Day One: Fourteen things that rocked

Fourteen things that totally rocked this year:

14: I met a lot of really amazing people, mostly through the guise of online dating.  While (obviously) most of them didn’t pan out in a long-term sense, each one helped me to galvanize my needs and wants in a better way, on top of always exposing me to all kinds of wonderful things I wouldn’t have known about before.

13: Daniel started the ketogenic diet, and while it doesn’t always seem to work perfectly, it does work.  He’s doing better, more cognizant, and chances are high that this process of reprogramming his brain to use fats instead of sugars could give those parts enough space that it’ll repair the damage altogether.  (I’m hopeful.)

12: I had a lot of strange and interesting jobs this year, which might not seem like something that rocked, but it did help me realize many things about what makes me happy when I work.  I like helping people, I’m a pretty damned good salesman, and if I don’t have marketing support, I get very pissy.  These are all important perspectives to have.

11: I started back to college.  I’d dropped Ashford University last year because I felt a little lied to, that I would be eligible for scholarships to help defer the cost of it, only to find out later that these scholarships were all non-school sourced.  However, since going back, I’ve found that the educational standard has, indeed, improved with each class, they’re actually becoming a little challenging, and I’m still pulling a 4.0.  That makes me happy.

10: I can’t say that I ever stopped “doing art”, but I did find myself in a place where I don’t have to hide it anymore or make excuses around it.  Getting back into illustration, knitting, sculpting, pen-and-ink, etc., is feeding my soul again.  I even reactivated my DeviantArt account and sprung for a yearlong pro subscription.

9: Many wisdoms have solidified for me in a way that I understand the principles of appreciation and gratitude far more now.  This may seem a little esoteric or abstract to include on a “things that rocked” list, but when you really think about what they mean – how powerful a force is appreciation, and how incredible it feels to experience gratitude – then I’m sure you’ll agree, it deserves to be included.  (That’s not to say I didn’t feel these things before, I just have a deeper understanding of them now.)

8: I started putting books out on Kindle.  I’m still not 100% sure how I feel about this, but it was pretty liberating realizing that I could release things without having to go through a publisher.  The downside is that it requires a completely different approach to marketing than I’ve used in the past, so there’s still a bit of a learning curve, but at least they’re available.

7: I rediscovered a deep love of bacon.  This year, I have created guacamole with bacon, caramel with bacon, and macaroni and cheese with bacon.  There is no greater love than bacon-shaped hearts.  I might be contributing to my own cholesterol problems later, but I will die happy with the knowledge of all the bacon that I baconed while baconing the bacon bacon bacon.

6: I got a storage unit, which meant that I had to let a lot of stuff go – couches, tables, desks, dishes, etc.  Not having all that crap is so liberating!  Eventually, I’ll move things out of the storage unit, and another round of pitch-the-junk will commence.

5: I broke my yarn diet a little, but that’s okay, because I started knitting with more intensity again.  Of course, that also has some to do with the extra time I have…

4: The universe saw fit to un-fuck me from the choices I made in the past that came from dishonest proposals.  That’s a long, long story, and you’ll have to go back through the archives to understand it.  At this point, we’re very close to the final un-fucking being done with the finalization of Joe’s and my divorce.

3: I had possibly the absolute BEST birthday week EVER!  We went out to clubs, we dressed up every night, we had a wonderful time again and again – and none of it was marred by drunken-disorderly or foot-in-mouth disease.  And I looked totally hot.  And so did my date.  😉

2: I now have the time and space to get back into video games and “bad stories”, which means that my imagination is firing at about a brazillion stories a minute.  I’m recalling a few stories I have out for submission right now so that I can fix them.  Also, I’ll be starting another movie review blog very soon.  Look for it around mid-January.

1: I met the Saint.  This has been so strange and bizarre for me in all the best ways, and not a day goes by that I’m not slightly stunned and absolutely delighted to have him in my life.  The way it manifested was just weird, but when you look back over my life in general, what else could I have expected?  No plan of attack ever survives engagement with the enemy.  I’m really okay with that.

So, that’s it.  Fourteen things that rocked my world this year.  There are actually tons more, but I promised myself to limit it to fourteen.  And these aren’t even necessarily a prioritied list – that’s just what came to mind in this order.