…finally back online! :(

Ok, so we learned an important lesson over the weekend – be careful when making changes to the computer that feeds Internet access to everywhere else in the house! Long story short, I tried to update MySQL for some things I’ve been playing around with at work and ended up bringing down the house. Don’t ask me how … the wi-fi to my laptop still isn’t up and working, and I’m not making any more changes until that PC gets an upgrade itself…

So yeah – I spent my New Year’s Eve fighting with database software – woo hoo. I believe last year’s was occupied reading the latest Harry Potter book, so let’s just say that I’ve never been real big on New Year’s. Sure, I would’ve liked to go watch fireworks somewhere — other than from my punk neighbors who are still setting the things off at random intervals as I type — but at upwards of $50 a pop, that’s just a bit over my head! That and all of the drunkies out there, it just doesn’t seem worth it for me, so I spent the evening playing computer and watching It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. Maybe next year will be more “exciting…”

But regardless, this is something that I wanted to put together with the end of the season upon us:

January – Disgruntled early and often, I almost burned a bridge before I’d even had a chance to cross it by threatening to leave work for a job offering direct hire. Little did I know that it would be another ten months before anything came to be, but at least then I learned that a lot of shady happenings take place in the business world – you can either let them get to you and leave out of principle, or stick it out, hope for the best and look the other way in the meantime. I chose the later, and am very glad that I did…

February – Crisis of faith with the writing that I still haven’t really resolved stepped up to the plate this month – “Inspiration is something that you have to go out and find because if you just sit around here waiting for it to come back, you may never see it again…” True words and looking back, I really need to get my ass in gear! Also, Valentine’s Day was a crock as usual, but I’m not bitter about it at all.

March – I gave up on persuing this one girl at work, began to contemplate calling it quits with Just Laugh, and bought Uncle Buck on DVD. What can I say? It was a slow month!

April – I actually had to pay on my taxes for the first time ever. Also, “Goldie Hawn turned 167!” Ok, so I got nothing for April, either…

May – Probably the most shocking event of the year, Michael ended his own life on his 25th birthday – he was the only person that I knew when I first got to Florida, and probably one of the funniest guys I’ll ever know. The man was a genius who left us long before his time, and I miss him damn near every day – what more can I say?

June – Certainly a month of realization, I spent a good deal of time after those sleepless nights at the end of May thinking about my own problems and coming to realize that most of them didn’t really matter that much anymore in light of said events. I could go on and on…and on, but for the purposes of this summary, not very much took place as far as tangible happenings are concerned. I did, however, do quite a bit of searching and when I find what I was looking for, I’ll be sure to let the world know…

July – I’m offered / put on a project at work that will change my presence from that day forward – since that day, I seem to be the unofficial “lead without a title,” but I’m looked at by management in a whole new way and I absolutely love it. Finally I’m given the opportunity to really show the center how a team should be led, and we do so with unprecedented results! I began working 50 – 60 hour weeks and almost over-stressed myself in the process… Also, with everything at the speed of light around me, I closed Just Laugh for good.

August – Still buried under mounds of changes that I want to introduce at work, I don’t really remember much that happened during this time…except that I got in trouble a couple of times for stepping on toes, but that’s a sore subject that we won’t get into here and now! Also, I celebrated my 25th birthday by going home early (read: on time). Even got to experience my first hurricane (Charley), but certainly not the last of the season. The delivery of my big-screen tv was postponed because of that stupid storm…

September – I don’t think that I spent more than a few days in my own bed during September, and not in the *wink wink* sense either, unfortunately. Hurricane Frances sent myself and about twenty co-workers up to Atlanta for “disaster relief,” which ended up being only precautionary once again. Over the course of a full week, we learned that living in a hotel can be extremely boring and that there aren’t as many cool places to go out to eat as one might think…

October – After an agonizing three months of waiting, we finally get word back and I’m hired on full-time by the company. Slightly more pay (w/o overtime), benefits that kick some serious ass, and above all, just having that red badge makes it all worthwhile! Mind you, many co-workers now hold a grudge because I was hired and they weren’t, but sometimes you’ve gotta look out for yourself. It was a very good transition to make, that’s for sure!

November – Lots of drama took place at work which was really unnecessary, if you ask me. People whom I had considered friends complained to management because, of all things, I had become friends with my bosses and was therefore the cause of their being allegedly biased. Of course, in hindsight you really never know when people are going to pull this kind of crap and I simply have way too much fun at my job to not interact with anybody because it might happen again. Nonetheless, I still accepted the invitation from my supervisor and went over to her family’s house for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. I learned that you can’t let a few obnoxious people ruin your good time.

December – Striving to not get sick like I did last year, I almost made it this time until somebody at work exposed the entire center to the worst “cold” man could possibly experience. Fortunately I didn’t miss any work this time and just battled the sniffles for a couple of weeks. Now there’s a manly word for you there: sniffles! Christmas was fun, but tiring, and probably moreso because about a week before we were given the word that we’d be closing up shop over the next six months and people were getting laid off before the holidays. Despite what any financial projections may tell you, it’s never not a shitty thing to do to people when you fire them 10 days before Christmas… Also spent an afternoon at Epcot with friends, and that was very cool.

So there you have it – 2004 in a nutshell. Mind you, a lot of them are work-related, but then again I guess I like to think that I made some pretty big strides with respect to work this year. Keep in mind that when you’ve spent the past six years working at a crappy job and then finally move up to something worthwhile, these kinds of things happen! Oh well, I guess this year had its ups and it certainly had its downs – it should be “interesting” to see what 2005 has in store for our hero…

Anywho, resolutions to come shortly. Happy New Year!!!

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