looking for that job that will allow me to never leave the house.
Spring was highlighted by my daughter turning 16. I’m not sure how I got old enough for my little girl to be 16 but here we are only a year and a half away from an empty nest. That is a little depressing.I think this is also around the time my son got his job doing animal classes for a non-profit, but I’m not really sure of the timing At work I did my after hours recess event which was relatively successful and I hosted one of my favorite writers, Drew Magary. This also happened to be my 24th anniversary, but for some reason my wife didn’t want to come to the Drew event with me. How rude.
Summer started with my son turning 20. That seems even more unlikely than my daughter being 16. How is he not a teenager? Weird. We did our annual trip to Kentucky to visit family. It was a fun trip as always highlighted by fun with arrows.
The first picture is when an arrow was stuck in a tree and we were all looking up trying to find it Before we were done we had a football and a kickball stuck in the tree. The second picture is me doing the arrow thing the proper way. Our next family vacation was out west to California where we spent several days at Lake Tahoe, a day at Yosemite and a couple of days in San Francisco. The entire trip was great, but the highlight for me was going to Alcatraz
I’m hoping we get one more vacation together as a family before we are faced with my son going off on his own adventures.
The summer ended on a somber note when I got the news that they were ending my mom’s cancer treatments and hospice was being called in.
My fall was in the shadow if this news. I went home a couple of times to visit. I face timed my kids from there so they could talk to her. The times I was not there I spent dreading the possibility of the phone call telling me she was gone. That call came early in the morning of October 16. It was time for another trip home to Kentucky, this time to say goodbye. The rest of my year has been done in a state of sadness and depression. It has been very difficult. To make the fall even more stressful, a little over a month after the funeral I accepted a new job within the library system. I left the branch where I had worked for 15 years to become the assistant manager of a different branch. I know in the long term this move was best for me, but the timing was very bad. A major life change after a devastating loss is not an optimal life choice. It has been a little stressful.
We ended the year with our annual trip home to spend Christmas with family. It was weird to be home and not get up every morning to drive to my mom’s house for the day. We filled the time doing fun stuff with my brother and his family. 3D, blacklight mini golf, ice skating, Catchphrase, etc, but I would have gladly given up all of that to be sitting with my mom watching the Game Show Network. The actual end of the year was spent back home watching Mariah Carey’s disastrous performance on New Year’s Rockin Eve
Here’s hoping 2017 is filled with more fun and less sadness.
The World's Common Tater 
You have had a full year. Try not to dwell on your children growing up and out of the house. It just isn’t worth it. I know! Hahahahahaha. Ending your year with so much stress (both bad and good) was unfortunate, but one can only hope that your life will be on the upswing now. It takes a long time to get past the loss of a parent. But each day will get a tiny bit better. The loss won’t ever go away for good, but it becomes less in the forefront over the years. I still miss both of my parents. That won’t change. They’re both in better places now (one hopes reunited) than they would be if still alive. That’s my comfort.
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I try not to dwell on the kids getting older, but it’s hard as we move toward college visits for my daughter.
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Wow, Alcatraz! I’ve always wanted to visit there. Did you see any ghosts or witness any hauntings? lol. Sorry to hear about your Mom
I haven’t been in your position yet, so I can only imagine how devastating it is. I hope 2017 is better for you 🙂
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No ghosts unfortunately. I wanted to do the night tour but tickets were sold out before my plans were set.
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