faulker009

I was dreamin' when I wrote this Forgive me if it goes astray   -- Prince, 1999 I’ve been writing A blog since the beginning of the year. I’ve been waiting to write THIS blog for nearly 23 months. I could wax poetic and build up the drama for the next 900 words, but instead let me cut to the chase: MY JOURNEY THROUGH UNEMPLOYMENT IS OVER. I have been offered a job and gladly accepted it. I will begin working again on Monday. And I can’t wait. I’ve been waiting for something to happen For a week or a month or a year   -- Jackson Browne, Lives in the Balance For nearly two years, I have been part of a growing group that is just looking for a chance. A group of people who have been dealt a bad hand through no fault of their own. A group of people who just want to start life all over again. A group of people who have been kind enough to embrace me as they connect with my story. Connect with my story from across my street and across the globe. I am so excited and so humbled to be...

There are certain moments that only a parent can appreciate. The first step. The first day of school. The first time your child talks back to you. There are other moments that only a parent can enjoy. Like being on a packed airplane and watching the panic that mom and dad go through trying to quiet a screaming child. As someone who has been there, done that, I hate to say it, but I love watching other parents scramble to diffuse that situation. And they try everything. Apple juice. Cheerios. Grey Goose. Whatever it takes. But the entire time, the show you get watching the crumbling parents is better than any $8 movie on the plane. There are about 37 million moments I would like to have back in my 13+ years of being a parent. I wish I was more attentive. I wish I was more loving. But most of all I wish I was most patient. I still do. A few days ago I was at my 11-year old son’s football practice. It was being held at a GIANT complex, where at least ten other teams were practicing at the...

The movie High Anxiety was a Mel Brooks classic. Not as classic as History of the World or Young Frankenstein or certainly not as epic as Blazing Saddles, but it was great. The feeling of High Anxiety sucks. It really sucks. It’s that pit in your stomach caused by stress. These days there are about a million legitimate reasons to be anxious. But usually for me, its the small stuff, you know the stuff that Richard Carlson told me not to sweat. Big life-changing events, piece of cake. Small stuff, PANIC ATTACK. The good news is once that small stuff moves from future tense to present tense, the pit somehow disappears. Pretty much immediately. Unfortunately I have gotten used to feeling that pit in my stomach, but I definitely sweat it. The source of the current pit is the upcoming back-to-school picnic. This is not just any back-to-school picnic. This is the picnic at the school where my wife is a teacher and my three kids attend. And the featured attraction of Monday’s picnic is... ...M...