GOOD-bye 2009!

On this the last day of 2009, I find myself reflecting on the year that was, as I’m sure many of you have. Travel, work, and other commitments have really kept me busy, so I haven’t had time to write up end-of-year wrap-up posts like I did in 2008 (like this, or this, and this).

As news of Aunty Margaret Machado’s death was shared with me recently, I remarked, “2009 really needs to come to an end!” 2009 has proven to be a challenging year:

• We mourned the deaths of several fixtures of my extended family.
• My wife (the teacher) has lost income due to Furlough Friday.
• The economic headlines get bleaker and bleaker.
• Departures and changes at work have left me and several of my colleagues extremely busy and near the edge of burnout.
• Also on the work front, one of my coworkers passed away, which was a shock to many of us.
• On Christmas Eve, Santa gave me (Or did I give my dad?) a fender-bender; sorry again about that, Dad.
• And the list goes on and on.

With all of these challenges on our minds, my new boss points out that it’s disingenuous to wish someone a Happy New Year because that person may not have much to be happy about. But I don’t want to get everyone too down about 2009; after all there were some good things:

• I registered my own domain and welcomed visitors to my new online home. In a way I find it amusing because I blog less now that I have my own domain. I must stress how pleased I am to call capsun.org my eponymous home – and I think it’s neat to have a six-letter domain name.
• We inaugurated the first Hawaii-born and first African-American President of the United States.
• My wife and I got married. And it was a huge success, thanks to the many hands of our family and friends who came together to make it all happen. We are forever grateful to them.
• While thousands of state employees (including UH) find themselves on a furlough schedule or accepting pay cuts, I find myself in the awkward position of being a state employee not subject to furlough. I am grateful, but I also feel your pain.
• While uncertainty faces many of my colleagues, I start a new position with my agency on Monday, with some degree of stability. Again I am grateful.

So with all of this in mind and although I am not a very spiritual person, I leave you with the holiday wishes of my new boss and wish you a Blessed New Year.

Hauoli Makahiki Hou to everyone! I hope we can all work together to make 2010 a truly prosperous year for everyone.

And finally, if you’re looking for some calendars for 2010, Burt Lum has shared a nice one-year view calendar for free. If you have a few dollars to spend and want to support an investigative journalist who keeps asking the right questions, I highly recommend Ian Lind‘s calendars (he has versions for cat lovers, dog lovers, and one of his beloved Kaaawa).

Mahalo and GOOD-bye 2009!

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P.S. – You can follow me on Twitter (@exbor) to get more regular updates.  Be warned, they are much more “regular” than my posts here.

P.P.S – Did you know capsun.org has it’s own Twitter account (@capsundotorg) that Tweets whenever I blog here or on my photo blog?

Please note:  The views expressed here are mine and mine alone.  While I am employed by and affiliated with organizations and individuals, permission has neither been asked nor granted to write on the topics discussed here.

Tagged as: calendar, Capsun, furlough, Hawaii, new year, poe, teacher