IRISHMAN FOR HIRE

As I fluttered my eyelids a few times while trying to wake up, I could hear my daughter had climbed into bed with us and was trying to be snuggly. I adjusted my eyes on the picture hanging on the wall, rubbed my right hand over my forehead and then through my hair as I rolled over to see my smiling four year-old staring at me.

“Good morning, Daddy!”

“Good morning, Chloe,” I mumbled as I stared exhaustedly at the ceiling. “What time is it?”

“6:45,” came a response from Stephanie who was still trying to pretend to be asleep on her side of the bed.

“Guess what, Chloe?”

“What?”

“I have a surprise for you today. Go see if you’re brother is awake.” And with that pronouncement, Chloe jumped off of the bed and ran into Josh’s room. As the door slammed full force against his bedroom wall with a loud thud, I turned to Stephanie and quipped, “Josh is up now.”

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Happy New Year!!! Happy New Decade!!! (although, not technically. But for me, it counts!) I wish you all the best for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010!!!

Today is also the second anniversary of Irishman For Hire!! And with all of your support, Irishman For Hire has become a bigger success than I ever could have imagined. To those who have been following Irishman For Hire from day one and to all of my new friends, thank you so much. It has been an absolute joy to share these articles with you and more importantly, your kind feedback and emails of support have touched me in such a positive way. I am humbled and blessed. Thank You!!

Irishman For Hire had a great year in 2009! I had four readers on January 1, 2008. And not too many more over the first couple of weeks. Luckily for me, I went into a bank one day and was shown the truth about banks and fees and I wrote my article FEE MADNESS and Irishman For Hire exploded. Thousands of readers have visited Irishman For Hire ever since that article was posted and I am honored that you have spent another the year with me as I have shared my personal perceptions of the world with you. Thank you!!!

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We circled the block a few times trying to find a parking space. The wind whipped through the New York City buildings and a light snow fell as my nerves started to get the best of me. Could I do this? What if we got caught? Was this really how I wanted to spend my Christmas Eve? And if I found the answers I was looking for; what if I didn’t like what I had found?

A car pulled out from a parking space up in front of me. My heart was pounding through the outer wall of my chest as I waited for the vehicle to drive away. Then I parked my car in the space that had been vacated.

Stephanie got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk waiting for me. I sat there for a moment as I contemplated my options for the last time. Then I took the key out of the ignition, took a deep breath, got out of the car and joined Stephanie on the sidewalk.

“Ready?” she asked.

The wind tore across our faces like the prickly fingers of the Wicked Witch of the West, warning us against going any further. The gray, drab, dreary day was a perfect backdrop against the frozen city and as we both shivered from the cold, I looked deep into her eyes and said, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

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It was a brisk and snowy winter’s eve. The family was sitting in the living room watching television when from the far reaches of the Universe they heard a sound that they couldn’t quite decipher. It kept getting louder and every few moments, the noise seemed to get closer to their home. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

“Who could that be?” The husband asked as he got up from his chair. The woman, her husband, and the kids curiously wandered to the front door to see who was there. And just outside, they were greeted by a choir of carolers spreading Christmas cheer throughout the neighborhood.

A few years ago, I had a nagging idea that was tugging at the back of my brain. I kept having a fuzzy memory from my childhood that was trying to surface from my subconscious and make itself known. As hard as I tried to shake the idea, it just wouldn’t go away.

When I was a child, my mother, brothers, and I would meet other families in the center of our town to go Christmas Caroling. We lived in the small town of Roxbury, CT and it seemed like a rite of passage to meet in the center of town every year and give the one gift at the holidays that couldn’t be exchanged, returned, or considered the wrong item. All you needed was a heart filled with the spirit of the season and the willingness to spread cheer and joy among your neighbors, friends, and strangers.

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Football is a way of life in our household! Well, for me it is. My wife and kids humor me but they all know that we are supposed to eat, drink and breathe the New York Giants around our home.

My obsession with the NFL started out when I was a young child. On Thanksgiving Day, while my mother was preparing a late day feast, she and her boyfriend would watch football. It was an annual tradition to watch the football games on Thanksgiving Day and while the games were being played, her boyfriend would tell us stories about the players, the history of the NFL and about the game of football itself. My love for the game got passed on to me because of our Thanksgiving Day ritual.

I understand tradition. Our family has created some great traditions that have been passed on to us by our parents and grandparents. Each holiday holds a special connection between our past, our present and, hopefully, our future. I hope that one day my children will be telling their kids about Thanksgiving Day and how I shared my vast wealth of knowledge and history of the NFL with them as a part of our Thanksgiving custom. But, alas, I think the Thanksgiving Day tradition of watching, enjoying and loving NFL football may end up being a distant memory of my childhood that loses significance in my kid’s ever changing world.

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Author’s Note: My Mother-in-law, Kathy passed away this week. This story was written three years ago and has not been shared until today; I would like to dedicate it in honor of Kathy. We miss you Kathy and as you loved to celebrate Holidays, it was a warm Fourth of July morning three years ago when I realized I had so much to thank you for!! Two of those reasons are mentioned in this article. Thank you Kathy for your love, your patience and guidance but most importantly, your friendship; especially your enthusiastic support for all of my stories. I loved sharing them with you. We all love you Mom and you will live in our hearts forever.

THE FOURTH OF JULY

I woke up to the sound of my youngest child, Chloe, fussing in her basinet. She was hungry and as I rolled over in bed, I saw Stephanie sleeping peacefully. The night before (the Third of July celebration in our town) had been a long night! We had fun with our friends during our annual barbecue, we saw an incredible fireworks display over our front yard, followed by more fun into the late evening and a little cleaning up afterward until we finally fell asleep long after midnight.

So five o’clock in the morning came earlier than usual and our six-week old daughter was hungry. I quietly snuck out of bed, picked up Chloe, carried her downstairs, started to heat up her bottle and changed her diaper. As I was waiting for the bottle to warm up, I looked out the window and saw that it was turning into an absolutely glorious morning. The sun was coming up on a quiet Fourth of July, the air was warm, and you could hear the birds beginning to bring in the new day with their songs of serenity.

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It was an overcast and chilly morning. As Stephanie and I waited for the train in Norwalk, CT. on Saturday, March 16, 1996, I felt an unexplainable feeling in my gut. I had had the feeling the week prior when I made this trip with her mother. It was the feeling of trepidation; the uncertainty of stumbling onto a truth that could ultimately change my life forever. The only unknown was if the revelation would impact my life for the better or for the worse, but there was no turning back now. I had to know.

As we boarded the train and found a couple of seats, we engaged in some small talk. I wish I could remember what we had talked about on our way to New York City but I can’t. Maybe it would have some relevance to the rest of the story or maybe it wouldn’t. I don’t know. What I do remember is that the butterflies were once again flying furiously in my stomach. I remember feeling a tinge of irony as I boarded the train because I thought about the previous weekend when Stephanie’s mom and I had made the same trek to New York City. Stephanie and I were taking the same exact train, at the same exact time and we were headed for the same exact destination but this time, I could only hope that we would not encounter the same exact result.

Stephanie’s mom and I had spent the entire day scrolling page by page, line by line through the volumes of books trying to locate a single solitary number. It was monotonous. It was tedious. It was eye-crossing, neck stiffening, droning work that required very little thought on our part but mandated the ability to pay very close attention to detail. There was one number that would match. It was a needle in the haystack approach and in the end, could we ever be one hundred percent convinced that we didn’t miss it?

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I am a life long New York Giants fan! As my schedule proved, I had very little time for writing this past weekend as I soaked in the aura of the Super Bowl and prepared for our annual party in honor of the big game.

As I woke up yesterday, I had time to reflect upon the Super Bowl that had been played on Sunday. I still don’t think my feet have touched the ground yet. The New York Giants achieved the impossible and did it in incredible fashion. But as I sat on my couch, recuperating from our own football game that we played earlier in the day, I had an inspirational thought; “Why am I taking a paid vacation day when today should be a Holiday?”

In the past couple of years, the buzz word that has dominated the headlines of our newspapers and television newscasts has been the word “change.” “Change direction”, Change the course”, “Change the leadership”, “Change the economic outlook”, “Change the tone/tenor”, “Change the course of history”, and so on and so on. “Change” is the buzz word for 2008 and in honor of this buzz word, I have a new motto for this election year; “Change that Holiday!”

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