The year that was. Or wasn't.

Let me preface this by saying that I did not spend the weekend entangled in cords, though at times it felt that way. The new television was hooked up and adjusted with only a bit of fuss, mostly caused by the required rearranging of all the different boxes in my not-at-all-that-large entertainment center. What's the fascination with small? I liked being able to set my digital cable box on top of the TV. The cats liked it, too. Alas for us all, the new TV would not accommodate said positioning of said box, so rearranging was done. Stubborn coaxial cable connections were forced to submit to my will, the picture and sound were tweaked (okay, the tweaking went on and off for several hours, while I worked to get just the right look and sound...OCD much?), and all was right with the world. (Except for poor kitty Babs, who was very confused about the loss of her favorite napping spot. Sorry, Babs, nothing I can do.) There was one "omigosh, I'm getting old" moment that stopped short of total humiliation. When I loaded the batteries provided into the new remote, it wouldn't work. These batteries must be dead, I thought. No problem, I have more AA batteries in the drawer. I loaded those; it still didn't work. I began to get angry. They gave me a faulty remote! Without the remote I can't adjust the picture and it looks like shit! Where's the Magnavox 800 number? Fortunately I checked it one more time before I called and turned into Megabitch. I hadn't bothered to put on my (recently acquired) reading glasses, and I had misread the little plus and minus marks, and the batteries were in backwards. Oops. Sucks to get older. Sigh.

The modem installation was less successful, I'm afraid. I won't bore you with the details, but I'm very close to having to admit defeat and call on my more technically savvy pal for help. Oh well.

On New Year's Eve I was fast asleep in front of the beautiful new television, with its perfectly adjusted picture by, oh...around 10:30. Happy New Year!

So, reminiscing about the year just past abounds in the blogosphere, along with the sharing of New Year's resolutions. Well, I don't make resolutions, so I won't take part in that, but good luck to all of you who do! In general, 2006 wasn't the greatest of years for me, but it was nowhere near the worst, either. There were certainly low points, quite a few of them, but having lived through them once, I just don't feel up to reliving them now. Instead, I will take a more Pollyanna-ish approach than is typical for me, and attempt to find the bright spots. Which don't spring instantly to mind, but there must be SOME, right? I don't want to overreach here, so how about I try for a moderately-sized list of good things about 2006. Let's do.....six. That should be doable. I will try to come up with actual positives, instead of turning the absence of the negative into the positive (i.e. "I didn't have a major car wreck"). Here then, with no further ado, are:

My Top 6 in '06

1. There were kittens. This would also qualify for the bad list, as well, since the kittens in question were feral, and required me to trap and tame and find homes for them, but we're focusing on the good here. And kittens....well, they're cuter than should be legal. I find it absolutely impossible to be completely depressed when there's a playful kitten in the room. Sure, the depression will resume when I leave the kitten zone and return to work, etc., but for that moment, depression is not an option. This feeling undoubtedly explains why I have so many CATS, but hey, they're still cheaper than Zoloft, right? Well, most of the time.

2. A play I was in was selected to represent Oklahoma at the AACTFest Regionals competition in Louisiana this April (and I received an acting award for it, as well--you should see the tiny little pretend Oscar statuette--hee). Of course, the fundraising drive to pay the expenses for the trip isn't going as well as we would like, but POLLYANNA! We'll get there and it will be great fun. And maybe we'll win, and go to nationals. (Counting no chickens, but fingers are certainly being crossed.)

3. I did actually go out on a couple of real dates in '06. Of course the guy, despite a great initial outlook, proved to be an idiot, but POLLYANNA! The effort was made, dates were gone on, and were fairly pleasant. And he paid. Hee.

Okay...come on..halfway there.

4. I increased my blog reading, started this blog, and "met" many lovely and talented bloggers, whose writing entertains and informs me every day. Thanks, bloggers!

5. My favorite vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant reopened, after an absence of 6 years. Hallelujah! Spring rolls for everyone.

One more...I can do it. I think I can, I think I can...

6. I kept my refrigerator clean. Well, pretty clean. Okay, so I was reaching a bit for that one, but I have a terrible habit of accumulating "science projects" in the fridge (it's so hard not to overcook for one, and I have a frugal person's horror of throwing out perfectly good leftovers), and this year I very regularly threw that stuff right out. Yay, me!

Okay, that's six. I think we can all agree this is not the stuff that "My best year ever!" posts are made of, but at least I made it to six. Maybe I should make a resolution this year--maybe I should resolve to have at least seven stellar moments in '07. I'll work on that.