Ringing out the year

It is time to call it a year. For most people this year seems to have been a lost year or at least one of disappointments. It was a year of celebrity deaths (we'll never forget you Billy Mays) and celebrity infidelities (Tiger we hardly knew ye) and overall bad news (double digit unemployment, bad weather, Notre Dame underachieving, et al.) At least Susan Boyle had a good year if becoming famous for looking like someone who should not be famous is the criteria for a good year.

Typically my end of the year post is one of sarcasm and cynicism and at least a little bit of darkness. I never go out on New Year's Eve because it is amateur night and I am now a grizzled professional who is hanging on for one last season in the bigs just so he can claim a pension. That was my typical reason but it was never the real one. I never went out on New Year's because I was alone and there is no worse feeling in the world than to be the only single guy in a room full of happy couples. No number of shots in the world can make that feeling go away. That is why last year I ended up writing this post late at night in my apartment, wearing sweatpants and drinking a beer, and wondering if Chagall and the Frames could make my life worthwhile. How little did I know.

I didn't expect this year to turn out the way it did. I don't even think that if you asked me how this year would turn out I would never had described it in all its glory. This has truly been the most amazing year of my life. Kim and I fell in love, travelled the world and got engaged. She is everything I have ever dreamed of and I feel lucky every day I am with her. I am finally working in a field that I enjoy and where I think I can have a huge impact. Everyone in my family seems to be happy and though I lost my grandmother this year and miss her dearly I know that if there is anyone in this world or the next who is so happy at how my life has turned out it is her. I will never say that this year has been easy but it has been amazing.

So for once I am looking forward to the new year. As always there will be challenges to be met and disappointments to be had because that is just a feature of life. Nothing ever goes quite as well as you would like. But for the first time in, well, ever, I feel that I have everything in place. Now the real fun can begin.

I started the year with this song and I will end it with the same. The Swell Season bookends a wonderful year.