It was

And so passes oh-six, a year that my heart cannot entirely understand. Yet. I'm just going to come out and say that oh-six was a damn tough year for me. It really started about eighteen months ago when I first moved to Portland, found myself dissatisfied with said choice, made the choice to move back to Iowa, finally settled in to life in PDX, moved back to Iowa, and my seven or so months here in Iowa have been partly cloudy, so to speak. Not without bright spots though. Oh-seven finds me in a similar place as oh-six, and oh-five, as well as oh-four. That place is the "what am I doing with my life?" stage. If you have any answers to that, do let me know. Anyway, here are some special moments of oh-six.

- Starting it off with some fellow Des Moinesians in Portland at a fancy Cuban restaurant.
- The Jeff Tweedy show. Awesome.
- Andy getting a synth and messing around with it.
- Seattle. Though it was miserable, I did read hundreds of pages of Brothers Karamazov there.
- Easter with friends. Discovering that I had friends outside of the Manlantis/Second Base bubble.
- Donuts. Yeah.
- Joseph Wood Hill Park.
- Reading so much that my eyes fell out [they're back in now].
- "Surviving" my first earthquake [the pleasure of which I was robbed thereof].
- The battle of Manlantis and Dave's brute force of death [poor little mice].
- Pacifism.
- "Running" up Mount Tabor.
- The wood-burning stove.
- Theology of liberation. Theology in general really. I like mine Trinitarian if you don't mind.
- Cinco de awesome.
- Being a grad-school dropout.
- Grad class retreat and sleeping on the beach. What a great time I had there. Sigh.
- Au revoir to Manlantis, PDX.
- Birds in the warehouse.
- Frustration with church.
- Working on the farm.
- The Drake House.
- The Envy Corps show. The PJWA show. The Anathallo show.
- Aces: the Grabher spectacular in the U.P. [and all that is found within].
- Running in Des Moines.
- iPod Morrison's wedding.
- Buying a car [Lucille four].
- The Ohio trip.
- The return of Walter Ray.
- My friendship with Katie, Chris and other ragamuffins de Ames.
- Fall retreat. Pledge groups. Thursday nights [TiVo].
- And an awesome weekend of New Years-ing.

It wasn't a bad year. But it sure wasn't easy either. I'm not one to ask for the easy [yoke] way out, but to be honest, I could use an easy year. Not lazy or apathetic, as I find myself slipping back in to [as well as cynicism; damn you cynicism!], but a year without mass amounts of confusion and slight amounts of despair. However, things will be changing this year, as they always do. I plan on hanging around with some different folks, some folks that will hopefully provide the community here in Iowa that I desperately want/need. With this will come somewhat of a change in my local church community. I hope to be able to leave my parents' house once again. This would be much easier with a better job, which is number one on my list of hopes for oh-seven. And hopefully this year will bring much writing, reading, working with films, and creativity upon creativity. And a healthier me. That's needed as well. And so, to celebrate the new year and the completion of the obligatory new year post, I will now go eat some ice cream. Here's to oh-seven. you have my love.