Happy New Year, 2013!

December 30, 2012



With two days left of 2012, I don’t think that there is one person in the world who isn’t thinking about the past year. Everyone makes mistakes and experiences failure. Everyone has successes, that they trumpet to the masses or that they live with in silence.
In general, people just go through their daily lives and a few even get into such a pattern that often times, they aren’t even aware of what day it is.
I think that is the type of person I am. I live for my days off. It’s not that I have this awesome agenda for my days off; it’s just that it is the break up of the monotony that is my life. Two days that I can do something different. Of course, these two days in themselves are monotonous as well.
Think about it; we work all week for the weekend. The weekend comes and we spend it doing totally different monotonous things.
My weekends, which happen to fall on Thursday/Fridays, usually go like this:
Sleep in an extra hour…
Take Chico out for his walk
Nap for a little while longer
Catch up on Twitter and Facebook
Go out and pay my rent and buy groceries
Come home and nap some more.
Laundry
Nap some more
Clean up my room a bit
Surf the web
Go to bed,
Get up, do breakfast, make my lunch, go to the gas station
Go to work…
This is how it is almost every week. I guess one could call it being in a rut.
Yes, my life is so different now from my life in California. Well, maybe not. But, at least when I was back in Los Angeles (The San Fernando Valley, actually), there were a lot of things to locally do.
Back home, I spent a lot of time cruising book and music stores. I loved being able to go the Northridge Mall on weekends and The Northridge Mall Farmers Market on Thursday nights during the Summer.
There were restaurants, movie theatres, bike paths at Balboa Park, theme parks and all sorts of stuff to do.
I spent time with my friends, went camping, took day trips and it seemed that there was always something to do. There was always some place to be. Perhaps it is that I was younger and always willing to try something different. The Southern California lifestyle was always full of action. Living in the Valley, I was centrally located to everything.
Universal City Walk, where I spent quite a bit of time.
I used to hang in Hollywood, The Beverly Center, The Grove, and The Strand on Venice Beach. I spent time biking in Santa Monica, I spent weekends at Disneyland; after all, I had to utilize my annual pass, didn’t I?
Mom and I would take day trips to Tijuana, Mexico (just across the border from San Diego), just to do some light shopping and have lunch.
There were weekends in San Diego, and week long trips to San Diego with friends and their disable clients. Some of the most fun times I have ever experienced.
There was always something to do; somewhere to be and, people to be with.
My life was very different.
This unfortunately, is no longer my life. This may appear to be sad to read, but my life now is quite lonely. I have acquaintances that I have met at work. A couple of people, I do consider to be friends, but everyone is so busy.
Most of the people I work with are either younger or older than I. This makes it hard to actually build relationships and find someone to actually become involved with.
The fact that I am quite comfortable in being a “loner” does help things. However, I have to admit that I miss having long conversations with my friends back home.
2013 is upon us. I don’t have many regrets anchored in 2012. The usual things…
Not saving more money, not taking such good care of myself and not taking or utilizing the opportunities that have presented themselves.
I’m lazy; and always have been.
At my age, I should be in a different place in my life; I should be where I was 8 years ago. I had a home, luxury cars and a career. I no longer have those things.
I won’t say that I miss them, but perhaps I should still have them.
I told myself that when I left Northpoint, I would have a job with little or no responsibility. I have that now, of course with that, also comes the decreased amount of income.
So, with 2013 upon us, the question comes up: what next? What goals do I set for myself for the coming year? The obvious answer is: I don’t Know. I am comfortable in my life,
however, I am aware that I do need to make some changes in my life. Do I attempt to move up in my company, where there are opportunities? Do I continue to go on as I do, with no real goals in life, except to spend as much time with my family; or do I try to make more friends and spend time out of my very comfortable man cave? There are so many questions that I have for myself in the next year. Quite honestly, I have no idea where I’m headed in 2013. I do know that there are things I need to take care of, personal problems with the law, nothing that big and notorious, but things that are annoying and must be dealt with quickly.
There are things I must address with the State of California. I have been at their mercy for far too long.
I’ve never been one to make New Year Resolutions, per se, however I do try to focus on being a better person and make efforts to better myself in some way throughout the year.
I’m not sure what it’ll be this year. Maybe to try to save a bit more money;
or even perhaps to focus on working more this year. Perhaps, I’ll try to take on more responsibility at work in the coming year.
Some people focus on acquiring relationships; getting a boy/girlfriend, meet new people and such things. For one, I’m too old to aspire to such things. Relationships don’t work for me. It’s too bad, because I would like to have a special someone in my life; someone to share a quiet moment with, go to the movies with; someone to wake up with; and not necessarily involving sex, perhaps just some good company; companionship.
I believe that these are not things that we work for; that we aspire to; but I think these are things that we need to be on the lookout for. I think that opportunities present themselves during our daily journeys and we either notice them or not. I for one can be pretty oblivious. I am quite bright; I function well into the genius level; but I’m a bit dense sometimes. I have a sharp mind, ready wit and notice almost everything; when I want to. I think my mind just works differently now. I spend a lot more time humoring myself in my own mind. I find the world to be a wondrous place filled with some awesome people.
I also recognize the evil that exists. All one has to do is turn on CNN; or just pay attention to ones surroundings.
I work in what is supposed to be the Happiest Place on Earth. For being that; there are a lot of awful, mean people who come through our turnstiles. I witness it everyday.
We get visitors who are not at all happy, and appear to be interested in making those around them just as miserable as they are.
Tomorrow is New Years Eve day. The last 24 hours in 2012. We survived December 21, 2012; what was supposed to be the End of Days, at least according to the MAYANS.
We are still here, thank the Lord above. I do believe that tomorrow is not guaranteed. I believe that everyday is a gift; a gift to be cherished. Unfortunately, for myself; I spend too much time focusing on all of the negativity that is present in our world. I have mentioned before; I am a self confessed news junkie. If it’s happening somewhere; I want to know about it. I pride myself in being well versed in all that happens in the world. I spent my youth reading TIME, NEWSWEEK, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, US, PEOPLE and various other periodicals on a weekly basis. Though I did all this; I was always surprised to find that I knew so much about anything that was going on in the world. I could become involved in almost any conversation on almost any topic instantaneously.
I can’t do that so much anymore; though I still get my weekly TIME magazine, I don’t read it as religiously as I used to. I think I’ve become bored with politics, world issues; especially because things in our world have only gotten worse. Death, destruction, infanticide, homicide, ethnic cleansing, all are just getting worse in our world. I believe it will continue to do so.
I am wondering what 2013 is going to hold for us; what will we experience and discover?
What path will humanity take? Will she become more benevolent; or malevolent? Will human beings learn to love, protect and cherish one another or will it continue to search for ways to destroy one another? There are so many questions that we all have. There is so much to think about; so much to aspire to.
For the next day or so, I personally am going to sit and contemplate what I hope to accomplish for myself in the next year of my life on this planet. I will continue to be grateful for all that I have, but mostly for all those individuals that are in my life on a daily basis; for these truly are the riches that I posses. The people in my life are the most important things I have. The things I cherish most. I think I will work on finding more ways to care for them in every way possible. That is how I am going to spend my next year. It sounds like a productive way to spend my life.
Happy New Year everyone; may we all have a healthy, prosperous and peaceful 2013; we deserve it!