Goodbye, 2007

Someone asked me yesterday why I bother with New Year's resolutions, when people always just forget about them after a few weeks and then feel bad about it at the end of the year when they think back to their lofty and unachieved goals. I do it because usually I have either completed or made significant progress on at least half of my list, and that gives me a sense of accomplishment and an inspiration to renew those goals I still need to work on for the coming year. This year, I did complete the landscaping of my house and completed most but not all of the decorating. I bought a new car. I began exercising regularly, even if I did fall off the wagon. And I took a real vacation, albeit a brief one. Other things (getting thinner--something I've been aspiring to for nearly my entire adult life) I didn't do so well on, but hope springs eternal. And thus tomorrow I have the foundations for a new list.

2007 was an up and down year for me in so many ways. I started the year crazy busy at work, billing insane amounts (for me, anyway) and not having a single weekend off between December and sometime in April. I became the "Discovery Bitch" for a major client and was headed for trial in June, and then the case settled and the discovery project slowed way down, and suddenly the rest of the year wasn't so bad in terms of workload. But I also got dumped twice in 2007, the first hitting much harder than the second, but both resulting in struggles to stay friends and also making the year feel much like an emotional rollercoaster. I had some major fights with some very close friends, but as I always do I resolved to work it out and smooth it over as best I can.

I had some other random challenges, like my basement flooding due to roots in my pipes, and this leading to the yard and driveway being dug up and then the new landscaping. Or, my car's air conditioner shitting the bed in 2 weeks' worth of 100+ degree weather, leading to me getting a new one. In a lot of ways, 2007 is encapsulated in those experiences. It seemed like a tragedy at the time, but forced me into a change I knew I needed to make eventually, even if I didn't plan on having to adjust to change so quickly. And somehow, I found a way to make it happen.

There are some major events decisions looming in 2008 for me, most notably in terms of career path. I need to find a way to save enough money that I can either leave this job or, if I am put up for shareholder, buy my "share" if I am successful. I also need to save money for a new mortgage, while at the same time trying to pay down my car payment and student loan faster than presently set up for. This means I have to stop splurging so much on myself and my friends and family, which trust me will be harder for me than it sounds. I need to stop splurging in other ways too, and get back on that treadmill and stay with it. This is the year for getting serious, and as much as I hate to do it, I've waited long enough.

I have some other smaller and sillier goals in 2008, ones that should seem too small to mention but are important to me. Though it may have seemed like I did not enjoy my trip to New Orleans to play poker last month, it is definitely something I want to do again and get better at. Hopefully, I'll have the chance in Tunica in the next few weeks. But I also really want to try and win a World Series seat this year. I don't know if I'm good enough yet to win one, but I know I have to try. I also think my friends and family won't understand if my "real vacations" this year all center around poker, but I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone!

I have plenty of other personal goals that are far too personal to get into here, but they all fit my theme for 2008: no more bullshit. I've wasted so much time in my life on bullshit, on things that don't matter enough and people who don't matter enough, wasting time that I could have spent on things that make me happy or that advance my goals in some way. And that needs to be over. This means, with other changes, that blogging will probably significantly lighten for 2008. I know that every time I say that I end up holding out for a week or two before going back to my usualy 3-5 posts per day, but I really mean it this time. No. Really. I do. Blogging, for me at least, is a luxury of time. And as I look towards the year I will turn 33, time is a precious commodity now.

Finally, because this post isn't long enough already, I'll do the usual "Year in Review" thing that so many others have and give you a smattering of my favorite posts from 2007. In order by date, they are:

January--Circling the Drain
February--Will Blog for Food
March--It's ALL Hate Speech (in which a commenter called me an alcoholic who's just as bad as Ann Coulter, the highlight of my year!)
April--Dear John...it's not me, it's you
May--"I lost my junk in a tetherball accident" (the original video is no longer available but can be seen here)
June--The Gawker Mindset
July--Liveblogging the Genarlow Wilson oral argument, part 2, part 3, postlogue
August--A question
September--The Weekend that Was
October--The good fight
November--The poker odyssey
December--the conclusion of the poker odyssey

Phew! That took awhile!