2009....it's good to see it go.

I haven't heard a lot of positive about 2009 recently.  I'm not going to change that trend, because personally I don't think it was a very good year, either.  It's not because of economic reasons like so many others would probably cite, but for other reasons.

I'm not griping to gripe, honestly.  2006 was a good year.  In '06, I finally moved away from North Dakota and in with my (now wife) girlfriend Heidi.  I accomplished my goal of moving the hell away from ND.  We moved to TN and I got a decent job and a promotion.  Not a bad year.

2007 was another good year.  Great vacations were taken, we bought a new house, got all 3 of our pets that we still have and love right now, and got engaged.  I couldn't complain.

2008 was an excellent year.  Promotions at work gave me more income than ever, we got married in the Carribean, and had a couple other great vacations.  This was probably the best year.

But then 2009....

You see, I normally don't like New Years because it signifies the passing of time and makes me feel a bit older just like my birthday does.  This time though, I think I won't be as troubled by it.  If we can just shove 2009 under the rug, I wouldn't mind.  Why?

Well it started with me getting laid off in January.  Now, it IS true I did find a better job.  So the stress of being laid off may be nullified by that, but it's made me cautious ever since.  We didn't take any big vacations this year...just a couple smaller ones.  My 30th birthday vacation plans were foiled by  being laid off.  My Christmas this year was absolutely miserable, as has been documented before.  We wrap up the year with my dad possibly having prostate cancer.

See ya later 2009!

Oh, and did I mention that now I'm finally getting on board with Heidi on the idea that the people here just aren't the people we should be around??  We've been here 3 and a half years and have absolutely nobody to do anything with on New Years.  So we'll spend it together here at home.  We'll be asleep by midnight.  Well, I guess it's a cheap way to do it...

So how was this year to you??  Happy to see it go?

Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.

I'm sitting here in the basement of my wife's parents' house in the suburbs of Buffalo today, happy to report that this is the 2nd to last day we'll be here.  It may sound wrong to say such a thing, but I'd like to first state my case as to why this week hasn't been something I'll take to my grave.

First, our sleeping arrangment is as follows:  A futon, very narrow (twin sized), with thin padding.  Barely enough room for both of us to sleep on.  My back hurts right now.

They have 6 adult dogs and 8 puppies.  Whenever the door opens or anybody makes an audible sound in the house, there is about 15 solid minutes of barking before they finally shut up.  That is, of course, until the next time a sound is made.  Then cue the dogs again.

The stepmother is a chain smoker and thus has made me smell like smoke too.  But this isn't the worst part...my wife is giving her a ride to Walmart as we speak to pick up dog food for the 14 dogs.....and she advised me that she'd try to tell my stepmother not to smoke in our car, but sometimes she doesn't listen to her.

WTF??  Who here that doesn't allow smoking in their car would allow some fat, chain smoking toad like her stepmother to do it anyway??  For fuck's sake, it's our property and if we don't want somebody lighting up cheap cigarettes in it, my wife should be able to tell her that definitively.  ARGH!

By the way, we're the guests here, and yet we end up paying for more of the money that goes towards making the dinners than anything.

So between the tiny futon, the 14 dogs, being taken advantage of to buy everything because we're "rich", and the smoking....I can say that crossing the TN state line again on Saturday will be an orgasmic experience.

Here's the problem I have with celebrities complaining about privacy...

The whole Tiger Woods ordeal has brought us back to a familiar situation...which is when a person in the public eye makes a bad mistake and ends up having his/her life followed by papparazi no matter where they go.  Said celebrity then makes a statement about how their life shouldn't be on the covers of magazines and how people should respect their privacy.

That's good in theory....HOWEVER....it seems like they want it both ways here.  For instance, look at Tiger's situation.  The money he makes from actual golf is miniscule compared to his endorsements.  Why does he get endorsements??  It's partly for his golf and partly because he's always had a squeaky clean image.  A person who is the best at what they do AND has a great image is a goldmine for companies.  Why else do you think that people who are thought of as "thugs" can't get anything but sneaker deals??  You think Accenture, Buick and Gillette would have chosen Tiger as a spokesman if he spoke in ebonics and had domestic abuse charges in his past??  Hell no.  So that very image that he created is what largely has funded his lifestyle.  I'm sure he enjoys having a 2.6 million dollar home and almost unlimited funds to buy whatever the hell he wants.  His wife just bought an estate on an island for 2 million bucks as if it was nothing.  Could he get that with golfing earnings alone??  I can answer that for you: no.

So when you're reaping the benefits of how you've set yourself up, I think it's only to be expected that if you make some really stupid mistakes that it would probably be played out in the media.  Did he really think that having affairs with a dozen women would never come out??  I mean...REALLY?? 

Yeah, I get wanting privacy.  But he just isn't going to get it in his situation.  It's like me complaining about being busted for looking at porn at a job where internet usage is heavily monitored.  You KNOW that you're going to get busted, and when you do, you can't play the "leave me alone!" card.

So what do all of you think??

Did people who are "following" this blog get a notification via Email??  or is that completely worthless?  If it didn't send an Email or do SOMETHING to notify people, I have to wonder about this whole system....

So here it is, my first post here at Blogger.

This isn't really meant to be a first post with lots of thought behind it, but just a message letting people know that they've reached the right place if they've attempted to reach my blog here after it being at Myspace for so long.

If you don't know how much I appreciate you coming over here to read this, I do want to convey that to you now.  I really DO appreciate it.  Almost everybody I'm in contact with I've "known" for quite a while now and although you may not recognize me if I were to pass you on the street, I hope that I've given you some things to think or laugh about (and possibly to fume about) in the last 3 or so years.

Honestly, I had thought about doing this for a while but thought it'd be something nobody would be interested in.  I think I was wrong judging on feedback.  At least, I hope I was wrong.  Myspace has done zero to keep people interested in their site, and I'm tired of writing on a sinking ship.  I am going to continue posting my blogs both here and there (by just copy/pasting new blogs here back into Myspace), but if it seems nobody is even looking at Myspace anymore I'll probably end up ditching it altogether.

So then...do me a favor and "Check in" by commenting on here that you made it....and to show that everything works like it should.  And I'd LOVE feedback too....this is actually a pretty big step, considering I have stood by Myspace for so damn long!

The only way to "subscribe" is over on the right under "Followers".  Not sure, but you may have to have a Gmail account to do it.  Test it out, and see what happens.  Also you can ALWAYS just "favorite" this page if you want in your internet browser.  That's awesome, too.

I'm already thinking about what to write about next....probably something inflammatory....I wanna kick this off with a bang.