2014: A Year in Review

When 2014 began, it was a year filled with hope.  I looked back over my posts for the last year, and as I look at my post for January 1, I saw where I wrote:

However, I am looking so forward to 2014.  I truly believe that it will be a monumental year.  I'm going to be an uncle again in July, and I could not be happier.  I'm hoping this year will be the year that I find love.  I, like many people, hope to get in better shape physically. I also hope to improve my health and well being.

I've never been keen on New Years resolutions, because they are almost always impossible to keep.  However, this year, I have three that I plan to keep.  First of all, I am going to be more positive and optimistic....My second resolution is to be more proactive in making myself happier.....My last resolution is that I am going to read more. 

Looking back over the year, I really have tried to be more positive and optimistic, but it has been incredibly difficult at times.  I have also tried to make myself happier, and in some ways I succeeded.  I have also read a lot more books this year, and have loved each and every one of them.

However, several difficult things happened over the course of the year.  By the second week of January, I had to cancel a cruise because my aunt died.  Then in September my beloved HRH died.  As I was looking over my posts, I came across one of the things I wrote about HRH:

Overall, she's a wonderful companion.  The picture above is from when I had my headache.  She was sleeping quietly beside me making sure that I was alright.  Occasionally, she'd even get up and pat my head with her paw, as a way of saying, "Get well, my friend."

I wish I could have done more to keep her well.  I miss her so much.  I have to stop writing about this or I'll start crying more than I am and never get this post written.

At the end of January, Hell froze over or as I wrote:  "Well, Alabama froze over, which sometimes is close enough to hell for me."  In March, I had a case of bronchitis, which was no fun.  In April, the school drama club which I'm in charge of put on a production of "Steel Magnolias" which was a major success.  The girls did wonderful and during the intermission we had a "wedding reception" complete with red velvet armadillo cake, which we sold slices of to raise money for diabetes awareness.  We raised nearly $300 for the charity and even made a nice profit on proceeds from the tickets to give us a nice cushion for future drama club productions.  The drama club is tiring work, but very rewarding.  I'm trying to delegate more for this years production, which was written by yours truly.

May came and we got out of school and I was finally able to take my cruise.  Originally my mother was supposed to take the cruise with her sister, but she was the aunt who died in January, so with my sister pregnant, I went on the cruise with my mother.  Going on a cruise with my mother was not my ideal but we had a great time, even if it turned out to be the same cruise that my graduating senior class was on, but to see the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza was a dream come true.  May and June were also when my love life got a bit of a jolt, though neither of the guys I started dating lasted very long.  The sex was a lot of fun though.

In July, my sister gave birth to a beautiful  and healthy baby boy, and I became an uncle for the second time.  As with my niece did as a baby, he seems to cry every time I hold him.  July was a month of vacations though.  I took three.  First, I went to spend a week with a friend of mine in Louisiana.  Then, I took my niece to Six Flags, and as soon as I returned home from there, I left going on a trip to Dallas.  It was a very fun July. And then, school started back in August.

Tragedy occurred in September when HRH passed away, and most of that month was spent dealing with the loss of a great companion.  In October, a little joy returned to my life:

My heart was broken by the passing of HRH, but I now have two girls who are doing their best to mend a broken heart.  There names are Edith and Lucy, and they are just over two months old.  Edith is slightly younger than Lucy.  They are not sisters but get along very well.  I adopted them Saturday from the Montgomery Humane Society.  I had not been without a cat since 1985, and though many might question getting kittens so soon after Victoria's death, I don't.  There was a void that needed to be filled and these two little ladies are doing their best to fill it.  I saw Edith on the MHS website and fell in love. My cat before Victoria was a calico, named Calico (I was 7 when I got her and wasn't very imaginative).  I've always loved calicos for their sweet disposition, and I knew if I got another cat, it would be a calico. 

October was also a busy month as I was preparing for a small drama club production for the first of November.  It was not one of my best productions, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.  November and December have not been the best months, however.  For most of the past six weeks I have been in near constant pain, either migraines or lower back pain.  Thankfully, they tend not to happen at the same time, but it seems lie, when the headache clears, the migraine returns, and vice versa.  I hoping to get in to see the doctor next week and see what he says.

So that's my year in review.  Some good, some bad.  I do hope that 2015 will be a much better year without so many ups and downs.