A Year's Transitions

November 3- 2013 - In a nutshell - to catch up. Most of the last few months I've been adjusting to the work regiment; getting up earlier, plodding through the 'to-do' lists and getting used to the people at the office, the people in the community and defining my role. Much of that has been building an agenda and an advocates network. We recently had great success with a bill that passed both chambers and is now being signed by the President. And we've had great success with state "stock epinephrine" laws. I'm now planning campaigns on restaurant legislation, EMS bills and, somewhat hesitantly, on airline rules. My comfort level, confidence and ambition have been taking hold in the last few months and been a welcome transition. Patrick's performance in Urinetown was remarkable (see videos) and was capped off with a trip to the Kennedy Center for the Cappie Awards -- at which Loudoun Valley scored numerous awards. Over the summer the boys went off to Camp Highlands - Chris as a counselor and Patrick & Nathan as campers. Chris had an incident as the leader of a trip going down a waterfall in the dark. And Nathan had a miserable expedition in soaking rain. But otherwise they had a gas, as usual. Martha and I took advantage of the 'kid-free' time to book a trip to Costa Rica at a resort on the Pacific side. Other than an snorkeling excursion and a trip to a local town for some shopping we didn't do much - which was the whole point. Jamie only pursued his western odyssey as far as San Francisco. Warren came home and Jamie has attempted to set up a life there. It's clearly been a struggle, but Mimi has joined him there and we're immensely proud of his courage and determination -- and his growing maturity. He just came back for a brief visit a couple weeks ago and we had a nice visit. We're especially encouraged by his commitment to get back to school when he gets settled. He's now doing seasonal work at UPS which will hopefully turn into something permanent. Chris is now working at both Pump It Up and at Nick Greer's restoration shop. That keeps him relatively busy - though we are now having to help him manage his money. Since the incident with my aunt's car, he needs to save up enough to get another to relieve us -- especially Martha -- from having to juggle his needs with our schedules. Patrick latest drama production is The Crane Wife - a Japanese folk tale in which he plays the lead again. It's a one act - 45 minute play with a very interesting story. (see rehearsal video) Last weekend he spent in Reston at a competition and the LVHS drama team took fifth in a field of 40 with this play. Not bad. He's continuing 'zero period' at 7:30 to accommodate jazz band and musical theater, taking piano lessons in Winchester at Shenandoah Music Conservatory, working at Pump It Up on the weekends and skateboarding whenever he can. On that last item; he's damaged his ankles so much, he's now going to physical therapy. While Patrick was away on this Reston weekend, Martha and I stole away to an inn in West Virginia. It was a little odd in that it was close quarters - but novel. And it gave us a chance to go on a beautiful hike to a mountaintop. Slowly we're also redoing our family room. We've had the fireplace redone with stone (Canaan Valley!) and bought some new furniture -- though making decisions on it is a grind. In the process of this updating, most of our older stuff has moved in the basement, where the kids now have a tv/couch hangout pit. And I've moved the drums around, set up a desk with computer near Nate's kit, along with drum mikes so he has a great recording setup! In late August I went back to Chicago for the 8th annual Neighborhood Picnic. I finally bought myself an acoustic kit (DWs no less!) - and did it through Dan at the Drum Pad - so I was able to pick them up at his house and play them for the Picnic. I'd practiced enough that I acquitted myself adequately -- though I still screwed up plenty. (see videos). My aunt has managed to get out of Lexington and into her own apartment in Lake Zurich. We helped her a little financially and Mary and Jack are giving her a hand where they can. She's looking to have an operation on her eye and eventually drive again -- but the real test will be whether she's able to discipline herself and avoid some bad habits.