LOOKING BACK AND FORWARD

The Pedal to the Metal
This year has absolutely rushed by. Never has a year slipped into oblivion so quickly as this one. Looking back on my entries I can not fathom that one particular entry was made a year ago! It can't be so! I recall vividly sitting in my car with the CD blaring so loud the car was rocking. I can feel the heat of a excruciating heat wave this past summer suffocating me. How is it that 365 days have turned into such a blur of color, emotion, disappointment, redemption, journeys and a brief chapter in my history?

January 2006......I was dreaming of Jamaica. The first month of the year was over before it began. I was given a new sales trainee to take with me and show him the ropes for a week. I was thrown into memories of The Boy of yesteryear that I was given to train and ultimately corrupted. I came face to face with the realization that I live in the past.


February...it snowed and was cold and I dreamed of Jamaica.


March came in like a lion!! and found me celebrating another birthday and another St. Patricks Day. This year it was spent in Cleveland with my sister Omega and two other friends. We went to the Agora and were late for the Saw Doctors!
They played and played and afterwards Leo came into the bar and I.....well, I already revealed what a fool I can be. Had the proof in a picture on the cell phone, but somehow in between the ride home in our Limo with our new found best friend, Les and the drinks afterwards at the Marriott, the photo got deleted from the cell phone! Joe and family along with the newest member, Tinkerbelle, participated in the Louisville St. Patrick's day parade. A blast. I completed two legs of the triple Crown of Running, the 5k & 10K. My birthday is in this month and I finally bit the bullet and sprung the cash for a Nikon D-50. Then she went out like a lion.


April found me looking forward to traveling to Louisville and completing the Triple Crown with a 10 mile run. I did finish it, but it was not pretty. With the Kentucky Derby Festival was on the horizon and my daughter and I attended the Cherokee Triangle Arts Fair. Spring finally arrived in Indiana, (I was concerned).


May was jam packed with a million things! But for brevity's sake, Bridget and I went to Florida to spend a week with my best pal from college. It was fabulous fun. We went to the Tropical Heatwave and the Saw Doc's were performing!! Also went to Louisville for the Memorial week-end and stumbled upon BeatleMania on the Belvedere!

Then is was summer and June....Bridget was engaged!! And they decided to get married in August! Holy Smoke. I had a moment of absolute joy helping her find a wedding dress. The perfect one. That is all June besides a dreary trip to Dayton that was rainy and cold! How could I forget the annual trek to Tennessee and the family gathering of all the siblings and their off-spring. Fireworks and food, the much anticipated Treasure Hunt, boat rides and tubing, hot fun in the summertime!

July was a blur. 4th of July, the Three Rivers Festival, trip to Kentucky to visit the folks, tried a detox diet that had tremendous results but is not for weenies. And Bridget called off her engagement, broke up with S. and took up with C. I have not recovered because I love S. Bridget entered into a downward spiral that she still has not come out of. Kids....I use to be one, so I just pray it ends soon.

August!!! Once again, The Dublin Irish Festival! And the Saw Doctors...again! Three times in one year. Unbelievable. Joe rode his motorcycle over to spend Saturday with me at the festival, as I was abandoned by everyone else. Omega chose the Loolapaloosa in Chicago over me! Damn her!! I got a ticket at an intersection that had been set up as a trap all summer. Damn ME!! So I bought a new car for good measure.



Then it was Autumn....and September. Joe and I go on a cruise to the Bahama's.. I went to court for my ticket and in a fit of defiance decided to fight it! Stay tuned for February! My Mom had a birthday which demanded another family gathering. Suddenly it is ....



October In another fit of some sort, I decide to end my AOL journal which I have been plugging away at for three years. I just had to learn to let go. Halloween came and went. October came and went.

November, my Dad celebrates his 87th Birthday. Thanksgiving finds me traveling back to Kentucky to spent it with my family. Even though it was just a few weeks ago, I don't recall anything spectacular about November. It did not snow, as it did last year.

December and the holidays! Realize that if I am going to have a tree it must be artificial. And guess what? It's a good thing! Travel again to Kentucky for the holidays and have the best Christmas ever. Not only me, but my nine year old niece....here is an excerpt from her thank you letter to me....

(writing about last year)..."That was a good Christmas...........But not nearly as good as this one."

I realize that 2006 had a terrific first half, and then something happened to me. I believe I have taken Bridget's break-up (down?) much harder than I should. I think I am depressed about the implications it has forced on me from her. I am blue about several things and realize that I have to do something to alter the path I have chosen to walk the past five or six months.

Nothing like a new year to serve a wake up call.