Year In Review: Part 2

Well my birthday has come and gone, so it is time for my annual recap of my year. As I have said before - New Year's Eve is a great time to take stock and review, but as for me - I pick my birthday. I have hit 28 (an even number for those of you keeping track). Ever since 18 even numbered years have been overall negative, and odd numbered years have been overall positive. I think last year and the beginning of this one has proved that that isn't really the case anymore. I am not a superstitious person by nature, so I think the whole even/odd thing was my superstition.

ANYWAY . . .
This year was good . . . I think. To be honest I don't really remember it as a whole. That isn't to say I spent the year waisted and can't remember anything of significance - I think what I am saying is that there are few things that stick out to me. Which is good, because usually negative things stick out to me, and I think the most important thing that happened to me this year is that I learned to let some of the negative things in my life go.

Still working at Poynter Landscape (www.poynterlandscape.com for those of you keeping track), one month into year four. Funny, I didn't think I would last that long - but I have, and I am more or less liking it. My old roommate got married, so I moved, still live in a basement, but this one is much warmer. My dog and I reached a new level in our relationship, one where I realize that she is a dog and not my kid - we are much happier that way.

Lessons, or events that made 27:

1. Got up the guts to go over to a friends house and swing. Swinging, as you may or may not know, was my favorite activity as a child. So much so that any time I feel any negative emotion is makes it less, and any time I feel a positive emotion it makes it heightened. It is my personal belief that is was the spring board for my healthier mental outlook- and they might never get me to leave their backyard.

2. I quit going to counseling. This was a major event in my life - some even said I graduated, and I feel a bit like I did. The first title for this Blog was "Hey - Where Is My Couch", meaning this was where I was going to vent. Blogging wasn't enough so I went to talk to someone that had skin. Earlier this year I changed the name of my blog to "Sarcastic and Single" because I felt like I was coming to an end of the era of needing a couch (and because someone said that about me). As of a few months ago - that was true, I was at the end of the era of needing a couch. And, so it seems, the end of the era for really needing the blog (of which I already talked about in "Dear Gentle Reader").

3. Year 27 was the year of Little Miss Sunshine. I don't think I could count how many times I have seen this movie in the last year. But it has become a staple of my movie watching.

4. Finally understood my dad, and knew that maybe turning out to be like him wasn't as bad as I had originally suspected. In fact, figured if I did turn out to be like him that would probably be a good thing. I think I get him now, and the original horror of being like him as turned into wonder.

5. I learned that grief comes in many different forms, and can come from many different events - not just death. I spent the entire month of May in grief over the loss of my childhood innocence that my parents and grandparents aren't invincible.

6. I learned that no matter how normal your work shirts look - they do have your company's name on them and shouldn't be worn to social events.

7. Cancun is the closest I have come to heaven on earth. Not sure if it was the combination of the sun, the beach, the language, or the company - but it really was a great time. Only the second vacation spot that I can truly say I will go back again.

8. Wendy's disappeared from St. Louis. I never knew how much I liked Wendy's until it was gone. Now I have to travel an hour if I want a Jr. Bacon Cheese Burger, and that is just wrong. And "Oh the humanity" when they show a Wendy's commercial on TV.

9. I will not spend another New Year's Eve at a party - unless it involves a movie marathon, and me laying around in sweats eating ice cream.

10. I decided that someday I want to write. Whether it be an essay, a story, a term paper, or an instructional manual. I just know that somewhere inside of me there is a writer that wants to come out. It may not be during 28, it may not be until 82, but she is in there . . . I think she is just scared.