Looking back on my 2004

New Years just don’t excite me like they used to. 2000 was the last New Year I can remember being excited about. It’s kind of like birthdays – once you reach a certain age, you wish they’d stop coming so fast.

But one big thing nice about this New Year, and about most of my recent New Years for that matter, is I can look back and say . . . it’s been a good year.

I don’t take that for granted. There was a stretch of years in my 20’s and early 30’s where it felt like running in place. And I’d look back at the end of each year – and felt like it was wasted, lost.

But 2004 has been an exceptional year for me. New Year’s Eve 2003 wasn’t the best, stuck in a depressing hotel room on the Northern California coast. The cable only had HBO (And I couldn’t watch that because Sex in the City :vomit: was on.) , so I couldn’t even watch the New Year come in. I was on the tail end of my God Knows Book and Skate Tour. But New Years Day was fun, driving through a winter storm and seeing the San Francisco Bay rock, then stopping at a favorite hotel in Indio and having a nice swim there. The next day I enjoyed skating my favorite Phoenix skate parks.

And 2004 got even better from there. My garage/apartment in Corpus was built and turned out great. I soon felt at home there. A big reason: more quickly than I expected I found an even better church than I expected. There I was confirmed into the Reformed Episcopal Church, a very special day for me.

Back in Denton, my transition out of Denton Bible Church was amicable and smooth. Early readers of this blog know the transitions out of my previous two churches were trying. So ending well at Denton Bible was nice. (I still attend there some.) Also, my skate ministry at a local church skate park went well and ended well. Man, those were good times.

Even my chess has gone well. Why, yesterday, I even beat an International Master in a simul. And my rating went up from 881 to 1453. (Chess freaks can tell you what all that means, heh.)

There’s been other highlights scattered through the year. Like some of the excellent shows I went to, such as Comrade, Ester Drang, and, of course, the King College Choir.

Oh yeah, back in February, floundering in my writing, I began this blog.

I think I grew spiritually as well. Anglican forms of worship and spiritual discipline have been good for me.

2004 has been good for me, thanks be to God!