2006: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Now that I've finished my media-related "Best Of" lists for 2006, there's just one more left to do: the best and worst things to happen to me personally in 2006. These are more or less in chronological order, not in order of preference.

And yes, there are twice as many good things as bad things, but those bad things REALLY sucked, so it basically comes out even.

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HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY


1. Because my department at the time was shuttering its doors, so to speak, and the vast majority of our work was being routed to other offices, I spent the entire month of January getting paid to read, take extra-long breaks, and mess around online. At one point, I asked T, my boss at the time, if there was anything I should be doing, and he said, "I don't know, have you tried Spider Solitaire?" Such a thing of beauty was not destined to last, of course; see #1 on the bad list.

2. I discovered a massage school near the Merry Mansion that offered hour-long, full-body massages for $30. I tell you what, a biweekly massage does wonders for my state of mind, not to mention my notoriously tetchy back.

3. My trip to Sequoia with G, his sister and her family, and his best friend C. The park was breathtaking, and I got to know C better on the drive up there too.

4. Daddy-O and St. G got engaged. Even though I still find her air of entitlement offputting, I like her much more after seeing how she came through for my dad during Crappy Thing #5 , and she makes him so happy.

5. Both R and Daddy-O recovered from Crappy Things #4 and #5 and are doing better than ever.

6. I got to meet a fellow blogger I’ve been reading for years, and he was as funny and charming in person as he comes across in writing.

7. I finally got to try kobe beef, and it was so worth the wait.

8. I’m still healthy (mostly), sane (generally), and employed.

9. Thanksgiving vacation in Florida with G and his family.

10. Two years and counting with G. Because mutual friends read this, and I know he’d get embarrassed if I went into a sapfest, I’ll eschew the mushy in favor of the cryptic, and refer you to a certain song by the Eels.

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CRAPPY CRAPPY OY OY


1. After getting heat from his boss, the much-feared Dragon Lady, about keeping his last few employees idle, T pimped me out to a department that was so mind-numbingly, ass-achingly, soul-suckingly shitty I almost turned in my notice. I managed to stick it out, only to be moved to mail and file for several weeks. That was marginally better---which gives you some idea of just how bad the other department was---but more dangerous; during my stint, I suffered from paper cuts, blisters, and a run-in with the mail cart that literally left me scarred.

2. I got sick an unusual amount in 2006, ranging from several cases of food poisoning to a severe case of bronchitis that ruined the last half of my Easter vacation and left me barely able to speak. Oddly enough, despite my bad luck, I managed to avoid the food poisoning that felled dozens of employees at the Cube Farm employee appreciation picnic.

3. April 16th. G, who was starting to get sick with the aforementioned bronchitis, and I, feeling as though I teetered on the brink of death and one more coughing fit would send me plummeting, left New Jersey and flew home on a plane piloted by someone who must have gotten his license from the John Denver Quik-E-Fly School of Aviation. We caught the Van Nuys flyaway shuttle and were sitting there waiting to leave when the bus was rearended. We wound up sitting there for over an hour, which caused our tempers to skyrocket and left me wondering which one of us had pissed off a gypsy.

4. R, my older brother, suffered from health problems that forced him to go on disability for a couple of months.

5. Daddy-O's hip replacement surgery. The surgery in itself was a good thing, of course, since now he'll be able to walk without excruciating pain, but the process of his recovery was not. I'm glad I was able to help out, but my god, those two weeks were some of the longest and most exhausting of my life.