January of 10

The blog goes unupdated for an unprecedented number of months. But has our hero been idle? Well, yes, if we're talking about the last few weeks of couch lounging in Tucson that I have been very meticulously engaged in. But on the other side of the decade, I was pushing busyness to a new level and blogging only in places where people actually read my words (and no offense to those who are reading these words, you are not forgotten, but are very likely my blood relations).

Having just completed the first decade of my adult life (I was, what, 21 in 2000? 22?) I must say that it feels like 10 years or something (now that I know what 10 years really feels like). I've completed degrees, gotten married, had kids, played in a few bands, moved several times--once across the darn country.

I'd say it was a pretty eventful decade.

Here's something strange. By the time another 10 years go by, I'll have (nearly) three teenagers, likely much less hair, and hopefully, a real job. You know, because 42 seems like a good age to start that up.

This year I've done some schooling (into the third year of grad school), some traveling (San Francisco, New Hampshire/Massachusetts/Rhode Island, Utah, and of course, our Christmas in AZ has been lovely), some teaching, and some writing.

It's also been an incredible year for music exploration. My music-blogging gig over at Muzzle of Bees has encouraged that, to be sure, but even before I started writing for the blog late in the year, it was an unprecedented music year for me. One in which I saw more live shows than any other year and possibly more than I have ever seen in ANY year when you combine them all together. I've plunged into the catalogs of countless old greats, from McCartney to Dylan and from Zeppelin to the Carter Family. I've learned a ton about the history of music in this country, especially the "blue" genres (blues and bluegrass). And also have a much larger collection of new artists that I am interested in than I have in quite some time.

And while my interest in music feels like a hobby, I have a feeling that I will look back on this year as a kind of touchstone towards a long future of study and appreciation for American music, culture, and history. In fact, this year I realized that this deep interest in music is exactly what scholars hope to stumble upon so that their research actually becomes something that they can be passionate about. Therefore, even as I think about my professional future, I now see music and its influence as extremely important (if not paramount) in my future scholarly work in rhetoric. This makes me very excited.

I'd say it has been a pretty amazing decade. I'm amazed at where we've ended up-- especially considering that we started this decade as two and have ended up as a little Stone family of 5. And while the kids were all planned (for the most part), I'm not sure we could have really planned anything else. It's turning out completely different from our expectations. And, I must say I'm quite pleased.

P.S. I love my wife. Our marriage is something else that is about to reach a decade in age. Check us out. No, seriously, check us out: