Jed New Year 2010

Forward always forward. Attack, attack and don't look back. Eyes up front and see what the future brings.

Yeah, I buy that. It's cool. Can't do a thing about the past, the future's uncertain and we don't live there anyway. The present though, they say that's a gift so enjoy it while it lasts. I'm enjoyin', oh trust me, I'm enjoyin'.

But you gotta take some stock every now and again, gauge yourself, see where you are, how far you've come and how far you still gotta go. So I take this day as my day. My little New Year and time to run the inventory if you will. Count my marks and give out the grades. To do that we gotta peek in that rear view and see how the last year played out. So let's do so, eh?

January 30, 2010. The 39th annual Jed New Year. How'd it go? You enjoy it? How 'bout some Year-in-Review type stuff? Alright then. We can start with the easy action. The Top Fives and highlights. Take a look:

Best Flicks: (includes both Big Screen and Little Screen but had to be seen for the first time)

1. When The Levees Broke...Spike Lee's thing, still wide eyed. Powerful.

2. Rising Son- The Legend of Christian Hosoi...For anyone who skated in the 80's it's a Must See

3. Slumdog Millionaire...Gave it five stars all the way around.

4. The Dark Knight...I mean seriously, The Joker? Is he not the best character ever portrayed?

5. Gran Torino...Clint drops the three best F-Bombs in the history of film in this one.

Best Concert:

This one is usually pretty tough as I generally hit about 15-30 in a given year...This time around? Well, aside from some serious head smashin' in Killington there wasn't much to pick from so we're going with Motley Crue...they were okay but in years past wouldn't have made the Top Ten...

Best Sporting Event:

NCAA Lacrosse Final Four at The Razor in Foxboro, MA...good tailgate, great Lax...

Best Party:

4th of July on the Cape at Nancy's place...Big Fishin' (Tucker falls out of boat), Big Boozin', Fire Show, Beachin', Holla'in...too bad this one had to end...

Honorable Mentions include any Friday or Saturday night in Killington...

Best Facebook Video:

Anyone who got a chance to see "BG vs. The Sea" from Summer '09 knows there wasn't any room on the podium for anything else. Quick recap finds Thorin and BG jumpin' in the Hurricane fury off Rhode Island to a crowd of well wishers. The scene turns wicked drama when Thorin (knee brace and all) almost got washed back into the angry ocean. She made it thanks to the heroic efforts of both herself and BG but then...then the wave came and crushed our man back into the rocks and almost to certain doom...oh it was wild. I'll see if I can't get a link to it somehow 'cause it was pretty Bad Ass...

Biggest Loss:

Our good friend Abe Meyer died in November and to hear that news come over the cell phone and FB message boards was Bad Action indeed as you aren't ever really ready to deal with that kind of thing. But being fortunate enough to have seen him only a month or so before and to have my last memories of him be recent ones and of grand times made the pain more enjoyable. All my memories of Abe are good ones; most involving shotguns, loose cannon stories and hard laughing. Miss you, Brother!

Best Professional Beat Down:

Monday morning. Early. Sitting in the conference room, everybody's there. The economy is tanked and the numbers are baaaaaad. The Excel program is on the projector and the room is going round robin trying to explain it all. The finger comes my way and my numbers are such that the rest of the team is like, "Shit man, least I ain't in Jed's column." And those friggin' leads that came in a series of jam packed emails about a month ago? Yeah those leads. The ones I was supposed to call on and didn't? Well, let's just say it was right about that time when I realized "Dunham, this gig just ain't for you."

Best Athletic Moment:

Hands down the night the Glory broke the 31 game losing streak in Chelsea..it all came together under the lights...

Honorable mention- Hittin' the Dream Maker up on Hilly Killy

Most Fear:

Tough to say but could've been 4th of July when our little 'boat ride', which I thought was going to be some dainty little putt putt cruise through the local canal, turned out to be a wild ride into Cape Cod Bay and as land dropped over the horizon I realized "Hmmmm, don't see a life jacket, hope we got enough gas, wish maybe I'd brought a wind breaker...Maybe I'll just not think about any of those things and hope everything just works out great." It did. And thanks again to Capt. Joly. He is the mother lovin' Saltwater SupahStar!

Best Rockbat:

This is a tough one as really, any time with the Rockbat is Good Action. So I can't really place one exactly. But rippin' saltwater beach rocks at the Golden Hour into a flat pond and just feeling that smaaaack 'n craaack is bliss...you get yourself in a groove and crush about twenty in a row? Oh man, I'm tellin' ya! Get yourself a Rockbat!

Athletic Lowlight:

Another one with a lot of contenders but I'd say The Mogul Challenge where I gloriously wiped out a full three times before I hit the first jump (complete ski ejections too) and got booed off the course...yeah, that was awesome...

Darkest Moment(s):

Early November I was hearing all kinds of things like 'you gotta do this- you gotta do that' and nobody can publish a book by themselves, it'll be 2 bucks a page to edit, gimme a grand here and spend a grand there and The IRS wants to talk to you and oh yeah, it's holidays and heartbreak and the walls are cavin' in...Challenges, man. And I thought it might be the end of the dream. But then I just said "Fuck it. Keep going till you get there, then see what happens."

Best Books:

1. Epic Ain't Easy: I'll grant you since I wrote it there's some bias but still, it's a good book...

2.This Boy's Life: Tobias Wolfe, great book, this cat can write a story.

3. Lee- The Last Years: General Lee did more after the Civil War than during. What a Man!

4. The Jungle: Upton Sinclair. Tried reading this years ago and couldn't stand it, now it's a Top Five...strange how the mind changes...

5. German Ace Tell Why: A diary of a German from 1915 to 1939 (50 entries?) in which he vividly tells how the country went from WWI to Hitler...riveting...and only 78 pages...

Best Moment of 'Chinga!':

Had to be at Tuckerman Ravine after I packed more than I could carry (hey, we had a lot of booze) and had to split loads, thus hiking the trail twice just to get to the camp. Then I skied and missed the turnout, went back down the mountain and realized I had to hike back up again...Like they say on the Texas jobsite when the whole thing has to be torn down and done again; "Chinga!"

Best Romance:

Well, since my standards now hover around the "If I can actually get them to sit down to dinner we'll call it a success" I'd have to say we're probably batting somewhere well below the .500 mark here. On the bright side though, I didn't get the "Oh, I have a friend who lives near here- I should go see her" line thirty minutes into Date No. 1 so I guess that's a positive...

Best New Music:

Jazz...All the way, knew nothing of it before last year and now I got some groovy selections in the collection (thank you Andrew)...

Best Quotes:

"Keep going. The next obstacle could be the last one." Chuck Norris

"Once you have decided to pursue your dream the entire world conspires to help you achieve it." The Alchemist

"Stumbling is not falling." Malcom X

"The only way to not make a mistake is to not do anything." Teddy Roosevelt

"Most dreams fail because they've never been given a chance to succeed." Me, 'Epic' page 30

Best Jams:

1. Wild Side- Motley Crue

2. I'm One- The Who
3. New Jack Hustler- Ice-T
4. Stagolee- Mississippi John Hurt
5. Been a Long Time Leavin'- The Watermen

Proudest Accomplishments of Year 38:

1. Seeing my book in print: HANDS DOWN no contest...feels like an eagle flew down and landed on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, plucked a feather from his wing and said "Here Brother, you earned it."

2. KSU Lacrosse 20 Year Reunion: If the boys only knew how much I was winging every bit of that, including only moments before the banquet and thinking to myself "Hey Jed, I really hope you told that catering lady the right date..." But to see our K-state Lax family come together like that was awesome. I'd put our Alumni up against anybodies and our story stands with any. Love my Cat Family.

3. Seeing 153 friends this year: Each year I set a goal to see 100 of my friends in person. This year I saw 153 of 'em (180 including spouses, more with kids)...Saw you cats in many states and recovered a ton from way long ago. It's a Big Circle and while I'm always making new homies, the 100 Friends goal counts the friends I knew prior to January 30...So I hope I see all you rat bastards this year...

4. Suiting up for Lacrosse 28 times and Skiing 23 days: All with good fire and no injuries...

5. Reading 45 Books: Always like my reading and this year I stepped over my goal of 30 books and read 14,108 pages worth, including 9,302 of non-fiction...learned quite a bit...

Overall I'm calling it a successful year (I mean, I'm still here) but we got some work ahead of us for this one. Big goal is to push this book and see where it can take me so be ready to get called on to help. I want to see my friends, want to get rowdy, play some bad ass lacrosse and pull off that 360 on skis. Outdoors, indoors, spiritual, social and mental we're gonna touch 'em all this year.

For a This Day In History of January 30 take a peek at the prior blog entry and see how this day fits in with the whole 'grand scheme of things'...

FINAL GRADE: B (85%)