For the most part, it was a good Christmas. Drove down to Pensacola, Florida and delivered a 42-inch TV and bag of candy to the 17-year-old who took no for an answer and insisted that I travel in frigid cold.  The 2-hour, 45-minute drive was not as bad as I imagined. We did our usual BBQ lunch, went to a department to make nothing was missed. She found LED lights and another t-shirt to go with the other stuff.
I wrapped up the other part by visiting home and my sister recovering from knee surgery. I was not disappointed of her inability to cook, just another family members not volunteering to step up. Her friends came to her rescue. If my sister asked me, I'd arrange food in times like these. Especially for New Year's Day
I have to spend part of Christmas Monday (the holiday because it fell on a Sunday) working. I'm used to that, meaning it feels like a Mississippi Christmas. 

October 18 was just another day. My birthday fell on a Tuesday, and I attended a Democrat Committee meeting that evening.
Family members posted greetings before noon, normally that pleases me. But one thing someone did that irritated me: posting a photo of myself heavier at the job that let me go and putting my most important writing accomplishments.
I did not get anything from the woman I once expected to spend the rest of my life with. We had a big fight when her mother died on Labor Day week. I've pretty much counted her out and it will take a miracle for us to reconnect.

National Alabama Football Hatorade Day is always celebrated different days each year.
Monday, October 17, 2022 is the national holiday for hatred of Alabama football. It's the Monday after the Crimson Tide loses a game.  Tennessee knocked off Alabama 52-49 in Neyland Stadium.
We know the drill. Alabama loses a game on the road. Fans of home team rush onto field, tear down goal posts. Alabama coaches and players can't leave the field.
When Alabama beats somebody, it's just another day.
What's gotten sad about this ordeal: social media making threats to Alabama players and fans.  Especially when ESPN and FOX Sports encourage it and join on the celebration.
Another reason I don't watch pre-game shows anymore. Sports journalism is a thing of the past. All we have now are ex-pro athletes who often root for their teams or favorite players in the broadcast booth.
As for Alabama football, I'm at stage of the contestant on the Price of Right Game show, where the person won the car, is now playing for the showcase (until they have to go home and pay taxes on the gifts).
Alabama coach Nick Saban has broken the record for most national championships, seven, a record won't be broken for eons. Saban is cemented as the greatest coach ever. Another title at Alabama will break Bear Bryant's record with the Crimson Tide.
The nation, except Alabama, can rejoice and celebrate all week. College football and the NFL have changed from the way we grew up. It's really sad.

The month of October is always an emotional spot for me. My birthday is the 18th and I usually do something a day or so later.
I am a big fan of Halloween, eating Halloween candy and cookies. I enjoy making Halloween baskets filled with Peanut Butter pumpkins, candy corn, witch popcorn, bat gum and Dracula teeth. The girls always shared my view of Halloween, wanting a bag of candy and a gift.
I usually purchase peanut butter pumpkins a week after Halloween at reduced price, putting them in a Christmas basket six weeks later. To me, pumpkins always represented the Fall. 

I took my first and only trip to Hollywood with the then-wife during the summer of 2005. Screenwriting was nowhere near the agenda.  I was preparing for what would be the worse U.S. Natural Disaster, Hurricane Katrina.
Seventeen years later, I'm quietly working my way through Film Festivals in Hollywood. 
Earlier this year, my screenplay, Legal Passion, received the Special Jury Award at the Hollywood International Film Festival.  More importantly, second-place finish was a qualifier for the International Movie Database. 
Last month, Legal Passion won best feature screenplay at the Hollywood Academy Film Awards. While not a IMDB qualifier, this victory is equally important. 
I've submitted to film festivals in Hollywood, Los Angeles and Sacramento and gotten crushed over the years, but these two Hollywood wins will always remain close to my heart.

Having friends visit on the Fourth of July weekend can be a helpful thing, provided they want to be with you.
When it rained on July 4, everything is taken away. Add to the fact your love interest is out of town. Your job won't allow you to take regular vacations.
Fourth of July was a stinker.

The dumbest decision I ever made continues to haunt me.
Twenty-eight years ago, I turned away from a relationship that lasted from 1991 to 1994.  It began during my final year at Stillman College and ended after she graduated from the University of Alabama in 1994. 
One day she called me at work in Biloxi, Mississippi. She planned to study fashion in New York City, but if there was a chance to have a family and get married, she'd take it.
My heart went pitter-patter and it skipped a beat.  My body froze quicker than a snowman at the North Pole.  I was in love with her and wanted nothing more than Everlasting Love. We'd make our own version of Married....With Children.
Deep down, my conscience prevented me from doing so. She'd resent me for not allowing her to go and one day, she'd leave.
By the time she returned to Alabama five years later, I was about to get married. She began dating her eventual husband and father of two girls.
My only marriage ended after 10 years. I have two girls. It's plain and simple: her marriage worked and mine did not. 
In a heavy dose of symbolism, I work in her hometown. I run into her sister and mother I often joke about what could've been. 
I tried to start a second time with another Selma, but her sorority and materialism kept it from going anywhere.
I passed up True Love in the Spring of 1994 and it hasn't been the same since. 

Father's Day has come and gone for 2022.
The third Sunday in June is another day to me. It's been locked in my DNA since the day I entered the world on October 18, 1969. I never had a father or dad, just someone I refer to as a sperm donor. Saying that is being kind to him.
My heart always tightened whenever I saw my friends with their fathers. Whether to pick them up from school or watch them play sports. All of that eluded me.
A glimmer of hope flashed between 1999 and 2008, when the child lived with me. At first, shivers slid down my spine over being a father. As time passed, my heart stalled for moments. We did a lot of great things together. I enjoyed being a dad as my tight muscles loosened. 
We haven't talked in four years, she's now a mother with two kids.  My loose lips drop open in dejection, unable to hide my disappointment from us not talking. 
Symbolism surrounds me. I had a deadbeat dad and I'm being treated like a deadbeat dad. 

The month of May provided a few historic moments for me. I finally had a breakthrough in the unpredictable world of screenwriting sports movies.
I earned Special Jury Awards at two prestigious Film Festivals in Hollywood and Canada.  To me, it's a second place finish behind the Best Feature Screenplay award. At least that's what I put down for the International Movie Database.
Getting the Boot was honored at the Canada Independent Film Festival. The Boot emerged as my second most popular script.
Legal Passion was rewarded at the Hollywood Independent Film Festival.  Legal Passion is regarded by Film Festivals as my best script and I won't dispute that claim. Most of my victories have been at the expense of Legal Passion, a film set in Rome, Italy.
All of this success tickles my brainwaves as I'm anxious to see what success awaits me going forward. Stay tuned. This may be fun.