New Year’s Resolutions…In July

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Steve Skojec, and you might remember me from such blogs as: Inside Catholic, or even, if you didn’t loathe every thought I committed to writing, my old blog at SteveSkojec.com (it’s now the site for my as-yet-in-the-idea-phase photography business, about to undergo changes of its own soon, so no pithy words there.)

Yes, I used to write here often. Back in the day, I even penned a column just about every month. Then I fell off the face of the earth for a while, for which I apologize to a handful of you and offer a warm “you’re welcome” to the rest.

For reasons too complex and, frankly, boring to summarize here, writing and I have been estranged lovers for far too long now. The last year or two has been a real whirlwind, and while it’s finally showing some signs of abating just a bit, I don’t think the freight train of fate (and faith) that my family and I are on will be slowing down any time soon. 

In the past 12 months, I’ve gone from being a long-term lacky at a boutique PR Firm in D.C. working with big-name clients to taking care of a sick relative and trying to help get a family-owned trailer park in the worst part of South Tucson, Arizona back on its feet, to finally winding up back in the city I never seem to fully escape – Phoenix – where I’ve just become a full-time stay-at-home dad…a topic I’ll be talking about more in depth in a near-future column. The changes in environment have been drastic, and are perhaps best explained visually. Suffice it to say that my family and I went from this:

…to this…

…and finally to this:

Now that I’m back in civilization, and the police helicopter flyovers are naught but a noisy memory, I have some time to reflect. God no doubt has His reasons for why we endure the things we do, and while I admit that my faith and my fortitude have taken one heck of a beating on the midnight train to weirdville, I’m going to try to stop using train metaphors (suitable mostly for their anachronistic imagery and connotation of inevitable momentum, I assume) and get back to doing what I do: writing.

One might think that because I’m a stay-at-home now I’ll have loads of time for this sort of thing, but if you think that it’s only because you’re clearly a guy and are as absolutely clueless as your wife/girlfriend/mother have always told you you are. In addition to lacking those essential feminine instincts so essential to managing several rambunctious toddlers and an adolescent, I am completely disorganized and always playing catch-up. I went to the store this morning to buy toilet paper and dish soap with an impressive case of bed head, a completely mis-matched outfit, and a shirt smeared with flour and dough from last night’s bout of cookie-making. I also have little doubt that right now, as I write this, a fire is being started in this very house, and several valuable items are in the process of being completely destroyed. Luckily, we don’t have many items of value left, so the damage can only be so bad. See? I’m learning to be an optimist!

At any rate, I’m using the new blog design here at IC to give me an excuse to jump back into the fray. It’s like making New Year’s resolutions in July, and if I keep them as well as other such resolutions I made, you should be hearing from me again in about 2013.

I can only say that I will make a valiant effort to post here, and I have a couple of columns in the hopper. Until then, if you’re interested in keeping up with the antics in my new domestic role, you can catch the updates at my brand-spanking-new blog, Robots & Recipes.