Matthew LaVelle’s weblog

This was one of the many good excellent comments I received from my boss in this years performance review. I think it’s fairly safe to say that the leaps and bounds I’ve taken in my professional career this year have outweighed all other areas of my life for 2005. I keep chunking this time in my life into the definitive 2005 for a couple of good reasons.

1. I’m human, and like most humans I tend to categorize everything. We’re physiologically wired for…well, chunking. Our brains are made this way. Humans not only have the ability to categorize or chunk large amounts of information, but we almost always have to do this to wrap our minds around the larger concepts in life.


2. 2005 is almost over. Thank God. I mean I know that realistically the end of 2005 will have nothing to do with what’s happened to me in the last seven months, but hey, if I can fool myself in anyway to get outta this funk I’ll take it!

I need to get back to doing the things that I love. I have in some ways gotten back to doing some things that I know I miss. I love football. I blocked myself from watching football for close to five years because I was deeply in love with a woman who hated it. I love the Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears. I love the Texas Longhorns and the Oregon Ducks. I love talking to my friends and family about this week’s games, this season’s players, and predicting who’s going to get snubbed out of another big bowl game and who’s going to end up in the Super Bowl this year. Football isn’t the main reason I’m happy to be back and watching it though. My Dad is. And my step Dad. And my Mom. The only thing I like more about watching the Bears play at Soldier Field is watching it with my Dad. The only thing I love more than watching the Cowboys beat the 49ers, the Broncos, the Steelers, the Eagles, the Raiders (um, well you get the idea) is talking with my family about the win. There is much I love about football and much I love about my family, but there are her things I’ve been getting into that are helping me get back into life.

I love working for my family’s business. I love working with Cory and Eugenia. I love having the opportunity to learn more about running a small business every time I sit down to talk with my Dad about it. I love listening to things that need to get done and helping him come up with solutions for the problems of the moment. I love working with John behind the bar and helping people out to the car with their wine. I love the tone of my Dad’s voice when he says “and this is my son Matthew LaVelle”. Well, I think he loves that more than I do, but anyway it’s there and we love working together. I think that 2006 will be a great year for LaVelle Vineyards and for me and my dad’s relationship.

I enjoy writing. This can also fit under the I enjoy spending time by myself category. Writing, driving, cooking, having a cup of coffee and being alone for a while has been tough for me this last 6 months. I guess it’s easy to understand. When you’re in a relationship with someone for really any length of time and you decide to go separate ways there’s a lot of pain there. And it’s not just losing your lover or your best friend. I’ve lost the ability to spend a lot of time alone. It’s even hard to sleep sometimes. It’s hard to eat. Waking up in the morning. Being intimate with anyone. It’s all difficult. And then on top of that these are all triggers going on in your life that can lead to depression, alcoholism, and other nasty things. Cooking will be out the door for quite some time I think. I’ve been doing a little writing here and there and I really love it. I realized the other day that there are some things that I just don’t enjoy that most people do. Like, reading novels, comic books, and anything else longer than an article or a weblog. I’m a writer.

I love creating websites for my clients. I like working with people and I think I do it well. My boss does too. I’ve been working for Creative Images for close to three years now, and I’ve met and worked with wuite a few people in that time. There have been up to three people working on websites with me and after next week I will be the only one left. Like many of my coworkers I’ve thought a lot about moving on. I still do. There are a lot of opportunities for our business to grow and expand and in the last three years something has been holding us back. There have been certain coworkers I think that were holding us back. There are certain obstacles and hurdles of our sister companies and our corporation’s overall goals that have been in the way for a while now. There are also certain resources that we have been in need of for a long time now that I think are being addressed finally. These are all good signs that 2006 may bring new and better things to Creative Images. I think that a new chapter in Creative Images is going to begin soon. We have ended this year with fewer employees than when I started here in 2003. I think that things will get better and that eventually our company will start growing and I can’t wait to be a part of that.

Still, there have been certain events in the last six months that have shook my beliefs in my company to its foundation. And for that reason I have started to get my portfolio and resume together. I think that it’s important to look out for myself. I have to set some goals for 2006 and the next few years to come and if things continue the way they have at Creative Images I don’t know if I can see myself there five years from now.

So things are going on and on for 2005 and 2006 is well on it’s way to being here. I look forward to it and I think it’s going to be one of the great years in my lifetime. It better be, anyway. Well, I guess it’s what I make of it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Dailies, Creative Images. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.