My decade

I stole this idea from my old friend, Darcy Toews, who is doing a year by year reflection on the 2000's on Facebook. It's a neat idea that really got me reflecting on how much has changed in my life over the past 10 years, all for the better!

Bonus points if you are aware of why the image to the right is relevant!!!

Without further adieu, here's the last ten years of my life! Because YOU demanded it!

2000
At the turn of the century, I was still colouring comic books on the midnight shift at Digital Chameleon, working all night, sleeping all day. Being up all night, I listened to a lot of Coast to Coast AM, and was convinced that Y2K was going to end the world. Whoops. I became single for the first time in a while, and by the years end I'd moved out of a shabby apartment on South Park Drive to an overpriced, but less shabby apartment on Chancellor Drive.

2001
In spring of that year, I left Digital Chameleon for the sweet, daytime hours of a local software company to be their webmaster. I'm still employed there today! Much of my time is spent playing drums in a glam rock band. We record and release our first album, and spend a lot of time playing the Horseshoe Tavern, the Pyramid, and the Zoo. By the end of the year, I had moved up from my Baba's 1984 Buick Skylark to a 1995 Pontiac Firebird, which still serves me well to this day.

2002
Playing in a band sounds like fun, and it is, but by the end of the year exhaustion sets in, both mental and physical. So much of my time is devoted to practicing and playing music that literally nothing else happened this year. Actually, that's not entirely true. I died my hair blond, and briefly grew a goatee. The other 364.25 days are a blur.

2003
The band records our second album in the coldest January I can remember, in a downtown studio owned by Chris Burke-Gaffney. (Yes. THE Chris Burke-Gaffney. And if Chris Burke-Gaffney says he wants more cowbell, we should probably give him more cowbell!) We win the Pyramid's battle of the bands and play a showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto to celebrate the release of the CD. After a few years of putting music at the center of my life, my heart isn't in it anymore, and we go our separate ways after coming back to Winnipeg. I meet Cat when she starts a 6 months term in my department at work. I fall in love with her the second I meet her, and within 6 months we're engaged! When you know, you know!

2004
I'm living downtown a block away from work. I get up at 8:55, and I'm there for 9:00. Pretty sweet. Cat and I make a good team planning a social and a wedding. We're married in September! We buy our first home on Magnus Avenue. The next morning, the alarm clock news tells us there's been a shooting on the street. Good thing it's a long street, it was far away from us. Still, welcome to the neighborhood. Cat and I have traveled to Montreal and Toronto by this point, and add Victoria and Vancouver to the list by the end of the year!

2005
Another trip to Vancouver sees Cat and I rocking out to U2. It's her third U2 concert, my second. I spend the early part of spring in tremendous pain due to a severe allergic reaction from some medication. I've jumped once again into the comic colouring business, this time freelancing with some old colleagues for Marvel and Dark Horse. My name appears in the credits as a colourist for the first time in the Chronicles of Conan volume 9. A proud day. And, oh yeah, I start blogging.

2006
I see go to my first Ottawa Senators game at the beginning of the year, and enjoy a good trouncing of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the spring, it's back to Vancouver. This time I get to see my favourite band, Queen, perform live with Paul Rodgers. One of the best concerts I've ever been to! I quit drinking pop in April of that year, and a drop of cola hasn't touched my lips in almost 4 years. That fall, a doctor determines that Cat has been carrying around a 36 pound cyst in her abdomen. Say what you will about socialized medicine, but it was removed within a matter of days. Thankfully, it was benign. I also make it to the final round of casting calls for Canada's Deal or No Deal, and fly to Calgary for an audition. Alas, despite making it to the final handful of potential contestants, it was not to be, but it was a fantastic experience and an honour to have made it down to the final few.

2007
Cat and I go out to supper at the Elephant & Castle, where we went on our first 'date', where she tells me that after months of trying, that she's pregnant! The rest of the year is spent nesting and cleaning, getting our home ready for a new addition! Our travel schedule is reduced significantly, and this blog goes on hiatus. I also reconnect with a long lost person from my youth who played a significant role in my life. It's a great, roller coaster ride of a year.

2008
Our beautiful daughter, Madelyn, is born on a bitterly cold January day! We bring her home to an icebox, as our furnace has died. We spend a cold first night as a family! All other life goes on hiatus as we care for our Maddy Roo! The first few months are sleepless, and I wander around in a daze learning to balance family life and work. It wasn't always fun at the time, but I now look back on those days fondly.

2009
Life begins to get back to normal as Madelyn grows to be a fun, happy toddler! My name makes it's first appearance in the credits of a Marvel comic, as I donated some of my art collection to be used in Marvel's Secret Wars II Omnibus. This blog makes a bit of a comeback! I've begun taking steps towards self publishing my own comic book, after being inspired by so many colleagues and friends who are on the same path. More on that in the coming weeks!

Happy new decade, everyone! I hope to be writing a very similar post in another 10 years, and God willing, my life will continue to be getting better and better with each pass around the sun!

Currently playing: Brian McFadden - Demons
Currently colouring: Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Volume 5
Proudly in my fourth Cola free year!