{"id":431,"date":"2019-11-10T08:38:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T08:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicalmemories.whereishome.info\/?p=431"},"modified":"2019-11-10T08:38:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T08:38:56","slug":"all-the-stars-the-last-few-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicalmemories.whereishome.info\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"All The Stars: The Last Few Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The end is nigh, time to leave this year behind,<\/em>
For the first time, had to battle for my life, glad to leave it on a high,<\/em>
Taking it easy for the last day, no FOMO for yours truly,<\/em>
All due respect to the masses going out to celebrate and party,<\/em>
Taking the lessons learned for future battles that lie ahead,<\/em>
Gonna be a long life, hopefully, gotta stay prepared.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

27-31\/12\/2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year 2018 was soon down to those final five days of the\nyear, long-considered a limbo of sorts that connected the Christmas Season to\nthe New Year period where it was very easy to lose track of the time and date.\nFor some people these last few days were spent on a much-needed holiday that\nprobably started during the Christmas period. Others might take time to reflect\non the year that was and come up with resolutions for the next year. Some might\ntry to mend some fences and get their affairs in order so they can enter the\nnew year on a clean slate. Others might finally start on some long-overdue\nprojects around the house that had been put on hold for longer than the cold\nwar due to the demands of work and home life (and, possibly, also due to lack\nof motivation to just start). Whichever way they went, one thing was for\ncertain; damn near everyone on the planet would be gearing up for New Year\u2019s\nEve, planning the mother of all blowouts that would reach its zenith when the\nclock struck midnight to leave 2018 behind, guns blazing, and enter 2019 with\nan almighty bang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, having already done the holiday thing a few weeks ago,\nfor my household it was mostly about cleaning up and fixing things around the\nhome. In addition to repainting the ceiling and tending to the gardens, the wardrobe\nin my old room in the main house had long been one big disorganized mess, as it\nis with most wardrobes that last from an individual\u2019s childhood up until the\nday that they move out. I\u2019d taken my clothes with me but left the other crap\nstored in there and no one bothered to get rid of them, much to my relief as I\nwasn\u2019t too keen on disposing of any of those items just yet. But a clean-up was\nlong overdue and so with my mother\u2019s help I finally set about clearing up that\ncave. My clothes were long gone, now stored in my current wardrobe, but that\nold space still housed the boxes that contained my old video game consoles,\nsome old toys from childhood that somehow evaded that boxes in the garage,\nmementos from school and a whole bunch of other random items that could easily\nhave been included in a time capsule for my childhood and adolescent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the hell can such\na small space house so much crap!?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it is with most \u2018spring cleaning\u2019 projects I was\nunenthusiastic in the beginning and it took some effort to rouse my body into\naction but as my mother and I cleared up the space into something resembling order\nI warmed up to the task. Digging through those old blasts from the past quickly\nbecame a rather fun nostalgia trip as I was quickly reunited with items that I\nhadn\u2019t seen in more than ten years. Among them was an old pass from a\nnow-defunct amusement park, my old school bus pass, several old wallets that\nvaried in appearance and material depending on which stage of life that I had\nused them and of course, some of my old, expired school and travel IDs and\ndriver\u2019s licenses, complete with unflattering mug shots. I took one look at\nthem and immediately wondered what the fuck I was thinking in terms of what I\nwas wearing and the way my hair was styled in each picture. It\u2019s quite\nincredible, the powerful effect of old photos from your adolescence and early\nadulthood. It can touch your heart and make you yearn, through misty eyes, to\nrelive the good ol\u2019 days once more even just for a while, but on the other hand\ncan also make your skin crawl with shame and regret at some of the trends, fads,\nstyles or whatnot that you bought into. Everyone is guilty of it at some point\nin their lives and I was no different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ugh! Burn that shit!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also discovered what seemed like a mountain of old\nbirthday and Christmas cards that I had kept in some of my drawers throughout\nthe years, all still in their original envelopes and still in great condition,\nalong with some of the school awards that I had earned back in the day. Those\nlittle school award cards (yellow ones for good deeds, blue ones for\noutstanding deeds) were seen as badges of honor for students back in the day and\nserved as fuel for bragging rights but, in reality, they were just pieces of\npaper with your name on it that expressed how great you were at kissing the teacher\u2019s\nass. I sat there for a while perusing through those greeting cards and awards,\ntaking a brief trip through memory lane before soldiering on with the cleaning.\nIt took roughly two hours to clean up that old closet but it turned out to be\ntwo-odd hours well-spent and my old closet looked a hell of a lot better, too,\nfor it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How \u2018bout that\u2026.this\ncloset has a floor and walls?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also started reading an old book that I found in my old\nroom during the clean-up that I had received as a Christmas gift a few years\nago titled Events That Changed The World.\n<\/em>It was quite a fascinating read and included such events in history as The\nAthenian Navy\u2019s victory over The Persians in The Battle Of Salamis, The\nAssassination Of Julius Caesar, The Rise and Fall Of Constantinople, The Fall\nOf The Bastille, The Storming Of The Winter Palace, both World Wars, The Moon\nLanding, the invention of the telephone and the 9\/11 Attacks. That book\ncertainly helped me pass the time as thirty minutes would easily come and go\nquicker than I could believe after reading just a few chapters! It would be a\nstretch to say that I am a history buff but I do find reading about moments and\nstories from history, particularly the macabre, the twisted and the downright\nunbelievable and hilarious, a rather soothing and fascinating experience. I\u2019d\ndone plenty of reading during the thick of my recovery, exploring the classic\nnovels that my father collected over the years in addition to the random\narticles on the Internet that I\u2019d stumbled across (the infamous Bone Wars that\nuncovered the fossils of some of the most iconic dinosaur species in North\nAmerica from 1877 until 1892 was a rather amusing and interesting read as well\nas some of the weird and disturbing ways that some historical figures met their\nends) and this book that had been collecting dust in my old bookshelf for years\nquickly became my constant companion during these last few days of the year\n2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day was spent outside washing the family cars, Christina and Sylvia, under the broiling sun. Although I was drenched from the splash back as a result of rinsing the vehicles with the hose on full blast the sun\u2019s intense heat still damn near killed me and I sweated like a blacksmith standing close to a kiln. Having not cleaned the vehicles for quite some time some of the dirt and grime that had accumulated on them were quite difficult to scrub off and at one point I worked so hard at trying to remove a gnarly stain on Christina\u2019s front bumper, scratching away like a stressed cat, that I was almost certain that I\u2019d take the paint off. Thankfully it was nothing but red after I\u2019d burned my forearms silly rubbing off that piece of grime.
I should be more diligent with this shit.<\/em>
Cleaning up Sylvia also came with its own challenges. She was not quite as big and burly as Christina but what she lacked in length and width, she made up for with height. Being vertically-challenged, trying to scrub Sylvia\u2019s roof tested the endurance in my toes and calf muscles as I was forced to stand on tippy-toes while scrubbing as much of her roof as I could manage. I might as well have been trying to give LeBron James a head massage without asking him to sit down first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few buckets of water, plenty of scrubbing and several\nsprays of the hose both cars shone brightly like diamonds under the sun in\nbright red and silver, respectively, burning holes into both of my eyes\nwhenever I made direct eye contact with them, Christina in particular.\nMaintaining eye contact with that shiny red for more than a few seconds would\nhave come at the cost of one\u2019s eyesight, like Christina had suddenly become\nChernobyl\u2019s infamous Elephant Foot for the eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sister dropped by on the afternoon of New Years\u2019 Eve and\nwe as a family spent the last day of the year together. Earlier during the day,\nI took some time to reflect on my run through the twelve-month gauntlet of\nfirst-time experiences that I didn\u2019t quite sign up for, which was the best way\nI could sum up the year that was 2018. I paced around the backyard as I\nmeditated, admiring the various plants that my parents and I tended to every\nweekend, looking back on how I started the year in great shape and good health\nbefore being ambushed by a serious disease that I had no idea even existed and\nthen bouncing back again. It was certainly a year of firsts from a health\nstandpoint, for the first time I\u2019d experienced being a hospital patient, I\u2019d\nundergone a blood transfusion and colonoscopy and was then forced to play the\nextended role of a recovering patient on medication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite the odyssey,\nhuh? I might as well change my name to Homer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lived my entire life believing that I didn’t need to experience any of that until I was at least middle-aged.
But deep down I knew why I had to go through it.
As the clich\u00e9 goes, life is full of surprises and challenges and sooner or later we will all be severely tested. When I look at my life I can\u2019t say that I faced any serious hardships. I wasn\u2019t born into extreme poverty, never had to fight for survival on mean streets, I grew up in a stable home and never battled substance abuse or any life-threatening health conditions. Prior to this year my hardest personal battle was putting up with bullies in high school and as downright sucky as that experience was, it was a picnic compared to some of the shit that others go through. It\u2019s not like those jerks left me scarred for life or anything of the sort.
I guess life saw it fit to throw colitis my way to truly test my mettle and in doing so attacked an aspect of my life that I thought I had completely figured out \u2013 my health and well-being. Not only were my mental and physical strength tested but this year also forced me to re-evaluate the way I lived, ate, slept and trained, which I walked around for years believing were pretty close to spot-on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know, this humble\npie tastes really good. Put some crow on it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite being humbled, it was an empowering feeling to know that I had it in me to fight back rather than lay down when life decides to derail the train and that I had passed that fucking test before the year was out with flying colors, staying cool and calm during the heat of battle though there were definitely some bad days.
Not bad, eh?<\/em>
We had dinner as a family before taking it easy for the rest of the evening, preferring to stay home and eventually tuning in to catch the midnight fireworks on TV. We had gone to watch it live in the city many years ago and while having a ringside seat to the show was an exhilarating experience, dealing with crowds before, during and after was not, especially during the home commute where the train station almost resembled a bomb shelter housing the population of an entire small city while inside the trains, passengers were crammed into carriages like sardines in a tin. Still, it was another tick off the bucket list and we could say that we did it but, yeah, staying home turned out to be a far more appealing option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the last few minutes of 2018 ticked by I paced back and forth around the living room while my parents watched the live TV coverage of the New Year\u2019s Eve party on Sydney Harbor, my way of trying to stay awake as drowsiness began to creep up on me. I didn\u2019t need to think long and hard about any New Years\u2019 Resolutions, I simply resolved to continue living healthily, stressing less and of course, to keep the colitis dead and buried forever. \u00a0
They will probably be my resolutions for every year from here on out.<\/em>
Not really resolutions, more like lifestyle choices.
A few minutes later, we bade farewell to the year 2018, warts and all, at the stroke of midnight and for the next fifteen minutes watched the fireworks on TV light up the sky above The Harbor, accompanied by a soundtrack of some of the musical hits from the year that included the song from the Black Panther <\/em>soundtrack that inspired this particular blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I headed to bed afterwards with a clear mind and looked\nforward to what 2019 had to offer. I\u2019d like to think that I took the lessons\nlearned from 2018 to heart and was hopeful that 2019 would be a glorious year.\nA new year meant new opportunities and a clean slate so I was keen to see what\nit had in store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m ready, let\u2019s go!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The end is nigh, time to leave this year behind,For the first time, had to battle for my life, glad to leave it on a high,Taking it easy for the last day, no FOMO for yours truly,All due respect to the masses going out to celebrate and party,Taking the lessons learned for future battles that … <\/p>\n

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