Good Riddance to 2017

I must admit 2017 was a very difficult year but by the grace of God, we made it!

Tomorrow in church - or watch meeting - knowing God got us through 2017. #Hallelujah #PraiseGod pic.twitter.com/onXnyMAR99

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) December 31, 2017

From my employer being sold to an out-of-state conglomerate to finding out I am diabetic, this has been a particularly challenging year. Of course, let us not forget what happened January 20 when Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on a stack of Bibles as the grifting began and racists felt emboldened to say whatever they wanted without consequence; many of us have taken extended breaks from social media because we just can’t clap back on every single troll or bot without wasting valuable emotional and spiritual energy for the larger war.

I really don’t remember much exciting about January, and what I can recall, is none of your business.

February led to the usual Black History Month posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and of course, the blog yet this is also the month I found out I am diabetic. Years of eating like a kid not limited to devouring cases of honey buns have led me to a daily regimen of pills along with the overdue need to start exercising daily. One awesome thing happened:  my dad and Caeli shared a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese! What a place for him to celebrate turning 70 years old for a birthday party – why not do it at the same time as his only granddaughter’s second birthday with the rest of the family this time?

Locally, the church moved back home from a completed restoration! Thanks be to God, the contractors, congregation, staff, and everyone who had a hand involved in the nearly six-month-long project.

On March 1 Heritage Environmental Services bought Rineco for an undisclosed sum. So far, all it has meant was the 300+ of us still have jobs.

In April, we got to see our friends Will and Misty in Helena-West Helena as they opened the Freeman Playground in memory of their son Freeman – and Caeli’s first friend from the NICU. Of course, it seems like every time I make that drive down Highway 49, it is always raining. Fortunately for us, no squirrel decided to take his own life by riding the car’s wheel this time and I didn’t have to have a discussion over a parked red car. Because we really didn’t stray from home much, this was easily the longest trip by car the three of us made all year.

May was a harbinger of 2017 at large:  forgettable save Caeli’s first trip to the zoo and the Africa Day festival in SOMA.

As an omen that 2017 may not be that shabby, June marked two significant events:  Caeli got her ears pierced, and I was ordained as a deacon at our church. I have the piercing video up on a different blog – hats off to the ladies working at Claire’s that weekend for keeping our little trooper distracted long enough for her to not slap them both away. As for my ordination, I want to thank God, everyone who pastored me over the years and the older deacons I learned something from, Chastity and Caeli for sticking with what became a three-year process that periodically frustrated me, Mount Zion for seeing it in an outsider to serve them in the ways of 1 Timothy 3:1-14, and my home church Greater Friendship for showing up. Had Rev. Johnson tripped me up when I was being charged, we might have had to put the gloves on and gone outside.

I finally found some semblance of a normal life in July when our new Delta V was hired! Thanks to Conner, I got to find out weekend life was like for the first time in a few years – and that led to purchasing the signing for the church’s food pantry:  On the very first Saturday after we placed them throughout the southside of Benton, we began to experience such a surge of clients as volunteers and members alike saw Kingdom building at work that we had to shut it down after ninety minutes! Sadly, my uncle Earl (Dad’s brother) passed away at the age of 81 from pneumonia.

Mama Bear decided I was worth sticking around with for another year, so we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary August 6 in a much louder venue than we anticipated (Sidebar:  Texas Roadhouse is a good place for a quiet meal said no one ever). Next year, the planning ahead will be a LOT better. In unrelated news, 45 decreed that that there were good people on both sides in the Charlottesville clash between protestors and the alt-right leading up to a woman losing her life and a man severely beaten. Caeli also graduated from Kidsource to a few months of playing with grandma until she eventually got into preschool.

When September came around, Dub Shack BBQ had started making its rounds via word of mouth while I began to figure out pricing and the margins of profitability that comes with barbecue catering. With a handful of pork loin dinners, I made enough money and gained confidence in the consistency of my own product that I could do well in this market. Remember my coming out of the diabetic closet? I’ve lost forty pounds this year without trying very hard – I’ve begun to drink more water, exercise a bit, and continue the medical regimen; imagine the difference if I had driven (or walked) five blocks down the street to the gym regularly.

October was a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane. No, I didn’t go to Henderson State’s homecoming this year; instead I went home for my 20th class reunion from Conway High the same weekend. Finding out from so many classmates that AD&AD has practically become required reading has provided a source of encouragement for me to continue the literary craft. I’d still be cool with an impromptu pop-up in a park or somewhere, Class of ’97 except great barbecue has to be smoked ahead of time. Apart from being a Wampus Cat, my grandma turned 90 years old October 14 and she was feted by multiple generations of my mom’s side of the family. We’re talking Kings from across the country taking over Gould, Arkansas for a weekend.

November saw Chastity turn the big 4-0 with the BIG CHOP, and Caeli also began preschool. For the unaware, the BIG CHOP is when all that unnatural perm gets cut from a black woman’s hair as she goes natural.

Although the calendar cannot turn quickly enough to 2018 in some aspects, December had some noticeable moments:  my 39th birthday, Christmas with the better and little CAs, we named our church’s next pastor, and the unforeseen effects of the GOP tax bill.

Maybe this hasn’t been that rough of a year despite the pay cut and the odds against us. Thanks for riding and praying with us throughout 2017, and for those who won’t make it to 2018 with any relationship to me, you know why.

Take care of yourselves – and each other.