“Get Busy Living” — We’re filming a documentary!

We think “Get Busy Living” is the obvious and perfect choice to title a documentary about our story. But we didn’t come up with it, Chris Burket did. Long time film maker and camera guru, “Match” as we affectionately call him, approached us in October about making our story his new project. Of course! And I couldn’t think of a better person to tell it.

Chris Burket aka “Match” is a natural behind the camera.

Within a week, he brought over a giant hard drive, and I gave him every single moment of footage I’ve shot since Nick’s accident. He began following us around to appointments and events, shooting interviews, and capturing some important moments leading up to Nick’s first jump back.

Nick and Match heading into Ballard Rehab to see his nurses and therapists for the first time since he was discharged in July 2011

Super stealth shot of Match taking video of Nick’s prosthestist appointment

Match, I mean Chris, is a fun and creative guy, and it’s been a neat experience working with him for the last several weeks. His vision is to close the documentary with the obvious climax of Nick returning to the sky by making his first jump this Saturday. He’s bringing a film crew to capture the entire experience, including strapping one of those hefty RED cameras to our camera-girl Karen’s head for the jump(s).

He expects to have a movie trailer complete by the end of the year, and a rough cut of the feature-length documentary by February. We are very excited for our story to hit the silver screen. Fener’s goin’ to Hollywood, baby!

He’s built a website to keep fans up to date on the progress of things.

GetBusyLivingMovie.com

If you want to check out Match’s other awesome work, his personal website is ChrisBurket.com

And lastly, of course, I HAD to make my OWN documentary about the documentary. Just couldn’t help myself. Below is a silly little impromptu interview I did with Match, where he tells us why he’s making the movie, and what his plans are for it. I told him I hope his editing skills are better than mine. Thanks for watching!

Sunday January 1, 2012

I’m not sure how it happened, but this whole “new year, new you” thing really works. I’m not going to say we are entirely out of our “funk,” but we definitely feel better today than any day of the past week or so. We’re both ready for a fresh start, even if it is just in our minds.

Reality hit us hard recently. Really hard. We even missed his personal training appointment yesterday in favor of staying in bed. It’s true, we’re human, with human emotions. Nobody said this would be easy, and we certainly don’t expect instant results after such a traumatic accident. But seven months is enough time to cloud the memories of how awesome life used to be. And seven months of the day-in/day-out realities of life with a spinal cord injury is enough to batter anybody’s positive attitude. It wasn’t until this seventh month that I started feeling sadness.

I’ve had twinges of heartache when I see Nick struggle with the most simple of tasks, like opening a door, rolling over in bed, or going to the bathroom. I’ve gotten depressed when looking at old pictures of Nick. I’ve always said he’s the strongest, most capable man I’ve ever met. I guess now he has an opportunity to display his strength in new ways. Only recently I’ve experienced sadness for the things in life we are missing out on. We would be in Thailand right now if he didn’t get hurt. I feel sad when I think of the simple things that will FOREVER be a struggle for him, if not impossible. Will he be able to walk on the beach ever again? Will he ever have sexual sensations again? Will he be able to walk without a cane or crutch? Will he ever regain his bowel and bladder functions? Will he find fulfilling work again? Will he have to wear diapers for the rest of his life? Will he ever be pain free?  Despite these agonizing questions, we still hold strong faith. I’m just saying that the mere fact that these things are still questions in our minds, is sad in it’s own right.

We’re still positive though. We know that life today is not permanent. Things are getting better, improving slowly, every day. We literally remind ourselves of this hopeful fact daily. If we didn’t, well, I’m not sure we’d ever get out of bed. We both know that life is easier now than it was 4 months ago. It’s easier now than it was 4 weeks ago. And it will be easier still 4 months from now.

So here we are, starting a new year, saying goodbye to the worst year of our lives. And like I said yesterday, I wish we were actually saying “GOODBYE” to the troubles that 2011 brought us. But we’re not. And after much soul searching, I’m okay with that. I wish I could say the same for Fener, but I can’t. I’d be lying if I said he doesn’t regularly wish for life as it used to be. Daily life is very difficult for him. It’s painful, messy and arduous. Yet most of the time he faces these struggles with a smile. I really admire that.

We’ve decided to smile more in 2012, laugh more and focus more on fun. Basically, at the end of 2011, we had forgotten how to have fun. So, in 2012, we’ll be embodying his motto again: GET BUSY LIVING.

We’ve got some seriously exciting things coming up soon that can really change our lives. He’ll be starting therapy at The Challenge Center in about a month. This is a place specifically for people with spinal cord injuries that has an amazing track record. Around that same time, he’ll be starting the spinal cord stimulator trial to help relieve his pain with electrical impulses going directly to his spine. The research we’ve done gives us a lot of hope that this simple procedure will dramatically increase the quality of his life.

With these two changes, I can see Nick’s progress really take flight in 2012. We are very excited. Until then, we will face each day with a smile and a positive attitude. My resolution: respect the value of my time. Waste less of it, and invest more of it in what matters most to me. His resolution? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.