The year is coming to an end, and friends and family keep sending me letters saying what’s been up with them this year.  Just tonight I received an email from a friend and they said they had opted to go electronic this year for their letter.  That sounded like a pretty good idea.  I’ve never written one of these, but I figure my blog is a good platform for it, however I will ask that you bear with me since it’s my first time with one of these :)

The beginning of the year was somewhat turbulent for me.  It was riddled with sickness and general unpleasantness.  It all started with having my wisdom teeth removed.  Unfortunately something went wrong in the procedure, and the result was the front portion of my lower jaw/lip was left numb.  Luckily feeling slowly started returning to it, and now there’s only a very small part that isn’t 100%.  I’m starting to think that’s permanent, but at least it’s not annoying.  Within a week after that, I came down with a cold, and then shortly after that, the flu, or something equally bad.  Needless to say, January/February pretty much sucked.

I wish I could say that was the end of the bad news.  Shortly after that, I ended up finding myself on the way to Mississippi because my Grandfather passed away.  Then, my employer at the time, started having lay-off’s.  Unfortunately some people I had grown pretty close to found themselves without a job.

Luckily, things started turning around about mid-year.  I moved into a townhouse (more space!).  Most (all?) of my friends seem to be doing great on the job-front (never doubted that they’d turn out any different) and I’ve managed to stay fairly close with most of them.  Also, in July, I accepted a position with a new company (Business Bullpen), still doing Web Development.  So far it’s been pretty fun.  I’m getting to work on some pretty mind-blowing high profile websites, and I got to move towards developing more heavily with WordPress on some other sites.  Graham and Todd are fun to work with, and I’d probably say I feel more “at home” with this job then any other I’ve ever had.  That’s not just because I get to work from home a lot either ;)

Towards the end of this year I’ve found myself commuting to Charlottesville twice a week, and probably getting too addicted to TV shows — True Blood, Entourage, Heroes, House, The Office, 30 Rock, Stargate Atlantis (which is letting me down for its series finale), and some others here and there.

So even though 2008 started off more rocky then I would have liked, at least it finally picked up and things look good for 2009 (knock on wood).  I hope to continue with my Picture of the Day Series, try to get better at staying connected with friends, and keep moving forward.