...and days of Auld Lang Syne...

(Blogger is making it impossible for me to lay this out the way I want!)

It's the obligatory end-of-the-year post!

You may have thought from that last whiny entry that I'd had a bad year. Far from it. Just a bad month. Much of 2008 was fantastic.

For instance, there was that great trip to New York in March. Which I never blogged about! But here are a couple of pics. Above, the Village. My favorite neighborhood in Manhattan. I was trying to capture the flavor without looking like a total tourist dork, but didn't succeed on either count.

Below, the view from Brooklyn. Even on a gloomy-ish winter day, it's spectacular.

Then there was Hawai'i in the fall. One of my best vacations ever. Didn't really have a chance to blog about that in full either, but hey! More pictures!

I call this one View From A Toe:

And hula. Thank goodness for hula. We had our public "unveiling" this year, and I promise I WILL soon try to explain why that was such an amazingly emotional, spiritual day. Until then, here's another picture. Can you find the dork? She's in there !

So many of those people in that picture are now dear friends of mine, and we really were ohana that day. I'm still in awe of it.

In fact, I'm in awe of all of the dear friends in my life. They - you! - and the time I get to spend with them are the true highlights of this or any year.

Happy New Year!

It's the most... wonderf.... oh, shaddup!

Yeah, I'm not feeling so festive this holiday season.

This has been a very trying month. No, I can't really explain. Listen, everyone's having a tough time at work these days... and I'm glad I'm still employed, which is no small thing at this time, in my business.

Still...my life is entirely bipolar. The good stuff is really good. Great, in fact. I am unbelievably lucky and have had some big laughs this month. But the lows are really, really shitty and completely draining.

However, when I hit those lows (and I hit several sinkholes this week, highlighted by a moment in Whole Foods when I nearly burst into tears when it looked like they didn't have the Chocolate Decadence cake I was to take to Christmas dinner. yes, a little hormonal, on top of everything else!) I am doing all I can to remember that soon, there will be a high to counteract the low.

See, lucky. Not everyone has that. I get that. I do.

I've also been trying not to infect the festive people around me with my shitty attitude. Thankfully, I caught the key parts of "It's A Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve, so I could have a much-needed weep session.

I'm just beyond ready to kiss this December goodbye. C'mon, 2009...