11. Confessions #JanBlogaDay

I have nothing to confess. Whatever I want people to know, they already know.

Sometimes I fear for the future or I fear for our country, but then I decide it's not worth worrying about. (Confession: I wanted to re-write this to say I meant the stress and angst earned by worrying so people wouldn't think I meant the country wasn't worth worrying about. Now I'm inclined to leave the ambiguity.)

I've considered giving up voting. My vote doesn't matter and I don't like political discussions so I would be just fine not complaining about things I didn't vote for.

Staring like a psychopath* at the prosecuting or defending attorney will not get you out of jury duty. Nor will trying to pretend that you find them dreamy and looking at them in a what I think makes me look like I find them dreamy. Nor does saying "Well, they were arrested, doesn't that make them guilty?" It will, however, get you a sidebar with the legal eagles and the judge during jury selection. Oh, and judges don't like it when you fall asleep while you're on the jury. (*Confession: Upon rereading I wanted to add '-- or how I suspect one would --' but then decided not to. You either think I am one or not. I'll leave as-is.)

10. My Memory Has Just Been Sold #JanBlogaDay

Oddly enough, a quick check shows that this is the second time I've used this as a blog title. I thought I remembered that. For some reason, that original post has been an enduring post over the years. Oddly, it's not showing on my list of top blog posts even though it has enough views to be in all time third place, after a work-related post about Facebook's "email killer" and my instructions on how to fix a TE error on on LG washing machine. My poor daughter, every time that song starts, she exclaims something like "No, daddy, don't!" because we always move on to the next song. This would probably be on her list of reasons she wishes she were older, so she could hear that song.

My memory isn't great. I think it was David Allen who said "Brains are for thinking, not storing stuff." I have taken that to heart. While I do end remembering a lot of stuff, whenever possible, I try to capture stuff... Evernote, Remember the Milk, our corporate wiki... It's much easier to remember where to look for something when I need it again than it is to try to remember the thing itself. Plus, then I can go back and read something I wrote as if it's something I'm learning for the first time. Sometimes I marvel army own writing, other times I cringe and hope no one's looked at it besides me.

Second Breakfast

Yeah, these aren't going to make it to lunchtime.

Chicken in a Biskit crackers with either Parmesan cheese or brown sugar, wrapped in bacon, then baked. (Plus perhaps other ingredients, like love.). The bacon constricts to hug the cracker. So tasty, fresh from the oven or cold like these.

What Are We Listening To? (The New Class)

We had a varied selection in this year's new class (music added to iTunes in the past year).  Quite a few are Lori's selections, but there's a few tracks from my running playlist that got good coverage this past year.  Links go to Amazon so you can listen to previews.



1. Someone Like You - Adele - one of Lori's finds this year

2. My Hope Is In You - Aaron Shust

3. Stereo Hearts - Gym Class Heroes (feat. Adam Levine) - sound great in headphones while running, sounds great playing loud in the car

4. Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri

5. Waiting for Tomorrow - Mandisa

6. Lift Me Up - The Afters

7. Hold Me - Jamie Grace (feat. TobyMac) - Lori picked up the Jamie Grace album and it got a lot of play this year

8. Animal - Glee Cast

9. One Reason - Chynna and Vaughan

10. Show Jesus - Jamie Grace

11. American Woman - Lenny Kravitz

12. Say Hey (I Love You) - Michael Franti & Spearhead - this and "Stereo Hearts" are probably my top two from the new class

13. DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love - Usher (feat. Pitbull) - this is in my running playlist.

14. Black to White - Felix Cartal (feat. Miss Palmer)

15. We Can Trust Him (Psalm 33:4) - Group VBS - I listened to this over and over and over and over and over again driving by myself (Ben and Lori were in ambulance) between St. Francis ER and Mary Bridge ER when Ben had his seizures. That was right after he cried out when exposed to the cold air when they rolled the gurney out into the parking lot, the first time in over two hours that we had heard anything Ben-like.

16. The Four Seasons, Op. 8, Concerto No. 2 in G Minor RV 315 "Summer": III. Presto - Nicola Benedetti & Scottish Chamber Orchestra - probably an iTunes freebie, couldn't find it on Amazon

17. We Three Kings - Rod Stewart (feat. Mary J. Blige)

18. Ready to Fly - Jamie Grace

19. Come to Me - Jamie Grace

20. Remind Me Who I Am - Jason Gray

21. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Norah Jones

22. Beer for My Horses - Toby Keith & Willie Nelson - yeah, this is just fun.

23. Risen Today - Aaron Shust

24. Without a Word - Birdy

25. Fix You - Coldplay

9. Made with Love #JanBlogaDay

Today's topic is "Made with Love" - that makes me think of three things - my children, arts & crafts and "Made in the U.S.A."

My children (like me, like us all) are a work-in-progress.  But I love them.  It's hard to put into words how or why, but they are both awesome little people.  They try my patience regularly and they physically wound me more than I'd like, but I wouldn't trade them for the world.

One of my Christmas traditions is to watch The Family Man starring Nicholas Cage, Téa Leoni, Don Cheadle and the incomparable Jeremy Pivens.  It's a modern twist on It's a Wonderful Life but with a bittersweet ending that makes me sad.  He's shown a glimpse of an alternative life, had he not taken an internship in Europe.

The Trouble with Christmas

In years past, I would often exit the holiday season feeling like I had "Missed Christmas."

I had attended the church service, hugged the family, opened the presents, ate the food, gained the weight, watched the movies, listened to the music, but I still felt like I had passed by the season without actually experiencing Christmas.

I tried to blame our church and their inexplicable refusal to do well-known, time-honored Christmas music in the services the weeks leading up to Christmas or how we just kind of like fit the Christmas Eve service in as another thing to get done. I wondered if I'd planned enough. I wondered if it was the opening of presents (something I've never really enjoyed). I wondered if it was the pressure to do a good lighting display and the knowledge that we didn't. I wondered if between church, the church play and a job that has us working weeks and months ahead - or the countless Christmas parties and forced festivities - that I was just burnt out by the big day.

This year, I didn't feel like I missed Christmas, but boy was it an unusual year.

8. Honesty #JanBlogaDay

To be honest... I don't know what to write.

To be honest... I thought about doing today's blog post during a meeting this afternoon at work, until I realized the topic and decided I didn't want to have to admit to writing a blog post during a meeting.  I'm not supposed to do Social Media at work, but that meeting was not using my brain to anywhere near its full potential.  I almost feel guilty sometimes being in those meetings because I'm being paid to be there and someone's getting ripped off.  Well, the company is, but I am too because that's time I'll never get back.

To be honest, I just stalled for nearly two hours because I didn't know what to write for this post.  And I still don't.

Webster's Dictionary defines honesty as