2012: The Year in Pirate (Suck it, Mayans!)

Yo. Good Yule for you, Crew Members?  Hope so.  

How'd that 2012 treat you?  Keep all those resolutions?  Did you use that gym membership you got last January as faithfully as you swore you would?  Stay away from the cigarettes/beer/donuts?  Write for one hour every day no matter what?  (That was one of mine.  Failed.)

It's time for my annual Year in Review post.  Frankly, I didn't expected to be writing one this year -- I was really counting on those Mayans to come through with that whole apocalypse deal.  Which would've relieved me from the burden of a) reflecting on 2012, and b) drawing up some resolutions for 2013.  

But apparently the planet still spins and we're still on it.  No global quake, tsunami, or zombie plague.  Which means the new year will arrive on schedule.  And also I need to pay my Visa bill after all.  

So. Here's what happened here on the DiPi blog over the past twelve months.

I don't know where to start, you guys.  On the one hand, I'm still not writing/blogging as much as I did during my first couple years in the game.  On the other hand, I blogged more in 2012 than I did in 2011. And on the third hand, what I didn't post in volume this year, I think I made up for in content: at least in terms of personal sharing, hat with that whole Guess What, I'm Gay thing. (Did I mention?)

The first few months of the year saw very little of the Pirate in the blogiverse.  I'd come out of the closet the previous year -- in the Spring of 2011 -- and I knew that at some point, I'd be writing about it here.  I'd had The Talk with most of the key players in my life.  But I didn't actually write about it until last March.  March 2012 was pretty much one year after I'd "officially" begun my coming out process.  I wrote a post -- a long, verbose, rambling post.  I let it sit in the Draft folder for a while, and then one day I just decided to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and hit Send.

It's here.

The big deal about that post is not what I wrote, but what you wrote.  The comments in response were 99.5% positive, giving support for me, Saucy, and the indefatigable Mini-Pirate.  My dad blogging buddies (in particular my DadCentric compatriots) went out of their way to say kind things and be completely awesome and supportive about it.  There was apparently enough of a novelty about the whole thing -- "Previously Straight-Living Married Dad Blogger Comes Out Of Closet" -- that the post made the cyber rounds, and HLN.TV ended up writing a profile about me, despite my belief that this was not in any way remotely newsworthy.

A couple weeks later, feeling all supported and loved by the world, I wrote a post for DadCentric about how I'd chosen to come out to Mini-P a few months earlier.

Here's that.

The post ended up getting highlighted on HuffPo (HuffPo!), and has been anthologized in BlogHer's 2012 Voices of the Year collection.  Which is radical and all, but sort of strange since it's not like I exhibited any notable writing talent in that one -- all I did was basically transcribe a conversation.  The coolness of that post came straight from my kid.

That kid.  She pretty much rocks on all levels.  She and I have had some amazing conversations since I hipped her to the fact that she has a gay dad.  Gay Stuff was incredibly zeitgeisty all year, so there was a lot to talk about.

Like gay superheroes.  And the potentially complicated notion of Gay Pride.

In June, thanks to the endorsement of Doug French, aka Laid-Off Dad, aka the man I consider to be the ass-kickingest rockstar of dadblogdom, I got to be a part of a Norelco campaign on YouTube called "The New Face of Dad," in which I got to tell my story alongside four other amazing fathers.  It's here.

That was pretty amazing. Also pretty scary.  Up to that point, I'd been an anonymous blogger.  But since you usually need to show your face if you're going to be on video, that anonymity went out the window.  I realized that a) I still wanted to blog, and b) it was pretty hypocritical to be "out" and be proud of what you are if you're unwilling to say who you are.

So a couple months later, when I was given the opportunity to write a weekly column on Babble Voices, I decided it was time to put my name out there.  Between issues of gay parenting and my daughter's new career as Middle School Student (whaaaaa?), there's no shortage of material to write about.  Like this.

A lot more happened in 2012. Life hasn't calmed down.  Not even a little bit.  I'm still adjusting. There was a lot more to write about this year, but I just didn't feel like I could do it.  I still feel like I'm ramping up to my regular blogging speed.  I'll get there.  There's a lot going on.  The Mini-Pirate continues to grow up and prove that she's smarter than me.  My professional life as a teacher is... let's just say it's in transition, thanks to Oversized State University's budget crisis.  I'm in a relationship with a truly great guy who's had to exhibit more patience with my craziness and Freshly Out Insecurities than anyone should ever have to.  So there's much to talk about.  Luckily, I have this blog.

Happy New Year to you, my stout-hearted crew members.  Here's to 2013. Who's feeling sheepish NOW, Mayans? HA!