Should I mention the fact that it’s approaching two months since my last confession? Or is that a bit clichéd for a blog? Skip over it Chris, move on....
December flashed by...and surprisingly I didn't manage to get anything recorded here from a month that included Tom's Birthday, our friend Ryan’s birthday, Tom's Christmas concert, and...well, Christmas itself. In sequence, Tom had a reprise of his movie party on his birthday - five boys, much pizza, and The Benchwarmers on DVD. Tom had a mini-election amongst his guests to determine which movies they would watch, but the second choice (Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith) never got shown due to 'big screen' fatigue and the attractions of a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ board game. Sugar products were carefully controlled this time, and a much more sensible but fun time was had by all.
Tom's Christmas Concert was heart-warming and tear-jerking in all the right ways. The whole fourth grade had been practicing for several weeks, and performed several songs, both traditional and modern, Christian and Jewish. We also saw the fourth grade orchestra sawing notes out of their violins, and the slightly more accomplished fifth grade musicians. As well as the swelling of pride and emotion at seeing him throw himself wholeheartedly into performing, we were impressed by the sincere dedication and pride of the teachers involved, who obviously love music, love the kids and worked very hard to make the whole thing accomplished and fun at the same time. And a huge bonus was that the concert was covered live on our local cable channel, and we were able to set the recorder and watch it over and over again. All we need to do now is work out how to make copies for everyone.....
My birthday sneaked past with a small celebration with friends. Given that in our family, I am the one who likes to try new restaurants (as opposed to picking old favourites) we went to the previously unvisited Siam Thai restaurant in Lambertville with Ryan and Amy, and had a very good meal.
And Christmas was a quiet affair, as we accomplished Linda's objective of staying in our pyjamas all day, We didn't notice until we changed in preparation for our guests on Boxing Day that Thomas had been wearing the same pyjamas for almost 48 hours.
While having time off work was fun, we didn't actually do a lot over Christmas week, though we did arrange to visit the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens with some friends. This involved yet another American landmark for us - the first time either of us had ever driven a car in Manhattan! (I need to collect these landmarks together somewhere). The parents of Tom's friend Luc had suggested it, and being native New Yorkers they were unphased by the idea of driving cross-town, and knew all the right radio channels to tune to for traffic news. In the event, it was a fairly simple and short drive, coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel on the eastside and driving north a few blocks before cutting across Manhattan and straight over the 59th Street Bridge (of Simon & Garfunkel fame). Queens was eye-opening - at the same time very normal and ordinary, but also unmistakably New York - though not the hustling busting Manhattan you see on TV shows like Law and Order. This was full of ordinary people and stores, more like a Robert De Niro movie. The Museum was fabulous, and would be added to our overseas guests suggested itineraries, if it wasn’t so difficult to get to. A very well put together solid history of movie-making with a well-judged slice of interactiveness - just right for all the family. Even the temporary exhibition they had was of classic video games, with something for all of us. The drive home was more like the nightmare we expected, as we headed back through southern Brooklyn at 5pm on a Friday evening, lost sight of our guides and got stuck in the monumental traffic jams. Just under two hours to get there, 3 and a half hours to get back....
The turn of the year brought some interesting challenges. Unless you scour the business news (and even if you do you might have missed it) you won’t know that at the end of 2006, Dow Jones bought out the Reuters share in Factiva, so now Factiva is wholly owned by Dow Jones - in fact Factiva isn't even a company anymore, it is a brand, or a suite of products within the Enterprise Media Group of Dow Jones. I am now wholly employed by an American company, and having a Green Card has made the whole process a bit simpler - though there were some challenges. Our healthcare insurance changed, my UK pension is now frozen, and I have to deal with such standard American concepts as a 401(K) - essentially an almost compulsory private pension scheme which everyone has for retirement. All in all we have had to sort ourselves out to really establish a long-term financial future in the U.S.
Then of course, as we got absorbed by a larger company, we all braced ourselves for the inevitable redundancies. This time around I felt a lot more confident and comfortable - since I know that I am doing a good job and am valued by my new boss - but also that our group is successful and could only grow during the changes. Unfortunately two of my closest friends did not make the cut, including the head of the family that took us under their wing when we first arrived here. They are now faced with the prospect of selling their recently purchased house, disrupting their son's education and heading back to England. With 26 years of service, the redundancy package was hopefully comfortable, but the disruption to their lives is scary in the extreme.
I really want to get back to commenting in this blog on things that happen in my daily life, and react more immediately to stuff. So I was annoyed with myself when something happened last week that I wanted to talk about, and I was so far behind. But now I can bring myself to write, and though the feeling has ebbed away a little, it is still in my consciousness. 
Last week I had a client meeting at Merrill Lynch, whose offices are in the World Financial Centre. That is (was) right next door to the World Trade Centre, and though it was damaged in the terrorist attack, it survived, and has now been fully restored. I knew that the PATH station at WTC had re-opened soon after the attack - indeed it was hailed as one of the markers of 'business as usual' - but I had never traveled into New York that way before. So after checking the route with colleagues at work, I got the normal train as far as Newark, changed onto the PATH line, and headed to downtown Manhattan and the WTC. Passing the time on the train journey with my Blackberry, I was absorbed in email, and not ready as the train slowed on reaching its destination, and swung slowly into the light - we were actually in the hole at Ground Zero. The PATH station at WTC had previously been between and below the twin towers, and now it looked just like a Lego model with the top removed. All the platforms and walkways of the rail station had been restored (after all, thousands of people use/needed to use this route every day for work) but the original loop configuration of the station meant that as the train emerged from the tunnel, it did a gentle circuit around the large hole, like some weird reverential Disney ride. It’s five and a half years now since 9/11, but the emotional impact of that place is still hugely powerful, and I was knocked back for some time. Above ground, work is moving on, and the foundations for the new Freedom Tower are beginning to take shape. The site is bounded with just the right mix of security, and memorial (though the commemorative book and photo sellers that hover round the station entrance are despicable - no proceeds to charity there...) - the official slogan used around the site is “Think Back, Move Forward” which sums up the mood and experience of Ground Zero perfectly.
And then more birthdays - our friend Lisa celebrated her 40th on Feb 8th - and knowing the Sprague’s it would be a huge surprise if there wasn’t a surprise party. Rob hired the Nassau Inn, the historic hotel we stayed in on our first reconnaissance visit to the US, invited a nice-sized crowd of old friends and family, hired a great dance band and a wonderful evening was had by all.
Then another good friend David Anderson celebrated his 60th, and we went to a 'quaint' local restaurant now officially known as The Hillbilly Hall with three other couples all ten (or more) years older than us. We had a very different and heart-warming evening, where we all read poems we had written for David's birthday.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, we passed the 49th anniversary of Linda's birth with a few simple events. I had been in Chicago for two days before the big day, and after arriving home at 2.45am on her birthday I elected not to go to work, which meant I was able to take her out to lunch. We were able to have some quality time together, chatting about where we are in life, with our financial future looking fairly rosy, our next phase of plans for the house continuing to take shape, and sharing some thoughts about where we will be in five, ten, fifteen years. Dinner in the evening was a bit more lively at PF Chang’s with Ryan and Amy and Natalie, but time together and alone - without diversions (TV, Tom, work etc) feels really good these days.
Tom's travel soccer takes a break in the deepest winter - pitches are unplayable and snow could disrupt the schedule. So we signed Tom up for indoor soccer to keep his hand (feet?) in, and hopefully improve his skills a bit. We also got him to 'play up' - that is, play in the age group one up from his qualifying age, since he was right at the top end of his age range, and being in a travel team meant he should be at a higher standard. When the rosters arrived (and as coach I got to see the list for all the teams) we had our doubts. There are only 4 fourth graders Tom's age in the whole division, and not many 5th graders - the majority of boys are two and three years older than Tom. We wondered if we had done the right thing. After four weeks of playing with the 'big boys' I am so proud of him. He is far from intimidated, he works very hard, and has been scoring goals for fun (as Ron Atkinson would say) - good goals too! He needs to improve his ball control to be really effective, but I really am very proud of how he has applied himself to this - I had visions of having to drag him along every Sunday. I only hope now that his new found confidence will not get blunted by the rigors of being back in the group of boys who gave him a hard time socially in the Fall.
So now I've caught up - again - hopefully I'll feel free to write as and when I feel like it. We'll see...
