Good riddance, 2006

2006 is almost over, and I for one am glad. Because, for me, this has not been exactly a banner year. Sure it started out good. I had two pretty good months. But than things sort of took a nosedive in March. The following sequence of events occurred in March and April alone: my girlfriend dumped me, I got thrown out of my apartment, a CT scan revealed new lesions in my lungs, I broke my leg- canceling my cross country ski trip, and I had a chunk of my lung removed.

Than it was not exactly a great summer, either. I did not ride my bike a single kilometer the entire month of July. Than, while hospitalized on interleukin II in NYC, it was revealed that Floyd Landis had failed a drug test at the Tour de France. And, of course, there was that whole anxiety of going through hell, wondering if it was all for nothing.

Which it turned out to be, since the I.L. II didn’t seem to do the trick. Than I decided to move to Vermont, only to arrive in time for the warmest December in memory. Global warming is not a myth people, ask any skier in New England.

Now, here is my theory: years that end in a “6” just plain suck. For example, 1986- Exhibit A. Like 2006, ’86 started off pretty good. But it wouldn’t last. After the high point of seeing “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, things began to turn rough. My grandfather died a few weeks later, and on the day of his funeral it started to rain, and pretty much rained the rest of the summer. But that was nothing compared to what was in store for me in September: Mrs. Race. The most evil sixth grade teacher in the history of upstate NY. This woman was the real life version of Nurse Ratched from “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. And 1996 sucked too. Bad jobs, bad apartments, bad roommates, and turning 21 but not going out on my birthday.

But, I figure that I should not end the year on a negative not, so I will list the good things about 2006, to close out the year on a good note. I met a bunch of really great people, skied a whole lot (even if the snow wasn’t all that good), and got a new bike. Despite being stuck in the hospital, my friends from TGR made sure that I wasn’t alone in there and made it almost fun to be there at times. Than of course there was seeing Pearl Jam, meeting Ingrid Backstrom at the MSP “Push” premiere in New York, and the Borat movie.

See you in 2007.