2008

My new year was quiet, thanks for asking. Quiet commute, quiet at work, babysat my dog in case some revelers thought fire crackers were in order. My whole life in upstate New York, no one randomly shot fire crackers to usher in the new year. Shot guns, rifles sure, but not fire crackers.

Anyway, no one shot off fire crackers or lethal weaponry this year, so my new year was kindler and gentler than last year.

Some OCD items of note:

• Miles Driven: 20,723 – 23% fewer than 2007
• Annual MPG: 36.9558 – 1.39% improvement from 2007
• $ Spent on Gasoline: $3,722.24 – whew – an 80% increase from 2007
• Average Price Per Gallon: $3.27 – 18% increase from 2007
• “…in Death” books read: 16 – 100% increase from 2007
• Asian Dramas watched: 7 – a 36% decrease from 12 in 2007, damn AZN going off the air
• # of times I read “Pride & Prejudice” – 1
• Road Trips – 7
• # of visits to the ER: 4
• # of sisters who became engaged: 1
• # of jobs from which I was laid off: 1
• # of promotions at current employment: 1

I could bore you with all sorts of data. I can’t do math, but I love personal statistics. Like how many blogs I posted, how many of my friends had brain surgery, how many people were in the theatre watching the X-Files movie, how many days my cycle averaged and on which day of the week did it most frequently present, how many friends I have on Facebook or how many times the movie “The Green Mile” made me cry and my daughter laughed at me.

Boring for you, a data rich and thrilling snapshot of the year for me. All that is left now is to emotionally download the intelligence and come to personal conclusions about the year. What it all meant. How it shaped me and how I use that information going forward.

My first day into the office on January 2 – I hit one red light on the way in. Big deal you cruelly mock? 36 traffic lights between me and the office. 36. (You now that I’m OCD enough to count them. There were 71 traffic lights on my commute into Alexandria, as I boldly announce yet another silver lining in that cloud.) Anyway, 36 lights and I hit all of them green but one. Maybe it means that paths that were slowing me down in 2008 will open up for me in 2009. Maybe it means life will be easier, and my road will be less obstructed.

Eh. Maybe I just hit the traffic just right and I got lucky. Getting lucky. That would be nice too.