This Year, and the Last

[original title was This Year and the Next, but I wasn't finished when midnight arrived...]

Quick wrap-up type thing...

10 best things about 2008:

1. Obama
2. General Assembly
3. Led an entire Sunday service and got some good feedback
4. This blog, Facebook, and other sites that introduced me to some great folks and broadened my outlook a bit
5. Positive general direction at work
6. Progressive politics and attitudes toward religion gaining ground worldwide, but especially in the west
7. Wally graduated from high school and started college
8. Got to read some great books
9. Took 4 short trips, all enjoyable
10. Slightly less monetary stress this year than last

10 worst things about '08:

1. Proposition 8
2. Ongoing misadventures of President Lameduck and his gang of idiots
3. Walking away from the neighborhood association -- it was that or a padded cell
4. Starting the year with a burglary and ending it with a sprained ankle
5. Carl's decision to change jobs, which turned out to be a bad one
6. Uncertainty about Wally's well-being and future
7. My 4-wheeled money pit
8. Lack of discretionary funds for things like a new fridge and landscaping
9. Dental issues
10. A general sense of weariness, of "been there, done that, nothing new under the sun."

I didn't like this year much at all, but making these lists does help to put many things into perspective. Looking at it objectively, it wasn't all that bad. Still felt like uphill all the way, though.

10 wishes/hopes/goals for 2009:

1. That Barack Obama lives up to his promises, in spirit if nothing else. I've become too accustomed to being disappointed by "leaders."
2. Find a way to enhance my income
3. That Carl will get his priorities in order
4. Ditto for Wally
5. That a slightly less hectic, less stressful schedule will free me to write more and better posts.
6. That we'll get one good, newsworthy snowfall down here in Dixie
7. That the church I'm in will prosper and grow
8. That Proposition 8 will be history by this time next year
9. That I'll find a good mechanic who won't rip me off
10. That the Cubs will win the World Series (this is for D.S., a good friend of mine)