Mr. Garner Goes To Washington

Over the past six months at AOL, one topic of personal reflection is upon my online skills. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm a "rick-of-all-trades...master-of-none" in the skills department. I don't consider myself a Graphic Artist, although I know my way around Photoshop and can create a variety of online graphics. I don't consider myself a Web Designer, although I can lay out a site the way I'd like it to appear and function. I don't consider myself a Web Programmer, although I know my way around several web languages.

It's natural and healthy to look back over the past year. We must learn from our past or be doomed to repeat it. I enjoy thinking about the year my family and I have experienced. For my family, 2008 marked our 3rd year of living in a townhouse in Maryland. Our search for homes began shortly after I moved in with my in laws in June '04. Then, the housing market was a seller's market. As time dragged on, I began to wonder "am I really supposed to be here?" Sure, I knew God had provided the opportunity, He had answered my prayers of allowing Kim to stay at home with a newly born Georgia, and He had shown me that it's not who you know but Who you know that can open job doors.

One of my favorite Christmas movies is "A Christmas Carol" and my favorite version is the one with George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge . His portrayal of the miserable old miser is glorious. In the end of this Dickens' classic, Scrooge is a reformed, changed man, with a promise for doing good with his life and money. Yet, when someone is called a Scrooge, there's only one of several meanings: nasty, stingy, joyless, dismal, heartless...what Ebenezer was for over 2/3 of the the tale. Granted, this is merely an ageless fictional story (although some of the best stories spring forth from the truth of reality) but how often do we always remember a person for what they did much of their life or for one moment in their life?

After 11 years of marriage, one tends to know what to expect from their spouse. Certain mannerisms, habits, and patterns are anticipated. However, there's always room for surprises...like this year. I've personally never had aspirations of being the lead character, Clark Griswold, from the National Lampoon's Vacation movies. Having seen the others years ago, "Christmas Vacation" seems a bit tamer and developed a bit of a "cult following" of sorts. It became an annual tradition for Kim and I several years ago, and it can stand on its own from the others. Great chuckles 19 years later...wow, has it been that long?)

The tiny middle-eastern female doctor's tone seemingly hid the words, "but you could've gotten it, ya big dummy." As any of my Twitter or Facebook followers know, I've had a long bout with bronchitis. Seemingly, it's been clinging to me for a month and I thought my bout was almost over. And it may have been so, until I do the one thing we men tend to do so well: outpace ourselves. It's this little seed of pride/rebellion/foolishness that's inside all of us (although men seem to have an extra dose) that says, "You'll be fine...ride it out...you don't need any help...you're a man's man...you can find your own way."

I broke no early ground in the social networking scene. In fact, my arrival at the party was rather late. It seems these new tools need to be relevant before they're used. For me, it took moving to Maryland before I stared a blog. Well, it was a Yahoo Group in June '04 and is now the blog at which you are reading. Next, came the MySpace page. At the time, I was also collecting hundreds of friends for the WUSA MySpace page. My problem with MySpace is it's become such a haven for mindless applications, cheap profile skins, and peeps tryin ' to hook up. I try to keep the page updated but only at a minimal effort.