New Year's Eve

While most people party on the last day of each year, I traditionally find it a time of introspection and contemplation.  So, here I am, introspecting and contemplating.

Damn, 2014 was a game-changer year.  It all began with Brenda and Steve's wedding on New Year's Day.  A beautiful ceremony on the deck of Sacramento's Delta King, then a dinner reception, followed by drinking in a few discrete locations in Old Sac.  I spent the night on the ship, and managed to escape without much of a hangover.  After a year of marriage, Steve has proven that he is more than man enough to meet the needs of my pal, The Princess.  I couldn't be happier for them.

With the fun of the wedding over and done with, I hit the books to study for my comprehensive Master's exams.  Thousands of pages read over five months, hours and hours of angst poured out to my major field advisor, Dr. Burke, then the marathon writing session that condensed nearly thirty books into five essays produced in five hours.  Grueling as it was, the process taught me a lot about how to read, digest, and analyze many scholary works, as well as how baked goods serve as a comfort during times of enormous stress.

With exams and classwork finished, the graduate hooding ceremony was a blast.  Sitting with classmates Logan and Monica, we sipped from Logan's flask of scotch while waiting for the call to step on stage.  As the hood was lowered over my head, I felt such a rush.  I did it.  What I started in the summer of 2000 was finally complete--I had a B.A. and an M.A.

Summer came quickly following graduation, along with some unwanted news from my doctor.  Abnormal test results led to a hysterectomy on an early morning in August.  The whole process took only hours--I checked in at seven in the morning and was back home in my own bed by noon.  I suffered very little pain, and my recovery came quickly.  Quickly enough, in fact, for me to be ready for my long-anticipated vacation in Paris.

Ah, Paris.  Damn, Yvette and I had fun.  I never did finish my final blog from that trip.  After an amazing last evening in the city, with dinner at a restaurant with a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower, we returned to the Hotel Alane and the ubiquitous noise from the disreputable gay sandwich shop.  I received bad news, right as I sat down after our long day.  My father-in-law, Walter Herbon, whom I absolutely adored, had passed away.  While he had been in ill health and I knew his time with us was limited, the news still hit hard.  What an amazing person he was--and a wonderful father-in-law and grandfather.

The flight home dragged on for hours, but I enjoyed several movies and had time to think about all I had experienced on the trip. After the disaster with our airline reservations brought about by the pilots' strike of Air France, our carefully constructed plan to get home from the airport in San Francisco proved no longer workable.  Riding to the rescue in her trusty Mercedes Benz, sister Tricia braved the horrors of the cell phone lot to gather us up and take us home.  Lots of talking on the trip home, lots of talking when we got home, and my own bed looked really, really good to me.

Throughout the fall, I worked hard on applications for Ph.D. programs in universities across the South.  While this sounds easy, it is soooooo not.  Contact with instructors and students at the universities I was considering, making sure my writing sample was flawless, writing personal statements--argh!  On the bright side, I met my goal of submitting all my applications before Thanksgiving, and believe me when I write that I gave a lot of thanks for that.  Now the waiting begins, as most schools will not notify me of acceptance or rejection until late March or early April.

So, I can look back with some satisfaction on all I accomplished in 2014.  What 2015 might hold remains a mystery, but a mystery with all sorts of wonderful possibilities. I am, as ever, hopeful.