2011 – Exciting and Terrifying
I’d like to write more tomorrow about lessons from the old year and resolutions for the new, but 2011 brought much change worth reflection.
On the one hand, things seemed to have just happened in a whirlwind. On the other, it seems as though I have taken back a certain amount of control. With the exception of 1992-1994 and 2002, in no other year have I felt like I made as many key decisions for the benefit my family.
It was tough getting through 2011 without my parents. My birthday is on January 1st, so on the first day of 2011 I celebrated a birthday without my parents. I think I saw my mom on every one of the 43 previous birthdays. It didn’t matter that I didn’t see her as much as that I couldn’t. Through the rest of the year I was reminded of my parents’ many times. They would have been so proud of Billy and Becky’s growth and accomplishments this year.
The little things made it hard too. I would have very much enjoyed talking to my dad after the earthquake in August – especially a few days later when it was followed by a tropical storm. My mom would have loved seeing my Christmas trees. I’ve always wanted to have more than one in the house. Now I have the room, she would have loved it.
In January through March we were consumed with school issues. We had always expected Billy to apply for early decision at NYU. Since he changed his mind about that, we waited until March to know where he would attend (he ended up at NYU after all, of course). Becky was having a rough year dealing with a teacher that simply wasn’t prepared or fair.
In April the focus switched to my work. I’ve been self-employed since the mid nineties, but most of that time I also had a “real job” as a safety net. Over the last few years I’ve reinforced that net with a couple of long-term clients. Long story short – in April I made significant changes to my safety net. It was scary but it felt good to take control and eliminate the stress – well, to replace one kind of stress with another.
In June, I celebrated Father’s Day by driving two hours to the airport to pick up my German son, Flo. He wanted to spend his summer break with us, and we are glad he did. He spent six weeks with us and it was nice seeing him again.
The whirlwind I mentioned earlier started in August. Billy would turn 18 on the 27th and then we planned to take him to Manhattan on the 28th to start school. The weeks before that were filled with phone calls to NYU, phone calls and visits to the IRS, discussions with the bank, etc.
During one trip to the bank, we were sitting in our car and it started to rock back and forth. I thought one of my son’s friends had seen us and started rocking the car, but then I noticed all the other cars in the parking lot rocking and the look of confusion on faces in other cars. It seems silly now that we know how far we were from the epi, but I was really scared.
A few days later we had a visit from Irene. It was bad enough that we practiced our tornado drill, Billy’s move to NYU was postponed one day, a few nearby streets were flooded, and we spent Billy’s 18th birthday inside the house.
Then, of course, the new school year started. That’s always a lot of fun for me. 
A month later, we were moving. A bigger home in a nicer area was available and it was very close to school. It certainly wasn’t a great time to move, but we did. By the time we settled in a bit, it was time to prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And, of course, we were hosting the festivities for both at our place this year.
Meanwhile, we are adjusting to life without our oldest son around all the time.
So, it was quite a year.