2019

My friends were blogging about their year, so it inspired me to write about mine. Mostly, because I am super bored. This whole "don't know which day it is between X-Mas and New Year's is not my bag. Don't get me wrong, I love free time, but I guess I am used to a lot more structure most of the time. So anyway, without further ado... my year.

The year started out regularly enough. I was on my second year of teaching and I have to admit that particular school year was rough. I'm not going to go into details, but it was definitely a learning experience. The first part of the year is always the same. Slogging through the school year until a break comes along. Two memorable things came along for me during that part of the year. I got to go to Vegas for the first time and I got to go to Planet Comicon in Kansas City.

Vegas was okay. There were a lot of cool things to see and I got to go with people from work that I enjoy being around. All in all, I would have to say that I wasn't all that impressed with Las Vegas. It was like being in a big mall. Everything was commercialized and I didn't get to see a lot of culture like I did in my last big trip the year before to San Francisco. The best part was going to the Excalibur casino (which was really cool) and this piano bar which turned out to be a blast.

Planet Comicon was a lot more fun for me. I got to meet my favorite writer, Chris Claremont. He was the writer of Uncanny X-Men when I was a kid. I would have to say his writing has impacted my life more than any other. His X-Men run taught me that it was okay to be different and that people were just people. It doesn't matter what race, gender, sexual preference, religion, national origin that applies to you. You can even be a mutant, you still have value and worth. So anyway, getting to meet him was a big deal for me. He signed some books for me and we chatted about Kitty Pryde and Rachel Grey for a bit. I geeked out. 


I got to meet several other comic creators as well like Babs Tarr, Fabian Nicieza, Jason Aaron, Nick Spencer, Bob Mcleod, Jeff Moy, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner. It was awesome meeting all these people whose work I had followed for years. My brother Jamey and nephew Nick went with me. We had a lot of fun driving up there and even have a few new in jokes between us. Nick was most excited about meeting people from the Flash TV show. We met John Wesley Shipp and Daniel Panabaker. I also met Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum from Smallville. Welling was my third Superman I had met. It was a great trip. 


After that, the school year winded down and along came summer break. Summer break was fairly uneventful and was mostly a time of Netflix, comics, and video games. I tried working on a book I have wanted to write for years, but my laptop crashed and I lost everything I had written. Maybe, next summer. I did spend a week in Norman, OK and got to see a lot of my friends who live there (most of my friends live in the area) including Deeann, Patricia, and who I affectionately refer to as the Hudson's Gang. I had dinner with Adam and his wife, Sam, and their lovely daughter. Norman is always a good time for me. I have a lot of loved ones there. 
The new school year started and I was pleasantly surprised how much smoother this school year was going. The first semester has been pretty awesome so far and much less stressful than years past. I even got to run my first talent show. I was really proud of the work my talent show kids did.

I play role-playing games with my friends online. To be honest, I haven't made a whole lot of friends in Ponca and so I get the bulk of my social life on the internet. I got back into gaming about 5 years ago and have been playing with the same group run by one of my besties, Robin. We wrapped up a long running campaign and started a new one called Defenders, based on the Marvel property. Robin threw in the character Dazzler to lure me into playing. She knew I couldn't say no to that. Defenders has been a lot of fun and I am looking forward to more in the coming year.

Probably the biggest thing that happened to me this year was that I finally decided to come out to my family. It was kind of funny, because I had all this fear and tension for my whole life and when it finally happened it was anti-climatic (which is not a bad thing). It just wasn't as big a deal to them as I thought it would be and to be honest they already knew. We were all doing this "Don't Ask Don't Tell" thing. I'm glad that's over with. I am a lot happier now and it is so nice to have that specter of doubt out of my life. I have even improved some relationships in my family, so that is definitely in the win column.

The end of the year is coming nigh and it is always my favorite part of the year. I love me some Halloween and some Christmas. I had a great time with both. As I write this, we are inching into the Roaring '20s. 2019 turned out to be one of the best years of my life professionally and on a geek level. I love teaching and this year had lots of  great personal moments. Bring on 2020!