I'm proud to announce the first episode of Toys on the Inside, the review show spin-off of Mint in Box! Sit for a spell with Salman from the comfort of house arrest as he shares with you stories from his toy collection.
First off, I'm swearing in a non-fictional context on this blog. Damn...
Second... to finish off some business from last year: Mountain of Laughs Festival went well; Mint in Box got a lot of Laughs. Secrets We Keep still hasn't been made, but we've got most of the cast and a little bit of a crew, scripts are printed, and meetings are being held. As I said last year, we should shoot next month.
And now for everything else.
So, it's been a pretty bad year, mostly involving Felicity. That sounds bad; I should probably rephrase that. On the other hand, I feel it builds tension, so I'll leave it as is. All the bad stuff I'll put into chronological order, just to show what a shit-show it's been.
We signed up for a weight-loss program; exercising at an MMA gym, changing our diet. The week after we've thrown out our junk food and stocked up for some healthy cooking, our air goes out. I know, #firstworldproblems, but it's hitting the mid-80s when we cook. We try running the AC just on fan mode, but it gets hotter. When we finally get someone out to look at our unit, it turns out a short has been causing the furnace to turn on just... just constantly. After a month of fighting with the AC guy (he's the only one our warranty will allow) we finally get a new unit, but it's never quite as cold again...
So we're still at the gym. We're not eating right, we're not loosing weight, but we're busting our asses. Felicity isn't feeling well. She hurts.
Then her mom gets appendicitis. Sudden, acute. We rush her to a hospital two hours away, through the mountains. Thanks to a bacterial outbreak in the city's water supply, the hospital can do nothing more than look at her and say, "Yeah, that's bad. You need to go to another hospital." Rush her to the next state over, get her appendix out; doctors say it was on the verge of bursting.
We're still at the gym. We're still not eating right, still not loosing weight, still busting our asses. Felicity still isn't feeling well. She still hurts.
Then her dad is diagnosed with cancer. He's had it before, but it seems pretty bad this time.
We're still at the gym. We're still not eating right, still not loosing weight, still busting our asses. Felicity still isn't feeling well. She still hurts.
She goes to the doctor; what do you know, she's got gall stones. After months of waiting, she finally gets them out.
We finish with the gym. Months of hard work, and nothing to show for it. The year draws to a close...
And Felicity's dad passes away. There's nothing more to say about that. It's rough. I've been there before. All you can do is survive.
After that I go to the doctor to get a full work-up; everyone else has had health problems; I certainly don't need any. I get diagnosed with diabetes.
But not everything was bad last year. We got a second dog, Brinley. She's great; she's huge. I've finally started loosing some weight, thanks to some severe dietary changes; I'm now dipping into the upper 270s.
And ending the recap on a high note, Felicity and I got engaged. Wedding will probably be later this year. That's neat.
So, for next year... Marriage? Kids? Finally finishing a movie? For sure, there's a Mint In Box spinoff in the works. And not hypothetically, either; I've actually filmed a couple of episodes. Other than that, well... That was the State of the Human for 2018. Damn.
