Reality Bites By James Norton

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Maybe it’s a slow week around the city, but not in the world of Jamie Norton. I just realized I referred to my personal life in that manner last week, and I’m starting to think it might be a little creepy. You be the judge. Once again, rather than comment on world politics or the state of the city, I find myself writing about my personal life.

This is a double-edged sword for me. My family cringes whenever I do this, but the general population, for one reason or another, seems to be interested in the details of my personal life, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

I’m not going to recap the last two weeks, since the last two Reality Bites covered this, but I will say that in the last week or so, I was asked by more than one person to give a recap of what’s been happening in my life from January until today. To say that the last eight months of my life have been the craziest since 1996 would be a complete understatement. Before you start to wonder what happened back then, I am not going to go into detail about that period of my life Рlet’s just say it wasn’t a great time for me.

So I sit here trying to think about how to start this off, and instead of writing chronologically or lending a “Pulp Fiction”-esque feel to this mess, I will take the events and people in no particular order.

January saw me come down with bronchitis, like every year, just before I had nasal surgery to fix my deviated septum. Two weeks later, I was separated from my wife and went through a fairly painless, albeit at times nasty, divorce. I really don’t need to go into the details of that fiasco (I think my family just breathed a sigh of relief).

In the midst of the divorce, I managed to get myself involved in a relationship with a very close friend of mine against my better judgment. I’m not going into details at all about it, but let’s just say it didn’t turn out as expected and a good friendship was permanently fractured in the process. Once again, I don’t need to go into this, for obvious reasons.

Also during that relationship’s timeframe (about three months), I managed to lose a total of 80 pounds, regain good health and start smoking like a fiend again. Have you noticed a pattern of good coupled with bad mixed together in my personal situations?

My therapist has – along with a couple of other nasty patterns I may talk about someday.

On a more positive note, here is a subject with absolutely no bad side to it – my kids being here for the last eight weeks. We have spent more time together (the three of us), in the last 60 or so days, than combined in the last three years. Ok I know that sounds weird, but I can’t explain it without sounding callous and unkind to certain people in, and now out, of my life.

Corey and Kaitlin moved to England two years ago and for reasons I won’t get into, were not able to come visit me last year. Two years since they were here last and all of a sudden my two young children were going to be 13 and 14 – very exciting and scary for a guy rolling in his late 30s. Ok, fine, I’ll be 40 next March – yeah, I feel old now.

The three of us, along with their grandparents, have spent a lot of time at our house in Moultonborough NH and I have taken a lot of time to talk to them about issues that effect their lives daily. We have become very close this summer and I am very grateful to my parents for helping to allow that to happen and by being so supportive during the last eight months of my life. The payoff is how close I have gotten with my kids and quite frankly, that’s a treasure that couldn’t ever have a price tag on it, trust me.

I’m happy to have learned more about them personally and have gained their trust enough that they’re comfortable talking to me about anything – and I enjoy confiding in them as well. Corey has a girlfriend and Kaitlin has a boyfriend, and while the thought of them having relationships at 13 and 14 kind of had me freaked out at first, I have come to trust my kids and their ability to make rational decisions so far in their lives. I have even become acquainted with some of their friends and both the girlfriend and boyfriend.

Like all good things, it must end, and so this coming Saturday they go back to England, but they’ve convinced me that I need to come visit them around Christmas and I plan on doing just that – I may even bring a friend with me who knows.

A lot can happen in four months, believe me I know.