Merry Christmas 2017

Well ,well, well if it isn’t that time of year again.  The holidays have come and gone and the new year is already in full swing.  Obviously it must be the Durkin Christmas letter! Right on time as usual.

Annette is still working at Bombshell Salon Suites, creating magical hairstyles for all her clients.  She absolutely loves what she does. Earlier this year (pretend its still 2017), she trekked to Wisconsin to become certified in the “Head Shape Matters” cutting system.  What exactly is Head Shape Matters? Great question and one Annette is always happy to explain because it combines her two greatest passions. The system uses math (nerd) and the client’s head shape to specifically formulate a haircut (nerd).  Currently, Annette is the only person in Nebraska who is certified in this (nerd). Is anyone truly shocked Annette would be the first in her state to be certified? In this system…?…N.E.R.D.

I am still employed with GroundUP Restaurants (sorry to anyone who lost that bet, suckers!).  My official title is Food and Beverage Director and consists of overseeing the pricing and purchasing of goods, inventory, day to…snore…snore…Right?  How boring does all that sound!?! I truly enjoy it and love the company. i know, hurry up and get to the good stuff.

I am pleased to say Annette wasn’t the only one in our household to become certified that year.  In April I received my Open Water Diving certification. The last part of certification involved several actual dives at various depths while performing specific tasks.  Remember, this is Nebraska in April. Still on the chillier side of things. My diving took place at Sandy Channel State park. It is a series of lakes created when construction was being done to make the interstate.  I tell you what, nothing lets you know you are alive more than 50° water slowly seeping into your wetsuit. Good times!

We are both still involved with church, working several of the Sunday services throughout each month, behind the scenes running lights and the projection screens.  Good Lutherans need to see the lyrics after all. And for anyone that remembers last year’s cliffhanger with me on the Call Committee to find a pastor, well I am happy to announce we did find one that foolishly accepted our Call and now he’s ours forever!  Or until he takes another Call. He’s a great guy and we are lucky to have him at our church.

Hey!  Did I mention we went on two vacations this year?  What!?! That’s right, the chance for me to humiliate myself twice as much!  YAY!

Our first adventure, and by adventure I mean nightmare, was a cruise to the Bahamas.  I know what you’re thinking. The mighty Mississippi doesn’t flow through Lincoln, Nebraska.  So how on earth could they have cruised down to the Bahamas? Well we cheated and flew down to and stayed the night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Had a quiet evening in a lovely little AirB&B we found. Love the AirB&B!

In the morning we Uber’d over to Florida’s Tri-Rail system and traveled up to the Port of Palm Beach where we boarded the Grand Celebration cruise ship.  I assume the celebration comes from all the money the cruise nickels and dimes out of you. Wow, what a disappointment. The highlight of our time on board (both there and back) was winning Name That Tune the night we boarded.  To say we won is kind. Annette made sure we destroyed our competition. Had it been legal, she probably would have demanded tribute or had the losers thrown overboard. Annette can be competitive at times. That’s your only warning people.

Our stay on the Bahamas was tragic.  The resort we were supposed to be enjoying was still closed because of the hurricane even though we were told numerous times everything was okay.  We and several others were shuttled (at our expense) to another resort that wasn’t usually an all-inclusive option. Although they tried their best to be accommodating, it wasn’t even close to the vacation we had paid for.  One highlight was I got to go diving out by Treasure Reef and had a great time under the Caribbean waters. As much as we didn’t enjoy the cruise ship, we did talk our way back on board early because they at least had fruit to eat.  That’s right, a Bahamian resort with NO fresh fruit. Like I said, nightmare.

Our second vacation was the complete opposite of the first.  We flew down to Akumal, Mexico where we had rented a small condo for the week.  We cannot recommend HomeAway enough. They are the international AirB&B. We were literally forty feet from the beautiful blue waters of the Caribbean.  Annette got to lay out in the sun and I did a lot of snorkeling as well as two cavern dives. Last year in the letter, I mentioned swimming in the Dos Ojos cenotes. This year I got to scuba down inside.  It’s a whole other world, people. One day I’ll figure out how to post everything on Facebook…promise!

We rented a car and drove around Akumal, Tulum and several other locations.  While in Tulum, we visited the same little restaurant from our last trip…several times.  We couldn’t get enough of the local flavors! We drove over to the Coba Mayan ruins and spent the morning bicycling around to various sites.  Coba is one of the last ruins that you are allowed to climb, so we did. Climbing ancient ruins is as scary as it sounds. There is a thick rope anchored at the top and bottom that runs up the middle of the “stairs” to help you up and down.  See those parenthesis? Those stairs vary in height and width and sometimes, just aren’t there. But once you get to the top, wow, what a view. Plus you get to watch everyone else climbing up which can be amusing. But then they get to watch you climb down which is scarier than going up.

Since it was my birthday while on vacation, we celebrated by going to Alux Restaurant in Playa del Carmen.  Alux is pronounced a-loosh, and was once a cenote that naturally dried out and was eventually turned into a fine dining restaurant inside a cave.  It was beautiful and the food was delicious.

However, the best meal we had that wasn’t street food (which is the best), was in a little restaurant just north of Tulum called Cetli (set-lee). We learned of it through my local dive master, whose wife happened to own and operate it.  Naturally we had to give it a try. The food was traditional Mayan presented in a simple elegant fashion. We enjoyed several courses, with one including grasshopper. The decor was beautiful; set inside an open air house. Funny I should mention open air.  You know what else LOVES open air and apparently my supple blood? Mosquitos, that’s what! They couldn’t get enough of me. I swear if we could have been completely silent, you would have heard them fighting each other over who got to drain me first. It put a bit of a damper on our meal but surprisingly, I would go back; this time a bit more prepared.  Imagine if you will, standing in the darkest cornfield in the middle of nowhere and looking up into the night sky. Try to imagine all the stars you could see. Now imagine those stars are actually mosquito bites and the universe is my ankle(s). Really itchy stars that hung out for weeks afterwards. Apparently I have a reaction to mosquito bites that allow them to sustain their itchiness and appearance for well over a week.  One more joy of self discovery! But I’ll take it as long as I can jump into those beautiful blue waters!  If you hadn’t noticed, we kinda dig Mexico.

And finally, the real reason as to why this letter took so long.  As some of you are aware, I lost my dad to cancer on the thirty-first of July, two thousand and seventeen.  He was the greatest man I have ever known. Although I feel I fought against him every moment as I grew up, he never left me, never gave up on me.  Sometimes when I talk, I can hear him in my voice. It’s his sense of humor, his sarcasm that I’ve emulated and evolved into my own. I am a better man than I should be because he loved me for who I became and was proud of what I had done with my life after I had shrugged it off for so many years. He was a teacher by trade and that never went away.  Even in the end, when the wickedness and cowardice that is cancer, took him from us, he still taught me one final lesson. He taught me appreciation.

     Now I can say without a doubt that I love my mom and I love my brother, my extended family and my friends.  But dad’s passing showed me not to take any of them for granted. Whether its mom putting on a strong face for me when we talk on the phone or my brother and I reconnecting over something as foolish as wrestling (I look forward to seeing you and the family in April).  Or my aunt and her husband, who travelled numerous times to be with mom. My extended family who never hesitated to offer any help they could. And my friends, who could offer nothing more than a kind word, did so without question. I appreciate all of that in a way I couldn’t before.  It’s something that is emotional now for me.

So this year as always, I hope 2018 finds you safe, happy and prosperous. Annette and I look forward to seeing some of you and hearing from others.  Be kind and do good out there. And know from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for being a part of my life.  God bless, Merry belated Christmas and happiest of New Years to you all!

Finbar, Manny, Annette & Patrick