The End of the Year As We Know It

And I feel fine?

I guess I don't, mostly because of the tragedy in the Indian Ocean nations. It makes it hard to look back at the "top albums" or "best movies" or "worst dressed celebrity" of 2004 when you realize - with the help of hourly footage from news crews - just how ridiculous most of our temporal existence actually is.

I haven't blogged much recently. New job and all. Busy time of year. Not much of value to say.

I have had the time to slow down a little. Cami and I have watched a bunch of movies that were on our "we should see that when it comes out on DVD" or "that's a Marvel Comic movie adaptation and to comply with an oath I made as a 15 year old comic book fan, I must own it" lists.

Christmas was low-key, for the most part. Midnight Mass was beautiful and helped me center myself on the Holiday. I was reminded that last year, at the exact same time, I was sitting in a corner of the side aisles of St. Lawrence church, weeping throughout the entire Mass. This year, though there was still sadness because of my grandmother's physical condition, there was more peace because my grandfather and mother were in a much improved living condition which has brought more stability and calmness to the holiday.

The choir sounded beautiful, singing for a half-hour before the Mass and throughout the service in a way that transcended the individuals involved. Cami says it is the choir's own band of guardian angels that actually do the singing that those of us in the church hear. It is the only explanation for how such a relatively small group can sound so full.

Overall it has been a good few weeks, though I’m still a bit overwhelmed at St. Joan. I don’t like not being able to adequately analyze a situation, and I still can’t do that with much of the finances. I have 12 bank accounts that I am responsible for, but have no ability to access the information I need from them. I have spent, literally, 6 to 8 hours physically sitting in the bank trying to get accounts set up in a way that I can access and evaluate them, and I’m not a whole lot closer today than I was three weeks ago. There are seven of the twelve accounts that I don’t even know the balances for!

I hope next week, with the bankers actually working a regular shift, I can finally get some of this sorted out.

Probably the last for the year…

Happy New Year, dear readers.