the year's past

wow, another year gone and so much has changed. this year has seen it's fair share of ups and downs, believe me.

the year started in the middle of my marrige spiraling downhill. i was in a slump, a bad one. one of my worst by far. it happens to me every now and then and most times i can squash it, but that time...i needed a change and if i didn't get it, all hell was going to break loose. i shunned the people closest to me, i took so many days off work that i ran out of sick time before the end of january and i was generally self destructive. it wasn't a good time for all involved as you can well guess. this was all carried over from last year and joey can attest to the type of ass i was being. i guess the experts would have called it a "mid life crisis", but i'm not much into the experts. i refused to see anyone (that's normal for me) and vowed to figure things out myself.

things that didn't help me out were:

living in an apartment that was below ground
joey had a depressed time and clung to me

the two of these issues made me feel trapped and i don't like feeling trapped (not like anyone does, really). i couldn't really go outside because we had no back yard and going out in car meant that joey wanted to go as well. yeah, it was a bad time for me. so i found other escapes...one of them being world of warcraft. i won't say i got addicted to that game (i'm a gamer, i love games), but i will say that it was the perfect escape for me. so everything else got ignored.

near the end of february i started coming out of my slump and thoughts of divorce were in my mind a bit less. around that time, joey started pushing me to get a bike for my own transportation. so i guess my "mid life crisis" was squashed by a little out doors time. after that, things got steadily better.

in the summer, we moved and the new apartment was great. we got a veranda, a view, and a really quiet area. it was pretty much perfect.

after that, things steadily got better. i invited joey to a trip that i had intended to take myself and it ended up being quite a bonding experience. there's really nothing like taking a motorcycle trip. just two riders and two wheels. i really don't think i could have made it without her. having her share the experience of almost running out of gas, riding with a nail in the rear tire, riding in the rain, freezing to death trying to find a hotel...any hotel. an experience that i would have traded for nothing and hope to do again.

keep in mind that was a short synopsis and i haven't gone into detail about everything, but it covers most of the bases.

thank you 2006 for bringing so much change into my life and giving me the guts to do what is right.

here's to changes, good or bad and the company of people who love you.
Happy New Year to you all.