Happy New Years! I have a feeling this is going to be a good year. So I shall start by going back to 2005 so you might want to close your eyes. 2005 was generally a bad year personally and worldly so I am glad it is over. The world saw massive death and destruction in Katrina, the earthquake and the tsunami. So it was definitely bad in that sense. The world also saw the war continuing longer than expected and also saw terrorism continuing in other parts of the world. That is still going to go on in 2006, but I think things are going to get better, especially since I think democracy will spread. Personally this was a bad year. My grandmother died early this year. My grandfather died in the latter half of the year. My mother ended up the year in the hospital almost dying. That was bad. She is back at home now so that is good. My band broke up, then a new band broke up by the lead singer going to jail. Now I am band-less. At the beginning of the year I was bored to death at my job at the IRS. So I had to go on 20 job interviews in the summer and finally found a good place to go at Nokia. Then at Nokia I was glad to have had business in Prague. The job was just as boring as the IRS except I didn't have the cool coworkers I did at the IRS. I also expeirienced 4 out of 4 financials disasters. A small car wreck, dental root canals, a $6,000 medical procedure that determined I was fat, and my computer completely died so I had to get a new one. Those things and other small things always took what was left each month so I could never get ahead. Also, I turned 30 and had a small midlife crisis. You know one of those "what am I doing with my life" kind of things. I think the answer was "whatever I want". You can open your eyes now. The good news of 2005 was that I finally formed my own company and now am my own boss. My client is back at the IRS but this time I have a mandate and am actually implementing a new tax system. That happened at the end of 2005 and that is another reason why 2006 is going to be good. The Prague trip was fun and I learned a lot about the world and how to navigate it. Also, I don't like to talk about girlfriends online but just let me say that I predict a relationship will grow this year.

So I shall now tell you about my New Year's tradition and what conspired last night. I created a new tradition for New Years when I was 10 years old. I can't believe I have been doing it for 20 years now. So I shall continue with it forever and give it to my future kids to pass it on. The idea is to find a new penny. In this case a 2005 penny. Then I take aluminum foil to symbolize the year was valuable and worthy and wrap the penny in the foil. Then on 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1 I run outside and throw it into the street, symbolizing of throwing everything that happened in the year away. So last night was New Year's eve. I went out and actually bought some new black pants(where were they at the funeral) and also got a cool silver tie. I was ready. The New Years dance was at the Hilton in Dallas. There were parties all over the place. We had about 140 single girls and 60 single guys at the dance. I then formulated a theory that guys don't like dances, which I believe to be true. I suppose if a girl was desperate enough she would take up football and video games. Anyways, there was this girl I like, let's call her Holly. Now I know she knew I liked her. I also have never told her this and it was kind of akward for me because I was acting like a boyfriend with her, like complementing on her dress and everything, but I never said anything. I was bound and determined to tell her that I liked her and as the evening went on I knew it would be at the chime of midnight. So we are dancing together and when the countdown is done we blow up our new years poppy things, I do my usual sideways hug and we both say happy new year. I then reach over to her to whisper in her ear "I really like you." but it seemed that she might of thought I was reaching over to kiss her, so for a split second I could've gotten a kiss. She then was a little shocked, probably that I did the side swipe, and I said ,"do you want to go out sometime?" She then said ,"What? Like now?" so now I am confused. But it all brought to mind that I had the penny wrapped in tin foil in my pocket so I said,"Sure, follow me." So I quickly make my way through the crowd with her following behind. I run outside and do a pitcher's throw of the tin foil penny into the street. By now she is like "WTF?" and I then tell her the story of the tradition. She then thought I was asking her out for the very next day and said she already had stuff to do. Actually we will be feeding the homeless together. So I said, "Want to come over and watch the Texas Tech game with me?" And thus, that is where it ends. I remember giving her a warning "I am a little timid." Anyways, we shall see. It was very weird, but as I look back it was still pretty cool. Happy New Years everyone!

Thought of The Day
"At 10:00 I plan on losing my inhibitions."
Me, at the dance.