As all the New Year’s hoopla tries to direct folks to see a shiny New Year ripe with possibilities, the cynic in me can’t help but note that each year produces more of the same. I am generally predisposed to see coming opportunities to be missed, crises to bemoan, difficulties to slip past, and other dark musings. My 2008 will begin with Jury Duty. Yep. On January 2nd I get on a bus at 7:30 to head into town for (at best) 2 days of punctuated boredom. Here in the city, one has to do jury duty every 2 years. More often if you don’t actually get on a jury. They pay $12 to compensate me for losing each day of income, as they have since the 1940’s.
But what of the year past?
After my early report on investment tax problems, I topped my previous record in spectacular losses in the stock market. Yes, I put a large chunk into a sub-prime mortgage lender just before it went belly-up. I finally exceeded my folly of 1999 when I rolled my entire IRA into a booming technology fund. At least mutual funds can eventually recover.
I did have some fun flash-dancing in the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Camping and dancing in the Indiana Woods, and other places.
We took a 3,140 mile drive over 12 October days to explore and photograph sunsets, a Gemini and Apollo astronaut, 100’s of hot air balloons in Albuquerque, Indian pueblos, casinos, Hillerman country, nuclear sites and museums, hot springs, modern ruins, and more. Food poisoning (probably from a mutton burrito in Window Rock) was the unique note for this particular trip. But it was a good trip, in retrospect.
My online jewelry business is still puttering along on the shoulder of the information superhighway. I spend an hour or two on this every day, and earn enough to have to pay taxes. Most of the time is spent in giving out free advice and keeping up the site.
For strokes, I did win one category and get an honorable mention in another in a very minor local photo contest. The local paper needed pix for its website.
Oh, yes. I also joined the blogosphere this year, right here.
I made no predictions for 2007 and I therefore made no mistakes as to how the year would unfold.
I didn't make any official resolutions at the beginning of the year and I therefore don't feel like I've let myself down in any particular way.
I did set out to try to take advantage of my precious moments of time on this planet by being more "efficient." I don't know that I have any way to judge whether I succeeded in that. I did work hard at many things this year, though, and I can't believe how incredibly fast the year sped by. If I hadn't taken the time to write about it (much of that writing here at this site) or if I hadn't taken lots of photos over the year (more than 2,000, after deleting half of them), I would have no way of knowing what I had been doing. External memory (extended self) at work.
At the risk of sounding trite, I will most treasure the quality time I spent with my family and friends and I hope to do much more of that in 2008.
This year instead of coming up with the usual New Year's resolutions to which I would not stick anyway I decided to tie up loose ends. I haven't done it with all, just with those that had managed to float back to the surface recently. I hope I have been able to assert myself and clarify my position with regards to some unresolved issues with people that had been lingering on for years and that I can start the new year with the knowledge that I am able to make it different, because I have already done something differently.
By the way, I thought it was cool, too, that Erich asked me if I wanted to blog here. 🙂
Me too proj! Erich's invitation for me to blog was a huge compliment!
My goal for this year is to push my art/business to the next level and I am hoping that the amassed brain power of DI will help me to do that. I may ask for critiques of my work from time to time and I hope that you don't see it as an imposition but rather as a stimulus for discussions about interesting new topics as well as the mechanics of storytelling.