The Net Monkey

Yes, I am a bit late getting this out there, but I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and really think about what 2008 was like for me.  All-in-all, I have to say that it was a good year; no complaints, really.  No one in the family passed away, unlike in 2007, and, thankfully, my employer has managed to do well in this recession.

So, what was the big thing for 2008?  Well, I traveled a shit-ton.

• Florence and Venice, Italy - This was a friends and family vacation that spanned over New Year’s.  It was great, except for Alitalia losing my luggage for six days.
• Chicago - I met up with my friend Jordan and some of his friends for a weekend of fun in the Windy City.
• Las Vegas - My company sent me to Las Vegas to work on our data center there.  I got to spend time with my friend Bryan, as well.
• Kansas City - I went to go hang with my friend Mac for an extended weekend.
• Minneapolis - I went to go hang with my friend Jordan for an extended weekend, as well.
• Toronto - A bunch of friends and I went to Toronto’s gay pride celebration and had a total blast.
• Washington, DC - I went with Dad and Jake (nephew) to check out the nation’s capitol.  It was my first time there and got to hang out with my friend Mike who lived out there, at the time.
• London, England - I spent a week in the UK with my friend John.
• Detroit - A vendor asked me to come up and give a presentation about how we use their product.  I also got to hang out with my friend James who showed me a little bit of Detroit.
• Saint Louis - My friend Bryan and his boyfriend Skip invited me out to spend the New Year with them.

Of course, I did manage to do some other things, but this was the year that I wanted to take a bunch of little trips, and I did.  I love to get out of town, honestly, and I plan to do a lot more this coming year in 2009.

Next up will be a weekend cruise with some friends.  Stay tuned.

I realized today that I only had a few hundred dollars left to pay off my student loan with the Department of Education.  I might as well get rid of it, I think.  So, on January 9, 2009, after paying it down over the last 10 years, I’ll have one less loan on my credit report.

Sadly, I never finished college, but the knowledge and experience I managed to get under my belt while at Ball State have been worth it anyway.

Back when I was a little boy, my parents would have what seemed like dozens of guests over to the house on Christmas Eve.  It was a bit of a tradition there for a while, and something that I always enjoyed.

One Christmas Eve when I was around four or five years old, I was very sick.  There was no way I couldn’t be amongst the action of the party, so Mom had me lay down on the sofa in the living room.  Sure enough, I got sicker, and I ended up barfing on the floor right by where everyone was standing, which I remember being totally gross.

It wasn’t long thereafter that I ended up in my parents’ bed, which was by far the most comfortable spot to rest in the whole house.  At the time, it was one of those heated water beds, straight out of the early 1980s.  I remember sleeping soundly for a long while, but, of course, in adult-time it was just a few hours.

Eventually, someone came into the bedroom to wake and bring me into the living room.  All that was left of the big party was just my immediate family: Mom, Dad, and my three sisters.  Everyone had already opened their presents; they didn’t include me because they wanted to let me rest as long as possible.

So, there I was this little four or five year old boy, surrounded by his family, opening all of his gifts by himself on Christmas Eve.  The only present that I remember getting that year was a mechanical car racing game.  It was super cool, and something that my friends and I played for many years to come.

I have many other fond Christmas memories, but this is honestly the earliest one that I can remember, and by far the sweetest one of them all.  For as sick as I was, my family made it very special to me, and, for that and many other reasons, I am thankful that I still have them in my life.

Merry Chtistmas, everyone!  You are all in my thoughts.

Recently, I’ve been taking care of a new cat named Charlie (pictured right).  He was a stray that was hanging out at my parents house recently, so I decided to take him home and sort him out.

As it turns out, he belonged to one of the neighbors, but they kept him outside all of the time, which is definitely not healthy for cats, so it was no shock when I took him to the vet to learn that he had a parasite.  Thankfully, the treatment was extremely easy and now Charlie is a healthy boy.

In work-related news, I took a trip up to Detroit to attend a one-day conference put on by one of our vendors.  They invited me up there to do a 90 minute presentation about what we do at work, how we use the vendor’s product, and how to use the vendor’s online self-service tools.  Overall, everything went very well, and it was a lot of fun.

Lastly, last month I went to go see Shiny Toy Guns at the Music Mill up on the north side.  It was my first time at the venue — very nice.  The show was great; they played all the songs I loved, including some new ones on their recent album.

That’s all for now, folks!

I was chatting with my friend Jason this morning, and he told me about a little incident he had last night with someone working for the McCain campaign.

… I was on my fifth mojito last night at about 8:30, and some dumb bitch came to my door canvassing for McCain. She asked if I was excited that Palin was in Noblesville today. I said, “No, I’d rather have my cat on the ticket than Caribou Barbie.” She just walked away.

I love my friends.