liptonrm_backup | (no subject)

Well, the New Year has come and gone and here I am, back again. I am optimistic that 2005 will be better then 2004, not that this past year was horrendous (for me) but simply because everything could stand a little improvement. Thankfully the Holidays are over and I am now able to get back to my 'normal' life, whatever that may be. So, for your enjoyment and my self-indulgence:

2004 In Review
(mostly chronological)

The Good
*Wrote first piece of fanfic
*The Big Lug came home from Brazil
*Graduated from college (finally)
*Met

shirebound and

baylorsr.
*Hired full time by company
*Participated in Chicago Hobbit Moot of Doom (thereby meeting

hiyacynth,

ramalama and

the_headhunter).
*Got own apartment after two year hiatus of living with parents.
*Became ever more involved in Fandom, a thing which has both enriched my life and made it ever more strange.

The Not-So-Good
*Great-aunt Beulah passed away.
*GW was reelected.

Huh. It's been a relatively good year. I suddenly feel inordinately blessed.

I Am Grateful For ...
*My family. I never cease to be amazed at how much I love them. Sure, sometimes I want to scream at my mother and at times the Big Lug mystifies the heck out of me but the knowledge that they're always there for me and I'm always there for them is more then I, at times, feel I deserve.
*My friends. Especially my 'old' friends, the people I've known for years and years and who still put up with my quirks and craziness. People like

hlgraban and Seattle Erin and

chica_buena. This year has been like that song I used to sing when I was a Brownie: 'Make new friends/ but keep the old/ one is silver/ and the other is gold'. I love all of my friends, 'new' and 'old'.
*My job.
*My apartment.
*My health.

Predictions for 2005
(these are not resolutions, but rather things that I hope for in the future)

*Find a second job that will help supplement present income and pay off all sorts of debts.
*Wrestler's return from Chile.
*The beginning of a career in Foreign Service. I'm still planning on going back to school for further graduate degrees sometime in the future but the State Department is beckoning to me at the moment.
*Wars and rumours of wars.
*My further immersion into fandom. Sinking ... can't.stop.siiiiinnnnnkkiiiiiinnnng ...
*The chance to have more fun times with old friends and new.

I can only hope and pray that the New Year brings good things to all those I care about and to all the world.