Secret Santee: I may be a little late. My shopping and shipping time got foreshortened considerably. Sorry about that.

Ah, 2004. You were a pretty good year to me, but not a kind one to my friends. I could have done without the politics, the drama, and the life-threatening and cheekbone-fracturing accident. However, the positive outweighed the negative, as proven by this chronological list:

stepped back onstage for the first time
moved in (again) with Z
got good reviews for my second acting venture of the year
got married to Z
reconnected with beloved aunt & uncle
got great reviews for my one directing gig
went to Seattle for Hallowe'en, and hung out with truly cool people
managed to get the cats to emulate some semblance of co-existing peacefully
survived a fall that by all rights should have killed me
still managed to have friends over for Thanksgiving, 2 days after surgery

Not too shabby, I think.

I'm so happy. I finally have all the piece/parts for my seekrit santa prezzie...just have to put together the package and get it to the post office. Hopefully it will be in the mail tomorrow. Yay!!!

Wrapping my sekrit gifts tonight, hope to put them in the mail tomorrow.

BTW, I can be a gift exchange go-between. Need to let your giftee know that RL has kicked you while you're down and their gift will be late? Want to tell your santa there's been a change in your address or holiday schedule? Anything like that? Send me an email & I'll pass it on confidentially.

Well, my secret santa gift has been sent.

In terms of absolute value, I think 2004 was a bad year for me. I had to sell a home I loved, move to a place I hate, and try to rebuild a relationship with my husband after living apart for 15 months. That was hard. Oh, and he's now in Iraq fighting a war neither of us supports (although we do see possibilities for good) and I worry for his safety on a daily basis. Despite the fact that friends and family love me, I frequently feel very lonely.

OTOH, I now hate it here much less than when I moved. It's too rural for my tastes, but it is very pretty here and people are very nice. And, of course, the baby outweighs all the bad. I know having kids doesn't fix your life, but I'm still very excited.

So, 2004 is ending on a positive note. Things are improving and it looks like the trend will continue.

I sent my Secret Santa gift earlier this week.

I'm not saying a thing about my 2004 yet, though. There's still about three weeks to go, and there are whispers in the wind that I want to see play out first. If they go well, I will be partying like no tomorrow on NYE.

My Secret Santa gift shipped today!

My secet santa gift will go out soon. Monday at the latest, I hope.

This year has been uneventful mostly. Mostly it feels neutral. Nothing really bad happened, but nothing really great either. I feel like I'm just biding my time until school is over, and then things can happen. Very much in a holding pattern and kind of champing at the bit for change. But what will happen? Only 2005 know for sure.

I suck, in that I didn't even make it into the SLACKER Secret Santa exchange. Ah well. Will have to be impressed and jealous when I read about all yours.

As for 2004? Well, I don't wanna consider it prematurely, lest it knock me on my ass as it leaves, but...I started the year unemployed and uncertain, and quickly got a job, got freaked out by the job, got into the job, enjoy the job. Traveled a lot. Got to see lots of Buffistas (but a little less of my local friends). Went to Ireland (met Jars!). Went to my second drag king convention. Had an amazing time. Went to my third Buffista F2F. Likewise. Stage managed an enormous show at the BEST VENUE IN DC. Survived. Plan to do it again. My sister got married. The family did not explode (too much).

So, yeah. I may just be blanking the bad stuff out in my memory, but hey, compared to the year before when I broke my arm and got laid off? So far, so good.

Let's hear it for 2005 being better.

Shameless slutting for the Answer.

My reaction to 2004, well not yet...

This year, this year....

Good things? All involved people, travel and creativity. Nilly and the party weekend for her, were splendid. I got to Minneapolis for juliana and Z's wedding, and we got to LA a few times. Seattle at Halloween rocked the house, and I got to do theatre with juliana. My trip back east in May was excellent, and I got to stay with Jess and Ethan, and see my daughter, and meet my editor, and lay a lot of old demons about my years in NYC, and discovered I can actually be comfortable and slightly detached in Manhattan for at least a few days, so let's hear it for the other biggie in the middle of the year, which was my fiftieth birthday. My generation, especially the rockers, weren't supposed to see fifty.

And a bad thing was a midlife crisis from hell, a lost year that I'd buried long ago suddenly leaching its way up to the surface of active memory, and triggering a flood of stuff I really wasn't in any way prepared to deal with. But thanks to friends for putting up with the ongoing memory meltdown, and much love to Teppy for starting the GWW drabble community, which, this September, probably saved my sanity.

The election, yes, well. Not going there. Unlike many, I don't give a rat's rotisserie whether anyone's offended by my loathing for the NeoCons and my conviction that we're been defrauded, but I'm using what energy I still have to work to publicise it. More, with the needing to survive something.

And Nic was out of work for months, got a brilliant yearlong at least contract, and got diagnosed with diabetes, which is not good, not good at all.

But I publicised one book, am promoting a second, finished and turned in a third, have begun two more, had a short story published and two more looking to be published.

I want a good year in 2005, for everyone. We shall see.