One year down, another to go

Happy New Year folks. On that note, here's the list:

Five Best things that happened (to me) in 2006

1. Started at BSD: that's been a great experience and helped me refine a lot of my ideas about what's out there and what to look for in a teaching job.
   
   
2. Sauvie Island: spending almost all of my days off lurking around Sauvie Island has definitely been a good thing. It's a good antidote for being cooped up in the city all the time and I never get tired of driving down the road eating blackberries and raspberries, looking at the mountains off on the horizon.
   
   
3. Meeting new people: It's not easy to meet people in Portland, and I'm not the right age to take advantage of many of the social amenities that are available, so I finally bit the bullet and found some people my own age to hang out with.
   
   
4. Losing my wallet on trimet several times and getting it back: That's just amazing and it's more than luck that made it happen , so thank you to all the kind souls who found it in your hearts to make it possible for me to be reunited with my wallet so many times. I will try to be better this year I promise.
   
   
5. Discovering the Esplanade: Living right by it you would think I would have discovered it long ago, but this year was really the first time I got to know and love the East Bank Esplanade.
   
   And now the five worst things about 2006
   
   
   1. Global warming: glad everyone finally noticed it, and that the issue is getting the attention it deserves...but no offense, where the fuck has everyone been? Hellooo? The signs have been there all along. Sheesh. It was really hot here, and almost everyone I know is experiencing it in some way. Going through several weeks of 100 degree weather in a town with no A/C was seriously not pleasant. And this winter hasn't been all that winter-like either. The environmental news is getting downright scary...time to get ready for the apocalypse, me thinks.
      
      
   2. Measure 37 claims: I could have told anyone who had bothered to ask that passing measure 37 was a baaaaaad idea. Now everyone and their uncle who owns a derelict piece of land somewhere is coming out of the woodwork wanting the state to reimburse them for a million dollars because they supposedly were going to build multimillion condos on that piece of shit land. riiiiight. I believe you buddy. God only knows what the fuck people were THINKING when they passed this so called populist measure (that naturally benefits mainly the already wealthy). Oh yeah, they were probably busy smoking weed, that's what people do in Oregon.
      
      
   3. Getting shit on by the evil forces of bureaucracy: Yep, what more can I say other than this was a major theme in 2006 and all I can guess is that administrators at PSU derive some kind of sick pleasure from fucking with me all the time. At least it's not just me, I've heard lots of people have this problem.
      
      
   4. Illness: It seems like everyone including myself has been sick more this year than any in recent memory. Blehhh. If one more person coughs on me I'm gonna kick them.
      
      
   5. Iraq: Okay to be perfectly fair, this crappy situation has been in progress for quite awhile, but is it just me or has the whole mess gotten progressively worse in 2006 making for a rather deadly year for Iraq? And since I have a personal interest in the subject, it goes on my list of things that suck.
      
      
      And now on to 2007----> Five things I'd seriously like to see happen:
      
      
      1. Democrats finally start acting like democrats and undo some of the worst excesses of Bush & Co. I won't hold my breath, but it would be nice if the democratic party gets a notion to take a hint and stop acting like wannabe republicans. No I wouldn't mind a bit.
         
         
      2. The Oregon bottle bill gets updated and moves into the 21st century. Sure it's great that soda cans and beer bottles are a valuable commodity for shopping cart pushers everywhere, but just imagine how much less trash there'd be if all of the water bottles and fruit drink/red bull cans also disappeared off the streets?
         
         
      3. My butt in school. Nuff said. It's about that time.
         
         
      4. Fare enforcement on Trimet--I'm sick of being panhandled all the time. It's getting really old. Besides why should I keep buying a monthly pass when everyone else rides for free?
         
         
      5. Visitors: I wish more people would visit, seriously. We have the best setup for houseguests in the world. Y'all need to take advantage of my couch...