Monday, January 31, 2011

Dance Party

For those of you who aren't on facebook, I posted a new video of Truman on YouTube. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Road Trip

When the warden at the Hartsburg Sanatorium graciously granted me a furlough last weekend, I seized the opportunity to visit some old friends and make some new ones in Lee's Summit, Missouri. The getaway was just what the doctor ordered.

First, I bought a twelve pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon long necks and headed to see my old friend Grant Barnes. He and his lovely bride Brenda were going on a dinner date that evening, so after drinking a couple beers I had them drop me at Sorano's Sports Bar just down the road from their house where my friend Paul was slated to perform his unique brand of acoustic comedy that night. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and the comedy show wasn't set to begin until 8:00. Naturally, I started drinking 22-ounce Boulevard Brewery Oatmeal Stout after 22-ounce Boulevard Brewery Oatmeal Stout in order to pass the time.

Sometime between beers one and six, I struck up a conversation at the bar with a husband and wife who within twenty minutes invited me to stay with them in their ocean front condo in Daytona Beach and attend the Daytona 500 next month. I was sure they were joking until the wife asked, or rather insisted, a second time a few minutes later. The husband wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the idea(perhaps he wasn't into threesomes with men twenty years younger than him) so I discretely ordered a fried pork tenderloin sandwich and made sure my mouth was too busy masticating to exchange contact information with the overly friendly woman. The husband saw his opportunity to flee as I asked for more ketchup and I graciously pretended not to notice when they slipped past me and into the night.

As I finished my sammich, which did little to soak up the overabundance of alcohol in my belly, Paul arrived and we sat down to discuss some notes for our musical that we are co-writing. He's the Rogers to my Hammerstein--I think. He suggested a tweak to the script I had written and assured me that the lyrics are coming along nicely. (Stay tuned for further progress reports and performance announcements). At any rate, showtime was drawing near, so Paul started setting up. I continued to make friends at the bar. It is a strange feeling when you are sitting on a barstool two and a half hours from where you live and the attractive woman tending bar says to you, "You must be Travis." I said that I was. She then said, "Naughton, right?" It seems that the legend of me is growing--as is my ego. In fact, I made friends with two Amys that night in addition to a Kollin, a Del, a Tom, and some fun ladies whose names I can't recall. By the time Grant showed up to give me a ride home, I'm pretty sure I had met about half the people in the joint and drank shots of Jagermeister with at least two or three of them.

Of course Paul & the Violent Farmers killed that night. Paulie never fails to make me laugh, no matter how many times I've heard his material. Ironically, one of his most popular/notorious songs is called "Road Trip", although this epic tale of a lover's desperate journey to get home to his girl is a horse of a different color compared to the road trip I was on. You can hear a sample of the song, and many others of Paul's on iTunes. http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/paul-the-violent-farmers/id367246554

I spent the rest of the evening visiting and laughing with the Barneses and I eventually went to bed when the waves of nausea subsided and I could lay down without the room spinning. As I drove home the next day, the details of my therapeutic road trip gradually became less fuzzy. I am sure that more than one passing motorist became concerned when they saw a bleary-eyed driver laughing out loud for no apparent reason. From what I remember, I had a very good time in Lee's Summit that night.

I wonder where my next road trip will take me... Suggestions? Invitations? Admonitions?

Monday, January 17, 2011

Heeeeerrrr's Johnny!


In recent years, I have noticed that I am more prone to suffering from cabin fever than I used to be. I become very moody and restless. I become depressed. I stay up all night talking to imaginary bartenders. I have yet to grab an axe and attempt to butcher my family, but Alex has been known to curl his finger and say "Redrum" in a very unsettling voice just when I'm feeling particularly "off."


Last night, at about two in the morning, I think I finally came to understand the cause of my "condition." Certainly being a struggling writer cooped up with his family in a house miles from civilization in the dead of winter may contribute to my unbalanced state, but that is not the real culprit. The fact is that as a "stay-at-home" dad, I have no life outside of this house. My beautiful spouse says, "So go into town and do something" whenever I complain about going stir crazy after a prolonged spell of not venturing out. That's nice of her to offer me a hall pass, but it doesn't really change the reality that I have no life outside of these four walls. I explain to her that she is out of the house interacting with adults upwards of 50 hours per week. I am lucky if I am away from our domicile five hours per week. Prisoners benefitting from weekend furloughs spend more time in the real world than me.


Don't get me wrong: I love being a full-time parent. I enjoy being able to spent so much time with my kids. However, I am beginning to think it is unhealthy to spend ALL of my time with my kids. Sure, we drop the boys off at Grandma's house once in a while so Mom & Dad can have a little reprieve, but that doesn't come close to giving me the feeling of having a life outside of the home. Wintertime just compounds the problem. We live a half hour from town (Ashland doesn't count) down a mile and a half of snow covered gravel roads. Our house is tucked into ten acres of woods, completely hidden from view of the outside world. Maybe it is best to keep a Naughton boy hidden from the outside world, but nevertheless--when it is cold outside, when my hiking trails are too snowy or muddy to traverse, when gas costs $3.00/gallon and my gas-guzzling truck's four-wheel-drive is making a hideous grinding, metallic sound when it's engaged--Travis starts getting a little twitchy.


The solution? Bethany thinks everything will be better next fall when all three kids are in school. I should be able to get out and do my own thing for at least three hours a day while Truman is in his half-day preschool. I think she may be right. But between now and then, I need to make more meaningful forays out into the world. I feel some road trips coming on. If you hear an unexpected knock on your door at some ungodly hour in the near future, don't shoot! And don't call the cops. (Unless I have Bill Herrin with me.)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Blog Daddy's Sports Roundup

Mizzou football head coach Gary Pinkel was approached by the University of Michigan in hopes that he could be persuaded to interview for their "coveted" job vacancy. He declined. Once considered to be one of the most prestigious coaching positions in all of football, it seems that Michigan's mystique is wearing off. Stanford head coach and Michigan alumnus Jim Harbaugh spurned their advances. LSU head coach and former Michigan assistant Les Miles said "no thanks" to their offer. Now we learn that the Big 10 powerhouse program couldn't even persuade Pinkel, head coach of a second tier Big 12 program, to join the dark side. These are dark days in Michigan indeed. Perhaps one day soon, we won't have to see Missouri natives wearing blue hats embossed with the Michigan "M" anymore. Maybe the Missouri "M" will be the preferred "M" of college football fan merchandise from now on. Dare I dream?

Auburn quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner, and National Champion Cam Newton gave his father Cecil a warm embrace on the field after the big game Monday night. Big deal, right? According to some folks (especially Auburn administrators) it is a big deal--considering the fact that Dad agreed not to attend the game as a result of an NCAA investigation that concluded he had tried to extract nearly $200,000 from Mississippi State in exchange for his son's commitment to play there. Since no one has shown that he tried the same tactic with Auburn or that his son even knew about the pay-for-play proposition, Cam was allowed to continue playing for the Tigers, but Cecil was effectively banned from being near the program. Yet there he was at the game anyway, apparently thumbing his nose at his son's school and their wishes to distance themselves from the controversy. Should he be punished for this appearance? Should he be scolded for not staying at home to watch the big game on TV? Or should he be applauded for supporting his son despite how uncomfortable it made school officials? I simply cannot blame a father for being there for his child's big moments. In fact, I commend Cecil Newton for being in the stands that night. His son was playing in the biggest game of his young life. That's precisely when Cam needed his dad's support the most, and Cecil made sure not to disappoint his son again. As parents, we all make mistakes. Cecil made a big one when he tried to cash in on his son's talents. But bolstering his son's confidence by being there for him at the game was not a mistake. It was the right thing to do. I wonder how many players at the game that night looked into the stands and didn't see a proud father beaming back at them. Too many, of that I am certain.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!

In 2001, Bethany and I each owed over $15,000 in student loans. We owed a monthly payment of $400 for a brand new truck we foolishly purchased. We owed thousands of dollars on at least two credit cards. And we owed well over $100,000 on our home loan. Plus interest. Let's review:



$30,000 in student loans

$25,000 auto loan

$5,000 credit card debt

$110,000 balance on home loan

=approximately $170,000 of debt PLUS interest



Today: We're debt free. Here's how we did it. First and foremost, we followed the advice of financial guru Dave Ramsey. We obeyed every step of his plan called "The Total Money Makeover." We set up a monthly budget, paid cash for everything, and bought nothing on credit (if you don't have the cash, you don't buy it.) We worked on our "debt snowball" paying the smallest debts first, then rolling the extra money into the next smallest and so on. We sold the expensive truck and drove cheap vehicles that neared 200,000 miles on their odometers. We went to the movies about once a year. We bought virtually nothing but generic. In short, we lived like no one else, so that later, we could live like no one else.



Eventually, we paid off over $110,000 in debt by following Dave's plan. Bear in mind that we also adopted the cutest boy in China during this decade of no-decadence. (International adoptions are not cheap, but when you eliminate debt, you find the money for things that really matter.) Also worth noting, I only worked part-time for two of those years and not at all for two more. So our mountain of debt was removed with the help of only one full-time income for nearly half the decade.



With only four years of house payments remaining (taking only 14 years to pay for what was originally a 30 year mortgage), we were well on our way to paying off the house and being completely debt-free. But last month, our hard work and years of sacrifice were rewarded by a gift from Bethany's dad. After his untimely death two years ago, his estate was eventually divided among his six children and just yesterday the Naughton family was able to use Bethany's share to pay off the balance of our mortgage. I am sure Bill Lemon is smiling down upon us, proud to have helped his children in this way.



Another silver lining to the dark cloud of Bill's passing is that we will be able to fully fund the adoption of our little girl this spring with the money we would have spent on house payments. Our greatest regret is that he was never able to meet Truman or our little girl.



So there you have it. Even if we had never received a dime from Bethany's dad, we would have erased over $170,000 of debt plus interest by living within our means. By buying only what we needed. By saving every penny. By living simply. Oh, and did I mention we were able to start college funds for the boys and retirement accounts for us while this Total Money Makeover took place? Well, we did. I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging. I only wish to inspire others to free themselves from the bonds of indebtedness like we did. I assure you that it is worth every bit of sacrifice along the way. I'm only 39 years old and as I look around me, I know that everything I see around me--ten wooded acres, a four bedroom house, a minivan, a truck, a classic car, a party porch, a beautiful family--is all mine. That's a damn good feeling.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Happy New Year

As most of you know, I am not shy about writing about the various goings-on in my mind and my daily life. The number one reader response to the status updates I post on facebook is "TMI!" (too much information). So I am guilty of the occasional overshare. You know you like it. It's why you keep coming back to my blog or my facebook page for more. But when it came time to post my yearly New Year's resolutions, I decided to try something different. I am going to keep my list to myself. Nothing on the list is particularly embarrassing or anything like that, (how could a guy that writes about making snow angels in the nude be embarrassed about anything?) but I have decided that my personal goals for self-improvement should remain personal. That's all.

One resolution I will make public is the promise to write more this year. I kind of fizzled out last year and fell two chapters short of completing the book I have been writing. I will finish it soon and then I will endeavor to write several others throughout the year that were inspired while writing the current story. From one book, seven or eight others may spring to life. Stay tuned for more updates as the year rolls along. Also, check my blog often as I plan to post notes to it more frequently this year. I hope that in April or May I can start blogging about our second trip to China to adopt our little girl Tian Tian. You won't want to miss that.

I hope 2011 is good to you. Perhaps I can make it slightly more entertaining with my creative contributions. If you promise to keep reading, I'll keep writing. It's what I do. God knows I'm not gonna go out and get a job or anything. Who does that?