Saturday, January 1, 2011

Another year...

2010 was not a great year for me and I am kind of glad to see it go.

Career:
In 2010 there was a change in my job situation, the money was better, but the students were not. So while I am earning more…I am defiantly EARNing more. I do not feel that I can make any sort of a positive impact for these students and I have a very strong lack of respect for the campus I am currently working on (there are, of course, exceptions to the lack of respect). I am still working the two jobs for a total of seven days/72 hours a week, no improvement there.

Family:
All in all the family is doing well. Susan, Alex, RJ(nephew), and mom are all in good health. They all seem to be fairly happy with what is going on for them.
Susan is coming to the end of her Master’s Degree in Psychology (Thesis to be defended by Dec 2011), Alex is 3 semesters away from his Bachelor’s Degrees (double Majors Math/Physics), and RJ is working for Texas State and solidifying his position here in San Marcos. That just leaves mom, she is 84 and seems to be doing fairly well. She is living alone, which bothers me, but she is adamant about staying independent as long as she can.

Personal:
This year was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride for me. I lost 2 pets, Snoopy, the Rooster and Jetta, the Great Dane.
Snoopy was our longest living rooster and somewhat of a celebrity in my newsletters and his death was a tragedy brought about by shortsightedness and procrastination resulting in the death of the wrong rooster…I was at fault.
Jetta’s death left the whole family feeling a bit empty. Her kidneys began to shutdown and a week of medication was unable to bring about any improvement so she was put down 12/10/10 here at home. In addition to those losses I suffered a personal injury (broken leg) which took time to identify and has left me unable to work for now.

The positives for this year include that I have worked on rebuilding an important friendship, I have begun therapy (although I have little faith in psychotherapy), I enjoy my co-workers, Diablo has made it to 12 years of age, and our chickens are laying 9 to 12 eggs a day.
While these may not seem like real personal victories they are none-the-less positive.

So as I muddle through life I will not look back on 2010 with much fondness. Instead I will accept that another year of playing the common man so that the greatness of others would stand out in contrast has passed and I am a year closer to my inevitable end, whatever that may be.