Goodbye, 2007!

When you're a kid you hear your mom say, "The years just fly by!" and you don't believe her. Christmas just can't come quickly enough – and your birthday drags. I've known for a while that my mom was right (the years started speeding up for me at about 15), but it's never rang quite as true as it did this year. 2007 truly just flew by.

Here's a 2007 reflection blog. These are some of the more important (and less important) things that I'd learned in the last year (and hope to not lose).

This year proved to me time and time again who my friends are. I appreciate every one of you even if I don't show it often enough, and if I don't, I truly do apologize for that. Even still, I hope that you all know that if you need me at 3 a.m., keep calling me until I wake up. If you need me, I will be there. This I need you to know.

I learned that some of the best friends can come of the worst situations.

I've learned that no matter where you work there's always one bitch, and no matter where you live there's always white trash.

I learned that if a company still won't do what you need them to do to make you a satisfied customer, go ahead – leave them. Don't spend valuable hours and valuable dollars hoping that your threats will be enough for them to appreciate you.

I've re-learned that no matter how much you think you're being appreciative, sometimes you're still taking the most valuable things in life for granted.

I learned that, at 26 years of age, I'm still coming to know myself, know my limits, and know that some of my limits I previously thought in stone truly weren't.

I re-learned that everyone – and I do mean everyone – is human.

I learned that if you have enough patience, enough hair to pull out of your head, and enough friends to vent toward, you truly can help your relationship get better – but it takes patience, not giving up, and it takes friends who know how to keep their mouths shut when you vent to them and say things that you would never, ever mean (and the venting helps keep you from saying something stupid later).

I've re-learned that some people never change; they have their pattern of behavior and that pattern usually won't be reversed if they're already "set in their ways".

I've re-learned that you don't WANT people to change. You want them to be them, even if that means removing yourself from an unhealthy situation to heal your own heart or if that means re-evaluating your situation to see that sometimes it's not nearly as bad as you think.

Now for some specifics about 2007 . . . .

I started "Friends blogs" this year to introduce all my friends to one another and didn't complete or continue those (but I plan to in 2008).

I had the most amazing birthday (of my life!) this year. I made it the "week of April" and celebrated with a spa day, dinner at work, Italian dinner with Josh and Jose, wonderful home-made lasagna that Rachel made and a party that Rachel, Lauren, and Shanna put together for me, and plenty of time off to nurse my hangovers. Truly fantastic, I'll tell ya.

The Simpsons Movie came out – about fucking time!! I loved every minute of it.

Jose lived with Josh and I for a little while, long enough to get us (mainly) back on our feet and long enough to help out Jose, too. And our friendship survived this time.

I fell in love with Ray Lamontagne's music and became determined to share the word.

I dropped Sprint like a hot potato when they decided they didn't appreciate our 5-year relationship and still demanded a deposit for a second, family-share line. I then picked up Verizon and have since been in love.

I started as Sales and Marketing Manager in February 2007. To be honest with you, I thought it would be easier than this. Truth is that this freaking sucks. Business has been slow and, in this position, it doesn't really matter WHY business has been slow, just that business HAS been slow. I thought I would end up making the big bucks but commissions just haven't come as expected. Further, I'm beginning to wonder if I belong in this seat as they've just brought in an Executive Vice President of Business Development. More importantly, I'm beginning to wonder if THEY think I belong in this seat.

But I still bust my ass.

I also lost one of my children. Mid-November Jack ran out of the house. I truly took that cat-dog for granted. I've looked, I've searched, I've tried to trap, and all to no avail. Either he doesn't want to come home or he keeps moving too fast for me to catch up with him. I'm sad, regardless, but I also just hope he's ok and happy wherever he may be. It's time to let him go now, seriously, and move on. BabyGirl's becoming more and more awesome every day. She's even started doing what I miss most about Jack, and that's the way that he greeted me at my bedroom door every morning as I got out of the shower. I miss him, I miss him, I miss him.

Alright, guys. I know there's much, much more but my lunch break is over and I need to keep busy or I'll go nuts trying to NOT smoke.

Coming soon – 2008 resolutions.