The Terrible Catsafterme

This posting will be the last in the series of ‘missing links’ of 2006. I began the website on September 13 and thereafter chronicled two vacations from the summer that had just ended, but didn’t pick up the time period in the middle, so here I bridge the gap between August 6 and September 12. My Myrtle Beach posting did mention that in between the two vacations I opened our first Marketplace store on July 20 and that Ashleigh attended the NYC (National Youth Conference) week in Colorado of July 23-28. We left for Myrtle Beach the next day. What it did not mention was that Briana spent her first week at Woodland Altars from July 16-22. Read the rest of this entry »

First of all, another disclaimer. The pictures that go along with the posting (and most particularly the humorous one of Briana at right) do not in any way, shape, or form tell my story from this time period. They just happen to be the only pictures at all that exist of this time period, showing what Ashleigh was snapping away with her camera, while I was on the literal verge of snapping. This posting will cover the segment of my life from March 26 thru July 7, 2006. It was assembled with a heavy reliance on old emails, jottings in my work calendar, and my own memories. It tells of what I consider to be my great transformation form one person into an entirely different person in matter of three months. Read the rest of this entry »

The first six months of 2006 can be told in what amounts to a two-part story. I first began this website on September 13 of that year, after I had begun what I perceived as a ‘new life’. By the time I had reached that point, I had very little resemblance to the person I had been for the last few years – neither physically, mentally, or spiritually. The catharsis had come about as a result of six months of various injections of misery that seemed to bombard me from every facet of my life. Although the memories would have been much fresher when I began this site, at the time I had no intention of ever really chronicling my life so in-depth – so I began my 2006 odyssey with the summer vacations of that year. Incidenatally,  most of the photos I am sharing here have little to do with the major events of this time period, but were mostly all taken by Ashleigh during this time period with her new camera that she had gotten from her Big Daddy for Christmas upon her return from vacation. Read the rest of this entry »

My 35th Christmas on earth would come to represent many things. It was the last Christmas that Carolyn and I would spend together. It was the last Christmas that I would spend with my Grandma Murphy. It was the last Christmas that I would have without a nephew. And it was the only Christmas that I would spend with my purple furniture. Although Carolyn and I were going through a lot of problems, we managed to cope with the holiday quite well, decorating extensively complete with lighted garland hanging over our sliding door blinds. As we put up the tree and I looked at her under it, I wondered if this would be our last holiday season together. Read the rest of this entry »

This simply had to be the title of this posting – namely, because it’s something I so wished I had thought to say to Denise Nickerson during our encounter at the Saturday, September 25, 2010, Hollywood Celebrity Show in Chicago. Denise obviously played Violet Beauregarde, the gum-chewing young lady who turns into a blueberry, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and became the second of the  Wonka kids that I got the chance to meet this year. Just three to go.   Read the rest of this entry »