Looking back on 2006...

I know I'm late for all those retrospectives about 2006--26 days late. But here it is. For the first time in my life, I have entered a new year, and have written the date perfectly every time. Not once have I had to erase, delete, or cross-out a 2006 that I wrote by mistake. When 2007 came, I didn't really want to look back.

2006 wasn't a good year. It wasn't really a year I was proud of, nor was it was it a year I would like to repeat. Here's a brief rundown up to the point where my blog starts.

January 1, 2006 12:00:01--Am home alone playing video games because I'm feeling anti-social and don't want to go to any of the New Year's parties.

February 2006--Have a very awkward talk with my father where within 15 minutes he tells me that he married his girlfriend and didn't invite me (he never even told me they were engaged) AND confronts me with ridiculous rumors that are going around the family about me. He explains the wedding was small and only a few people came.

Late February 2006--Get promoted at my movie theater job to MIT (manager-in-training)-- that isn't necessarily a good thing.

Late March 2006--Find I'm pretty decent at the manager-in-training job. I start to get comfortable.

April 2006--Go the my grandma's birthday party (father's mother) and see the album from my father's second wedding (the secret one). Surprised to see that it was a planned wedding and not some city hall thing.

Late April--There's a big dispute in the family involving my brother and his wife, my nephews, and my mother. It soon involves my brother's bother-in-law, his mother-in-law, my father and his new wife, and the police. In the end, my mother and brother are on bad terms and my father's wife become a stalker of my mother (she fits the last three bullets on that definition). I get stuck in the middle.

May 2006--Don't get a teaching job at the high school where I student taught. Get in my first car accident of the year. I was taking a friend to the airport in St. Louis, slid on an wet off-ramp and ended up on top of a concrete island. My friend and I walk to a rental car place, I sneak him on a shuttle to the airport, and wait for the tow truck. Before leaving St. Louis, I take the rental car and see Cahokia for the first time--its the highlight of my spring.

June 2006--Get in my second car accident of the year. I'm stopped to make a left-hand turn when I guy plows into me from behind. He takes the blame, gets a ticket, his insurance pays for my car (totaled), and the fight with State Farm over the medical payments begins. People gasp when they see the car. They can't believe that the car still drives and that I wasn't hurt worse.

Early July 2006--My theater company offers me a job as assistant manager in one of the theaters in Illinois. The theater is a jumping off point to a career with the company. I freak out and begin gasping for options.

Late July 2006--Get offered a teaching job in Korea and put my two weeks notice in with the theater. Just before leaving, I make the biggest mistake since working there: when putting together the print for Miami Vice, I accidentally mix-up two reels. Surprisingly, only one guy noticed the entire opening day. Would probably have gotten fired if I hadn't quit already.

August 2006--Lounge around my grandma's house, watch the Israel-Lebanon war on FoxNews, and play Chibi Robo, waiting for my flight out of the country. State Farm buys my car from my for more than I paid for it. I use to money to get me going in Korea.

Late August 2006--Touch down in S. Korea. I drink soju for the first time--it's not as bad as everyone says it is.

I thought it would be easy to be away from the problems I left behind. However, I have to admit that they haunt me every now and then. I get reminders here and there and realize that distance doesn't solve anything--nor does posting mean things on the internet or in e-mails.