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First off… let me just say that it’s wild to be writing my second “new year” post. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the fact that I’ve continued to write on this blog is nothing short of a divine act. I never keep up with things. I always start projects… I rarely finish them. Boredom usually sets in long before anything gets done. I’m proud of myself for not letting that happen with this. But enough gushing. Give me a second to descend from my teen-girl-like soapbox…

Yet another new year is about to start. As I stated last year, I never make resolutions for the new year anymore… because I can’t seem to remember what they are, let alone keep them. Sometimes I worry about my memory as I get older. New year’s resolutions aren’t the only things I can’t remember. I have to write myself notes for everything. Someone at work suggested that I use one of those services that lets you write an email to yourself that gets delivered in the future to remind myself throughout the year of what my resolution was. But that’s all I need… a regularly scheduled reminder of what I’m not doing.

As this year comes to close, I can look back at 2005 as a fairly pivotal year. 2004 was a bore. Hence the brief and somewhat somber new year’s post last year. I was still trudging through school and work… and I was coming to the realization that I was utterly and completely devoid of a life outside of those two places. While my social life remains a big, fat flatline, school and work definitely changed.

While it was technically in 2004, I can say I finally graduated. But since it was in December, it’s practically part of 2005. Seven years and thousands of dollars later, I can now put the letters BS after my name. And you know so many people do that, right? (On a funny side note, my badge at work actually says “BS” right under my name. Most everyone else in the same position as myself has a BA. So I’m Derick “BS” Phillips. So fitting…)

My career changed quite a bit too. I almost got transferred to Kansas with my old job. The timing was just terrible, though. Literally the day before I was to talk to my supervisor about resigning, I got a call from my supervisor’s supervisor telling me I was being transferred. Needless to say, my decision to resign the next day kinda rocked the boat a bit. The transitional period between my resignation and acquiring my new job was also a bit of a boat shaker. Besides the fact that it nearly bankrupted me, I found myself starting over at square one. But it all worked out well in the end as I find more and more reasons almost every day to love my new line of work.

So the only thing left on the list of things that blew about 2004 is a life beyond work (because school is, for now, not an issue). Ironically, it’s the one thing that I can’t decide if I even really want. Throughout the past year and a half or so, I’ve written numerous things here about my social issues. In a nutshell, I’m a little bit picky about who I spend time with… I’m a little bit hard to get along with some times… and I’m a little bit slower than most when it comes to letting my guard down.

Who knows… maybe I’ll be able to look back at 2006 as the year that Phillips got his groove back. Well… maybe not his groove. But at least a glimmer of a life?

Happy New Year, ya’ll ;)