Good Riddance to 2012

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Big Magilla
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by Big Magilla »

Your father sounds like he was a great guy, Harry. Hopefully things will work out for you and your wife and the rest of your family as the new year goes along.
HarryGoldfarb
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by HarryGoldfarb »

An absence explained

I didn't want to create a new topic just for this. Also, I think this fits more or less in here...

In September 2011 my father died. The fact itself is said in a simple manner but represents an life changing event and in this case, it changed the course of many lives. My father lived his life intensely. When he died, he left a wife deeply in love who took care of him until the last second, eight children from three marriages (of which I am the youngest), and almost twenty grandchildren. He was an autodidact, the founder of three radio stations in the country's interior, incredibly cult, a fan of Federico García Lorca's poems and Gardel's tangos, a Boxing enthusiast and Baseball hardcore fanatic. Knowing of my fondness for movies, he filled my mind with his own experiences with films from the 40s and 50s, compelling me to very complicated missions for a Venezuelan guy, like getting Chaplin’s "A King in New York", a film he enjoyed during its premiere in a now extinct Caracas and remembered as one of the opportunities where he laughed the most in his life. Being a doctor, I had to deal with the progressive deterioration of his health: A heart attack, then a stroke and even a gastrointestinal bleeding beat him really hard and left him in bed for about 3 months with increasingly weaker mental functions. My mother refused to an In-House Nurse and took care of him until the end; she fed him and cared for him with resolute love and devotion. All this happened in a city just over two hours away by car from Caracas while I was in the second year of my second year of specialization, this time in Critical Care Medicine. Despite the blow, I graduated with very good grades, but I lost the opportunity to do an internship in an optional ICU abroad (I had already selected and obtained approval from the University College Hospital in London). The 2012 was a year of major changes: the structure and functioning of my family had changed and it was necessary to make us new dynamics. For the first time in my life, with 31 years, I was looking for a job that does not represent a further study, and my wife was unemployed too having obtained her second title as a specialist (she was already a pediatrician and had just graduated from pediatric nephrology). But we did pretty well. I joined a highly respected institution in Caracas as Internal Medicine Specialist and got two further placements in two intensive care units. Subsequently, I was hired by the Central University of Venezuela and am currently Professor of the Medicine School, a job I deeply enjoy. I’m working at the hospital where I trained as an internist, a centenary hospital while impaired and with gaps that characterize our hospital network, is able to solve many complex diseases. In the midst of so much work, the political climate of the country little help: the presidential elections and the events leading up to it occupied every day of Venezuelans for over 9 months. October 7, 2012 is a day I will remember for the horrific feeling of emptiness I felt when the first results were issued. Needless to say that I am an opponent of the vast majority of the ideas of President Chavez and for a moment thought it was possible to beat him in the race. But the government blatantly used its force and eventually opportunism won. The political situation in the country is quite complex and difficult to explain in a post, but suffice to say that irresponsible government spending explain the devaluation of the currency that still has the population shocked. 2012 also leaves me the birth of a beautiful niece and my sister's divorce. This past December was a month of a lot of work but I managed to greet 2013 with my family. My wife and I started the year with a trip to Paris and London, a gift I gave to ourselves for our 7th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed the cities but I was surprised by the stark contrast between the hostility of Parisians vs. Londoner’s extreme kindness. Back in Venezuela, the work is nonstop, we do not know for sure who governs the country nor the true health condition of the President (with no evidence of life but a series of dubious photographs) and now we face a severely devalued currency and the ongoing terrible violence in the country. My wife is finishing a fellowship on Kidney Transplant but increasingly, we have been talking about the possibility of leaving the country. With so much going on, it has been hard to stop and write in this Board that I really love. While I've seen some movies, my life has been a little busy but believe me, almost everyday I come in and read the comments from you. Thanks for keeping this site going on. I enjoy it so much even though I do not participate as actively as I would like.

Hugs to you all.

And by the way, since I'm here, Happy 2013 everybody...
"If you place an object in a museum, does that make this object a piece of art?" - The Square (2017)
mlrg
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by mlrg »

Although not an avid poster, I come here on a daily basis, some days 3 or 4 times per day. It’s the only site that I try to visit on a daily basis for the past 15 years or so. We are not so many, but everything I read here is very much interesting, either if it’s about the Oscars or movies or whatever. If truly feels like a family.

Have a great 2013!
ITALIANO
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by ITALIANO »

Come here more often, Zach. It can work for depression, too... :)

Plus, this board isn't only about the Oscars anymore - except maybe in this part of the year.

And a Happy New Year to you and everybody here at Cinemasight!
danfrank
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by danfrank »

It's always nice to read any of your posts, Zach, however infrequent. May 2013 be a good year for you and for everyone on the board.
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Johnny Guitar
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by Johnny Guitar »

Good riddance to 2012 indeed. Sorry to hear about all the rough patches, Magilla and Reza.

I became an uncle this year, with a cool little baby nephew who resembled Wallace Shawn as a newborn, and I have enjoyed other minor achievements. But really it seemed to be a rough year for the majority of people I knew - health tragedies, overwork, underpay ... I hope that 2013 is much better for all of us.

Maybe I mentioned this back when it was happening, but the period when Damien left us was absolutely horrible for me. The weekend when he was taken off life support, I was also hit with a very bad cold (uncharacteristically), and my father-in-law discovered he had two brain aneurysms - which, thankfully, were successfully operated on a few months later. On top of that, I stopped drinking caffeine for a while because I figured, what the hell, I can't feel any worse this week. Frankly I couldn't distinguish caffeine withdrawl headaches from the rest of my deep malaise anyway. I can't even count the number of times I've had the impulse to email Damien to tell him about something, and immediately realized I couldn't do that anymore. I can never repay my debts to him as a friend and teacher.

Soon after, and for a number of reasons that exceed the ones I've just mentioned, I went through a spell of depression. At first I thought of this as a very private and maybe even shameful thing, but after I pulled out of it I eventually realized how physiological and chemical it was. Talking to supportive friends, exercising more (much more), and cutting almost all the sugar & refined carbs out of my already fairly healthy diet have worked wonders.

Anyway this is a lot of rambling considering I haven't spent much of 2012 posting here at all. But this place has been a part of my life for probably close to 15 years now and Damien's absence only makes me feel this fact more acutely ... even though I don't see as many films or keep up with the Oscar races as well as I should if I ever want to be a productive member here again.

Next time I open the scotch I'll raise a toast to you all. Cheers.
Reza
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by Reza »

It's been a bad year for me as well. Hope 2013 brings happiness and good times for all of us.
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OscarGuy
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Re: Good Riddance to 2012

Post by OscarGuy »

Not a great year, Peter. Here's hoping to a better 2013 for you!
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
Big Magilla
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Good Riddance to 2012

Post by Big Magilla »

What a miserable year.

A few of the highlights:

It began with my father having to be placed in a nursing home on January 3rd on what would have been my parents' 69th wedding anniversary. When I spoke to him on his 91st birthday on March 28th, he alternated between thinking he was at home with my mother who died five years earlier and complaining about the staff at the facility. Twelve days later he went into a coma and died three days after that.

The night before the Golden Globes I had been waiting for Damien's predictions when I had to go to a dinner at my brother's house about ten minutes away. When I left his house I had to brush off an inch of snow on my car and was thinking about Damien when I a cold chill went through me. My whole body began to shake and it wouldn't stop until I got home, turned up the heat, put extra blankets on the bed and got under the covers. I thought it was the sudden change in the weather, but that was the night we later learned that Damien had suffered his heart attack and gone into the coma from which he never awoke.

Early in the summer my friend Paul took his wife and young children to Hawaii to celebrate his 50th birthday. The day before his birthday he went swimming and drowned.

One of the many good things that happened this year was getting to visit my brother's grave in Arlington with my sister-in-law (his widow), my youngest sister and her husband on what would have been his 64th birthday. On the way home my sister and brother-in-law learned that their youngest daughter and her wife had a terrible fight and broke up. The first same sex marriage in our family had come to an abrupt end.

I got through Superstorm Sandy and the freak snowstorm of a week later only to have water problems in the big rainstorm the weekend before Christmas, discovering in the process leaky pipes coming from a shower, a bathtub and a toilet. The plumber can't come until this Thursday. On top of that the metal and rubber boot on my new garage door fell off less than three months after the warrantee ran out. Fortunately they realized it was a design flaw and are replacing the entire bottom panel without charge.

Two couples that were supposed to visit from California this past summer couldn't make it due to the ill health of the husband in one situation and the wife in the other. On December 20th, the sick husband fell and broke a leg in two places and had to be placed in a nursing home. He's only 54. The wife in the other situation had to be placed in a home for Alzheimer's patients by her husband on the day after Christmas. She just turned 64.

Yesterday while waiting for my car to be serviced, I met a woman whose home was flooded during Sandy. She and her two youngest children spent two days in her car in a parking lot that was presumed safe while her husband and older children stayed in their flooded home. She considered herself lucky as many of her neighbors had lost their homes altogether. It reminded me of the proverb about the man who felt sorry for himself because he had no shoes until he met a man who had no legs.

It's a new year, a new beginning and hopefully a better one for everyone here so Happy New Year my friends. Be well.
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