The Hungry Hungry Writer

(if you never got this in the mail it is probably because we didn’t send you one. But here’s our YEAR IN REVIEW.)

In the tradition of many cards and letters we have received for the holidays, Donna asked me to write a ‘year in review’ for an insert for our Christmas cards this year. Well, ‘asked me to write’, in not so many words… She basically ‘told’ me in the way, “Maybe you can write one of these this year?” Well, what is that supposed to mean? Read into the subtext and discover she was really ‘telling’ me, “You need to write one of these this year.”

I kinda like ‘em: the whole ‘year in review’ thing. But, I just couldn’t see myself writing one. I ‘blog’ nearly every day, so it should be easy but for some reason it’s not. Make no mistake, 2006 was a year filled with many life accomplishments: Isabella started pre-school, Jake is reading chapter books and is now a pianist, Jessica is a starter for her JV basketball team and plays in a marching band in Texas, Donna accepted a new job at Children’s hospital and I thought I found my voice as a writer (maybe next year).

As you see, there is a lot to write about. But I wanted to do something different if I were going to do anything at all.

So here’s my attempt at a ‘year in review.’

Written ten years later…

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM

by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

BOAT, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July–

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear–

Long has paled that sunny sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;

Ever drifting down the stream–
Lingering in the golden gleam–
Life, what is it but a dream?

December 7, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

So here we are, a full year has gone by and it’s now December, 2016…

Isabella decided that she wanted to quit gymnastics and stick with dance and ballet. Her performance as lead in “The Nutcracker” has been a huge success and we have been frantically looking into Performing Arts schools in the SoCal area. She’s dead set on ‘papa’ moving with her to New York, where I can write, and she can attend NY’s School of Performing Arts. Donna has made it clear that she can only take a little cold weather, but not the whole winter in New York, and is not about to move out of sunny San Diego just yet. Maybe Isabella can stay with Uncle Des and Auntie Sherry in their Manhattan loft and experience the life in NY that I so wanted to experience as a teen. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve taken the same approach with her as I did with Jessica when it comes to boys: open and honest. At least as honest as you can be: as a daughter talking to her dad about boys. But she seems to be handling it perfectly well. She has more important things to concentrate on than being in love as she says. She’s looking more and more like Donna too. It’s going to be tough as she starts high school and all the boys start knocking at our door - more reason to send her to NY so I don’t have to deal with the stress.

She’s also become the perfect editor. The editor I’ve desperately needed the past fifteen or so years. I can learn a few things from her that’s for sure. And not one final draft of an article or script gets submitted without her approval - maybe she should read this before we send it out. And the best part – it’s free! Well, that is until she starts asking for a new pair of ballet slippers and more lenses for her Digital SLR for ‘her work’ as papa’s editor. The slippers I can handle… the collection of lenses for her camera is another story. But it all has paid off as two art galleries have featured her work this summer and she made her second sale just last week on a series of shots, which will be used to decorate a private Law Office in San Diego — thanks Uncle James on the lead! She’s a 13 year old Ansel Adams.

She’s not three anymore, but she’s still my little princess.

Jake has been a handful. It’s so hard to keep up. Right when he turned 16 he was ready for his own car. Daddy’s little boy isn’t so little anymore! It sucks and I think about it every passing year. It was only yesterday when he stood up on stage at the Glendale High School Auditorium singing, “Silent Night,” fighting to stay awake since it was already way past his bedtime and it was only 7:00. He’s been playing winter ball and is really gearing up for the spring season where he can continue the hot hitting streak from this year when they won the State Championships. I continue to tell him not to think about it and he’s better at doing the day-to-day thing than me. For a kid who has always been a standout since tee-ball, I’m so proud that he has yet to let it get to his head. If only I didn’t have to hear the smack-talk as we play John Madden’s Football 20XVI on the Nintendo Dish. Oh, and he has a ‘serious’ girlfriend now. Two weeks and going strong! A world record. And she’s a cutie — looks like Donna. What a mama’s boy.

I’ve begun to feel my little Jakey-boy, who I played Xbox with, is gone, and in his place - an independent individual who challenges me everyday, with interests in everything he comes across that he has a hard time figuring out what he really wants to do: from baseball, to writing, to Triathlon to collecting comic books, and dating. He reminds me of me. That’s scary.

Finally, we got Jessica married off. And she did it a day before Donna and my twelve year anniversary! What a treat — not. But, it was the only Sunday available in September and we sacrificed our special weekend to celebrate hers. And it was worth it to see her happy. It was a simple wedding with only a few guests. She took our advice – spend the money on the honeymoon! So they did. They had a blast in Paris. I’m so jealous. I have yet to leave the country and Jessica did it before I did. I didn’t want her to get married until she ‘settled down’ somewhere. But her husband, Jonah, is a great guy with wonderful parents, and is a big time exec. at Microsoft – although I have yet to get that deal on the new MS Home/Office Net. Jessica’s three-year residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Seattle is halfway through and it will be up in the air to where she’ll be practicing medicine. She’s dead set on staying in Seattle. Good for her.

It’s funny, she’s still the same ol’ Jessica: still caring, still loves kids, but now is a doctor, yet still plays video games. She video messages me almost every day on my phone, sometimes with a little patient who wants to say ‘hi’ to the guy who wrote, “ZEN and the Dog from Planet X.” So, finally, we have a doctor in the family and she can start paying her own bills now.

Donna makes it hard for me to stay fit. Her AOS degree in the Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie and Baking program was both a blessing and an evil in disguise. But she deserves it. She had a goal: to finish culinary school in a 60 week intensive program and she did it with flying colors. She also remodeled the whole kitchen during the program and is now looking into catering private parties with Jenny. And boy, it is a pleasure to eat her pastries. I just have to run a little extra every time I sneak a bite.

And now, after hating football her entire life, Donna is a bigger fanatic about San Diego getting into the Super Bowl for their third time in five years, than Jake and I combined. Go Chargers!

Donna and I made fewer trips to New York this year, compared to the last couple of years, as both of us have been extremely busy. And finally, after sixteen years of talking about it, Donna and I went to Las Vegas for a weekend together. It took sixteen years, but we did it! And I won! Then lost it all on craps. @#&! I hate Vegas.

I’m still waiting for the Ironman Championship lottery to pick me to go to Kona for the Ironman Championships. Maybe 2017 will be the year. And maybe Jake and Bella will both be doing a Half Ironman with me in 2017 as well. Jake is ready: having done a few Olympic distances already. Bella gets bored with anything more than a sprint but can out swim and run us both. Donna still won’t venture out in the water but is addicted to Duathlons and her $5,000 Orbea road bike. I have a feeling she’s getting me one this Christmas. Right, honey?

One last thing…

I woke up the other night on the couch, after a ten hour rewrite to meet a deadline, and Jake was asleep in the living room too. I thought I was dreaming at first, thinking he was only six years old and I had to get him to bed. But I soon realized he wasn’t a baby anymore. I couldn’t stop staring at him; he still looks the same, he’s just bigger. And there he slept, on the couch, where he used to nap not so long ago as child. The same couch where I would read to him: his head on my lap as I rubbed his back. I wanted to pick him up, lay him on my chest and pat him on the back till he fell asleep. He’s 16 now and not 6 and that would have been weird. But the thought crossed my mind as I closed my eyes and tried to dream about those days when he and Bella would crawl in our bed and argue about who got to sleep next to me. It’s as if I closed my eyes, fell asleep, woke up, and it’s now 2016 and not 2006. Where did the time go? How did they grow up so fast? I miss my babies.

So there you have it: a year in review. If you want to know about what I’ve been up to, I still ‘blog’ and still race Triathlon. You can read my blog here:
http://squint.tv/TheHungryWriter/nfblog/

I can’t believe it’s already going to be 2017…

Heed my advice - Cherish the moments of your life: even if it’s just for a few seconds. Because if you don’t… you’ll wake up one day and wish you did.

“Life is but a dream.”

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The Magas Family