Hello, 2007

If you are in search of any new year's words of wisdom, you certainly won't find them in today's blog. I'm still too pissed off at 2006 and it's final "Screw you, Susie!" to come up with any proclamations about great things to come in the year 2007. Blah, blah, blah. The very last thing that the exhausting and oh-so-irritating year 2006 gave me in its final farewell was a visit from a horrid gastrointestinal virus—which struck me on December 27th, the first day in the entire year where I didn't have something to do or some place to be. All I wanted to do was relax for a change. Trust me, this virus was no form of relaxation. It was just plain ugly.

Mr. Virus finally parted ways on the first day of this new year. So much for returning to work the 28th. There went two days' pay down the toilet—and I don't mean metaphorically.

Alas, I am well again. My friend Rashmi told me to buy this stuff called Airborne to take the next time I fly. It's supposed to be an effervescent, herbal, anti-oxidant (etc.) immune system booster. Sounds pretty fancy, eh? Well, if it works, praise be to Rashmi. I swear, I get sick the same exact week every single year—Christmas week. (In fact, last year I missed Christmas because my illness came two days beforehand.) Usually it's a nasty cold or sinusitis or bronchitis—something involving miserable congestion. This year was something completely different, and something I'm not sure I'd wish on my worst enemy (which, at the present time, is my home builder who consistently burns three months on a two-day job). Nonetheless, I almost always blame my annual holiday sickness on the airlines and the mass of pent-up germs re-circulating in the airplane on holiday flights. It just isn't safe to fly during flu season.

So this week, rather than celebrate the coming of the new year and dreaming it will be better, I'm simply relishing in the passing of 2006. The only good thing that happened (to me) last year is that I recuperated from my disc replacement back surgery of the previous summer. After 18 years, I can finally say "I have no back pain." That's the big highlight for me personally. And the only highlight. The rest of the year can be summed up thusly: extreme stress, frustration, and irritation with the idiots that one has to deal with on a regular basis. Sigh…. I've become such a cynic in my middle age.

Funny, I made more money in 2006 than ever before. This just goes to prove that money doesn't buy happiness. It buys you a lot of designer knock-off purses on Canal Street, but that's about it.

So, bugger off 2006! I'm done with you and hope to never cross paths with you again. Nyah!

Oh, and Happy New Year to all of you Web surfers out there. I truly hope this is a good year for all my readers (all two of them) and their families as well.