Merry Christmas, Happy New Year – Let's Chase Those Blues Away

Well, it’s been an interesting few months. I’ve been going through a lot lately and I figured maybe it was time to summarize the best I can what I’ve learned.

1. If a surgeon tells me optimistically that a procedure he is doing on me is 95% effective and that most people are totally fixed and healed within 6-8 weeks – I’m going to be in the 5% that are worse than they were before the procedure and will not heal at all.

2. If you ever injure your knee when you are young, you should get it operated on and rehabilitated immediately. If you don’t it’s going to re-injure itself to the point that you won’t be able to walk. It’s going to happen at a bad time (like the day after Thanksgiving, immediately after bringing in the Christmas tree) and you will have to go the emergency room and get crutches. You will hobble around for the holidays.

3. If you spend a year working out religiously and lose over 30 pounds. It will only take from your birthday to Thanksgiving to gain at least 10 pounds back. P.S. The day you decide to go back to the gym after not working out for a month will be the day you severely sprain your knee. Enjoy those cookies!

4. I am not allowed to be depressed. My wife, friends and the world in general count on me to have my glass HALF FULL at all times. If I do get depressed the balance of the universe starts to shift and world view’s begin to be challenged.

5. I am able to grow a beard for approximately 48 days. I previously held a record at only 20. I don’t have any science to back this up, but I’m pretty sure having a beard makes me sad.

6. If you postpone registering your 100,000+ mile car for a year because you don’t want to pay to make a check engine light go off, eventually you will get a ticket. While you’re paying hundreds of dollars to make a light go out you might as well fix the window that went down and never went back up. You will register your car successfully and then about 3 days later the light will come back on. And then a month or so after that the car will die completely.

7. The mountaintop experience of the annual Men’s Retreat will soon be forgotten. Those early to rise morning devotionals will last a month or two. But like every time before eventually they will end and you’ll be right back where you were a million times before. You try to pretend you are not frustrated.

8. I wish that I was able to drive one day of my life without wanting to kill somebody. I fail to see or understand why basic driving skills are so lacking in the town where we live. There isn’t a single day that goes by that I think I’d be happier living somewhere else or never driving ever again. I can’t even be a passenger in this town. I hate my thoughts and the darkness I plot in my heart every time I drive.

9. If you fancy yourself as somebody who is good at english (as opposed to Math) and think it will be good to play an iPhone game akin to Scrabble, you will get a gigantic blow to your ego. This blow will come in the form of losing to every single person on earth (including your wife, the Math person) that you play (multiple times) and result in you deleting the game in frustration.

10. Despite all the evidence to the contrary and the mounting pile of disaster hurdling in your direction, you will soldier on and try the best you can to enjoy the holidays and be thankful for your blessings. God will continue to show up in unexpected ways and through surprising ways and people.

I’m going to try to balance this whole thing out now. Here’s the greatest things that happened to me in 2009…

1. I became a partner in a charity brand for Africa with my best friend Mike Lewis.

2. I finally realized my dream of owning a scooter. I co-founded a scooter club and I went on some cool rides and made some new friends.

3. I inherited my great grandmother’s piano and it was delivered from San Diego.

4. I was asked to be a youth leader at my Church.

5. I finally found some people willing to maybe write and record some music with,

I am definitely ready to put a nail in 2009!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Thanks for reading.

Bill