Like Father, Like Son: On A Broken Hand

Just like my boy, I've broken a bone. No, he didn't drop me down the stairs. Instead, I succumbed to my own stupidity while playing basketball. I'll leave it at that. Needless to say a broken hand makes life difficult. Taping up my arm at 6am to shower is no easy task. Neither is changing a diaper.

Isaac hasn't noticed. He's paid about as much attention to my injury as he did to his own. He still expects to chase me around the house, wrestle with me and have me give him baths. And while I have been considerably and understandably slowed at tasks around the house and notably at work, his perspective has gone a long way to solidify my own. I am not as adaptable as he was when he broke his leg, that experience is fresh in my mind: the energy and adaptability of a child is truly amazing.

May I be like my son.

Catch-22: An Emmy

So I've been nominated for an Emmy award. Not the real Emmy's, mind you. These Emmys. It's for a 30-minute special I wrote and produced last year on a local restaurateur named Cameron Mitchell. I poured a lot of time and effort into it -- especially in the pre-production stage where I laid out my plans for the piece. Of course each idea I had was shot down. They weren't all fantastic ideas, but they were ideas that made the piece something more than the "newsy" type piece I knew my (now former) bosses wanted from it. I didn't want that. I wanted a documentary feel. I didn't get that and they got what they wanted. I didn't want it submitted. They did. I don't want the Emmy. They do.

So who should I thank if I win? God? My wife? Cameron Mitchell? David Ortiz? My fifth grade teacher who always believed in me?I'm not up against anybody so chances are pretty good I'll bring home the hardware. And I must come up with something very cliche to say. The last video production award I won was in 6th grade. It was on a new school being built for junior high students. We entitled it "A Dream Come True". The award we won, I gave the speech for, thanking everyone, including my teachers for "making this a dream come true." I'll need a speech to top that.

Truth be told I'm not thrilled about this thing. While it will benefit me professionally, and it will, it's not the piece I would have liked to be recognized for. It wasn't something I would watch so how should I expect someome else to watch it? My wife hasn't even seen it and I show her everything I do. I didn't even want it submitted (mostly because of the $75 admission fee. It was paid for "anonymously"). But professionally, an Emmy goes a long, long way.

And therein lies the rub.

Turn Around Backwards

Two years ago I was without a full-time job. We were living in an apartment in a sketchy section of Wheeling on virtually nothing. I had been unemployed for about 10 months, aside from 10-15 hours at the local GAP and 5 hours a week as a real-estate show editor for a cable access show. Again, in Wheeling, WV. Then a door opened up that I quickly shut, only to crawl through a window.

I was hired by the NBC Affiliate here in Columbus as a photographer. Then ONN called with a producer opening. The interview went well. I admitted I already had a job I was starting Monday, but I wanted this job. I would need to know by Friday at the latest. She expedited the whole process right there, assured me pending a drug test and confirmation from the news director, it was mine. And it was, two days later.

And now I am changing jobs again. I'll still be working at ONN where I love the people. But I'll no longer be a producer, I'm becoming a director. Here's the proof (the AG is me).

Two years ago was one of the toughest periods in my marriage, in my faith and in my life. No job, no money, no prospects. But I look back very fondly on that time. I grew a lot as a person. I was really blessed.

Now I look forward and to an equally uncertain future with a kid on the way (not here yet), grad school up in the air, and a new set of skills I'll need to learn. And when I look forward, I always feel it's a good thing to look back. To know where you've come from. It's the only way you can figure out where you're going.

THE TITLE OF THIS POST IS FROM A SONG. ANYONE KNOW WHAT SONG?