2009 Will be Hard to Top
January 1st, 2010Not Everyone Was Miserable
Last night while attempting to gain control of my radioactive doro wat roti with sour cream, I watched a little TV. I noticed people were whining about 2009. What an awful year! They were thrilled it was over.
I didn’t get that at all! Last year was great for me. I joined a fantastic church. I met wonderful people. I got delivered from an overeating problem I had had all my life. I developed a somewhat more normal relationship with my sister. I made real progress on some family problems. I got a lot of garbage out of my life. And I got a lot of neat tools.
Last year was rotten for a lot of people. I will try to remember that, and I will not be smug, because my efforts are not the reason my year was pleasant. But I truly believe that anyone who was willing to give up and draw closer to God could have had a great year.
I was invited to a New Year’s party, but I declined. Had I felt well enough, I would have gone to church, but I developed a cough, so I stayed home.
I don’t miss the parties. This is the lamest holiday of the year, including Groundhog Day. I don’t like staying up late. I don’t get drunk any more. I have never been very excited about dancing. I don’t want to pick up women. It’s considerate of people to invite me out, but I’d rather have my sleep.
I like Christmas; the childhood memories will always guarantee that. I like Thanksgiving because there is food. I like the Fourth of July because there is food. After that, my favorite holiday is the day when we set our clocks back an hour. Or the day after I file my tax return.
Halloween used to be pretty good, but now that I’m all religious, I have nowhere to go.
Getting drunk and staying up late the night before January 1st is like having a bachelor party with strippers on the night before you get married. It gets you off to the worst start possible. I’d like New Year’s parties better if they ended at nine. Why do we have to jump up and down and scream at midnight? It’s not like we’re all getting healed of cancer when the clock strikes twelve. It doesn’t really change anything. Why wait up for it? I say smoke some ribs, have some potato salad, fire a few rockets, and go home early. I went to bed at a reasonable hour, and when I got up, it was 2010 for me, just like it was for all the people who got drunk and ruined their sleep patterns. I didn’t miss a thing.
Maybe next year I’ll have a New Year’s Eve Afternoon barbecue, for other people who are tired of waking up in flowerbeds.
Here’s some things to celebrate. I didn’t hug a dirty toilet last night. I didn’t have to refuse a breath test. I don’t have a headache. I knew where I was when I woke up. I’m not wondering if anyone is pregnant or whether I have an STD.
Any holiday people can’t celebrate with their kids ought to be questioned.
People never seem happy on January 1st. Is that just my imagination? They’re quiet. They seem to feel sheepish. Nothing is moving outside. I feel like The Omega Man.
I got up fairly early, cleaned myself up, and got back in bed to sweat the remaining viruses out. That gave me time for a lot of prayer, which is good, because whenever I get sick, my prayer routine suffers. Now the day and the year have a solid foundation under them. That sure beats waking up in a tuxedo, with a mop bucket next to the bed.
I think the need for wild celebrations is a symptom of dissatisfaction with the rest of your life. When I was in college, I was miserable, and I looked forward to getting extremely drunk twice a week. Drunkenness was the best part of my life. These days, I would be upset by the prospect of getting drunk. It would be a chore and an inconvenience. And being around people who are drinking can be like babysitting.
This is going to be a great year, and 2011 will be even better. I base that prediction on the assumption that I am given the grace to stay on the path I’ve chosen; only God can bring it to pass. I expect things to get better and better, even if I die. I don’t need to get drunk to be optimistic and excited.
Thank you, Lord, for an excellent year. Thanks for a positive trend that will continue even after my life is over.
January 1st, 2010 at 1:34 PM
Another point of view:
The Year in Review
http://apps.bonderenka.com/Blog/
By the way: Pelosi, Obama and Rush are in Hawaii.
Rush had a heart attack?
In the words of PeeWee Herman:
“Coincidence? I think not!”
January 1st, 2010 at 1:44 PM
God Bless and Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2010 at 2:46 PM
“I think the need for wild celebrations is a symptom of dissatisfaction with the rest of your life. When I was in college, I was miserable, and I looked forward to getting extremely drunk twice a week. Drunkenness was the best part of my life.”
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I don’t recall getting drunk since I got married in 1986. In college, the desire to annihilate myself was strong. When I left the narcissism of the campus to spend a year in Israel, it was clear that I wasn’t ever going to be influenced again by a system designed by those opposed to timeless values and, since Vietnam, aggressively so.
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It’s good to be able to look back on progress with you.
January 1st, 2010 at 2:58 PM
Any holiday people can’t celebrate with their kids ought to be questioned.
Yup. Goes for movies too. Have another great year Steve. You’ve come a long way since that blog about how awful children’s art is…. even if it is.
January 1st, 2010 at 4:02 PM
Happy New Year to you and all your readers.
Our family had our annual New Year’s bonfire last night. We’ve had one every year for 11 years, excepting last year when the drought was so bad we were afraid we would burn up the woods. All my sibs who live in town save their wrapping paper, boxes, burnables of any kind from Christmas plus we always have a lot of wood and scrap lumber that needs burned so we turn it into a festive, family and friends event. We have hot dogs and other goodies anyone feels inclined to bring, i.e. WAY TOO MUCH FOOD.
Did you know you can make really nice parachutes out of tissue paper scraps. They hit the current and go wayyy high, or sometimes sideways. It’s always a contest to see which one stays aloft the longest or goes the highest. Anyway a good time is had by all – good clean family fun.
We are blessed with a close and friendly family. God is good to us.
January 1st, 2010 at 4:05 PM
I had two drinks. One beer with dinner, and slug of Woodford Reserve at midnight. Then I went back to what I was doing, which was reading Og and BigDick’s (unfortunate blog title, but it’s evident he doesn’t care, which just adds to the fun) archives.
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The older I get, the more I appreciate fine booze and the less inclined I am to abuse it.
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Life’s like that in a lot of different ways.
January 1st, 2010 at 6:56 PM
I love the fall and winter holidays…they are so family-oriented. God has allowed us to harvest our hard work, we have been blessed by Him all year. We can celebrate starting in October with All Hallows Eve and pray for the souls of our dead and feast after. It is a joy to think of souls being freed and allowed to go home. But even if you don’t believe this, the joy of God’s blessing of the year really begins here because of our agrarian origins. Then Thanksgiving comes, with all of its blessings, then Christmas. O, how I love this thankful time of year! New year’s? Not so much.
January 1st, 2010 at 10:35 PM
New Year’s Eve for N5: Three stooges marathon w my disabled dad and bed by 9. My blessings multiply. Thanks Steve.
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:32 AM
I don’t get the whining either. I can understand if people had a bad personal year, but most people seem to be getting upset over bad news on tv or political disappointments. Hey, I’m not thrilled about Carter Jr. in the White House, or the return of the Seventies, or the economic slump, but on the whole this past year was better than 2008. I managed to escape Florida, finally, after wanting to do so for most of my life; I’ve got a place to live and my cat and computer; I finally got to experience snow and I’ve survived; I’ve finally found some work (even if it is part-time and only temporary, it’s better than the nothing I had for the past few months), and I’ve been able to see several Shakespeare plays for free or very low prices at the American Shakespeare Center which is just down the block from me. On the whole life could be a whole lot worse.
January 2nd, 2010 at 9:08 AM
In retrospect, I seemed to have neglected (for lack of a better word) the spirit of your post, which is that in your life, things have been in an upward curve as you described, and praise God for it (which you did). I’m sorry if that I came off negative in my response to your post.
May God grant us a prosperous New Year, spiritually, politically and financially.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:16 AM
In retrospect, maybe I should have said a few words about the beginning of the end of Western Civilization. I’m just glad that I have a greater power working to lift me above the deluge.
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:27 PM
Let’s just say I’ve kept one of my manual typewriters, just in case. Because in between hunting rats for food and beating the mutants away from my water cache, I’ll want to type something. It’ll be a blog, just typed on dried leaves and stuff.
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:27 PM
I’m glad you had a good year, Steve. In some respects, there is always good around us; sometimes, however, we have to search hard to find it.
I’ve never been someone who likes alcohol. Never any problems with it; just don’t like it. So – on New Year’s eve I stayed home with Mr Mollo and Sunny and we played bridge on the Internet, watched old movies and ate peanuts.
If my birdies are happy – it perks me up, too!
Happy New Year everyone.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:47 AM
Congratulations on all of the above. A belated and blessed happy new year, Steve. God rocks.