The New Floodgates of the Mind

Life is weird as much as it’s strange…

Chantale and I have been talking about kids recently for various reasons and the question came up about kids being born sick. I told her that there is someone in my family who suffers from a form of autism. I wasn’t sure where he falls in the family so I told her we’d talk to my mother about it soon. All I knew was that I met him and his brothers in Italy many years ago.

Last night, we were downstairs talking with my mom and I asked her about him. His name is Francisco (where I used to think it was Frankie) and he’s the oldest boy of my mother’s oldest brother, making him my first cousin. This perplexed me to no end because I know my mom has a younger brother (living in Montreal), an older sister (living in Italy) and an older sister who passed away years ago who used to live in Argentina. I had no recollection of her older brother, my uncle! The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t put a face to it. We left and she said she would go through the photo albums to get me a picture.

With all this discussion, this morning, my mom calls her sister in Italy only to find her in tears. Apparently her brother had been found earlier near the main church in the city (it’s a huge church up on the hill – Madonna del Pettoruto) on his way to work. He suffered from some kind of blockage in his lungs and he passed out. They rushed him to a hospital in Cosenza (about 25 minutes away) looking more dead than alive. He’s now in intensive care and we’ll get more news later tonight when my mom calls for an update.

Needless to say, she’s very shook up by this as he’s only 2 years older than her and I’m feeling a little freaked out about the fact that we spoke about him yesterday and then this morning he almost dies…

I’m swamped.

Ok, this isn’t exactly news to anyone who knows me, but lately I feel like I’ve started to really overload myself even more-so than I’ve done before. It almost seems as though I decided that the last quarter of 2002 should be lived with as much overhead as possible. So, to that effect, I have seemingly taken on numerous projects I normally would not have. For example: I’m involved in my kids’ school as the Transcriber of Minutes (Minute-Man! That’s me! 🙂 ) for the Parent’s Council that meets once a month. I’m a Volunteer Leader (Rusty!) at my kids’ Beavers Group that meets weekly (I’ve even thrown my hat in the ring as FundRaising Chairperson!). On top of that, I’m taking the Introduction to the Principles of Insurance (LOMA Course 280) for work until mid-November, and an Introduction to the New Testament (Theology) course with Chantale once a week. Other work-related courses to come: Implementing IIS server 5.0, Visual Basic, SQL, Oracle, Windows 2000 Server, and more! Every night of the week, I have something occupying my time. I almost have to SCHEDULE leisure time with Chantale! On top of all this, my Supervisor is on a leave of absence until December. This means, naturally, that part of his workload falls on my shoulders. Meetings and Paperwork, anyone? All this, added to my on-going involvements with other personal projects (Comicopia being the longest-running) keeps me hopping like a crackerjack.

*sigh*

The only good thing about being so busy, though, is that I don’t have much time to think. Think about the fact that this past weekend represents the beginning of a new Visitation Schedule with the kids. Due to the distance of where they live and the school they attend in relation to where Chantale and I live, I had to agree (for the best interest of the kids) that in order not to impact their school work so much, I would only see them every second weekend for the school year. Thus, for the first time, there will be a large gap between the times we can have the kids to ourselves. Luckily I’ll still get to see them at Beavers on my “off” weekends, so that’ll lessen the hurt. But still, you can imagine how it feels… It does indeed make us appreciate our time together all the more, though. That is also a very good thing. And heck. Look at how quickly time flies. James turned 8 years old last week. Melyssa’s turning 6 years old in 6 months. Pretty soon they’ll be able to travel on their own and will be free to do as they please… which includes hanging out with us as often as they want 🙂

“Obla-dee, obla-da, life goes on, yeah! La-de-da and life goes on…”

I’m feeling slightly wistful today. Just going down memory lane as I go through my work day. The fact that this is strangeanimal’s last day here brings back memories of our early years as friends. His struggles to get a decent job until finally giving into my requests that he apply at Dpm where I was working at the time.

He had pride, you see. Refused to “stoop” so low as to ask for anyone’s help in getting a job because he hated the fact that during his many attempts to land something better, he learned that you really had to know someone in order to get doors to open. But, finally, he gave in and applied. And got the job. And stuck with it for years, even surviving cut-backs. We worked close to each other in different departments and obviously had fun together. Even when he was withholding e-mails from Chantale for me 🙂

Years later, I was done with the company. It was time for me to move on to another chapter in my life. The day I left, he was really sad. That was the closest I saw him come to tears. Heck, I was just leaving the company, not his life. Fast forward a couple of years after that event and we’re both working together again (although not in the same building). And now, it’s his turn to move away to a new chapter in his life. Funny how job changes seem to go hand-in-hand with other big changes in life. I had coffee with him on Monday where we basically caught up with life-stuff again and I played interrogator, confirming for myself that he’s stable and happy and excited. After some screwy relationships in his past, I’m glad to say that he does seem to have his head on right this time 🙂

The lunch hour ended with no tears this time (although I could tell he was fighting them again – he kept looking everywhere but in my eyes! 🙂 ) We’d been through this before, and I guess it’s understood. He’s leaving the Company, yes, the City, yes, and worse, the Country. But, he’s not moving out of my life. He just becomes yet another Friend who simply lives elsewhere. I have a number of out-of-town friends. The way I look at it is this: we’ll appreciate any phone calls or visits much more in the future than we did before. And, maybe next time I give him some kind of news about being on Television or in Print somewhere, he won’t scoff and groan “Great. I’ll be watching my favorite show and then there’s Aragona on my screen! Sheesh!” 🙂

Be well, Pat. Be good to Roxanne and she’ll be good to you.

I got a love letter yesterday 🙂

Some folks might find that tacky or sappy but, considering Chantale and I have been together now for over 3 years, I find it quite comforting. Being a writer, I am often spurred into random acts of scripture. I enjoy “storing” a piece of time which details not only events, but emotions (Comicopians can attest to that 🙂 ). So, for me, receiving handwritten notes of affection and love is something I don’t take for granted and which touches me down to the core of my soul.

The fact that my fiancee can still get the urge to write me a note when she’s thinking about me pretty much turns me into a blushing fool. And you know what? Sappy or Tacky, I don’t care. Whatever others call it, I call it Love. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂

First off, a Shout-Out goes to Pat, otherwise known as strangeanimal for getting me the code to allow me to use LiveJournal. This goofy Gowan-lovin’ dude is heading to the States to marry his True Love and I’m gonna miss him…

Basically, my primary reason to get a journal here was to have my own “Friends” page so I can keep up to date on the goings-on of some far-away amigos. It seems well suited to this endeavour, and as long as they keep updating their journals… well, then I guess I’ll have to keep updating mine! 🙂

That’s it for now. Btw, the picture you see is taken from a screen shot for a Standard Life commercial now playing Canada-wide. And yes, that is indeed me 🙂