As much as I might hate to admit it, recent events, combined with my need to spill mind to screen has brought in quite a collection of new readers. Well, and Jenni regularly linking to my blog on her Facebook page has probably been the biggest cause as well…Nonetheless, to those of you who are newbies in these parts, welcome. Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. I’ll just break out in a cold sweat with the added pressure.
Just by way of perspective, somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 new sets of eyes have planted themselves on this very screen over the course of a week. Okay, well, not this particular screen, unless you’re sharing with someone, but…Aw hell. You know what I mean.
So, here’s the grand re-re-introduction to the site and the players, just in case you didn’t buy the program on the way into the stadium.
First off, in case all of the info contained below escapes you somehow, you can now find a permanent link to a Q&A post from a while back. This link is at the top of the right-hand column. No need to click it now, though, as most of that info will be here.
So, on to the cast of characters:
I’m Paul, your (occasionally, or usually) genial host. I try my best to blog six days a week (last year, I posted almost 300 daily entries), so you’ll almost always have something new here to read, and it might just make you feel better about your life in the process. Aside from my duties here, I pretend to be the ringmaster to the clan I affectionately refer to as my family–a group which encompasses my wife, son, and twin daughters. And I’m finding that I am beginning to embrace the grumpy old man side of my persona, especially since I turned 40 back in August. I work as a mild-mannered tier 2 tech at a help desk for a major metropolitan employer during the day, and occasionally do the quick-change to become superdad and/or superhusband when needed. But shh! Don’t blow my cover!
I’m married to Jenni, my wife of 15 years, best friend for just a couple of months shy of 18 years, and all-around great listener to my less-than-interesting work stories. She’s a student at Luther Seminary, learning how to cram all kinds of learnin’ about God and Jesus and stuff like that into the heads of American youth. Well, it goes deeper than that, but this is about all you’ll get in this snapshot. In addition to her studies, she works one job on campus, another job at a church not too far from here, and tries to sandwich in time with the kids and me, too. Holy cow…I’m tired just describing that…Oh, and she’s got her own blog here at Lathropworld, where she reviews the many books she reads. Check it out. It’s how I do most of my reading.
Patrick is the boy. Our son and constant companion for 13 years. Sometimes, I like to say he followed us home from North Dakota, but I guess we kind of had something to do with that. He’s an 8th grader at Roseville Area Middle School, doing 8th grade boy things, including demonstrating just how frustrating and intriguing teenagers can be. His current life goals include becoming a comic book artist and playing saxophone for the University of Minnesota Marching Band.
Hannah and Zoe are the biggest surprise to hit our lives, ever. I like to say that we aimed for two kids and missed, but now that we have twins, I wouldn’t trade our little genetics experiments for all the tea in China. They’re nine-years-old, are 4th graders at FAIR School Downtown, and have me living in constant fear of the teen years. But I still find them incredibly intriguing, for no other reason than it boggles the mind to think that two people, born at almost the same time, of almost the same exact genetic soup, can become such different individuals. I know…Well, duh! But that’s just what it is.
As a family of five, we’ve discovered that the world isn’t designed for families of odd numbers larger than 4. But we’ll get over it by the time one of the kids moves out.
Pippin is my cat. She turns 19 in April, and seems intent on making sure I never forget she’s still here. Oh, and she talks to me in my dreams from time-to-time, and the best(?) of those dreams occasionally make it into entries here.
FDS is an unusual character who shares the stage here. Frau Doktor Shrinkenminder is my therapist, which just brings up a whole batch of questions, trust me…Some long-time readers have asked why I talk about her and my therapy here, and the answers are simple and complicated at the same time. It’s simple because I actually find the whole process or therapy a little funny. And complicated because FDS actually thinks writing about my life is therapeutic. Anyway, you’ll find her influence hear mention of her in here a lot. Oh, and in case you don’t get sarcasm (which is ever-present here), FDS is not her real name. But as far as you’re concerned, it is.
So there you go: what you need to know to find your way around here. Welcome to all of you who are new here. Hope you stick around and read on. It’s mostly fun writing this stuff, and I hope it’s equally (mostly) fun reading it. Enjoy!
See you tomorrow.