The New Job

I've been on the new job a week now. (Kudos to those who picked up on the subtle announcement in my last post of 2005.) I'm enjoying the new job and responsibilities immensely. Though I still don't know everyone in the office, everyone I've met has been friendly and very helpful.

Most people assume that when you take a new job, it's because you were in some way unhappy with the old one. That wasn't the case with me. I liked the job I left. I enjoyed my responsibilities and had great coworkers. The company was growing rapidly, provided good benefits, and treated their employees relatively well. I made enough money to provide for our family and allow Marathon Girl to stay home with the kids. Many I have talked to have a hard time understanding why I'd want to leave an ideal job and work environment and try a different one.

Two reasons.

Over the last few months I came to the realization that there was little left for me to learn at my old job. I had been with the company nearly six years and had learned just about everything I could at my current position. With the new job I saw an opportunity to further develop my current skills and learn new ones.

Second, I came to the conclusion that the new job would allow me to help and influence more people. I was presented with a unique opportunity to use my skills in a way that I believe will be a force for good in the world.

After a week on the new job, both of these have turned out to be true.

I'm already looking forward to next week.

(Anyone wondering exactly what I'm doing, be patient. I'll have more on my new job later.)

Cinderella Man

One of my favorite activities is going to movies. I love eating big tub of buttery popcorn and watching a movie on the big screen. Before kids arrived, this is something Marathon Girl and I did quite often. But since the arrival of our two kids, our movie theatre time has been cut dramatically. (This isn't a complaint. I'm simply stating the facts.) To get our movie fix, I make a weekly trek to the local Hollywood Video to find something Marathon Girl and I can watch on the weekends. The one advantage that renting movies has is that through word of mouth, you can have a good idea which movies are worth renting and which ones aren't. People kept telling me good things about Cinderella Man but when it became available to rent, I always passed it up. The reason for this is that I'm not a fan of boxing movies. Most of them follow the same formula: a boxer hits on hard times, catches a break, wins the big fight and lives happily ever after. (Unless you're making the awful Million Dollar Baby in which case the movie ends when your manager helps you kill yourself.) Knowing how boxing movies tend to go, I didn't think Cinderella Man would be worth my time.

But when I went to rent a movie for New Year's Eve, I found my options limited. Sure, the video store had tons of movies in stock, but after walking through the store once, I realized that it was Cinderella Man or watching Dick Clark and Times Square count down to the New Year. (My other movie options were crapola flicks such as Stealth, The Cave, The Dukes of Hazzard, etc.)

Fortunately, Cinderella Man was nothing like I thought it would be. In fact, it's not really a boxing movie at all. It's really a story about a man who happens to be a boxer. The main story is about Jim Braddock's (Russell Crowe) relationship to with his wife (Renée Zellweger) and children. You see real emotions from a man who is doing his best to support his family during the depression.

The writers did a good job of creating real, complex characters your actually care about. Several times when they're showing the boxing scenes they'll cut to family members or friends who are listening to the fight on the radio. And you don't care that you're missing a couple of punches because you care enough about the characters that you want to see their reactions to how the fight is going.

The boxing scenes are well filmed and you're never left in doubt as to what actually took place during the fight. Ron Howard did an outstanding job directing it.

Cinderella Man is an excellent movie whether or not you're a boxing fan. It's a story of hope and love, and a couple that will do anything to make their marriage work and keep their family together no matter how difficult the circumstances.

(Watch this movie and then watch Million Dollar Baby and you'll realize what a mistake Hollywood made awarding the later the best picture Oscar last year.)

Cinderella Man 4 stars (out of 4)

Highlights of 2005

I like the end of the year. It allows me to reflect upon the year and goals I want to set for the next one. Overall, 2005 was a good year. Major events included:

2005 was indeed a good year. Here's to hoping 2006 is just as great.

Emergency Room Christmas

The emergency room wasn't where I expected to spend Christmas Eve. But that's where Marathon Girl and I spent our evening together. It all started Thursday afternoon when Marathon Girl went for a run. Almost home she tripped and fell. She broke her fall with her hands. One was fine. The other was scraped and bruised up quite a bit. It wasn't very painful so we decided to take a wait and see approach.

But by the evening of December 24, parts of her hand began to swell and we thought it best to have it checked out. So we left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and drove to the emergency room.

Much to our surprise, the emergency room was packed with Christmas related injuries. The guy who walked in after us sliced open his hand when he was assembling one of his kids Christmas presents.

An hour later we were called back. After another hour of waiting there were X-rays taken of Marathon Girl's hand. Then the verdict came back: Her hand was not broken but severely sprained. They gave her a splint for her hand, told her to ice it and take ibuprofen and said we were free to go home.

We picked up the kids from their grandparents, took them home and put them in bed for the night.

Aidan's too young to know or understand who Santa Clause is but it didn't stop him from being excited upon seeing all the presents under the tree Christmas morning. He walked around, looking at them, saying "Wow!" I can now understand why my parent's looked forward to Christmas morning just to see the looks on our faces.

Aidan enjoyed opening both his and Steven's presents. (Steven slept through the entire present opening experience.) After opening one, he would sit and play with the new toy, very pleased that someone had given him something that made a lot of noise and had bright, flashing lights.

***

For Christmas I had a small number (20) copies of my book printed for friends and family. Even though I was proud of the book, it was a hard present to give. There's a lot of personal experiences in there that I had never shared with anyone other than Marathon Girl and it's always nerve wracking for me to bare my should to those I'm close to – especially when it involves showing how human I am.

But initial feedback from friends and family has been very positive.

Marathon Girl's father finished the book yesterday and told me that he thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Are you still glad I married your daughter?" I said.

He laughed and said that he was glad that I married her and was part of the family. And my sister just called and said she and her husband couldn't put it down. She also said the book answered a lot of questions she always had about what happened the day my wife died and what life was like for me.

I was glad to hear her say that. If it puts to rest questions friends and family have about my first wife's death and how I handled things, then it was well worth all the time spent writing it.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone have a safe and fun-filled Christmas. I'll be back next week with some big news.

The book

I finished the book last night. I can't begin to describe how good that feels.

Fresh Powder

I have one morning each week where I don't have to exercise. For whatever reason I can skip a run or a session with the weights. No reason needs to be given for not wanting to exercise. It doesn't matter if I want to sleep in or read or simply don't feel like exercising. I have one day and can use it however I want. (This one day off a week actually helps me stay motivated to exercise the remaining days of the week.) So Tuesday morning arrives. I have a four mile run scheduled. Before I can get out of bed, Marathon Girl puts her arm around me and asks if I'll stay in bed. I have that one day where I don't have to exercise and made the decision to stay in bed. Besides, winter is the hardest time of year to run because it's cold and dark outside. So I snuggle back under the covers and plan on running the next morning.

Unfortunately the God of Winter decided to play a little trick and dump three inches of snow on the ground Tuesday night. And when I woke up Wednesday morning to this winter wonderland, I wanted to stay in bed. The roads were packed with snow. The temperature hovered around five degrees Fahrenheit. This was the day I should have stayed in bed.

Instead I got out of bed very slowly (I kept hoping Marathon Girl would pull me back under the covers but she was sound asleep), dressed in umpteen layers of clothing and headed out the door.

I was surprised that there were no other footsteps on the running trails. The regular runners having wisely stayed indoors left me with three inches of virgin snow to run though.

Turns out running wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Though I had to run slower than normal, traction was good. The air was crisp and clean and felt good to breathe. And it was nice to have the running trails to myself.

And by the time I was done running I was convinced of one thing: If you've never run on fresh power, you've never really run.

(The last line with apologies to Tobias Wolff.)

December Seventh

December Seventh. For those in my grandparents generation it's Pearl Harbor Day.

For Marathon Girl and I, it's the day I asked her to marry me.

Three years ago in cold, snowy Logan Canyon, Marathon Girl agreed to take the leap.

Three years.

It seems like yesterday.

Looking back I'm still amazed things worked out the way they did. But now I can see lots of little miracles that happened along the way that allowed us to reach that point where Marathon Girl agreed to be my wife.

Some things, I believe, are meant to be.