For the first 5 months of the year Keith and I were struggling through the process of building our first home.  We learned that people weren’t exaggerating when they always say that buying a home is one of the most stressful things you’ll do in life – and if you add to that the process of buying and then building it, you can just imagine where we were at for the 5 and a half months we dealt with it.  But it was during those times that I knew how much we really do belong together.  We fought more in those months than we had in the years of being together combined, but we always managed to come through it for the better.  Neither one of us would “win”, we just came to understand that the arguments were useless.  In the middle of such a hard time we didn’t need to be getting angry with each other, we needed to focus that attention elsewhere.  And in the end, doing so got the house built and us moved into it together.  And we’ve been making the house into a home ever since.  It’s amazing.

Right in the middle of moving my job made some major changes and the company began a massive project that would change the way everyone uses computers on a daily basis.  It has been a nightmare ever since.  Nobody will admit that the project was a mistake and that it’s failing miserably, and the users are suffering only slightly more than those of us in IT that are having to hear about it and try to fix it all.  The executives that made the decision have seen the problems and made sure they don’t get switched over to the new system, but they refuse to admit that it is not working out the way they’d planned for everyone else; admitting this would be admitting a mistake and they’d rather let the company and employees suffer rather than do that.  This has been a life lesson for me though, one I intend to take to heart and remember – there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes, but you have to be willing to admit them, learn from them, and move past them.  Acting like it never happened doesn’t make anything better.

I have spent more time with Keith’s parents this year than in past years, partially due to us living so much closer now.  They come visit us sometimes, but mostly we drive out to visit them and there is not a drop of complaint coming from me when stating that.  They’ve been nothing but amazing to me since first meeting me, but this past year has only shown it more.  They came to the house when we first moved in, though hesitant about the big step we’d taken together, and helped us hang ceiling fans.  Keith has pointed out to me that even his stoic father has come to care for me in his own way, a man that I feared meeting from the very beginning.  I was worried he’d hate me or never want to see me, but from the first time they invited me over he’s been awesome.  I research things about sports sometimes before going over to their house just so I can sit and talk to him while he watches whatever game happens to be on, usually prompting curious looks from Keith as though I’ve sprouted wings and a tail.  I don’t care for sports one bit, but his dad does and I’ll take whatever opportunities I can to try and bond.  Not that I have to luckily, but I still try.  He refers to us as “the boys” when asking about when we’re coming out next or what we’re up to, and that gives me warm fuzzies.  I called his mom to wish her a happy birthday just last week and she told me she loved me, catching me off guard and almost making me cry.  Keith swears she’s said it to me before, but I only remember her saying it to us as a pair when we were leaving to head home after a visit, never directly to me.  Maybe she has and I just don’t remember it, but hearing it from her over the phone made me really realize that they do care about me and that’s all I ever wanted from them.  The fact that they are so much fun to hang out with only makes it better.  My in-laws (as it were) are just wonderful.

As the year is closing I know that next year won’t bring about any drastic differences, but I’m ready for it all the same.  I make no big promises of change to come, or bid adieu to 2011 with rampant joy that it’s over with.  Time isn’t the enemy, it’s what you do with it that can cause frustrations.  I plan no big feats for this coming 12 months, but I do plan to make the most of them and have some fun along the way.  :)

Things started going wrong from the very beginning.  Paperwork was signed by mid-December to get the process started, but because it was so close to the holidays we were unable to schedule any appointments with the design studio for a number of weeks.  Without being able to pick out the options for the house, this put the build process on hold for almost a month.  Once the choices were picked out we found out the lot we owned was pre-zoned and permitted for a house with a covered patio in the back (the exact opposite of what we’d been told during the sales meetings), but we weren’t including that in our design; this meant having to wait for the permit to be revised which took over a month.  Yes, that’s right, over a month for a revision.  Turns out that the city office that handles permit revisions only processes them on Mondays and Fridays, so if yours doesn’t get done on one of those days it just sits in the pile for the rest of the week.  Bureaucracy at its finest.

Due to already being well into February, we had to sign and extend our apartment lease by a little over a month to ensure we were covered with a place to live through the end of May.  This one month extension cost us an extra $400 on top of the rent we already paid monthly, so we were not at all pleased with the money these delays were costing us.  By extending this extra month and a half we were giving KB Home ample time to finish the house by May 11th as they were planning with plenty leftover for us to schedule closing and a move date.  Or so we thought.

We put in the required 60 days notice at the apartment complex at the end of March, and less than one week later the house was vandalized and the copper wiring was all stripped and stolen.  We were devastated.  I went out the next morning to see the damage and it was all I could do not to cry in front of the builder.  Holes in the walls and ceiling, wires hanging from the support beams, and any feeling of safety and security stripped away.  It was at that point that we began to give serious consideration to abandoning the build process and looking elsewhere.  Our builder assured us the vandalism would only set us back a few days.  Fast forward 2 weeks and the copper was still not in.  We received a voicemail on April 18th that the copper was going in and being inspected and that we were “on schedule” for completion the last day of May.  Again, our hearts sank and we weren’t sure what to do.  We had to be out of the apartment by the last day of May, there was no budge room on that.  If the house wasn’t even completed until May 31st we would have no time to close on the mortgage, let alone get moved out.

After a very angry phone call back to the sales staff and builder at KB Home, they were magically able to condense the schedule to complete the house by May 20th and closing set for the 27th.  This didn’t give us much room at all for any further delays since the following Monday would be a national holiday, but we decided to try and hold onto hope that something might go right for us finally, and we plowed ahead.  As the deadline got closer and closer, calls were ignored and emails went unanswered.  We went to the house every weekend to check progress, and sometimes during the week, and noticed many things done wrong or not done at all, yet nobody at KB would communicate with us what was going on.  I took matters into my own hands at this point and sent a lengthy email to KB Home’s corporate office explaining the situation and everything that had happened so far in the process, and all of a sudden phone calls were returned and emails started getting replied to.  When we finally got a hold of someone, the update we were given was that they were a week behind schedule again and that the house would be completed on the 27th.  This meant that closing would absolutely have to be the next business day, the following Tuesday and we would have to move the same day or else we’d be in violation of our apartment lease agreement.

Fast forward again and the 27th arrived with the house not being complete.  All the major work was done, but cosmetic fixes were still being applied, and cleaning had yet to take place to get all the trash out and the counters and windows clean.  That weekend of last minute packing was the culmination of all the stress of the whole build process, waiting for something else to fall apart and ruin everything.  By some miracle, it didn’t.  We inspected the house a final time on Tuesday morning and then closing immediately followed.  Complications caused the process to take almost 4 hours, but when it was finally done keys were handed over and we owned our house.  Huge sigh of relief that it was all over, right?  Not quite.

The movers were 3 hours late that afternoon, and then took 4 hours to move everything, breaking quite a few items in the process (still waiting to be compensated for that, thanks a lot AB Moving).  By the time they left is was 11 o’clock at night and Keith and I were physically, mentally, and emotionally drained.  But the fun of home ownership had just begun.  We spent the next few days running all over the place making appointments for various service installs at the house, getting utilities turned on in our name, ordering furniture (which was delayed 2 weeks and then still arrived damaged just this past weekend, thanks a lot Rooms To Go), etc.  By the end of the first week, I don’t know how we still had the ability to string two sentences together.  I wanted to crawl under a rock and never come back out.

We’ve been in the house for a few weeks now and are getting adjusted.  We still find things here and there that need to be fixed, but we’re making our own changes and improvements along the way.  I’m responsible for watering the lawn, and as much of a pain as it is to do so, I do get a feeling of satisfaction in knowing that I’m keeping the lawn alive (or more to the point, revitalizing what has been almost dead since we moved in), and I like that.  We still have a lot to learn and a lot to do, but we’re getting there and we’re doing so together.  For the first time, we have a home, not just a place we rent from someone and know that eventually we’ll be moving out of.  This has a more solid and stable feeling to it, and that means a lot to me.  Was it worth the 6 months of stress and frustration?  I honestly don’t know how to answer that.  But I do know that I’m glad it’s over with and I’m glad we’re getting settled into our first house – our home.

We celebrated the two year anniversary of our first date a few weeks ago.  Had a nice dinner together and then came home and curled up on the couch to watch TV.  Nothing exorbitant or out of the ordinary for us, but it was nice to remember where it all started.  I remember our awkward start.  The conversations where we tried to find common topics to discuss.  The constant texting and butterflies in my stomach when he’d make me smile.  Before Keith I had gone out on a few dates, but never clicked with anyone.  There wasn’t even the thought that any of them could have been the one.  I knew before our first date that Keith was special, and he proved me right that first time we met and has kept proving it since.

I remember that we used to joke about not having any differences.  Every time one of us would bring up an interest, the other one jumped in and emphatically expressed their interest as well; it became a game with us to find something the other one didn’t like.  And what was so great is that to this day our differences don’t cause any rifts.  We each have things we enjoy that the other doesn’t necessarily want to share in, and that’s perfectly fine.  To be honest, I’ve seen those couples where they want to do absolutely everything together and I’m glad that’s not us.  I’m glad he has his separate interests and I enjoy having my own.  We bond over many things, but we both know that it doesn’t have to be everything. This is a man I can talk about Star Trek with.  A man who doesn’t think I’m ridiculous for still loving Pokemon.  A man who lights up when he tells me about his favorite episodes of Power Rangers.  A man who wakes me up every morning with a kiss, and tells me he loves me every night before bed.  He’s everything I used to think I would want someday, and so much more.

Over the years he’s met my dad and much of his side of the family, and likewise I’ve met his parents and enjoyed many homemade meals at their home.  Keith’s father has always frowned on him being gay, but even with that being said he has welcomed me into their home and treated me as a guest many times over.  He’s laughed with me and even discussed sports with me (the shocker is that for the most part I was able to keep up my side of the conversation).  I know that his personal opinion doesn’t agree with our relationship, but in spite of that he treats his son and me as human beings and has come to accept me as a part of his family.  Keith’s mother on the other hand has been amazing and wonderful to me since the first time I was invited over.  She is clearly where Keith gets his sense of humor, and seeing their dynamic together makes me wish that I had that same bond.

Everyone who’s met Keith has always told me how obvious it is that we’re good for each other.  Whenever I go somewhere without Keith I never hear the end of it from some of my friends who love his company as much as they love mine.  He’s a permanent fixture in my life and they know it, and they want to make sure he knows that they want him around too.  It warms my heart to hear people ask me how he’s doing, or to tell him they say hello.  My youngest brother adores Keith and loves it when he comes to visit.  The bond they have is so special and seeing them laugh and hang out is very important to me.  I can’t imagine having someone in my life that I didn’t want to introduce to my family or friends.

We’ve discussed getting a house together in the next 6 months.  We’ve discussed children in our future.  These are things that I know will happen one way or another, it’s just a matter of getting there.  But if these past two years are any indication of how happy we’ll be in the years to come, I can’t wait to see what’s next.  I love you Keith.

Just about every job is customer service related in one way or another.  It really just depends on what you do and who you interact with, but almost every job requires some amount of human interaction, be it by phone, email, or in person.  However, this post isn’t about the people working on the CS side of things as much as it is about the people who in some form or fashion use that customer service.  While my particular observations will mainly be based on my work in the IT field (and will be presented as such), many are pretty universal.  So sit back, grab a pen and paper, and take notes ladies and gentlemen.  It’s time to learn how to be a decent human being.

1.  First and foremost, PLEASE do not chew gum or eat while you’re on the phone with us (and I speak for anyone and everyone who answers a phone as any part of their CS job).  The last thing I wanna hear in between sentences (let alone while you’re talking) is you smacking your gum in my ear, or chewing your granola bar.  As a common courtesy, you could wait until you’re off the phone to do that.  If you don’t, we reserve the right to pull up your address and send you a care package with laxative laced snacks.  Enjoy.

2.  The majority of the call centers you call for any kind of assistance have a queue setup where the agent’s phone automatically picks up when your call goes through.  They most likely don’t have a ringing phone that they have to pick up.  The reason I say this is because that also means that when the call is over, they don’t have a receiver to hang up – they’re usually using a headset that’s always on.  The moral of the story?  Please hang up when the call is over.  When the call is over and you just say bye and go back to what you were doing before (this mainly applies to people who call on speakerphone) without hanging up, we have to listen to you talking and rambling in the background, or manually release the call ourselves; and speaking from experiences, some companies don’t look kindly on any force-released calls because it could be construed as them hanging up on the customer.  So do us a favor – when the call is over, hang up.

3.  Depending on what you’re calling about, there’s a good chance that you’re going to be providing us with some specific information in order to help you.  Please don’t give us all that information in the first sentence you speak.  I can’t tell you how many conversations have gone something like this:

Me:  IT Support, may I have your full name please?

Them:  Yeah, this is Mary Johnson and I’m calling from 800-555-0000 in Nowhereville, USA and I have a question about my Dell Optiplex 780 computer running Windows XP SP3 and how it handles this program that I’m trying to use which was given to me by my coworker named David Rodriguez and I can’t seem to get it to install correctly even though his works fine.  What’s wrong with it?

Me:  Umm…so your name is Mary Johnson?

Please don’t flood the rep with information they haven’t asked for.  It’s overkill.  Call centers require information be tracked when people call in, and every ticketing system is different.  We have to move around from screen to screen to put your information in correctly to make sure it all gets handled and notated.  If you throw everything at us in one sentence when we’re not ready, you’re just gonna have to repeat yourself in a few moments and we both know you’re gonna get frustrated with us because you already said it once.  Please, just wait until we ask for the information.  Because if we feel like it, we can ask you for the information 8 times even though we already have it just to frustrate you more.  And we will.  Trust me.

4.  If you’re calling in to tell IT that your printer doesn’t work, the correct answer to our question of what type of printer you have should not be “umm…I don’t know, let me look”.  Prepare yourself.  You’re calling about a printer, chances are we’ll need to know what kind.  If you insist on not being any help at all, I’ll tell you that we also require the teeny tiny serial number on the back of the big printer, as well as the barcode number for the ink.  We don’t really need that.  But you must learn to be prepared.  Better to have more information than we’ll need than to keep us waiting while you look everything up.  There are other people calling for help, and they’re having to wait because you didn’t have any common sense.

5.  Computers can be fickle.  Sometimes, problems resolve themselves without any external influence.  Or sometimes, you might not be the only having the problem and someone else reports it and it’s been fixed.  Please don’t notice a problem, then wait 30 minutes to call and report it.  It might’ve been fixed already.  I can’t even express how many times someone has called to report a problem and in the middle of the call say “oh…well it’s working now” while they’re talking to me.  Please check before you call in.  You’re wasting your time and ours.  And I like my time.  Yours I don’t care about.

6.  Punctuation exists for a reason.  If you see something that has a hyphen or a period in it, it’s almost definitely meant to be there for one reason or another.  A perfect IT example would be what’s known as your IP address, a unique identifier of your computer on a network (or the web as a whole).  A basic example would be 172.24.14.3 which if read without punctuation comes across as 17224143.  That’s not helpful to me, because that could be 172.24.1.43 or 17.22.41.43 or any other number of combinations.  Those periods are there because they need to be.  When you give me the number, place them there.  You don’t get to pick and choose what you think is important – acting like that is probably why you’re needing to call in and report something isn’t working.

7.  Please, for the love of all that is good and decent in this world, do not call IT and read us the error message on your screen word for word with all the reference numbers and program names and so forth.  Unless we ask you to.  Which we won’t.  99 times out of 100, we don’t need to hear the whole message.  Most of the time we can get it by the first few words, or even better – by seeing it.  Send us a screenshot, or tell us what you were doing when it popped up.  It would be rude of us to interrupt you while you read that practically useless error message jargon, but it’s also rude of you to just keep going non-stop without taking a breath long enough for us to interject.  ASK what we need to help you, don’t presume to think you know what’s necessary.  You think you’re being helpful, so you get partial points for that – but you aren’t being helpful, you’re being annoying, so now you have negative points.  Bummer for you.

8.  If you had to wait on hold to talk to someone, I apologize.  Chances are there’s some kind of issue that’s causing a higher than normal call volume, or perhaps someone is out at lunch and there are less people operating the phones, or maybe it’s just a randomly high call volume afternoon.  The first words I hear out of your mouth don’t need to be “gosh it took forever to reach someone!” in an agitated and rude voice.  If you had to wait to reach someone, that means we’ve all been on back-to-back phone calls trying to get through everyone else who is also calling for whatever reason at that moment in time.  We know we’re busy.  We know it more than you do.  Don’t be an ass and get mad at us for it.  One of the nicest things I’ve heard someone say in a similar situation was something to the tune of, “Goodness, you must be busy since I had to wait a few minutes more than normal to reach someone.  I hate to be adding to that, but I do have a question for you.”  That person was awesome.  How hard is that?  How difficult is it to be polite?  From the trend I’ve noticed over the years of working IT and customer service, apparently it’s VERY difficult for people to be polite.  And that’s a sad truth.

9.  People who work in IT are usually big nerds who love gadgets and toys and doing things themselves.  It’s not always the case, but speaking for myself and most of the people I know doing similar things – it’s true.  As such, we enjoy building tools that help to automate the most common issues that come up.  What’s the number one issue in the history of IT?  ”Umm…yeah…I…uh…forgot my password.”  We hear this approximately 15 million times a day.  Give or take about 14.99 million, but it’s still a lot.  Most companies have automated tools in place that you can reset your own password, but nobody wants to use them.  The number one excuse people give when we ask why they chose not to use that tool is that they think it’s faster to call IT than to use the tool.  No it isn’t.  You had to pick up the phone, dial, wait to reach someone, give us your information, then we had to pull you up and reset it, then give it to you and wait for you to test.  All you had to do for the automated tool was pull up the site and type in your ID.  How hard is that?  How long did that take?  People use computers daily in this day and age, but they still seem afraid of anything automated.  Embrace the changes people.  Except for robot overlords.  Don’t embrace that change.  No good will come of it.

10.  Be conscious of how you breathe.  Right up there with chewing in my ear, people who breathe heavily straight into the phone are at the top of my pet peeve list.  It’s very frustrating to be trying to talk to someone and all you hear on the other end is deep wheezing because the phone is right up against their mouth and for whatever reason they’re gasping for air.  You’re not Darth Vader.  Breathe normally and quietly.  You sound like you just climbed 5 flights of stairs.  Which you didn’t.  Don’t lie.

11.  If the instructions on screen say to create a password with numbers and letters, don’t call us complaining of an error when you entered “password” and expected it to work.  Probably half of the calls to IT could be solved if the person calling had simply glanced at their screen to look for a clue as to what might’ve gone wrong.  In many cases, the error message itself will tell you exactly what you did wrong or how to fix it, but people will still call IT because they got an error and don’t know what to do.  Stop being afraid of your computer.  It would take you less time to read what’s on the screen to see if it’s something you can fix yourself than to pick up the phone, call us, wait on hold, then reach someone and try to explain it to them.  We’re here to help, obviously, but there are more than enough genuine problems to keep us busy – we’d really like it if half our calls weren’t “it says my password’s expired and needs to be changed, does that mean I have to change it to a new password?”

12.  Speakerphone is one of the worst features ever introduced to a phone.  It has some good uses, yes, but the bad far outweigh the good.  Please please please do not call anyone on speakerphone simply because you’re too lazy to hold the phone to your ear.  On speakerphone everything you do is amplified times 10.  Every key you type, every squeak of your chair, ever drawer you open and shut, and every word you feel the need to shout directly into the speaker – all of this is blaring straight into my ear.  It’s painful and infuriating and I’m not able to concentrate on how I’m going to solve your problem, because all I’m thinking about is where I’m going to hide your lifeless body that was beaten to death with the phone’s base station that you insisted on screaming into.

13.  If you call ANY customer service place and they know you by name alone, that’s not a good thing.  I don’t care how nice you are, if you’re calling often enough that everyone knows you, you’re calling way too much.  I’ve worked in a few different IT positions over the years, and in every one of them the IT department as a whole would discuss the people who called the most often.  Granted, we talked more about the rude people who called all the time and were no fun to talk to, but even if you’re nice – you’re still getting talked about.  Just understand that.  You may call and laugh when we recognize your voice, but we’re not laughing.  At all.

14.  No matter what position you’re in within a company, don’t call IT acting like you’re better than us.  I’m not saying this because I feel that I’m better than anyone else, I’m saying it because I deserve to be talked to like a human being, not a servant who merely exists to reset your password and install software for you.  Being a manager or a VP doesn’t mean you’re a superior human being above the lowly IT helpdesk.  Just remember, better or not, you’re still the one having to call us because you have a problem.  And I can just as easily reset your password to “AssHat1″ as anything else.  So be nice.  :-)

15.  Customer service is a mixed field.  You’ll get people who genuinely love what they do, and people who only see it as a job and nothing else.  I can look back on calls I have had to make myself and there were only a few where the rep I spoke with was overly pleasant and extremely helpful, above and beyond what was to be expected by the circumstances I was calling under.  I can also look back and remember many many more times when I spoke to someone rude who wasn’t interested in helping and even occasionally disconnected the call if they didn’t understand what I was asking for.  What’s my point?  Try to focus on the good reps.  I’ve had bad days before where my tone wasn’t what it should’ve been or where I was a little short with someone who frustrated me, and people will jump on any opportunity to demand to speak to a manager and complain.  However, I’ve had far more days where I’m in a good mood and pleasant and helpful, and I can count on one hand the number of times anyone has asked to talk to my manager to compliment me.  Don’t be so quick to complain and hesitant to compliment.  Nothing can make a bad day better like hearing someone tell you that you were really awesome and that they’d like to pass along their satisfaction to your boss.  If you talk a customer service rep of any type that has really helped you, take a minute and make sure their boss knows they’re doing a good job.  It makes all the difference in the world, trust me.

Alright, the list was longer than I thought it would be, and I’ll probably still add to it in the future.  But I feel very strongly about these things.  Maybe you do too.  Maybe you don’t.  The point is, just try to remember some of these when you have to call IT or any other kind of call center.  It makes a world of difference in how you’re treated, believe me.

My dad has worked in the restaurant industry since before I was born.  He’s managed all kinds of different restaurants, from Black Eyed Pea to Steak & Ale to Olive Garden, and so forth.  I remember him waking me up early some Saturday mornings when I was little and taking me with him to meetings up at the Black Eyed Pea.  The staff would get there and have meetings about whatever it was grown ups discussed; I didn’t care because I was given soda and crayons to color, and the remote control to the TV behind the bar so I could watch cartoons.  Sometimes we would stop and get donuts on the way in, and the lady would almost always give me a little bag of donut holes for free for “being so cute”.

Some Saturdays when there weren’t work meetings to attend, we’d get up and go to Putt-Putt to play mini-golf and video games.  This became a regular thing, something I looked forward to a lot.  Dad would give me the majority of the tokens to go off and play with, and he’d usually end up camping out at a virtual golf game.  Yup.  We’d go to play mini-golf and video games, and after playing mini-golf he’d come inside and play virtual golf.  Obsessed much?  I didn’t care, I got more tokens than he did and it suited me just fine.  Sometimes we’d even do the batting cages.  It always felt like it lasted all day, when in reality I’m sure it was only a couple hours.  But I loved it and looked forward to it.  We haven’t gone in years, and I miss it.

Another thing we used to do was go to Pancho’s and pig out on the fine mexican cuisine.  lol  Well…we pigged out, let’s just say that.  Sometimes we’d go on or around my birthday, and he’d have them sing to me and I’d get to pick out a piñata to take home with me.  I seem to remember having at least a couple of them shoved in my closet at one point.  Nowadays the dessert bar is pretty bare, and you’re lucky if you can even get ice cream.  But when I was younger, I would get ice cream and put chocolate sauce on it with little oreo crumbs and nuts and sometimes even gummi bears.  *sigh*  Those were the days.

We don’t do those things together anymore, but the relationship between us is still strong.  A prime example is how well he and Keith get along.  I had never been in a situation to introduce anyone I dated to my parents, but Keith was the first and Dad was great.  He actually was the one who kept asking when it would happen.  When he met Keith, he was really nice…in his typical dad-crazy way.  He made sure that both of us knew how happy he was for us, and it came across perfectly.  He’s accepted Keith as part of the family now, and I couldn’t be happier about it.  Sometimes I find out the two of them text message each other without me knowing, but it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.  On the contrary, it actually makes me feel really good knowing that they’re pretty close.  Dad has never judged me or treated me badly for being gay.  If anything, he’s been accepting and loving and making sure I know it will never change how much he cares for me.

I’m really lucky to have my father.  Our relationship has had it’s ups and downs over the years, but the great thing about it is that we always come out the other side all the better for it.

So to my dad, I love you and thank you for being there and helping create these long-lasting memories.  Happy father’s day.

While I don’t intend to avoid alcohol the same way forever, I do think it’s wise to shy away from the over indulgences of my “youth”.  I’ve never considered myself an alcoholic by any means of the imagination, but the times that I did drink it was almost always more than I should’ve.  Now I’m just going to be more careful.  Fun can be had without going so far as to losing control.  My dad bought me three bottles of liquor over two years ago, and two of those bottles have still yet to be opened.  I kinda feel like I’m trying to justify myself and prove that I’m not an alcoholic, when in reality I don’t think I should have to.  I just know that sometimes appearances can be deceiving, and I want to be very clear on this.

I’ve made some stupid decisions regarding alcohol in the past, something I hope to not perpetuate again in the future.  I’m in no rush to run out and drink now that year has passed, but I also won’t feel the need to pass whenever a friend asks me if I want to go out for a drink or have a margarita with dinner.  I can have fun within limits.  I just have to outline those limits for myself, and stick to them, something I know I can do.

The year without alcohol is over, but that doesn’t mean a year of drunken debauchery is beginning.  It just means that the first time I have alcohol after so long, I better be prepared to be knocked on my ass from one or two drinks.

We’d been discussing it for a long time, but the timing never really lined up in a way that would allow both of us to move out of current apartments and into a new one.  So when my apartment lease ended last year, I renewed it just long enough so that it’d end at the same time as Keith’s thus giving us the chance to either move in together at that point, or at least be on the same lease schedule so we could move in together in the future.  Luckily, April was the month to be, and everything kinda fell into place.

We got our places packed.  Well…he got his place packed, and I got mine somewhat packed, and then stayed up all night the day before the big move.  I still didn’t get close to finishing, and with 3 hours of sleep that night I was utterly exhausted during moving day.  Luckily we had movers to do all the work for us, and we just moved a few things that we didn’t want them to mess with like our computers and his LED TV, and a few other things.  Once they were all done, we both spent the next few days getting our old places emptied entirely of what the movers didn’t move for us, and then cleaned, and then we finally were able to call it quits and settle into our new home together.

We now live comfortably in a three bedroom apartment with a two car garage, and over 1600 square feet of living space.  :-)  It’s marvelous.  The only downside we’ve really noticed over the past month and a half has been how hard it is to keep this place cool; one side of the apt faces east, and the other faces west, so we catch the sun all day long.  We’re going to be investing in curtains as soon as possible, no doubt about that.  Other than that we had some trouble with the complex’s management team and maintenance guys when we first moved in, but things seem to have settled down and we at last have reliable hot water and a microwave that doesn’t take 10 minutes to cook spaghettios.

It’s been an adjustment to say the least, but one I’ve embraced and enjoyed every day.  We’ve had a few arguments, but nothing serious.  We’ve clashed on a few things, but again, nothing that turned into a big fight.  I really think Keith and I know how to talk to each other and work through things without making a big deal out of it, and it’s really helped us in our relationship so far.  Living with him has been one of the best decisions I’ve made.  Coming home to see his car already in the garage, and seeing him on the couch or in the dining room still makes me smile.  I love not having to ask “who’s place are we gonna hang out at tonight” because now it’s our place.

I didn’t really know the kid when we went to school together.  And to be completely honest, what I did know of him I didn’t like.  I was picked on a lot as a child, teased for being smart and quiet and not athletic, and I distinctly remember this kid being one of the many who bullied me.  But sitting there and reading that he’d died, I felt like I would cry.  I don’t know why.  Obviously the loss of any human life is something to be somber about, but I hadn’t seen or thought of him in almost a decade – why would his death be causing me such emotional turmoil?

As I sat there I realized that I was being confronted with my own mortality.  His obituary didn’t say what he’d died of, so I was left in the dark and unwilling to contact anyone who knew him to ask the question of them.  Was it a car crash?  Was it medical?  Was it drugs?  Did anyone even know?  I have no clue, and it’s truly not important.  What is important is that it made me realize that I’m not guaranteed to live to be 80.  I can’t walk around sure of the fact that I’m going to grow old and live a lengthy and productive life.  Because there is no guarantee.  This guy learned that the hard way unfortunately, and his passing helped to make me realize it as well.

I guess we all just need to realize that we take life for granted.  I know I do at least.  I don’t give much thought to the fact that tomorrow could be the end; I guess that’s for the best, because if you get too wrapped up in that kind of morbid thinking, it could be what ultimately kills you.  But I do think it’s healthy and wise to be aware of the fact that not everybody makes it to the grand finish line of life.  Some people are going to stumble halfway, and some don’t make it past the starting line.  I’m lucky to have gotten this far, and I’m gonna do my best to make sure I make it to the end.  One  thing is certain though – as competitive as I am in most areas of life, this is one race I have no intention of finishing first.

January was the beginning of my unemployment.  I’d been laid off from CitiGroup effective the end of December, and I began what I thought would only be a short stint of being jobless.  Little did I know that it would be another 6 months before I would get so much as an interview, let alone another 2 months after that before I’d finally find a job (thanks to a former Citi coworker [further proving that it's more "who you know" than "what you know"]).  In the meantime, I started my own IT consulting company, which didn’t take off quite as well as I wanted.  It kept money flowing in while I had no job, but it wasn’t anywhere near being an income replacement.  The company still exists and I still work under the company name, but it’s not on a level with what I was hoping for.  I can only hope that word will continue to spread, and that it will get bigger over time.

In March I traveled out to Arizona to help out my grandmother while my grandfather was in the hospital.  He spent weeks in the hospital developing numerous complications, and there was a period of time where my grandmother finally broke down, fearing that she would lose him.  While she was in the hospital dealing with doctors and nurses and waiting to hear back after yet another surgery, I had the task of going outside and calling my father and aunt and uncle to let them know that there might come a time shortly when they’d need to come out immediately to say their final good-byes.  The calls were hard to make, but luckily it never came to that.  He recovered, albeit slowly, and I left shortly before he was released from rehab to finally make it home again.  I saw him again many months later when they visited Texas, and it brought a smile to my face to see him up and walking around again after having seen him so weak in a hospital bed for so long.

My birthday rolled around (again) in May, and Keith made it the best birthday ever.  He treated me so special and made a big deal out of it, something that I’ve never really had done, but always not-so-secretly wanted.  He did that for me, and I’ll never forget it.  And it wasn’t just that day either, but all the time.  He makes the littlest things feel so important and wonderful, and it makes life so much more enjoyable.  He gives me reasons to smile when I feel like nothing is going as it should.

Summer flew by and at the end of August I finally got a job.  I’m still a consultant, but a job as a temp is better than no job at all, and maybe someday soon it’ll become a permanent position.  I can only hope.  Going from such a structured and intense work environment like Citi to somewhere as relaxed and enjoyable as where I’m at now was a wonderful bit of culture shock.  I was prepared to be immersed in the corporate world all over again, but it never really happened.  I work at a high rise in Dallas, and I feel fancy when I go into work every day, but it’s a job that I finally feel a sense of accomplishment for doing.  Like what I come into the office for each morning makes a difference somehow, and that I’m not just answering a phone call from someone making well over six figures asking me how to open their email and print a file anymore.

November was my one year anniversary with Keith.  It’s hard to look back on the past year and realize that Keith has been there the whole time.  I never thought I’d have someone like that, someone so wonderful in my life, there by my side through it all.  He’s been there for me, and I’ve been there for him.  Things are going so great.  It’s frustrating to me that many of my family members have no desire to meet this person so special to me.  That because I’m not in the kind of relationship they want (with a woman), my relationship can’t possibly be real or loving or as fulfilling as theirs.  Those that have taken the time to meet him have all told me how obvious it is that we’re wonderful together.  In over a year of being together, I’ve never introduced him to a single person who has later said anything negative about him or us as a couple.  I even had the chance to meet some of his coworkers and his manager for his department’s Christmas party this year, and he told me later that they all enjoyed meeting me as well.  I wish that people would open their eyes and hearts and realize that even though things aren’t always what you want or think should be, they can still be really great.  I love Keith with all my heart, something I make sure to tell him every single day.  How many other people can say the same thing?

This last month has been a trying one.  I almost failed my first Master’s level course in college, but I barely pulled it out at the end of the semester by studying hard for the final and sliding by with a C.  That’s not something I’m terribly proud of, but at least I passed.  I made an effort to understand a course with material that was in no way familiar or easy to me, and I made it.  I got very sick the day after Christmas – sicker than I think I’ve ever been before – and could barely walk around the apartment that morning.  And then Keith came over.  He took care of me.  He got me to eat food, even though I couldn’t keep anything down.  He went out and bought me Sprite to calm my stomach, and nausea medicine to help even more.  He stayed by my side all day, even when the medicine knocked me out on the couch.  I’ve taken care of him when he’s been sick, but I hadn’t been sick enough for him to have to do the same for me.  That day opened my eyes as to yet another reason he’s so wonderful.  When the situation calls for it, I know I can lean on him for support.  I can’t even articulate how comforting that is.

The day after I was so sick, I woke up feeling not great, but much better than before.  As the day rolled on I improved, and Keith and I even made a trip to Arlington to visit my dad.  On the way home we were in an accident.  Neither of us were hurt, but as I got my insurance card out of the glove compartment I looked in the rearview mirror to see the woman drive off.  I didn’t have time to get a license plate number.  I didn’t even have a chance to get out and look at the damage to my car.  An eye witness a few moments later came up to us and told us that she’d seen the woman driving the other vehicle actually get out of her car, check the damage to her own vehicle, and then get back in and drive off.  Unfortunately the witness hadn’t seen the license plate either, but I still appreciate her coming over and giving me her info in case it helped.  All-in-all over $1500 worth of damage was done to my car, and with the bumper tied to my car with rope so it wouldn’t fall off and cause another accident, I took it in today to a body shop and left it there for repairs.  My insurance covers all but my deductible, and even got me a rental car, so the situation isn’t as bad as it could be.  It just frustrates and hurts me that someone out there is so callous and selfish that she caused an accident, then made sure her own car was safe to drive and then fled.

But even with the ups and the downs, the goods and the bad, the best of times and worst of times, I feel that 2009 wasn’t a waste.  It wasn’t the worst year ever.  It was just a year.  One which I’m happy to see over in many ways, but will still look back on and smile for the good times it holds.  2010 is going to be here shortly, and I go into it with my head held high hoping to make good things happen for myself and for those around me.  It’s not just the beginning of a new year, but of a new decade.  Bring it on life.