07', Year in Review

To start with an immediate review of the last year, personal highs and lows, would be a bit self indulgent. So lets start with a few items that I recall from the world around me.

This may bounce around a bit, my memory has decided to filter items deemed not necessarily important.

We are still in a war that seems to have more casualties than any sort of victories. Personally, I don't care about the war, we might have had good reasons to commence war with another country, However, we are spending more & more money to finance this as well as the human toll this has taken. I realize that we might not be hearing all of the truths with regard to this, though, from what I have seen from other countries with regards to reports and updates on this war, tends to put this war in a dismal light. We as a country need to get our troops home, figure out a way to end or extricate ourselves from this war - safely.
Interestingly enough, on the eve of the start of this war, Dixie Chicks made derogatory comments on a stage in London with regards to this war and our President. Needless to say, they were shunned, banned from radio stations, even had death threats made against them and their families. True, they should not have said those things, especially on foreign soil. However, some of those remarks proved prophetic. Yet, they are still shunned.

Enough, I could ramble on for a bit more, yet will spare ya'll more of the same.

We lost Evel Knievel, Pavarotti, Banazir Bhutto, Dan Fogelberg, Ike Turner, Norman Mailer, Hank Thompson, Kevin Dubrow, Joey Bishop, Leona Helmsley, Tammy Faye Messner, Don Ho... To name a few....

Other events in this year: Minneapolis bridge collapse, several shootings, Al Gore won the peace prize, Smart cars introduced in the United States..... among others.

Interesting how the mind automatically focuses on the negative events of life, it would appear that the news and papers point out these horrors as if they were common occurrences, they filter and sanitize various stories to grab the audience, pull them in, and leaving them wanting more. It is often refreshing to read stories about positive, life affirming things. Alas, these are so few and far between.

This year in my life has been one of growing, pain, happiness, etc etc.. blah blah blah!
Lets cut to the chase, this year pretty much sucked, I try to focus on the positive aspects, wring as much as I can out of those few and far between happy times.

I started this year working in a completely different field, one that would be light years from anything I had ever done prior. I started working in a school, in April, with second graders. This wasn't too bad, actually kind of fun when the politics were not to intense.

This year my back pain ramped up a few more notches. Tried to find alternative options, found out that there really isn't a whole lot anyone can do. The steroid mix injections are failing, the pain pills don't always work. Other meds make me sick. Running around chasing children have exasperated my condition exponentially. I was forced to leave the job at the school partly due to my back and pain levels were getting completely out of control.

In March, we lost my two cats. One had lived with me for almost twenty years, the other about eight. I have never experienced that intense level of grief in my adult life. For the sake of others and my sanity, I did not allow myself to indulge in these feelings, I did what came naturally to me in my life, a lesson learned many years ago; I buried the pain, the mess of emotions.

I have been blessed with many friends this year, good, true people that have blessed me with their friendships.
I have met new people and am happy to be able to call them friends. My friendships from previous years have strengthened and are considered my surrogate family.

My partner and I have celebrated our eleventh year! quite a feat for us. We are sooo the old married couple now! I am enjoying every minute of it.

I am looking forward to a new year, rife with potential. New friends, another year older (gulp!), new possibilities.