- One blog became three. I have successfully launched a second and third blog, although the spiritual one--redashisdisciple--has seen few postings as of late. But in 2015, I will be keeping a new Book of Mormon journal on this blog. This blog is mainly for posterity and doesn't get many visits. The professional one--redmft--has come to be the default blog to which I refer clients. This blog was created to keep stuff of my personal blog--redintransition--separate from my professional blog, and while some of my writings ends up on both, the professional one does not contain really personal musings.
- Multiple trips to the Huntington. Since becoming members of this Edenic place, my wife and I spent hours walking about the grounds, seeing exhibits--including the newly expanded Chinese Garden area, and enjoying God's creations. I always feel exhilirated after visiting this beautiful area.
- Attending BYU Volleyball games here in Southern California. This was the year that BYU should have won the NCAA tournament. As it was, they lost in the semi-finals. It was a big disappointment for me because their star player, Taylor Sander, was a senior. Oh well. I was able to attend a game (which BYU lost) at the Pyramid at Long Beach State with my son, BJ. And there is nothing like the adrenaline rush I feel when a BYU player makes a kill!
- Bringing a pet into our home. My wife felt like it was important for her to own a pet and so we went to the Pasadena SPCA and brought home a young, toilet trained black cat she called Suki. She can be very contented sitting on my lap. Her purring is audible. But she has a habit of biting. One of the familiar refrains in our home is "no bite!!!" Suki is a gender-confused cat because we use "she" and "her" pronouns even though Suki is a male. Maybe that's why she/he bites!
- A new hobby begins: bonsai plants. I have always wanted to try my hand at bonsai plants. I have learned a lot through killing four of them. But I have three thriving--two indoor and one outdoor. Two of the outdoor plants died during a summer hot spell in which I was out of town and they didn't get watered for five days. You have to always make sure to sufficiently water them and give them fertilizer. I'm going to try taking care of more in 2015.
- We celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary on April 22. Although we kind of kept things modest in terms of expenditures, I was pleased by the response I received from my wife when she viewed a video tribute to her which contained pictures of her, us, and our family through the years, set to Gordon Lightfoot's lovely ballad "Beautiful." A good friend helped put it together and I am very proud of it.
- A mini-vacation to Central California. Our friends, the Lees, invited us to tag along with them to Morro Bay to stay at the second home of the 1st Counselor of our Stake whom I know quite well but who had invited the Lees to stay there. Morro Bay is a community north of San Luis Obispo, which is right on the ocean and is dominated by a huge rock in the bay, Morro Rock. We explored this picturesque tourist town along with the surrounding communities of Los Osos, Cambria, and San Simeon, the latter being very near the spectacular Randolph Hearst Mansion. While it was but a short time away, it was very enjoyable.
- My 60th birthday surprise. My wife completely surprised me by flying us to Utah for about 24 hours to celebrate this birthday with family and friends. We spent some of the day with my extended family, some of the day driving around the westside of Salt Lake City where I grew up, some of the day at the cemetary to visit my parents' graves, and some of the day at the Cabin with extended family and friends. It was a fantastic trip and a very thoughtful gift from my bride.
- Coming out on this blog as an LGBT ally. Those who have followed this blog know to some degree of my journey to reconcile my thoughts and feelings about homosexuality with the LDS Church's doctrine. On June 1st, I wrote about the culmination of this journey on this blog and announced myself as an LGBT ally. A number of my extended family and friends, as well as some members of the Glendale 7th Ward over which I presided as bishop from 2006 to 2009, took exception to my coming out, and I guess referred others to read it. This posting has become my 2nd most read posting with over 500 looks. I frankly was amazed that it caused such an uproar, and I decided to write a follow up posting to it, incorporating part of what I had written on the redashisdisciple blog earlier.
- The Paxman Family Reunion in Michigan. What a great time I had with immediate and extended family in and around Rick & Amy Paxman's home in Saline, just outside of Ann Arbor. We traveled with our grandson Isaac from So Cal who had spent some time with us prior, and met his mother Rebecca and his uncle BJ there. Emily, Adam, Elizabeth and the Triplets drove from New Jersey, and Ann's sister Jill and her family met us there. The only ones not in attendance were our son Doug and his boy Daniel, Rick and Amy's son Taylor who was serving an LDS mission in San Diego at the time, and Christopher, Jill and Richard Lin's boy who is serving a mission in Mexico.
We played disc golf, canoed down the Huron River, attended 4th of July fireworks, swam in
lake near the Paxman home, and had a wonderful time hanging out together. There is talk of
another one in a couple of years, perhaps out of the country. We'll see!
- Another mini-vacation to Wrightwood in California's Angeles National Forest. In trying to get away before Ann's school year began, I looked for a locale where we could do something fun and exciting. I decided to build a little vacation around doing a zipline course near the Snow Summit ski resort just outside of Wrightwood. I blogged about this trip, and the ziplining, which was really a stretch for me. Besides that scary activity, we went hiking, ate a nice restaurants, and just kicked back for a short time. The real scary activity was on the way there when I temporarily lost control of the car and sideswiped a guardrail.
- Attending the Affirmation Conference in Salt Lake City. In an effort to learn more about the LDS LGBT community and to determine my comfort level at being around them, I decided to attend their conference. I will admit to feeling a little apprehensive when I first arrived, but within a short time felt very much accepted and appreciated. I saw great love, acceptance, and understanding, not to mention emotional pain from the "struggle." It really came to me forcefully that these LGBT folks and the allies live with great cognitive dissonance and with ambiguity, realizing that they still want to be associated with an organization that means so much to them but which in its practice rejects them.
- Doing humanitarian service. After so many years, I was able to involve my ward in a humanitarian service project. I was able to combine a food drive for the local chapter of the LA Food Bank (we gathered about 500 lbs.) with the production of 25 blankets for the local chapter of a national non-profit called Project Linus. It felt good to contribute to the community and to get the Church unit I belong to involved in other than proselyting.
- I went deep sea fishing with my son BJ--again. After at least 15 years, my son and I took the opportunity to go deep sea fishing. We had originally gone as a way to connect as father and son, although he was in the beginning stages of his drug use that lasted so many years. We decided to celebrate his nearly five years of sobriety by again doing something together like we had done. He caught three and I caught four yellowfin tuna in the 13-15 lb. range, and we each finished with the limit of five each through the contribution of others. All but one of the tuna were donated to BJ's Beacon House which had a great fish dinner of ceviche.
- Spending the holidays with Emily and Adam and their four children, plus Isaac. The Adam Johnson family traveled from New Jersey, and Isaac traveled from Washington, to spend the holidays with us here in California. Besides seeing wonderful Christmas lights, the family went to a couple of museums--including to see the Space Shuttle, spent a day at the beach before it turned cold, and just had a great time together as family. Just before they fly back to New Jersey and to Washington, our sixth grandchild will be spending time with us. That means that for a couple of days, we will have all six of our grandchildren in our home!
I think that 2014 was quite a wonderful year, and I wonder what 2015 will bring!
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