Annual State of the Union - 2007

It’s that time again.

Time to look back on the past year and to look forward into the next.

Time to judge how things have been going and how you want them to go in the near future.

I try not to get bogged down in “New Year’s Resolutions” because those things have a way of turning into disappointments and disillusionment.

So I prefer just to set goals for myself for the coming year and do everything that I WANT to do in order to make those come true.

As far as the looking backwards – I don’t do that very often because there is not much hope in reliving the past. But I do firmly believe in being thankful.

And what a year I’ve had to be thankful for!

To start off, I’d just like to throw my philosophical side into the fray – It’s been a Year of Revolution. A Year of Complete Change. A Year of My Soul Waking Up After Sleeping A Thousand Years.

That’s a mouthful – ain’t it!!!

As I review these things in my mind I think of all the “stuff” I did this year. All the firsts.

I started the year with back surgery – yowie, what a life changer. It really did fix my back and even with all the doo-doo I had to go through, I’m glad I did it now. I believe in my heart that all will be well by the end of the coming year.

Then I went with the Lasik surgery that fixed my eyes. Wow, if you need it, do yourself a favor and get it done. It’s amazing. I even got my beloved to do it and she can see too!

Then came the vasectomy. Now I’m not gonna talk much about that because, OUCH.

Now all of those things may not be important in the lives of ordinary people – but I’m the boy that never went to the doctor and used the age-old method of “ignore it and it will go away”.

But I was determined to live my life better because for the first time in a long time, I had everything to live for!

Yea, I know that may be melodramatic – but it’s true. I want to live to be an old man so I can experience all that Paige has to offer.

And that’s quite a lot! If you don’t believe me, give her a bottle of wine and watch her go-go-go!!!

And going on about my year – I GOT MARRIED. Yep, didn’t really think that would happen for a while – but I begged and she succumbed to my charms and said YES!

So on July 12, 2007 pretty much all my dreams came true.

She said she was looking for a sign from God that this was the right thing to do. She hasn’t been lucky in love (until now!) and she really wanted this to be right. And I realized that no matter how much I knew that I was born to love her that it had to be right for her. So I was very excited when she said YES!

So everything is set – she hasn’t told a soul because I think she’s afraid that it would be bad luck or that she would change her mind and jump off the top of the 800-foot tower we got married on. So we S-N-U-C-K off to Las Vegas to do the deed.

So here’s a short synopsis of what happened:

We get to the airport in New Orleans and find that our flight is canceled. They put us on standby the next day for a flight at 6am.

We can’t find a hotel. I go to six before we find on that smells funny and costs too much. Then we go have a great meal and settle in for a bad night’s sleep. We get up at 3am to get to the airport in time to make the standby flight.

We get on the plane! We get to Denver for the connecting flight and there is a “mechanical” problem with the plane. So we sit and sit and sit.

At this point, Paige is thinking God is sending her a sign…………….

So we finally get going. And arrive at Las Vegas!!! We can’t find our limo. He’s lost.

Then he shows up and we get loaded up and tell him that we’re getting married in a few hours and still need a license. So he speeds away to get us to the church on time and almost kills us. He slams on brakes and the champagne flies all over the limo and we get a little sideways……………

More signs from God???

We get our license and get to the hotel. Where they don’t have our room because we didn’t show up the day we were supposed to be there………….

God, are you talking to us???

I get a manager and we get it straight. Get to our room, get dressed and go to the top of the Stratosphere to get married.

The minister asks some guy to be a witness to our wedding so it will be official – and they guy says “no”.

God?

OK, so by now, Paige is seeing burning bushes everywhere!

But it was a lovely ceremony. Very meaningful for me who sees all forms of romantic visions in everyday life.

And I know that this description is very chopped – but I’m just trying to give a brief view of this trip that changed my life forever.

I’m not even going to describe how mad her mother was that we did this without telling her – that’s a whole chapter that I’ll leave out for fear of reprisals!

I’ll just leave it that I got to marry the girl of my dreams and am a very happy man and will forever remember 2007 as the year of ME!!!!

I guess, at this point, I need to insert the saga of my beloved daughter at this point since it happened around the same time as my magical marriage.

This is happy and sad and crazy. This is my life………………..

So my daughter drops out of college in the spring. Very disturbing to me but I go along with it and try to talk with her and see what her thinking is so maybe I can help guide her along life’s path.

It’s what us father’s do!

But I find her getting very distant and remote. I don’t understand. I’m not a threatening kind of dad. I don’t get in my kids business so much. I try to lead rather than push.

So after a few months of this – I’m fairly desperate and hatch a plan to get her where I can spend some quality time with her and see what’s going on in her head.

So I call and ask if her boyfriend could come and drive my motorcycle to the Harley shop in Meridian – about 100 miles away. She could ride with me in the trusty Explorer and we would have an hour and a half of alone time so we could talk.

Everything starts out well and we are having a nice conversation. She’s telling me how she hated the college she was at and wanted to go to the University and blah, blah, blah.

Then she shows me the engagement ring she has and tells me that she wants to get married…………..

I launch into dad mode and tell her why that would be such a stupid thing to do.

She listens intently and then twiddles and then tells me that she’s going to have a baby.

A baby?

Shit.

Then, I kid you not, about 60 seconds later I see her “boyfriend” ride off the side of the interstate on my motorcycle and flip over and over and over and over.

The Hand of God?

I’m not sure if my karma pushed him off or not – but it happened. I swear it did.

Totaled my motorcycle, he did. Gone, in a flash. Just like my daughter’s innocence.

Suffice it to say that was a bad day for me.

So after she planned this huge wedding that I didn’t want to put on – I talked them into going to Las Vegas and I would pay for everything. And they got married in the same place as Paige and I did.

And after 8 jobs and moving around, they are still living with her mother and life just got more complicated yesterday as my grandson Andrew Thomas Burnett was born. Mother and son are healthy and happy.

I pray that their life is good. I pray that my optimism holds………………..

But there was lots more in the year!!!

I got to do a boy’s trip in the fall. Went to see Bruce Springsteen in Chicago. Also caught Al Green the night before. Very cool trip. I do enjoy my music and probably will as long as I can go and do it. Which I hope is many, many more years!

The big trip this year was, of course, DISNEY WORLD. Or as I like to call it – MISERY WORLD (I borrowed that one from my most wonderful father-in-law – he can really turn a phrase!).

We went and saw and did and never a cross word was spoken. That in itself was worth the entire GNP that it cost to do that.

And here’s the crux of the matter for me in 2007:

As I sit and reflect back on this year, I am forced to realize that I am a lucky man. Luckier than I ever dreamed I could be.

There is something simply magical about wanting to go home in the evening. To be genuinely amazed at how one woman can make such a difference in my life.

Paige is the very breath I breathe. She is the milk in my corn flakes. Simply put, she is my muse and my lover and, did I mention that she’s my WIFE!!!

Yea for me.

So as I approach the New Year and Grandfatherhood, I am filled with something that can only be described as happiness. I would have said contentment – but it’s more than that.

Yes, I’m very comfortable. But this comfort is an active thing and not something that I simply receive. It’s something that permeates every facet of my life.

And I am forever grateful and my heart swells with pride.

So for each of you – I wish you more that you ever thought possible. I am living proof that it can happen if you just believe in it.

Peace.