Bringing Out The Big Guns in 2011

Though I am partial to Chinese New Year (which begins Feb. 3rd this Year of the Rabbit), there's nothing quite like a brand new calendar to make the future seem limitless.

Naturally, I've got lots of New Year's Resolutions ("Spend more time outside", "Play more music", etc.) but with my life being officially half over (I plan to make it to 90+), it's time to get serious and take a few things off the 'Long-Term Dream' shelf and bring them out into the light. My manifesting skills are mighty, loaded guns really, so I just need to sharpen my aim.

My 2011 mantra, found aboard the USS Alabama.

My holiday in Mississippi was lovely, as usual. The above photo was taken on the USS Alabama, which is docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama. Dad and I scampered all over the WWII battleship to celebrate my other birthday - the day I was adopted - on December 27th.

Though Dad is a bit stooped these days, he flew around that ship like the young Navy man he once was. He'd specialized in underwater demolition and was trained as a Navy SEAL before they had a name for it.

Because he worked on so many covert operations during the Korean conflict, he was barred from obtaining a passport for many years for honest-to-God fear from the U.S. government that he would be kidnapped and tortured for information. I only recently found this out.

Then, there was the small matter of being abandoned on a reef for three days with two other Frogmen and surviving on fish and kelp - another incident he casually mentioned just in the past year.

So, it was wonderful to follow Dad around that ship and watch all his Navy memories rise to the surface. I heard story after story - good friends, rough conditions, practical jokes, scratchy blankets and tight bunks. People were simply made tougher back then, no doubt about it.

Dad comes from a generation that didn't waste a lot of time walking around feeling entitled or whining about what they didn't have. Self-focus was not a standard way of passing the time, as it is today.

Which leads me to an abrupt explanation of why my postings here have slowed a bit. (Actually, not sure if anyone is still there. Tap, tap... Is this thing on?)

Like any good blogger, I'm a blazing narcissist but I've also grown a bit tired of the online existence. God knows I feel compelled to write up my experiences and still think I'd make a damn find talk show host, but the ME schtick has worn a bit thin. I crave more face to face conversations and real-life connections.  Hence, the co-habitation and co-housing situation that I now find myself in; real life beats virtual life every time.

Goal for 2011: Do more, ponder less and full steam ahead.