Do I hear a niner in there?

2008, you were weird.

 

Definitely weird.

 

We had some good times, we lived in a few countries...hurled ourselves down some mountains with good friends, went to beach with others.  Watched some Euro Cup soccer madness, and swam in a lake so clean and cold and blue that fish couldn't survive in it.  Hiked in flower-dappled Italy, watched the sun set late in the day, and sat on rooftops with kindred spirits.  We started biking.  We ate dinner completely in the dark.  We whitewater rafted in water that was a snow cap three hours before, we jumped off rocks, on trampolines, on trains, on buses, on planes. We laughed and we danced as long as our left knee would let us.  We ate a lot of pizza.  We drank a lot of wine.  We texted, emailed, facebooked and even wrote a post card or two. We watched the entire four-season collection of LOST.  We almost started to like coke lite with no ice cubes.  We came home for good and came crashing down. We voted, for what we weren't sure.  We finished the basement and watched it flood again.    We stopped paying for cable.  We realized for the first time that marriage just may not be in the cards...and the sun came up anyway.   We wore a Christmas tree costume more times than we care to admit. We got a new pastor and man, can he sing!  Got a new washer that is going to help save the planet that plays a weird tune when it's finished (washing..not saving the planet).   We started coaching volleyball in the city and love every second of it.   We drank martinis at the zoo and listened to adventures from China, India, Ireland and Belgium.

 

Got our hearts healed and then re-broken, and then healed again.  Got our ass kicked a couple distinct times and it was good.  Reconciliation?  I'm more beautiful with my scars and my hobbit feet.  I realized life is not a list of stuff, or a series of compartments and it is good, even when it's bad.

 

Many more people got married, many more had and even lost babies and I have cried and rejoiced with you all, even if only in cyberspace (lame). Friends got shot. Friends survived.  Friends are surviving. Friends on facebook reached over the 300+ mark, while the friends I actually spend time with dwindled to about four plus a brother who continues to be kick ass.

 

Oh-Nine, what will you bring with you, besides my much anticipated Three-Oh?

 

I almost forgot....I have dishes that match now.  Bring seven people and come over for soup.  We will eat from matching bowls...in Oh Nine.

 

Goodbye Oh Ate.