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By: Paul S Cilwa |
Posted: 12/10/2008 |
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Page Views: 7,253 |
| A recap of the doings of the Cilwa/Manions in 2008. |
We began the year with the following in our immediate family (using the word
"immediate" to describe those within our walls):
- Myself: Paul, your faithful blogger
- Michael, my husband
- Mary, my ex-wife and our friend
- Karen, Mary's and my second daughter
- Jenny, Mary's and my third daughter
- Zachary, Jenny's son
- Cirrus, Astro and Amber, our three dogs
- Cassie and Milton, the cats
I am not counting fish as they, like Munchkins, come and go so quickly! And I
should also mention other close family members, who don't live with us but share
many of our adventures, such as
- John, Mary's and my son, who lives a couple of miles away with his
fiancée, Rachel
- Surya, Michael's sister, who lives about 25 miles away in central
Phoenix
- Dorothy, Mary's and my oldest daughter, who lives in Virginia with her
fiancé (in January; in May, husband) Frank and their daughter Cailey
January
Our big January adventure was a
cruise to Ensenada, Mexico aboard the Monarch of the Seas. Jenny
wasn't able to go, but in her place we enjoyed the company of Michael's sister,
Surya, and our dear friends Barbara and Peter Lafford. It rained most of the
trip, but that was okay because the main reason for taking a cruise is to eat,
anyway!
Making our trip a little more interesting was Michael's illness—I thought it
was seasickness but it was actually the first episode of what turned out to be a
kidney stone. Also, Karen's 34th birthday was
to come at the end of January, but we celebrated it early on board.
February
Taking the whole family on a cruise obviously was a hard (if worthwhile) hit
to the wallet, so we spent February mostly at home and work. Zachary continued
to be active in karate (he'd gotten his
yellow belt in late January) and Cub
Scouts, participating in making
working model rockets and getting his
Bear Badge. In addition, Michael
celebrated his 58th birthday (and we sent first
daughter Dorothy, who lives in Virginia, a card for her 35th).
I also began the gargantuan task of digitizing my sizable CD, LP and cassette
collection, a task which is not yet complete—I've made it up to the M's, though!
March
By March, Michael and I realized that the pounds we'd put on during our
cruise were apparently not going to melt away on their own. So we joined a gym,
the 24 Hour Sports Club on Elliot in Gilbert. We've gone pretty regularly, but
so far the best I can say is that we haven't gained weight since joining.
Well, not a lot, anyway.
We also began the month with a visit "up the hill" (the Mogollon Rim) to let
Zach and his friend, Chris, play in the
snow stopping on the way at a lower altitude to hike among the saguaros.
April
This month saw a family member get older—me, I turned 57—and another pass on, as our
dog Astro died of old age. He was about 77 in dog years, so I figure I've got
another 20 left (in people years, not dog years). It gives me pause to realize
that, when Mozart was my age, he'd been dead for 22 years.
Anyway, my favorite present was a
GPS, which I promptly installed in my car and used to drive everywhere,
including to places I knew how to find.
Meanwhile, Michael was attempting to navigate the treacherous waters of
bureaucracy as he worked to get his Arizona Massage Therapist's License. Michael
has, of course, been a highly-skilled massage therapist for nearly two decades,
having been trained by the famous Swedish Institute in New York City. Until
recently, Arizona did not have a statewide licensing requirement. Now it does,
and in order to get his Arizona license, Michael first had to renew his New
York state license! He put in his paperwork for that at the end of April.
The adventure continued.
May
This past May was quite packed, what with Karen's
graduating from college with
her bachelor's in Anthropology from Arizona State University, and my oldest
daughter, Dorothy, coming to Arizona to get married! I even managed to fit in a
rafting trip on the Upper Salt River—my first rafting trip in over a decade.
Karen's graduation was big deal, since she'd been working towards it
so long and hard. Not a nit was left unpicked; the attendees even wore outfits
coordinated to match Karen's graduation robe!
Dorothy's presence at Karen's graduation, having flown all the way from
Virginia, was no coincidence; she had cleverly timed her wedding to follow it so
she could attend both.
Dorothy got married in
Sedona, with yours truly officiating.
The attendees:
Kathy and Joe Kinder, parents of the groom.
Mary Cilwa, mother of the bride.
Michael Manion, step-father of the bride.
Paul S Cilwa, officiating, also father of the bride.
Rachel Madsen and John Cilwa, sister-in-law-to-be and brother of the bride.
Jenny Cilwa, sister of the bride.
Karen Cilwa, sister of the bride.
It seemed like we'd barely caught our breaths from the wedding, when
Zach turned nine years old, which we celebrated by taking a few of
his closest friends to
SunSplash,
a local waterpark.
And just as the month was coming to a close, Michael took the first of his
massage courses required over and above the exhaustive list of courses
required by the State of New York for his Arizona massage license, these being
courses in Aromatherapy and Therapeutic Touch taken at the
Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts in
neighboring Tempe.
June
By June the heat around Phoenix becomes something you just can't ignore. Some of us went for
river floats on the nearby
lower Salt River.
Zach continued to be active in Cub Scouts, which meant I got to take him on a
campout with his pack at Bear
Canyon Lake. And I closed out the month with a solo camping trip, the first
of several as it turns out, to
Verde Hot Spring
a few hours north of Phoenix.
Nature Boy Zach in our tent at Bear Canyon Lake.
Nature Boy Paul in the Verde River just upstream from the hot springs.
Michael was busy in the meantime, keeping cool at the Healing Arts school on
his next class, on Thai Foot Massage. I benefited from that by virtue of being
Michael's "guinea pig" on his final exam. I can personally attest that the Thai
Foot Massage is awesome and well worth getting if you can find a
practitioner!
July
In 2007, we determined that, as a family, we were not really "into" going to
giant, crowded, expensive, fireworks displays
as a way of celebrating the 4th of July. So we scattered to enjoy the holiday each in his or her own
way. But the next day Michael, Jenny, Zach and myself went
camping in beautiful Oak Creek
Canyon just north of Sedona.
Michael completed his course in Trigger Point Massage. When he sets his mind
on accomplishing something, nothing gets in the way! His final course in Sports
Massage was completed just as the month ended; he then sent in the required
paperwork and waited…for what shouldhave been a week or maybe two…but
ended up being much, much longer.
Karen, who had taken a much-needed vacation at home after getting her degree,
decided to take just two more weeks off before going job hunting, and flew to
Virginia to visit Dorothy and her old friends in Reston, where we used to live.
While there, she realized she really
missed it, and started job hunting there. She found a job, too—not as an
archaeologist, but as a flight attendant, which had long been her dream job. Her
degree wasn't wasted; it helped her get the job, and the skills she had
developed as a student enabled her to (three months later) graduate at the top
of her flight school class.
Plus, starting in November, this meant that Mary and I (alas, not Michael who
is not Karen's biological parent) would be able to fly places for free.
August
I figured that August would be the last month of the year we could really go
camping, fearing it would be too cool in September. Michael and I went on
another of my frequent visits to
Verde Hot Spring.
But our grandest trip (no pun intended) was to
Grand Canyon. Michael and I
took Zach and his pal Chris right to the South Rim, where we camped and then
hiked a mile or so into the Canyon the next day. This was a really special time
for all of us.
Chris and Zach on Bright Angel Trail
Michael helped Zach and Chris get special badges from the Grand Canyon ranger.
September
In September Jenny celebrated her 33rd
birthday with a quiet gathering at home. A week later, the recovery home she
manages put on their annual
Recovery Walk. It made me so proud to see her comfortably behind the
microphone, introducing speakers, and making sure the event came off smoothly.
John and Rachel joined Mary, Zach and me for the festivities. Michael,
unfortunately was home sick (more on that in a moment).
Last December, Michael had had a lithotripsy, a procedure in which a kidney
stone is blasted by ultrasonic sound waves into, we had been led to believe,
microscopic particles that the body can then flush away. We expected that would
be the end of his kidney stone; yet he continued to have periodic attacks, such
as the one that hit him on our January cruise. It turned out that sometimes a
lithotripsy only blasts the outer shell of the stone, leaving its core intact.
He had a second procedure done in late spring, and a
third in September.
Fortunately, that one seems to have done the trick. But as you read this epic,
please consider the fact that Michael was taking all these massage courses
while in pain from carrying a kidney stone. The man deserves a medal just
for that.
Instead, he got a license: After months of waiting and trying to track down
governmental snafus, Michael finally received his Arizona massage
therapist's license, and can once again work legally.
October
By October it was clear that it wasn't that cold, and I made two more trips
to Verde Hot Spring. Michael and Zach, both of whom love
Halloween, bonded over their
thorough decoration of the house for that holiday. We went with our friends
Barbara and Peter, and Michael's sister, Surya, to Barbara and Surya's church
for a Halloween party; then returned so that Zach could enjoy his first
Halloween trick-or-treating without a grownup. Remember how big a deal that
was for you?
November
At the beginning of the fall, Zach dropped out of Cub Scouts so he could devote
more attention to his karate classes. In November, he got his Blue Belt. And
just a couple of weeks after that, he took part in a sparring match with several
hundred other boys and girls (and some adults). All his partners were older and
bigger than him, yet he received a
trophy for third place! We
were all startled—he's so mild-mannered in his day-to-day life—but very proud.
Halfway through the month, Karen flew home for a brief visit. It was wonderful to see
her again, and to watch the final direct-to-DVD episode of Stargate: SG1
which I'd been saving for her, with her. And then a few days later, Mary and I
finally got to reap the benefits of Karen being a flight attendant, and made our
first free trip! to Virginia to see Dorothy, Frank and Cailey. We even
managed to catch up with Karen at the airport between flights.
And then there's Thanksgiving, for which Michael made his traditional,
marvelous, all-the-trimmings Thanksgiving dinner: A thirty-pound turkey, glazed
sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and mashed regular potatoes,
home-baked biscuits, his special homemade cranberry relish, and deserts
galore—homemade (and Michael's recipe) cheesecake, apple pie, homemade cookies,
and ice cream. We were joined by Surya, our friends Jock and Diane, and Maurean,
and well as my friend and co-worker Jerry. Actually, we had two
Thanksgivings, because Michael and Mary collaborated on a "pre-Thanksgiving"
dinner for Karen, since she couldn't be with us on the day itself.
And, at the end of the month, I finally got to see The Mikado,
a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta I fell in love with as a kid but had never been
able to see performed live. (The movie versions suck.) Michael, who loves opera,
has been attending each performance by the
Arizona Opera Company with our friend Willis, who has season tickets.
Although I love classical music, I am not that fond of opera—not enough to
justify spending the money on the tickets! But this one I wanted to see, and
Willis kindly accommodated me with an extra ticket. Unfortunately, he himself
couldn't make it but we had an awesome time at a terrific performance.
December
…Which brings us to this month. We are, of course, gearing up for
Christmas. Already I've been to see a
show in New York
(courtesy of Karen's flight benefits). Michael has given me
an early Christmas present—he's going to let me make the Christmas
dinner! (I like to cook, too!) Our tree is up, thanks mostly to him and
Jenny and especially Zach, who is old enough to seriously help with decorating.
In putting this list together, I must say that we certainly have been blessed
with a terrific year, thanks to good luck, hard work, and the willingness to get
out there and do things. We're grateful for that, and hope that
your year has been as blessed and enjoyable as ours. In any case, do write back
and let us know how you are faring.