Review and Remember- The Long Read

"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall."

-Vince Lombardi

It's amazing what meeting old friends, catching up with current ones, and making new additions will do to jog memories. This has been on my mind for the last week and I felt I had to do a 2007 In Review blog to sum it up in words. When it's running around in your head like a chicken with it's head cut off, screaming at you to let it out, you have to wonder... can headless chicken thoughts scream with no... head?

Two thousand and six was a year that could have started off better. While I won't go into messy personal details with you brilliant readers here, I will say that in the upheaval of losing your footing in your home and family environment and having to break away from things you once looked to for comfort and a sense of stability will shake up your year like very little else. What does 2006 have to do with 2007 you ask? It's important to know the downfall before you can appreciate the importance of the rise.

With a posse of good friends around me I made it through the rough times in 2006. I owe a lot to them all. When life took a dramatic turn with moving out, I had friends to stay with and friends to support me. When I came out that summer, I lost the closeness of a best friend but also gained a deeper level of friendship with another. With job after job I built an ever-expanding group of friends around me and found the kind of love I was missing in previous relationships. When I was alone for the holidays because of a bizarre turn of events, I had a best friend there to drag me over and keep me company through a rough holiday. With the start of 2007, I had to surrender that friend to California, and with the start of 2008, I will surrender another one to that state. Friends have been the base I have built from in 2007.

At the start of 2007 I made the decision to get on with my life and to make a big change- I moved to Denver, CO. With no steady job for the first four months I made it by, again with the help of friends. With the start of the year mostly past I finally came out to the rest of my family and worked at getting it firmly behind me. I moved on. While parts of those first six months were lonely and depressing, the summer brought the change I needed. With a job securely under my arm and a coffee-driven social life I got my first real apartment and celebrated my 22nd birthday. Colorado just kept on getting better.

With the looming date of the release of the Deathly Hallows on us in July I started my newest and most engrossing hobby. A few tips and multiple redoes I started knitting a Harry Potter-themed scarf for the big night. I never did wear it that night, but I did continue knitting. Since then I've started I don't know how many projects and increased my stash. I've learned new techniques and bought an ungodly amount of books. I've also started a group at the former job spot, Barnes and Noble, devoted to knitting that just keeps growing and getting more fun. I think it's safe to say that this will be one part of 2007 I will carry with me for a while into the future.

Now I have to say that other than the knitting group and my semi-social life during the Fall months and going into Winter I didn't do much. It was the rest I needed for sure. I did find time to take up poker, take a deeper interest in my spiritual side, start consulting online with my own tarot business, visit a couple new clubs, read a couple books, and start up my old romance with blogging again. Nothing world-changing, but there is hope for this new year.

My 2008 ended with a Christmas with friends and a slamming party on New Year's Eve. Quite a way to go! Now it's time to turn my attentions to all the big plans for the next 365 days.

Some of my big ambitions for the current year are to develop a sense of the issues I will be voting on with the presidential election and also to get a hold on my local government to keep on top of things that are important to me.

Also to get involved with work in Africa, a subject that was jogged into curiosity by a random acquaintance at my favorite bar, JR's. There are a lot of areas that need attention and as an American, I am excited at the opportunity to share what I can with another person or group of people who may not have everything that I do. It's something I will devote more time to this year.

Weight loss is one that always ends up on my beginning of the year list every year it seems for the last three. I have somewhat of an idea of how much I need to lose but I will make like my mother and never actually step on a scale. No, instead, I will be checking myself out in the mirror every morning and comparing it to my "before" picture until I look like I want to. That's when the "after" picture will be taken and progress will continue from there. What's my goal? One hundred and eighty pounds, all muscle, and the confidence to hang out at the pool shirtless and not be self-conscious. What a good friend of mine always called the LGN diet- Look Good Naked diet. This will be accomplished by a mix of healthy eating, dancing, weightlifting, and good 'ol positive thinking. We may throw some Bikram yoga in there too.

Travel will make a come back this year with a trip in the summer to California for Gay Pride in one of three cities- San Francisco, LA, or San Diego. The end destination will be decided the closer we get to making the trip. The year will also top off with a much needed trip to NYC with my best friend after she returns from studying abroad in Europe. The details on that trip are a bit more vague. All we know now is it's on!

With a new computer in hand I plan to snag myself a free lance career in the Graphic Design business. I've taken a huge break for the last year and a half since losing my baby to an overused graphics card. With the mind (hard drive) of my former love installed into the body of a stunning new beauty, I will be a happy man ready to take on the world. Yes, I have a love affair with technology. Bite me!

So you can see it's a big year ahead with an okay year behind and hell of a lot of potential on the plate. The mindset now is to seize the moment and so the day. It's all in your positive spin on thoughts through the day. The time to live is now. Don't hold back while you wait for your dreams to happen, reserving energy given to you now for this minute for some day in the future. Let it out and let it go. Celebrate life like only you know how. Embrace love, and love will explode out of you into the lives of those around you. Make each friendship a jewel you polish daily until those you love shine as bright as the stars in your eyes. Embrace who you are and you will embrace diversity in others. Stoke the fire of passion in your soul and you will birth a beautiful frenzy of creativity.

Slap me 'cus I've gone wild!!! Lol.

With that, I move on to the New Year. Good luck to all of you.