Happy New Year, and I hope you’re having a merry twelve days of Christmas.
My short story did officially appear on Iron Age Media’s website. (It cannot be voted on yet, but I will let you know when that day comes.) This is HUGE to me, to finally have a complete work featured somewhere other than my own website. It’s an absolute milestone and has reinvigorated me for the new year.
But don’t worry, I won’t bug you with New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, I’d like to take a moment to remember things just the way they were, clutter and all.
Take my workspace for instance.
Ain’t pretty, but it’s comfortable. It’s where I work and write.
Got three monitors on an L-shaped corner desk and an extended desk to the left. In the lower left of the image, you’re seeing the top of my desktop PC, which I built myself. It and the laptop are hooked to a KVM Switch with an ergonomic keyboard, a headset, and a wired optical USB mouse.
On top of the PC is an XBox One controller, and to the right of the laptop is an encrypted external hard drive. Also featured are some blank Blu-Rays, a notepad to jot down ideas, and an under-the-desk exercise unit to keep my blood flowing.
The chair is barely visible in the pic but it’s nice and quite comfy, and to my right is a big window with a lovely view of the surrounding mountains.
It’s definitely still Christmas around here, but this pic was taken earlier in December (as evidenced by the advent calendar having barely been broken in). Surrounding a watercolor of our dearly departed basset hound is a nativity, poinsettias, a crock pot, and some early Christmas cards.
We decided to go with a real Christmas tree in 2024, breaking a sad 13-year streak of using an artificial tree. The pine scent really adds to the atmosphere and magic of the season. Makes me wonder why we ever went artificial in the first place.
Perhaps a decade from now, it will be interesting to see what our schedule looked like at the tail end of 2024. One of my kids writes “oof” on the calendar on days where he cannot have screen time. I wrote a big “OOF” on the day I thought I was going to have surgery. (It has since been rescheduled for later this month instead – Prayers appreciated.)
If it wasn’t obvious enough by the ornaments hanging from our tree, my kids love their video games. You’re seeing an XBox 360, PS3, PS4, Wii U, PSVR, and Switch. They play every single one of these systems. They’ve also been marathoning Pokémon and are through season 6.
Here’s a look at the keyboard to the left of the entertainment center. My kids have both been taking private lessons, and my wife and I have been following along and practicing. We’ve all been playing for about six months now.
When I get stuck in my writing, I’ll often pop over to the keyboard and try and push a little further in a song I’m learning, then pop back to my writing desk to push a little further in the story I’m writing. Ping-ponging between the two stations is turning out to be a great system. Something I didn’t know was missing in my life.
I had quite a comic book mess in my office at the beginning of December, but it’s totally cleaned and organized now, much to my wife’s relief.
The aforementioned basset hound meant a lot to the kids as well. They have this beanie basset “listening” to an MP3 player in their bedroom, and my youngest son was on a Rubik’s Cube kick for awhile. The novel is a Will Wilder book. It’s difficult to find books appropriate for young boys these days, but this series fits the bill.
The kids both really like stuffed animals, especially the youngest one. He’s a big Kirby fan.
Kirby even greets him at the foot of his bed, above the toybox.
In fact, everybody in the house likes stuffed animals to some extent. This was not staged – it’s exactly as my other son had left his bed. His “froggie blanket”, as he calls it, has been with him since the NICU. It’s seen many repairs over the years, but it’s still hanging out.
I suppose this offers a small glimpse into my life. It’s a happy one I’m thankful for, and I’m truly blessed to have such a loving family. Really couldn’t ask for more.
Merry Christmas, and here’s to a happy New Year!
Nick Enlowe 