1 January 2004

Another Year Over and What Have I Done?

Well, kids, it's official. 2003 is over and done with. So, here's my question: Was 2003 a good year, or was it a lousy year? See, I'm having a little trouble figuring that out.

Certainly 2003 was an interesting year, both at home and abroad. The year started with me suffering under the weight of a killing depression that was coming perilously close to winning. Finally I did the one smart thing I've done in my life and decided that I wasn't going to put up with the way I was feeling anymore. I went to see my family doctor and scored a prescription for Anti Depressants. This resulted in me playing Spot the Side Effect for a week, which was certainly comical for my friends and co-workers, but wasn't really a lot of fun for me.

At the time this happened I was working in a local call center providing technical support for a major PC manufacturer. It wasn't a bad job, but once I had my brain chemistry all squared away I came to the realization that I was starting to despise the people I was trying to help. This caused me to look for another job, and my desire to get the hell away from there was so intense that I took the first job that came down the pike and ended up working in another call center for a Pizza company. The good news was that I didn't despise my clientele anymore. The bad news was that the decrease in pay was substantial and I stopped being able to afford my Anti Depressants for the rest of the year.

At the same time as all this was happening the United States was pleading with the United Nations to stop playing around with Saddam Hussein and call for a military strike against Iraq for the purpose of imposing a regime change. The United Nations, of course, was unwilling to do any such thing until they had analyzed the findings of their weapons inspectors, so George W took a page from the Book of Cartman and said, "Screw you guys, I'm going to Iraq." Naturally he called for other democratic nations to join him in his quest, and a lot of nations did just that. However, for reasons which I'm sure were good and logical at the time, Prime Minister Cretin decided that Canada would not be a part of that engagement, thus driving a very substantial wedge into Canadian/American diplomatic relations.

The Canadian refusal to participate in the Iraqi Conflict was, I believe, the major reason behind the American response to the Mad Cow crisis. A single case of Mad Cow disease in a single cow was enough reason for the Americans to close the border to Canadian Beef shipments, thus creating something of a crisis among the Beef producers. Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues were lost and it will be a long time before the Beef industry recovers from it, but I still have this vision of George W sitting in the Oval Orifice saying to his advisors, "That will teach them not to go to Iraq."

While this whole Mad Cow thing was going on, I celebrated my birthday. It was a landmark birthday, being one of those ones with a number that ends with a zero. I sent out invitations to about twenty people, told them where I was going to be and when I was going to be there. Not a single person that I invited showed up. Not a sausage. Bugger all. Why? Real life intruded, that's why. Things came up and they just weren't able to come out. All was not lost though. A couple of the girls that I used to work with showed up and kept me company for a few hours until I went to a local 24 hour restaurant, where a friend of mine who worked there had smuggled in a Birthday cake for me.

Then came the Calgary Stampede where King Ralph got a pie in the face when he was giving a speech. The assailant was arrested on the spot and I believe he was charged with assault. For my part the incident caused me to give voice to an opinion I've long held and suggest to anyone who would listen that Edible Missiles are the ultimate weapon for encouraging positive political change. Bullets can be so final, you know.

Sometime shortly after the Stampede King Ralph made headlines again with his famous shoot, shovel, and shut up speech, thus proving that he really did deserve that pie in the face after all.

It was right around this time that I also scored my first publication credit when Bewildering Stories agreed to take The Dilemma without asking for a single rewrite. Of course I haven't been so lucky with a lot of the other things they've taken from me, but that's life, right?

The rest of the year from that point on is kind of a blur for me. Just as the pizza place I was working for was about to promote me to supervisor I got a call from the bowling alley I worked for as a Mechanic, asking me to come back. Well, I don't believe in ignoring calls for help so I decided to jump trains and went back into the bowling business. I don't regret having done it. I seem to be doing better than ever since I went back, although I've also been overworked in the last two months to an extent that I haven't experienced in years. But that's what happens when one of your guys decides that he doesn't need to come to work for three weeks.

So, that's 2003 the way I saw it. Leastwise, that's the highlights. So, what did I accomplish during the year? Really, I think that my one major accomplishment, besides getting published, was my commitment towards dealing with my mental illness once and for all. At first it kind of irked me that I needed to turn to drugs to do it, and it still does to some extent, but I've come to believe that if that's what I need to do then so be it. I can live with a week of Spot the Side Effect if it means I can free myself from this lingering, killing depression that came so close to claiming my life. And that, above all else is something I can be proud of.

Was 2003 a good year or a bad year? From my perspective I think that I have to say it was a pretty good year. After all, I survived and came out a better person because of it.