Continuing my trend of posting a month apart ...

Happy New Year!!

2005.
Whew!

Didn't think it would ever get here. 2004, the year that will go down in Todd's personal history book as quite possibly the worst year of his life is finally over.

And not a moment too soon.

Let's take stock, shall we?

• January ........ My wife Tori packs up and leaves me after an up and down three year marriage. Well ... techinically she left me on December 31 of 2003, since that's when she went out the door and didn't return until four days later. And when she did return it was just to tell me she was leaving, and maybe I should get out of town for a few days while she packed up so there "wouldn't be a scene." I love you too sweetheart.
• February ........ My next door neighbor Jamie is killed in a tragic hit and run car accident in Louisiana while making arrangments for her just deceased mother's funeral. Her husband Scott is one of my best friends and I have suffered with him this year as he slowly comes to grips with a loss even greater than my own.
• March ........ I turn the big 40 on the 3rd. No body gives a shit. I celebrated with my folks the weekend before so I spend the actual day alone at home, since I get that day off at work. No body calls me. No party. No balloons. No cards. Nothing. Not even from the ex. I spend the day working on my car in the driveway wondering why I even give a damn?
• April ......... One of my best friends, Tim, dies at age 50 after a long battle with liver and kidney disease. Rest in peace, "Hoppy".
• May ........ I begin hearing "chatter" from friends and aquaintances that my dear-departed wife was seeing someone when she left me. I start snooping. Asking questions. Dropping hints. Information slowly leaks in. I can't believe that the impossible is true. Eveything I ever believed or thought about her is instantly negated. I realize I spent 3 years married to a complete stranger.
  
• June, July and August pass in amazing peacefullness.
• September ........ US Airways files Chapter 11 for the second time in 2 years. Suddenly my job doesn't look secure anymore.
• October ........ I take a 21% paycut at work. If not for some last minute financial maneuvers and legal wrangling, I would be out of a house. I'm suddenly making less money at 22 years seniority than I was at 10 years. Then, my Uncle Lonnie's 15 year old step-daughter takes her own life after a battle with depression. On the plane to Texas for the funeral, I think to myself, "I know how she felt."
• December ....... I somehow survive the holidays and New Years with a minimum of emotional suffering. A long year has slowly come to an end.

So .... on to 2005.

Lots of things on the agenda in the coming days and weeks. The good ol' bankruptcy judge rules the end of this week on whether or not to throw out my union's contract in favor of the company's last proposal. A proposal, it should be noted, which eliminated my job position.
Wow ..... it's nice to know you're needed.

My year's legal separation ends on January 6. Just means I can file for divorce if I so please.
Being that I now am convinced that my lovely ex-wife is a miserable, fucked up, lying, cheating, low-life piece of shit ..... then you can bet your sweet patootie that I will file just as soon as I can wrangle my lawyer and drum up some funds.

More to come later, I'm sure. But that's all I feel like writing about for now.
Stay tuned folks ... whatever else happens, I gotta feeling 2005 will be a lot better than 2004!