The year ends early this year…

Every year, I tend to do some kind of end of year wrap-up, be it on My Side (or my other side) or the Ken-mails (for those who remember that far back). This year, I don't even need to think to sum up the whole year…

… so let's get off topic for a minute!

There's a lot of sick people at work… and there are a lot of people down with colds, too. (insert rim-shot here) Vicky and I were given a case of tangerines while we were up in Lancaster. (Her folks are like that. "Want some tangerines?" They give us a case. "Wanna beer?" They give us a case. "Wanna small island." These people really worry me.) So, I got this idea in my head to bring some tangerines to the sick people over here - as well as those with colds - I'll be here 'til Thursday! Try the veal!

So, I opened the case this morning and found… thousands of tangerines, each the size of an aggie. (That's a marble. Keep up.) You know, the size that tangerines are supposed to be. But I was thinking they were bigger - everything's bigger these days. Oranges are bigger. Small sodas are bigger. And let's not get started on cars. So, of course, I thought these tangerines would be the size of the head of a small child….

No. And I thought, "I can't bring these to work." Instead of it sending the message to get well soon, it would say, "I hope you feel a little better… very little." "Your health means this much to me." "You're pathetic. Why don't you just die already." And that just wouldn't be popular.

So, I'm going to suggest Vicky and I make a shitload of Chinese chicken salad…

Now, on a more serious note, I'd like to mention the disastrous tsunami in the Indian Ocean. I noticed this morning that the death toll was up to 114,000. Folks, that's the size of a good-sized city. It's the size of the City of Orange when I moved in there back in 1995. I mention this because I figure there's no better time to pause and realize just how lucky we are than at the year's end. And you need no better reminder.

Sure, things went from bad to worse this year - and they're going to get much worse before they get better. They just have to. Nobody's going to make any real changes in the US until more people are effected - and I mean hit hard. That's why (burning) Bush's cronies have been working so hard to avoid a draft. (And if you don't know about the underhanded techniques they've been using, you'd best read up.)

As for me personally, I guess the year couldn't have gone much better. I was in a very popular show. I wrote a little. And on a summer's afternoon, I met Vicky. Since then, things have been pretty weird. We've moved and moved again. We've fought a time or two… thousand. But, all in all, I'm just about the luckiest guy in the world. And I have her to thank for it, and Tim, and Tim, and Sean, and all of my friends who have been just about the best people in the world to me, and my readers (though they can leave more comments - GAH!).

I have tomorrow off of work and Vicky and I are heading to Vegas for a night of sin - and maybe she'll let me smoke - to ring in the New Year. So you won't hear from me until 2005. May your New Year's Eve be festive and filled with love (a little sex couldn't hurt, either) and may 2005 bring you peace and joy and a great deal of pain to any fundamentalist Repugnicans out there. (Just wanted to remind you it was me.)