I often think it is cliche the way people sum up entire years, this time of year, but then again, it’s so often done when things aren’t very good. I can be fortunate to say that I haven’t really had too many bad years as wholes, and the last one that genuinely comes to mind is back in like 2002. With all that in mind, in the pessimistic world we live in, I suppose it simply is easier to blabber about something when it’s more like a trainwreck than a sappy, warm, feel-good story.
In a nutshell, 2010 has sucked great big, gigantic, sweaty goat balls, overall. I’m ecstatic to see that it’s mercifully coming to a close, and I’m praying that 2011 treats me, and treats Jen a whole lot better than 2010 did, because I’m not sure if I’ll have enough black hairs left to turn white by the end of next year if this shit keeps up. With great trepidation, I clench my anoos, fearing that there’s still time for more discouraging, cringe-inducing bullshit to occur, and as evidenced by recent events, there’s no such thing as coasting to the finish.
But not to say that 2010 was 100% pure rubbish. There were a few good things that happened this year. And to start off this conclusive post on a positive note, let’s get the good shit out of the way so I can talk about all the shitty shit that happened that most people are more intrigued about anyway:
Things that didn’t suck about 2010:
- Whitewater rafting. It was a fun experience to go rafting with good friends, and get out into nature, and simply enjoy the great outdoors, and swim and raft, and other fun outdoorsy stuff.
- Mass Effect 2.
- My 28th birthday. With the company of mostly good people, while drinking heavily on someone else’s dime, and eating fatty-fatty-fat-fat barbecue.
- Dragon-Con was a lot of fun this year. From the emasculation of my eternal Street Fighter Alpha 3 rival wanting to shave himself bare to dress up as Cheetos, to drinking no less than 20 Coronas in three days, while with the sporadic company of friends and acquaintances from close and afar.
- The holidays for the most part weren’t at all that bad. From the Valentines Day ball, to July 4th, Thanksgiving, and to a relaxing, albeit very mundane Christmas, the holidays themselves this year were surprisingly almost all pleasant.
- And finally, baseball. If my entire year hinged on the 2010 baseball season, then I could say that 2010 was a tremendously good year. I saw four new MLB ballparks, as well as ventured out to beautiful Portland, Oregon to see a minor league park, and for the most part enjoyed all the experiences. The National League won the All-Star Game, thanks to Baby Jesus, Brian McCann’s contributions. And although the Braves didn’t win the World Series, a National League team did, defeating the hated Phillies and the scrubs from the American League on the way. I finally saw my no-hitter live, and in person. Even if it was at the expense of the Atlanta Braves, it was still a wondrous performance, watching the Colorado Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez go the distance, and no-hit the Braves. And finally, the Braves themselves had a marvelous 2010 season, in Bobby Cox’s final year as manager, and Jason Heyward’s first year in the major leagues, which saw them win 91 games, and make it back to the playoffs, even if it was as the National League’s Wild Card. Even when the rest of the world wasn’t particularly good to me throughout 2010, baseball was always there for me, throughout the summer.
Now, without further ado, 2010 was a shitty year and I can’t wait for it to be over, because . . .
There were a lot of stupid bullshit things that sucked about 2010, like getting racially profiled by a black woman who thought I was at a professional work area, because I was delivering Chinese food menus, or Old Rag Mountain being more or less un-hike-able, because of the sheer volume of groups of retards that somehow manage to get there before I ever can. This summer was also the hottest summer of my entire life, and if there’s one thing I have a low tolerance for, it’s being hot, sweaty, and miserable. But those are trite things, and certainly not enough shit to warrant labeling all of 2010 as a shitty year by themselves. No, 2010 was a shitty year for much larger reasons, that are at their base, fairly large and impactful factors.
- Job. Throughout my life, I never cared about politics, or such global issues, such as the economy and unemployment rates. To some degree, I still don’t; I don’t really care who the president is, as long as they don’t unnecessarily get the United States destroyed or something. But this year, I’ve heard the word “economy” used as pretty much an excuse for fucking everything, most notably to my cause, as justification to why I can’t seem to find a fucking full-time job. I’ve never had so much difficulty in my entire life finding work, and I’m hearing all the time about how “we’re all in the same boat.” I just don’t get it sometimes, if the country expects the economy to ever get better, people have to be able to earn money that they can in turn spend. Whether its the upper crust of the wealthy, and/or bureaucrats doing whatever it takes to preserve their own wealth by keeping other Americans unemployed and suffering, or just corporations fearing spending money in order to make more money, I can’t seem to gain employment, no matter how qualified, or over-qualified I am for the positions that I’m applying for ad nauseam.
A potential dream job opportunity came and went, where I gained one of ten face-to-face interview opportunity out of 450 applicants, only for management to abruptly change, and the new regime nixing the position altogether. And since then, I’ve literally had zero interviews. That was back in March. If not for my ability to scrape together freelance work, I would, and likely Jen would, be out of a home.
Now most people don’t really divulge salaries or financial facts, but here’s the cold hard reality for my 2010: I made less than $30,000.The last time I was in such a salary bracket, I was living with my parents in Virginia, and it wasn’t as bad then, because I was living at home, and didn’t have my own mortgage or litany of bills and expenses. Under $30,000 was doable and comfortable, then. Now, under $30,000 is something I can genuinely make do with, but this gives me absolutely zero float room for emergencies, unexpected expenses, or extravagant luxuries or spoils. Once, I dove into a fund of cash that was supposed to be for me, and me only, in order to pay some bills. And when that wasn’t enough, I had to dip into a savings account that doesn’t really have that much in it, but the bills had to be paid.
Going into 2011, I’ll likely have to dip into that account again and/or start the year off by going into credit card debt, in order to fix my fucking car. In an ironic way, it’s nice to know how little I can make to essentially eek through life, but who the fuck wants to eek through life all the god damn time? To think I was still indulging in extravagant baseball trips, Vegas gambling trips, and luxuries like TVs and video game systems, when I was freelancing, but with long-term, projectable income. I want that shit again.
Needless to say, if I can secure any sort of employment which sees me receiving regularly schedule paychecks next year, then 2011 will already have been thrice as successful of a year than 2010 was.
- Home. Home is where the heart is, right? If that’s the case, thanks to some of the events of this year, I wouldn’t mind if my/our heart were perhaps, donated into another subdivision, preferably one that’s not 95% black, slightly more north up the city of Atlanta, where I could apply for work that wouldn’t have me commuting 40+ miles each way. Needless to say, I love my house, but I sure as shit really have begun to resent the area in which I live in.
Two stupid thugs broke into my home this year. I use the term liberally in this case, because there’s simply no other term to describe the two pieces of shit that were dumb enough to break into my home while I was home, flee upon realizing this, in a piece of shit car, in front of another witness, and subsequently get caught and apprehended 30 minutes later.
For reasons unknown, my trash can was stolen. Sure, this seems trite, but I invite others to live their life for three weeks in a house with several animals, and two people who generate a normal amount of garbage, and being completely incapable of legally disposing of it.
The clubhouse/tennis courts/swimming pool of my neighborhood has gone completely to shit. When this officially happened, I have no idea, it might not have been this year at all, but the bottom line is that we residents pay exorbitant HOA fees in order to have access to the clubhouse, and exclusive access to the courts/pool, but it kind of defeats the purpose of exclusivity when the electronic locks are broken, and go unfixed, leaving all facilities vulnerable to typical garbage of human beings who leave their trash, and articles of disgusting clothing around. And then close down the facilities entirely during the hottest summer ever, because some thugs got in and vandalized everything. Oh, and the HOA dues are due in January, and to no surprise, have gone up.
- Car. There’s no denying it – I bought a lemon. And to this day, it is continuing to give me grief, but the problems of the lemon didn’t surface until about five months after the purchase of the lemon, due to the miraculous magic that independent used lemon dealers cast on their lemons that make them not seem like lemons, but very idealistic, pleasing vehicles instead.
And in order to purchase my lemon, I parted ways with a car that gave me 226,000 wonderful miles, an engine that still ran strong, and probably could have given me a little bit more. All because I didn’t want to pay the likely $700 to get a new O2 sensor, and god knows what for the suspension issues. I’m pretty sure that once I someday eventually fix all the issues I’m having with my lemon, it’s going to be at least double, maybe triple, what it would’ve cost to keep my former SR20 Nissan Sentra running, minus the car payments.
As I’ve said before, I genuinely like the car that my lemon is trying to be, even if it’s trying its damndest to make me resent it. Dying axles, joints, brakes, and wheels. And if it ever reaches the point to where it’s not quite such a lemon, then I may actually learn to love it, but there’s no denying the fact that I bought a lemon. It will never happen to me again, if I can prevent it.
- The Girl. I’ve for the most part, willingly accepted my singleness over the last four years. I’ve dated less girls than I can count on with one hand, and although I have my rough patches, I’ve been fairly content without the need for female companionship, no matter what anyone thinks. But over the summer, I was stricken, came out of my bachelor shell a little bit to pursue, successfully got my foot in the door, but then was ultimately turned away in a most unpleasant fashion, which left me discouraged, jaded, and certainly most disappointed. She was hot, a little promiscuous, sort of did what I did for a living, enjoyed many things that I do, and the most appealing thing about her was her slightly crass, laid-back attitude, and unwillingness to take life as seriously as so many people do. However, she turned out to be flaky, inconsiderate, and what should’ve been a bigger red flag, five years younger than me, with all the bullshit that comes along with that.
And to pour salt into the wounds, I ended up going back to work for the company where we met, and where she still was, because I was getting desperate for work. And even though it was a little awkward, I went in and out of that place with a bitter taste in my mouth, and was fucking ecstatic and doing backflips when I got an opportunity to get the fuck out of there to go back to work for a WCW company.
- Jen’s mom. Yeah, this affects, and has affected me too.
In closing, there’s really not much to say. 2010 sucked, and I can’t wait for it to be over. And hoping that 2011 is a fresh clean slate, with a whole lot of better things on the agenda than the year prior had queued up. It’s not even 2011 yet, and I already feel blindly optimistic that it’ll be better than 2010.
