family Archives – James D. Hogan

Aboard the S.S. Absurdity

On January 25, 2024

How I learned to stop worrying and love the cruise.

Let us begin with a short litany of the preposterous: there is an ice skating rink, a carousel, a park with actual trees, a bar that floats up and down across multiple decks, an English pub (not to mention a sports bar, karaoke bar, jazz bar, poolside bar, adults-only bar, wine bar, champagne bar, piano bar, Spanish bar, and fully automated robotic bar), 20 restaurants and dining areas, five swimming pools, nine monstrous jacuzzis, two separate surfing simulators, four water slides (plus a fifth “dry” slide), a zip-line experience, a pair of rock climbing walls, an arcade, a miniature golf course, a Broadway-sized theatre, a two-story music hall, and an outdoor aquatics amphitheater featuring a 60-foot high dive pool whose bottom can split into three parts that independently float all the way up to the surface to become a platform.

There is a full spa, nail salon, IV therapy area, fitness center, and massage clinic. There is an outdoor basketball court, which is retrofitted for tennis, pickleball, volleyball, soccer, and even hockey. There is a full casino. An art gallery. A promenade with shops displaying fine watches, accessories, apparel, beachwear, and jewelry. There is a vintage 1930 Auburn Boattail Speedster convertible parked just down from the full-service Starbucks.

All of this is onboard a single ship.

Let me tell you something about 2023

By James D. Hogan

On December 31, 2023

In diary

My annual New Years resolution performance review

Today, Kel and I were taking an afternoon walk up Locust Creek, usually a 30-ish minute up-and-back where we turn around at the meadow about three quarters of a mile past our house. We did the same thing last New Year’s Eve, and while I don’t remember everything we talked about, I know that I love these walks with my wife. It’s some of the best time we can spend together as a couple–enough time for a good conversation and always free of the (kid) distractions that (kids) often pop up.

This was a pretty good year, we decided. Really good.

There have certainly been harder years, both collectively for us and the world. And that’s not to say this year was easy by any stretch–there were times of loss, times of sickness, times of difficulty. It’s hard to look back at the entire year, though, and not feel like it was incredible. The kind where I can only think to shake my head and pray for counsel on what to do with it all.

This past January I set out my annual list of New Years resolutions, and keeping with tradition, I’m offering an honest assessment of how it’s gone.

A Change’ll Do You Good

By James D. Hogan

On December 31, 2022

In diary

On leaning into that whole “change is inevitable” bit…

Rarely have major life changes lined up so neatly with a calendar year. Not quite a year ago, I jumped in the car with a suitcase, kissed the kiddos and Kel goodbye (although they’d be coming behind me the next day), and drove up the mountain to Cullowhee. I checked into the Bird Alumni House, which became our home for the next three weeks, and reported to HFR for my first day of work at Western. Later that week, we enrolled the kiddos in their new school, and Kel officially began her full-time work for her own company.

By the time we closed on our house a few weeks later, it had already snowed–twice. And by the time our movers arrived with all our household possessions, it had threatened to snow a third time. (The closing was a round robin of delays, COVID, and weather; the first week in the house, the kids slept on air mattresses, and we ate off a card table.)

I traveled a fair amount this year–eight trips for work, several others for personal matters. In March, we lost our dear Aunt Jean, and the N.C. contingency of the Hogan family trekked through a winter storm to make the funeral. In April, I took Julia on her first “on a plane” trip to St. Petersburg for a weekend. We all made it to Cherry Grove for our family beach week in June, and this fall, I flew back up to NJ for a football weekend with family, including Jason and the Knights Brigade.

We made plenty of trips back to Statesville. So many I cannot count them all.

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