The title of Master

Date: May 7, 2011 -  I graduated.  I am officially a Master.  For now on I will go by the name of Master Bryan, Master Ottley, or even Master Otown.  School for me is officially over.  I have no plans to ever step back into a classroom.  Graduation was equally about Angela and the kids as it was myself.  I'm grateful for their sacrifice and endless support.  I didn't walk and do the whole graduation celebration thing as an undergraduate so I wanted to do it right this time.  We did, and I'm so glad -- It was the perfect ending to this stage of our lives. 

The walk that made me a Master.

Did you hear Angela get in trouble at the end?

MBA awards ceremony the night before graduation.

So happy that my parents could come out and be part of my graduation.

My classmates voted me 'most likely to be CEO of a Fortune 500 Company'.  It was a very nice surprise.

After the walk that made me a 'Master'.  Angela was very disappointed that they didn't read my name.  Due to the size of the class only the Doctors got their names read.

Chaos

Date: October 8, 2009 -- It was a chilly October night, my birthday had come and gone, and my family was no where near.   A family tragedy sent Angela and the kids rushing back to Utah leaving me alone in Connecticut. Angela and the kids were where they needed to be, but I missed them... I missed them terribly.  Self loathing in my loneliness I began going through some family videos from the summer of 2009.  There were several of Angela and Anela that stuck out to me that made me miss them even more so I compiled them and put them to the somber, yet beautiful song The Crisis by Ennio Morricone.  I call this family video My Girls.

(Turn up the sound so you can hear the dialogue)  

(Background notes to the clips:  1. Angela loves smores, but she eats them like a toddler.  She doesn't know how to hold them and bite into them without chocolate and marshmallow getting everywhere.  In the first clip you see chocolate on the side of her face.  I can't help but smile when I see this, because I have endless memories of Angela with chocolate in the strangest places after consuming her favorite campfire treat.  2.  Angela loves flamingos -- I can't explain it and I don't think she can explain it but her eyes light up like a child on Christmas morning when she sees a flamingo... just a minor detail I love about her.  3. You'll see in one clip Angela asking Anela, 'who's girl are you?', in which Anela proudly pronounces 'Mommy's girl'.  Angela's dad always poses this same question to each of his grandkids -- He asks 'who's girl/boy are you?'  If the child says anything other than 'grandpa's girl/boy' they get tickled silly until they scream bloody murder 'grandpa's girl/boy!'  Bryson loved this little game when he was a toddler and would always finish with screaming 'grandpa's boy!'  Angela didn't like this much so she would often retaliate with her own tickle attack to coax Bryson into screaming 'mommy's boy', but to no avail -- Grandpa always got the final scream.  Anela was different and I believe the only grandkid that has not given into Grandpa's tickle wars.  She has always been very clear to everyone that she is 'Mommy's girl', to the much pleasure of Angela.)

You'd think without the chaos of family around I'd be productive by getting ahead on my school work and/or getting caught up on other personal interests rather than sulking in my loneliness.  That simply wasn't the case.  I couldn't focus, I couldn't motivate myself, I couldn't function.  I learned something about myself during the two weeks my wife and two kids were gone, which is I need my family.   I need the chaos of family to keep me focused and motivated on the things I do outside the home.  I need the chaos of family to give me purpose.  It's such an oxymoron -- chaos to focus.  When I tell my classmates and work colleges that I have two kids (and now a third on the way) I often get the response 'How do you do it all?  I couldn't do it'.  Well, for me I don't know how I'd do it without my chaos waiting for me at home.  I simply couldn't do it.

6th year in Review

Date: April 18, 2011 - My boy is growing -- growing too fast if you ask me.  Nearly all my life I've imagined having a son in which I was best friends with.  I pictured us doing everything together and he thought I was the greatest thing since chewing gum.  Well, unfortunately for me bubble gum is Bryson's favorite thing in the world, but we are best friends... I'll take it.

Bryson is now 6 years old.   For the first time in Bryson's life the sentiment of passing time consumed my thoughts when I realized that birthday morning his age had officially turned from 5 to 6.  I've always considered ages 3-5 the prime years of a small child.  I think I get that bias from my experience with my little brother, Brandon.  During his 3-5 years I connected with my brother more than any time since.  At the age of three, wrestling, human rocket launches, and shoulder rides became almost a daily occurrence.  It was so fun watching and being part of Brandon's world discovery and personality changes. I was the cool brother that he always wanted to play with.  We were like 'peas and carrots'.  When he turned 6 the shoulder rides and human launches became more and more infrequent and I quickly became less and less his world.  I'm sure a lot of the separation was primarily a function of my own life's circumstance, but I see a lot of comparisons with my role with Brandon and my role with Bryson during 3-5.  I know I shouldn't associate my experiences with Brandon to what may or may not happen with Bryson, but I can't help but fear that I'm only going to become less and less relevant in my son's life going forward.  Perhaps I will become less relevant as a friend/playmate, but become more relevant as a father... I don't know.  I do know that the last three years of Bryson's life have definitely been not only my favorite years of his life but my favorite years of my life.  I do look forward to what the future holds for my son and my involvement in it.  Man, I love my boy.

Looking back over the past year I'm amazed at the many 'firsts' Bryson has had.  To name just some:

• graduated preschool
• lost his first tooth (actually pulled due to cavity but the tooth fairy still came)
• visited D.C., Philly, Hershey, Niagara, Palmyra, Basketball Hall of Fame, and Disney World
• learned how to ride a bike without training wheels, blow gum bubbles (he's been trying since the age of two), front flips, dives, water skiing, snow skiing, ice skating, swimming
• started Kindergarten
• Bryson can now consistently make baskets on a 10 foot hoop (he's pretty excited about that one... ok, maybe his dad is more excited about that one).  

Check out Bryson's 6th year highlight reel.

Every year Angela puts on the most amazing birthday parties for the kids.  She seems to out do herself every year, and this year was definitely no exception.  I'm still working on putting video of Bryson's party together (watch for a future post) but I did manage to put together this short teaser trailer.  I was going for the epic movie feel with the music (score from Battle for LA).  I didn't achieve epic level, but its still fun to watch... heck, after finishing I felt deprived I never attended a party like this when I was a kid.