Julie and Julia, and Chico

It has been over a month since I last wrote, which does not bode well for a blog with the word DAILY in it. In truth, I have been struggling with direction lately. Well, my immediate direction and concentration hasn’t been a problem, taking on the stay at home father role, but leaping to the next direction of generating income again has been the challenge. Yet, it feels like I’m going to give birth to something great over the next little while.


It’s been nine months since I was laid off and started to switch places with my wife. I completely immersed myself in my new environment at home and she went back to full-time and fulfilling work. After leaving my writing/producing gig I still attempted to keep my prose alive and fresh but it proved to be a challenge in my new position at daddy-day-care. I would start to write new observations and rants for my blog but as stories about bringing up my son began to surface in the writing, I struggled to decide what exactly to post and share. As weeks passed I became more excited about the day ahead with my son and all the new things we would learn and experience together. I just wanted to excel with him and watch him excel at the same time. So as he began to read and print his first letters, I was writing less and less. Still, each day something deep inside me was itching to get out.

Today things have started out a bit different. I’m still lying in bed and I’m taking this chance to start writing. My wife has returned from her business trip and has taken the day off to be with our son, giving me a whole new perspective to my day. The blinds are slightly open giving me a view of today’s dreary weather and enough light for me to write. The cursor stands there relentlessly blinking at me as I fiercely stare back at it pondering what stream of words will continue this dialogue. Dialogue? Yes, not only my internal dialogue that I must purge from my soul, but my dialogue with you the reader who at times prods me to continue to write and share.


So here I am reworking my mantra for the Chico Daily blog. After watching Guy Kawasaki’s lecture, The Art of the Start, I’m trying to encompass everything I enjoy about writing into one simple tagline, my mantra. It has not been easy. I can’t just write about one particular topic all the time, that’s not how I work. While my background in music and politics maintains a recurring theme throughout many of my posts, I cannot dismiss my passion to champion creative people from other fields such as design, photography and film. And of course no matter how much I try at this point in my life, stories about being a father will continue to surface. How do you tidy up all of that into a nice one liner?


I recently watched the film Julie & Julia and I have to admit, it had a huge affect on me. Meryl Streep was incredible playing out Julia Child’s story about her start in the cooking profession. The film intertwined Julia’s life with the real story of Julie Powell, a blogger who wrote and cooked 524 of Julia Child’s recipes in 365 days. I don’t want to spoil the ending if you haven’t seen it but it is every blogger’s wet dream. Not only am I a blogger but I’m a pretty damn good cook too. The film resonated with me big time and convinced me to keep writing more regularly, dare I say daily. I like to think of it more like - write daily, post often.

Our son is now two and half years old and is running, jumping, talking, reading, writing and playing hard in our little world. I am excited with every new word he masters to spell as the lengths of his sentences grow each day. His character and humor in full affect as we witness his charms at work attempting to convince us to watch some “big choo-choos” on You Tube. In pace with his own growth is my growing desire to keep creating and contributing to the bottom line of our household.


After spending time re-reading my past posts and staring into my son’s deep brown eyes it finally hit me! I have a hard time bullshitting. I am not much for pointless small talk. I am a big fan of truth and love in order for us all to progress, move forward, grow and learn more. Now I finally realize what my mantra is for writing, I’m here to Create, Educate and Motivate. Everyday with my son simply reminds me of that mantra and so I will find more hours in the day to keep the mantra alive through my words and this blog. I’m going to keep writing and I hope you keep reading, often.