Well, here's my first entry, written at a terrifying crossroads in my life.
Today is my second day of official unemployment. I have done the unthinkable in this day and age, and given up a good paying job in the pursuit of simplicity and family time. Although I haven't begun to panic yet, the job search has not been going very well, and I only have 3 weeks of paid time off to tide me over until we begin to slide into the abyss.
It's unreal to be putting this down in black and white, but here I am, 34 years old with an amazing wife and daughter, a mortgage, a car payment, and the possibility of another child looming on the horizon. That's right, we're putting the birth control aside and letting nature take it's course. All with only my wife's income until I find something that I can do with a regular schedule, no nights.
How did I get to this place and time? Some days even I don't believe it. Six years ago I was mourning the loss of my mother, only three years following my father's death. Five years ago I was a couple months into dating my wife-to-be, living in New Orleans making coffee for cash under the table.
In my life, I've been to hundreds of places but never left the continent, gone from well to do to homeless and back again, been as high as you can get and as low as I can fathom, and through it all have had the luck to eat some amazing food, meet some unique people and find my true love.
I'm going to try to split this blog into 2 categories, the past and the present. The past will focus on some of my most memorable life experiences. I will try to relate them as accurately and as unfiltered as possible, so if you're squeamish, under 16 without a parent over your shoulder, or easily offended, skip these and focus on the present. In order to compete with the lurid details of my past, I'll keep the blogs about my present focused on the foods I love, what I'm cooking, and any events, milestones, silly stories or otherwise interesting happenings relating to my most rewarding career, fatherhood.
And now, back to cleaning up toys and searching for jobs - tomorrow I'll begin an account of my early childhood. Do you think that this counts as therapy?
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Original Articles. Constant-Content.
It's crazy, but you're not the only dad in my friends circle heaving off the shackles of full-time work in order to help raise the fam.
ReplyDeleteJono says if you lived in TO, he'd employ you. I know, such a tease.
You'll make it through. Like you said, you've been there and back. I'm confident everything will turn out alright in the end!
Great blog. I like the idea of mixing the conversational nature of food with a remembrance of things past. It works.
ReplyDeleteYour mother was my 5th grade teacher and she was an awesome person. I know she would be so proud of you and her little granddaughter.
Like you I lost my mother (she died from breast cancer when I was 27) and it's not something you get over. I still think about my Mom every single day. In a way she lives on through my niece, who happens to look a great deal like her. I think your baby looks like your Mom, too. I think a part of her still lives in you in the way you try to be a good Dad. I remember your own father being a really gentle, nice guy as well. He would definitely be proud of you too.
Anyway, I like the blog. Keep posting. I bet you are going to get tons of subscribers.