Let’s take, for example, the year 2011 - the one that just ended – which I am going to refer to as the Book of 2011. Because like a good giant scrapbook, bursting at the seams with memories, mementos, photographs, and souvenirs, my book (as chronicled on this site) shares these same characteristics.

When I started the book, I had only vague ideas as to what it would hold. I knew the basic plot, but I didn’t skip ahead to the ending to see what would happen. I didn’t know what my Grandson would look like (or even for sure what his name would be). I didn’t know that my Grandpa Murphy would not make it out of the year. I didn’t know that I’d meet a girl named Jamie and be dating her for most of the year and that we would have some great adventures together. I didn’t know with which celebrities I’d get a chance to rub elbows. And although I had inklings as to what travels I’d be taking, I didn’t know that some would be cancelled (remember the Egypt trip that never was?), or that others would be added as substitutes. Nor did I have any idea of what kinds of spectacular memories I’d be making during these travels.  

I had no clue that visiting restaurants from the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives would become a new fun obsession. And surely there was no way of knowing that my car would be getting sideswiped by a semi. There was music that I hadn’t yet heard, movies and TV shows that I hadn’t yet seen, books that I hadn’t yet read, all mine for the taking throughout 2011.

The point of all of this? We stand on the threshold of excitement and adventure each and every day of our lives. It comes slowly sometimes, so it doesn’t feel all that thrilling, but taken as a collective for an entire year, it is utterly stunning to realize what experiences I have lived through during the Book of 2011. As long as my heart keeps beating and the world keeps turning – and the doomsday prophecies never come true – I’m just going to keep adding these amazing, incredible books to the life-shelf. Because although I don’t know what they are, or when they’ll happen, each new book via each successive year is always bristling with new treasures and memories. I’m anxious to get this one started in similar fashion to the previous years… with a couple of little caveats.

For the past five years, I have faithfully made every single posting to this website that I committed to do. At times (more than I’d like to count) I’ve fallen behind. This leads to some self-imposed stress in getting caught up. Lots of times this is due to travel, but mostly it just happens when I don’t feel like writing or working on it. So in the spirit of enjoying life, I’m lifting the posting schedule that I’ve maintained all of these years. Instead of assigning postings to specific days, the date will now reflect the day that it is actually posted – and naturally postings will come pouring out in varied frequencies, based on when and about what I am moved to write.

Secondly, this website has often driven my behavior and activities in that I’d often do things just so I could post the event once the activity is complete. In a way, this can be a good thing. Scavenger hunt road trips are a blast and often quite rewarding – with the ultimate goal typically being to post the pictures of people, places, and things that I encounter. However, this can sometimes lead to my life being a little too ‘prescribed’ and leaving not enough time to just ‘live in the moment.’ It will take a conscious effort, but this is something I’m going to try to improve upon as well.

As Norman Bates said so well, “A hobby is supposed to pass the time, not fill it.” He meant it in a different way of course, but still I’m going to heed this passage. Great. Now I’m taking advice from a a psycho.

So…

I worked my way toward ending 2011 with a couple of fun post-Christmas gatherings during the year’s last few days. On Thursday, December 29, Ashleigh, Silas, and I went out to eat at Bob Evans in Fairborn.

On Friday the 30th, we got off from work at 3pm. I wasn’t originally going to do anything this night, as Jamie was busy with friends. But not long after I had driven home from Cincinnati, she called me and said that her friend Flora has invited us to go out to eat with her and her husband Tim. So I turned around and went back to the Cincy area to meet them for dinner. We tried Longhorn, but it was incredibly crowded, so we ended up with some incredible pizza from Dewey’s. It was a fun evening.

My last day in 2011 was spent mostly with Jamie as well. I went over to her parents’ place in the mid-afternoon. We put together her new Karaoke machine that she had gotten for Christmas. The CD that came with the system was admittedly week (with tunes like London Bridge), but we soon found that we could plug in my iPod and sing along with the music. This kept us entertained for hours.

Jamie delightedly utilizes the new Karaoke machine

Singing to the iPod. And not well.

Jamie’s Mom made us a great dinner of beef stew and potatoes, and I assisted with cooking some filet mignon. After dinner, we browsed the work that they had been doing in the basement, ripping stickers off of containers as we went along. We then went to work making cake igloos as the evening project. Jamie had done this on New Years Eve the prior year, and I was happy to be included on the new ritual this time around.

New Years Eve craftiness

Our finished igloo cakes

We didn’t watch the much of the Times Square madness up until the final minute before the year changed. Jamie and I had to make a last minute dash up to United Dairy Farmers to pick up a bottle of champagne, after we realized the one that her Mom had had around for years was melting through the cork. At midnight, we kissed and toasted 2012.

Toasting 2012 a few minutes after the ball dropped

I stayed there until about 2:30am and then drove to my Mom’s house to spend the night. The next morning I got up and went back to Jamie’s parents to pick her up a little after 10am. We headed over to her friends David & Emily’s house to have some morning bagels and good conversation for a couple of hours. We gave them Jamie’s igloo, and Emily gave me some air freshener and a sweatshirt. Random, but warm and fun.

We stopped back at Jamie’s so she could get her car and then we drove separately to Bev & Ed’s house for the Murphy family New Year gathering. We got there around 2pm, bringing along my igloo from the night before. The turnout was a bit bigger for this New Years than it typically is. In attendance were: Diana & Tom, Cathy, Mom & Bob, Jamie & me, Bev & Ed, Susan & Charles and Charley and Sam, Chris & Sarah (briefly) and Livi, Karen & Joe and Andrew, Abby, and Allie, Jim & Jan and Nikki and Eric, Darlene & Bob, Brittney & Doug, Jacob, and Zac.

Bev had a great spread of food which included both sauerkraut and pork and BBQ pork – plus macaroni & cheese, and tons of snacks, cheeses, desserts, and soda. We played a bit of charades downstairs as well as a game where we wrote some facts about us (thankful for, wishes, and fears), and then took turns guessing who had written each self-description. Before Jim and his family took off, I made sure to get my annual Murphy sibling photo.

Darlene, Jim, Bev, Diana, and Mom in the sixth annual New Years Day sibling portrait

Back upstairs at the kitchen table, a group of us played Farkle (Bev won) and a game of Trivial Pursuit. Despite the fact that Chris, Jamie, and I were playing from the Genus edition while everyone else used the TV addition, we still ended up the victors.

The Trivial Pursuit competition

To the victors go the drinks

Jamie and I stayed until early evening, eating dinner from the spread as well. When we got back to my house, we watched Happy Gilmore as we nodded off and finished off our first day of the New Year.

A fond welcome to you, 2012. I’m anxious to see what you bring to the table.

2012 will continue with the further exploits of January…

A little over a year ago, I realized that an upgrade had given me the option to justify the text margins of the postings. You probably didn’t notice, but one day I began to utilize it, so the right side of each posting was no longer published looking ’jagged’ - but with a smooth line of text. From that point on, when I looked back at old postings, they seemed rather unsightly – so I began the task of going back through all of nearly-four years of postings and justifying the text.

As I got back to the oldest of them, I noticed something interesting: I really had almost no idea what I was doing when I first started this site. Originally, I had asked my friend Jimmy to create this blog for me as a way to occupy my time and keep me from spending money on online shopping. He added a hidden link on our now defunct website The Wax Apple (Stan’s red apple) and that’s how I directed folks to find The Terrible Catsafterme.

When it came to material that I included, it was an utter hodge-podge with no direction. It’s still somewhat of a hodge-podge, but now there is definite focus and architecture as to how it is laid out. In the early days, you might find anything from one lone funny picture to random nostalgic photos to book reviews to album reviews to a rant about how campy the TV show Superman was. There were entries from my 1980 diary, current events, family gatherings, autographs, celebrity encounters, and vacations. Much of what I just mentioned are still prominent features of the site – but they are now meticulously planned and structured – as if anyone actually cared.

But the way I approached those very things were a bit different then. For example, sometimes I ‘d talk about a current event as I described a past event. If I found new info to add to a posting, instead of just going back and inserting it, I’d create an all-new posting (ie. Christi’s baby shower, my graduation, my grandparents’ wedding photo, etc.). Part of this had to do with the fact that I was doing a daily blog, so felt justified in posting very small tidbits of information on certain days.

All of these growing pains are forgiveable and there is a certain degree of nostalgia in the postings from the early days. However, the fact that some of the postings looked like jumbled messes was not as easily forgiveable. I had the very, very bad habit of including very small photos throughout the body of the posting, instead of using photos the width of the column. Part of this was due to a conscious effort to not take up too much space on Jimmy’s account (where the website was stored until February 2009). And on the other side of the spectrum, I sometimes used photos that were much bigger than what could be contained in the width, sometimes running them under the sidebar. I know…mechanics…boring.

But the good news is that the reason I bring this up now is only to announce that I have gone back and earmarked some 40 postings that needed re-tooled. Upgraded. Enhanced. Restored. However you want to describe it, they either now or will look better. Some just took me going back and finding the original photos and sizing them to the correct width, then inserting them. Some were so messy that I had to create all new postings, using the exact same text, but a completely different layout of photos. I archived the originals in this case – for posterity’s sake.

Below are all of the postings that have so far received these upgrades, some of them more significant than others, most including larger format photos, and several with additional photos added. There will be more…so keep checking the Introduction page for more re-tools (listed under “Updates To Previous Postings”).

In Atlanta / Plains Peanut Festival / Maranatha 2 / The Little White House / That First Month / Plains, Trains, and Americus on Wheels / Savannah / Charley Chase-a-Thon 4 / Savannah Riverboat and Haunted Tour / Game Night with Adam and the Gang / A Nice Day at Denise’s / Convention Kickoff / Smacking the Pee-Wee / Thanksgiving…Here!

Now you might be asking yourself why I went to all the trouble to make these changes. The reason is deceptively simple: because this website means a lot to me. In fact, it is really an extension of my life. It is a way of documenting everything that I do that I deem worth remembering. And when it is finally complete, it will be a composite of my entire life – with virtually every memory that I have poured into it. So I am always looking for constant improvement (you might notice the collapsible dates in the right column, or the ultra-convenient Vacations page that is a great tool for me to jump to any vacation that I’ve documented thus far).

And perhaps even more important than all of  that is that The Terrible Catsafterme constantly serves as a driver in my life – nudging me as I go along to get my butt out and do things that are worthy of an exciting and adventurous existence. I cannot even count on all of my fingers and toes how many times I have been inspired to take some action - or some entire trip - simply for the sake of documenting it on this site. I have always felt that I was accountable to all of those who read it (especially myself) to have something worth saying. Yes, it can be costly and it can be time-consuming – but ultimately it locks memories in my head (and on this site) that I will have forever…and hopefully my future generations will have them too. There is no way to put a price on that. So far, no regrets in that department.

Finally, let’s see how the site has grown since my one-year anniversary in 2007:

**I reported 7000 unique visits and 30,000 page views in 2007. At some unknown point of time, this information was lost during an upgrade and the count started over. The current count is 181,300 unique visits and 549,000 page views.

**I reported in 2007 that the site generally gets between 50 and 60 unique visits, with about 100 pages being hit, within a 24-hour period. The number of hits are now in the 300 range, with about 600 pages getting visited every day.

**There are currently 1969 comments left on the site. People have lots to say.

Admittedly, many of these hits come from image searches on Google, but the fact that this site comes up so high on the Google hit-list can be directly attributed to the number of visitors it gets.

But hey, who’s counting?

Here’s to the next five years of postings…and adventures.

2011 will continue…

As our family wound down March, we had just gone through some very trying times which actually made us pull together somewhat. Ashleigh was involved in her Beaverettes heavily and Carolyn got the brunt of most of the taking to and picking up from practices, although I contributed whenever possible. Our perception of Ashleigh’s alleged bad behavior was somewhat improving as well. I had started to drop a few pounds for lent and was interested in getting in a bit better shape. We were doing some things together, hosting an “April Fools” Laurel and Hardy meeting at our house, and attending the showing of Annie Get Your Gun at La Comedia later in April.

On Saturday, April 8, Ashleigh and the Beaverettes team attended the state competition in Columbus. Denise went to watch some of her performances, and apparently Briana did too. Back in the Dayton area, I attended a surprise party thrown by my cousin Cathy for Diana & Tom’s 40th wedding anniversary and Diana’s 60th birthday. The actual anniversary date was April 16, while Diana’s birthday was on April 11. It was a great party, mostly held in Cathy’s basement. They grilled up some burgers and hot dogs and everyone brought a carry-in dish. The kids and some of the adults even participated in some karaoke singing. Not me though.

Briana on April 8, probably at Denise’s house getting ready to go the Ashleigh’s state competition

Denise at Ashleigh’s state competition in Columbus on April 8, which was also Denise’s 30th birthday

Creed in Ashleigh’s room on April 13

But somehow, while all of these things sound positive, we still ended up regressing back to our old ways. The silence between Carolyn and me was deafening. The tension was so thick in the house that neither of us wanted to be there and if we were, we didn’t want the other there. Small arguments spun wildly out of control. There was nothing healthy about our situation whatsoever.

I think deep down, it was because I knew that our life together was failing that I had better start making some other changes in my lifestyle. So after we spent that Easter at Carolyn’s sister Melanie’s house (on April 16), I started a real diet the next day. Just before Easter, Carolyn had left to stay at her sister Janette’s for a couple of weeks. This was only a trial separation. In the midst of her absence, I attended a welcome-home party for her brother-in-law Dustin, who had come back from the military. After the party I asked Carolyn to come home, but she wasn’t ready yet. I doubled up on my dieting efforts, eating an apple in the morning, a somewhat normal lunch with water, and only a can of tuna, or at times nothing at all for dinner. I would take an hour-long walk around the neighborhood pretty much everyday.

I’m not sure how much weight I actually lost because in the midst of all of this, I got a new digital scale that showed a different weight than the other. By the time Carolyn came back, I had dropped to 190, having lost at least 40 pounds, perhaps more.

Ashleigh on April 19

Tiny snoozes in Ashleigh’s room on April 19

I decided in mid-April to finally upgrade and get a new Dell computer and scanner, along with getting digital  phone, internet, and cable. I moved my computer work station from the spare room down to the dining room. Carolyn didn’t like it, but made no effort to stop me… because she knew what was coming. In the hours that I wasn’t walking, I spent time with the new computer scanning in old slides, playing with Jukebox feature that my co-worker Garry had loaded onto my PC, looking for songs on LimeWire, and creating CDs of all of the number one Billboard hits.

A bit out of sequence, this photo is actually from July 28, but shows the new computer setup

When Carolyn came back home, it was short-lived and after the first week or so, she slept in the guest room. Although she was still attending some of Ashleigh’s events and competitions, I think her breaking point came as a result of one of Ash’s practices. On Saturday, April 29,while I was at work. Ashleigh had neglected to tell her that she needed to be taken to school for practice. She thought that since she was irresponsible, she should miss the practice. I told her that she should take her. It wasn’t a matter of right and wrong; we just had different opinions. But after that day, she was done.

Ashleigh and her friend Hillary on April 26

We managed to live under the same roof for another month. She had her water aerobics in the evening. I walked and continued to lose weight.

It was clear that we were living separate lives on the weekend of May 13. The night before, she and Ashleigh went up to Columbus to stay the night with her sister Rosemarie and they had a family get-together the next day that was presumbably celebrating the May birthdays in her family (Kedric on the 4th, Brett on the 21st, Bretton on the 27th, and Emma’s on the 30th).

Ashleigh and Emma with Christy (Carolyn’s brother Michael’s girlfriend) in the background  taken on May 13 in Columbus

That same Saturday, I went to my Mom’s for a picnic and family reunion that centered around members of the Heywood family. Most if not all of my Mom’s siblings were there along with Grandpa Murphy. The Heywoods were the family of my Great Grandma Edith Heywood Murphy, my Grandpa Murphy’s Mom.  There had recently been a memorial service for Grandpa’s aunt Helen and some of the relatives had reunited. Helen was the wife of Ted, the brother of my Great Grandma Murphy.

Helen and Ted’s daughter Virginia, who was my Grandpa’s first cousin, came to the picnic. In addition to our own family, Virginia brought two or three of her daughters that included Marcia and Beverly, and perhaps Cynthia or Sharon – along with their families. These sisters would be the second cousin’s of the Murphy sibs, and their kids would be my third cousins.

Virginia and Grandpa are in the middle. Marcia and her husband are to the right of Grandpa. On the far left is Cindy.

Marcia and one of the family babies

Ash and her Mom on May 14

During one of these weeks we were at least getting along well enough to go to another one of our La Comedia shows that we had season passes for: A Chorus Line on May 17. We also saw the Beavercreek High School presentation of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I liked this one so well that I took the girls back to see it later on.

As May came to a close, so did we. On May 24, the same day that I found out my friend Jimmy had been diagnosed with lymphoma, a cancer which appeared to be spreading, I was sitting at my new computer, scanning in old slides, when Carolyn told me that we needed to talk. It came as no surprise that she wanted a divorce or dissolution of our marriage. I nearly cried all night, thinking about what we had had, and what we had lost. This made opening a new store in St. Mary’s, Ohio the next morning quite unbearable.

She stayed around for a week or so as she packed up, but did not go to the Memorial Day picnic at Denise’s house. Hoping for a reconciliation, I didn’t tell anyone about this for two weeks. After she left, we exchanged several notes regarding the chance – or lack of one – of trying to work on our marriage any further. When it became fruitless, I sent notes to my parents, sister, and just a few select friends telling them that we were splitting up, and that at that point I had no desire to talk about it with anyone.

The week of June 11, Ashleigh went off to Youth Camp at Woodland Altars. Carolyn and I had naturally agreed on who would get what from our house, but I was somewhat taken aback when I came home from driving Ashleigh to camp and found all of our new purple furniture gone. I went to the Kroger Bag-Off at The Beach waterpark that Tuesday the 13th, downtrodden and disillusioned, even though Carolyn came and brought her nieces Alex and Madi. As I made my way out, I greeted my old co-worker Jamie Judge and her family who had come to the event to swim.

Ashleigh surrounded by her friends Jessica and Amy at Camp Woodland Altars on June 14, the day I started my vacation

The next day, I asked my boss if I could go ahead and take a mid-week to mid-week vacation to try and regroup. I did not want Ashleigh coming home to find no furniture in the house. My Mom and I went shopping at Value City and I purchased a large green sectional couch that filled my family room. The weekend after I returned to work, Ashleigh and I went to the Ascension festival on June 24. I recall that I was wearing one of my Styx t-shirts, size medium, that I hadn’t fit in since the early 1990′s. Most of Carolyn’s family was there and hadn’t seen me in a while. Jeanette remarked that I looked really good.

Ashleigh, Briana, and Creed on the new green couch – June 23. I always loved the expression on Creed’s face.

Briana leaping in my family room like an insane person

I believe it was on June 30 that Ashleigh was scheduled to work a booth in a festival with the Bear Creek Youth. The location was out beyond Brookville, so we swung by to see my Dad. He and Vicki were both surprised and shocked to see me as my weight had dropped to the low 180′s. I listened to my new iPod as I walked around the festival while Ashleigh worked. We rode a ride or two after her shift. I noticed at that time that I had completely morphed into a different person.

The new me in my office at work. If my planner is opened up to the current month, then this was taken in June 2006. The flower border is courtesy of co-worker Garry who took the photo.

I have discussed the occurances in my life and the physical changes I was going through, but what was going on inside my head was something new and revolutionary as well. It was a strange feeling of hopelessness combined with optimism. Although I had suffered a great loss and wouldn’t have cared if I had died at that very second, I also saw the world as something to conquer in the days that I had left. I saw time as being an hourglass with the sands gradually and irreversible running out. Other than raising Ashleigh, I didn’t have a care in the world. I could do whatever I wanted and there was nothing or no one to stop me. I had literally nothing to lose. And if my world did end unexpectedly, I wanted to be able to say that I had accomplished as much as I possibly could. It’s hard to describe the combined effect of depression and elation at the same time. But that’s what I had – and it has carried me through many years since then.

Mom had an Independence Day picnic at her place on Saturday, July 1st and we all returned to Carolyn’s work at Howell Rescue on the holiday itself to watch the fireworks under Delco park as we had the year before.

Just four days later, Ashleigh and I would be setting out on our road trip to the Sons of the Desert convention in Augusta. Carolyn had originally planned on going on this trip with us, but considering all that had happened, we had to get her registration fee refunded. This trip was the first one of my new life – and the first in a long succession of trips where I would be grabbing every ounce of excitement out of life that I could…snapping lots of pictures along the way.

2006 will continue on our trip to Georgia (which was in fact my 2nd posting ever created for the Terrible Catsafterme)…

But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t accurate for the most part. In fact when I resumed keeping a journal in 1988, referring to the ‘fake journal,’ entries, I wrote “I was surprised glancing over them, some of the occurrences which really too place.” On the cover of the journal, I labeled it JOURNAL Dec. 10, 1986 – Jan 5, 1987 and then added ‘Bullshit entries for a grade’.

In order to fill each page with two days worth of pontification, I often mentioned an event that took place and then commented my opinion of that event. For instance, for the first entry on December 10, I mentioned going to a ‘science show demonstration’ with school, but noted that it was obviously not a true representation of the type of work that a scientist does. Boring stuff like that.

But what’s good about this journal is that even though I wrote it after the fact, it only covered a month’s worth of activity and gave insight into my interests, thoughts, and some of the goings-on that were going on during this time period. So bypassing all of the commentary and tedium, I was able to glean some useful and interesting information about my life as a 15-year old.

For starters, I complained a lot about my paper route – how I often put off delivering the papers until it had become too dark and cold out – except for weekends, which had just seen a switch from Saturday afternoon delivery to Saturday morning before 8am. At the time, my ideal future career was to become a lawyer. And I was thoroughly obsessed with movies and Super 8 film and had in fact set up a ‘screening room’ in my bedroom where I actually would show Super 8 films to friends and family. This interest had blossomed from my association with George Willeman and Jim Harwood, two film students at Wright State who had joined our Sons of the Desert tent in Springfield. George and I had had some lively discussions at the meetings out in Carl Ahlm’s kitchen, while others were watching the films. My focus quickly became on seeing all of the Alfred Hitchcock films. I had been a fan of his – in a small way – for six years or so, but now I finally developed the desire to actually watch so many of his film of which I was only familiar of the title.

Jim had me over to his place on December 14, where I spent the night and we watched films from his Super 8 collection. I noted in the journal that we had watched the rare (and racial) Warner Bros. cartoon Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs. He also sold me a few of the films from his collection at some rock bottom prices, and loaned me some Blackhawk videos of the Our Gang for me to copy.

As I was looking forward to Christmas break (and dreading the science project that I had to start over break, which had something to do with plants), I went over to Missy Fodor’s house on Wednesday, December 17 to help make a Mexican dessert for our Spanish glass. This quickly degenerated into a flour and powdered sugar fight, causing half of the cookies to spill on the floor. Missy decided to throw these cookies away, although my preference was to go ahead and serve them.

The next day, I got my braces off. I had worn them since 7th grade (top teeth first, then the bottom) after having worn a retainer since 5th grade. Dr. Morrow took a now picture to go with the hideous then picture when I first started going to see him. Once again, I was charged with wearing a retainer and had two of my top front teeth banded together in the back. I didn’t have this band removed until 1999, long after it had already broken free from one of the teeth.

Me and the new pearly whites

TMI?

Christmas break finally came on Friday, December 19. I was looking forward to the break from school, but dreaded the paper route in the winter. At that point, I hated it and was ready to give it up – but didn’t officially sell it off until September the following year. On that first night of break, I went to watch volleyball with Mom and out to Marion’s pizza with the team. Mom was trying to talk me into joining the team.

Oddly, there was no mention of the Gem City Classics Christmas party, but there was some rambling about the CompuColor party on  Saturday the 20th. This was my Dad’s company’s get-together and I complained that there was no one my age there, there was only one table, there was no soda pop, and they only had cold cuts. Apparently I stood there for nearly three hours bored out of my skull.

After we got home from the party Mom and Dad went out and left me to babysit Denise. While I was trying to enjoy watching Hitchcock’s Topaz, Denise came out to tell me that she had thrown up all over her room, which utterly disgusted me. I told her to go back to bed.

The flu that she had gotten would dramatically effect the course of the Christmas events that were to transpire.

Using the journal to help recall the events, I will chronicle Christmas 1986 in the next posting…

But clearly, I’m not ready to stop. As 2010 was a few months away from winding down, I was grabbing at any extra experience that would assist me in catapulting over 2009. Any more trips I could squeeze in? Any more celebrities I could meet? Any additional old friends I could meet up with?

On the other hand, I was already thinking ahead about 2011 and thinking about how I might top 2010, even as I was in the process of raising its bar. (It’s such a vicious, double-edged sword). I was planning trips and thinking of potential reunions and visualizing the next generation that will be entering my life about four months from now.

I know that the day may come when this all may end. When my tired bones just don’t want to get out and embrace the world anymore. When I’m just as happy to watch TV, take a walk, and read the newspaper to see what excitement other people are having. But that time is not now. For now, I’m going to keep plugging along, peeking over the bar of the previous year and figuring out how to get over it, contemplating ways to end the year with it slightly higher once again.

However, having said that, I didn’t really feel like starting the year out with excitement. I was off work on Friday the 31st (which may have been a first), and it was nice to relax after the busy weekend we had had over Christmas. There’s always a tendency to convince yourself that you need to be out to celebrate the New Year, but this year, I was just as happy to sit home with the cats, watch some movies (especially fun ones like Billy Madison, Johnny Dangerously, and When Harry Met Sally), and say happy New Year to friends via Facebook. Call it melancholy, call it getting old, call it just not really caring. But I wasn’t sad and I wasn’t depressed to just catch five or six minutes of Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve as the ball dropped and poor post-stroke Dick struggled to extend his greetings, as I sipped one sole glass of white wine and had some Chick-fil-A.

New Years Day was as equally uneventful. Typically, my Mom’s family gathers on this day, but tradition had to once again be altered to gather on January 2, as both Diana and my Mom had a University of Dayton basketball game to attend. I did get a burst of New Years energy and did some treadmill walking and housecleaning as a token gesture to 2011, before I beginning my new regimen on the 3rd. Then I watched the epic Barry Lyndon and lots and lots of Twin Peaks.

As I said, the official family gathering was on Sunday the 2nd at 3pm. I spent the morning watching Dog Day Afternoon and Jaws, and went grocery shopping with Ashleigh, where I picked up the crab cheese ball for the party. Ashleigh decided that she was ‘tired’ and didn’t feel like going along, although she was out and about by the time I got home. I was the first one to arrive at Diana & Tom’s house, and spent some time looking through her old photo albums.

As the crowds started rolling in, I quickly realized that I had left my memory card out of my camera. No wanting to begin the new year without pictures, I ran up and bought one at Staples – which I will then give Ash to use in her new camera. New Years Day food at my family is always amazing, and this year was no exception. We had traditional pork and sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut balls (a new specialty from Bev), oriental salad, some sort of delicious seven-layer bacon salad, vegetable lasagna, cheese and sausage dip, guacamole, and plenty of other delectible snacks and desserts. It was a nice way to end the eating frenzy of 2010 that had lured me into putting on well over 20 pounds by the end of the year.

This would be a good place to talk about resolutions, but I’m not going to. The proof, my friends, is only in the pudding (or lack of pudding gut).

Bev and grandsons Andrew and Charley

Cathy keeps Moera’s attention diverted from the dinner table

Bob has different ideas as to what constitutes ‘carrot cake’

After we ate, Mom, Diana, Bev, Karen, Brittney, Darlene, and I played a game called Apples To Apples. Bob Robinson joined us for the second game. Debby, Dan, and Natalie worked downstairs on making (and distributing) invitations to Debby’s baby shower. Others just hung back and watched football or socialized. It was another great gathering of the Murphy clan.

In attendance were: Grandpa Murphy, Diana & Tom, Cathy, Debby, Dan & Natalie and Tori, Mom & Bob, me, Bev & Ed and Charley, Karen & Joe and Andrew, Abby, and Allie, Jim & Jan and Nikki and Eric, Darlene & Bob, Brittney & Doug (and their dog Moera, named after Christian Moerlein). Overall, it was a decent gathering for what tends to be one of the lesser attended holidays.

Darlene, Karen, Diana, and Bev deeply engrossed in a game of Apples to Apples. Andrew and Allie are thinking more about the organ.

Taking a rest against Debby’s baby belly

Overview of a living room - featuring Jan, Jim, and Ed

Erin and Nikki steal away to some downstairs football viewing

Andrew and Abbey are a bit odd about posing for pictures. First they wouldn’t, then Abbey wanted to show me how she would be willing to pose, as long as I didn’t take the picture. But this is what I ended up with…and it’s cute.

Dan, Natalie, and Cathy work on invitations to Debby’s baby shower

Tori delivers the invitations

I gave Andrew the camera and charged him with taking a picture of Ed. Oddly enough, this is what he came up with.

Brittney and I toast the New Year with our Dixie cups of champagne

Before I left, I made sure to get the traditional New Years sibling photo, now celebrating its fifth anniversary (it began in 2007). We added Grandpa to one of the photos, and then for the first time, I took the opportunity to jump in the cast shot…er, photo.

Diana, Jim, Darlene, Mom, and Bev

Grandpa joins the picture

They asked if I was going to do my famous ‘point’, but it was easier to do my ‘presenting…’ pose

On the way home, I stopped by Heidi’s house so that we could have our official weigh-in for our January weight-loss competition. I’ll announce the results at the end of the month. But I’ll win. It was also fun to see Jayne and Madeline play with some of their Christmas toys, and to commandeer the remote-control race-car myself.

Heidi steps on the scale, mentally preparing to lose our bet

Jayne sits and spins

Madeline leans and drools

Hopefully, the family fun that we had at this event is a harbinger of the good times to come of 2011.

2011 will continue…