It’s a New Year, I Got a New Change of Gear– even if I am still quoting songs from 1997…

Well, that happened.  Anno Domini two thousand and nine came, saw, and eventually left.  2009 was an odd duck in many respects.  To many of my friends & peers, 2009 will not be missed– characterized, such as it was, by especially tragic strife and heartbreak.  Deaths, layoffs, familial pyrotechnics, professional upheaval, romantic woes & skulduggery, and Lord knows what else all abounded in 2009.  The unprecedented frequency of raking discord and calamity in 2009 left many of my friends pining for midnight January 1st in a way they could not have expected one year prior.

Still, for other friends and loved ones, 2009 was a time of celebration– of beautiful new beginnings.  Several of my friends were married.  Several of my cousins had babies.  A few friends, often unlucky in love, found girlfriends.  New jobs were secured, tests were passed, goals were vaulted, prosperity was achieved.

So it goes.

As for me, personally, well, it was hard not to be affected by the plights of those close to me, but I was lucky in that their losses were often not directly my own.  I feel lucky to have not lost so much as them.  My year was, frankly, much better than theirs.  There art thy happy.

I am happy for other reasons as well.  I had some great experiences in 2009, including, for instance, an amazing west coast road trip with my girlfriend.  I also made some new friends, rediscovered some old friends, moved into a kickin’ new studio, and survived one more year of freelance picture making (albeit, just barely).

And so here we are:  The Spaceship Earth has crashed squarely into what is generally agreed to be the business end of a vaguely enormous cosmic object known as two thousand and ‘effing TEN, whose motives, personal hygiene, and big shiny ideas are ambiguous at best.  We don’t know what it’s like or what it wants– whether it’s here to rescue us from 2009 or if it’s somehow 2009’s evil chainsaw stepmother…  They tell me this is all rather unavoidable.  Personally, I think that if we had all just kinda stepped to the left at that critical moment in 2008 we may have dodged the whole mess entirely.  Never the less, here we are, in two thousand ten.  For the time being I can’t think of one thing better to do than to make nice with it and see what happens next.  I suggest you do the same.

Best of luck!