Not "just another day"

For the most part, I try not to get too personal here at the Ducks. This is for two reasons. One, my personal life is simply not that interesting to people who aren't me (which, I'm slowly finding out, is most of the world...).

I work for a pharmaceutical company. It's quite dry and inside-the-box-ish. Don't get me wrong, it is an incredible company and I think they are going to have continued success, but [understatement alert] it's not the most interesting place in the world. Especially given that my particular job has been described by an honest former boss as being "dry as toast." So there’s not a lot to be said about that.

I play soccer and coach water polo (not at the same time...), but the soccer is rec league and water polo is high/middle school levels. I have some coaching stories and maybe (probably?) I'll share those at some time, but mostly it's just me walking up and down the pool deck in a tee shirt and cargo shorts, trying to get the kids to play to the best of their abilities... or at least listen to me.

Soccer is just fun, a chance to run around a bit. I'm not terribly good, though, so no great stories there. Although, you don't know if I'm good or not in real life… and I'm a creative kind of dude!

Sometime I should tell you about the time I scored seven goals in a game while rescuing a baby squirrel that was being hunted by a hungry eagle. I didn't want the eagle to go hungry, but the young squirrel was too cute not to save. What was a guy to do? So I made a quick run while they tried to dislodge the ball out of the net from one of my powerful kicks and got the starving bird a Big Mac. We all became best friends.

Or maybe it was... I was running to get the ball and went to kick it, but missed. (Let's go with the first one!)

Beyond that, I like reading and writing. I've shared reading stuff with you guys (everyone should know I'm a huge fan of, amongst others, Malcolm Gladwell and Colson Whitehead). Writing is something I don't talk about too much just yet. I know a lot of my fellow bloggers do a ton of sharing with regard to their respective projects, but that's not my cup of tea. Once I have stuff completed, I'll pull back the curtain and unveil the canvas. In the meantime, my wife, writing group and maybe a select few are privy to my works in progress.

The other reason I don't get terribly personal is the fact that I'm a painfully private person. Well, I'm not so private that I'm constantly in pain, but hopefully you get what I mean. Now that I'm a world-famous, possibly delusional blogger, it's tough to keep it real. I've always got paparazzi chasing me around, trying to find out how I order my Whoppers at BK (no onion or pickles, please) and vying for the best photos of me lying topless on the beach. [Given that I'm a guy, I never said that the topless photos are tough to come by...]

All the attention drives me nuts. [“That explains it,” they all say in unison.]

I'm married and have two stepsons, but for their benefit, I try to keep them somewhat anonymous. I notice that a lot of my fellow bloggers do the same. Some opt for nicknames. I suppose I kind of have one of those whenever I refer to "the unnamed woman who may or may not be the wife" (or however I tend to phrase it...).

Anyhow (yes, here at The Ducks we have a patent on that...), I'm getting a little personal today.

"Why today," you ask? [More likely - "Why does he always give us thoughts like that? He's so strange."]

Excellent question, loyal readers!! Today is my one-year anniversary. [Uh, of marriage, in case you were thinking "Maybe he's been blogging for a year" or whatever.]

So I want to publicly say "Happy Anniversary, The-always-unnamed-woman-who-happens-to-be-my-wife!!"

I'm looking forward to a lot more anniversaries with you! Love you so much that I'm willing to put it on my extremely public blog! It makes me feel good to know that I'm with you. But I'm quite sure you already know that... :)

I’m a lucky guy because I'm with you!

Tomorrow: Manly stuff to compensate for all this "feelings" nonsense!! We will learn how to hunt dangerous things and build impressive stuff. It will be awesome.