Happy New Year!

Over the past few days I’ve been mentally composing bits of a typical “the year that was” look back on Scott’s and my past year. The usual thing – mention a few personal highlights and low notes, maybe make a few political comments, and close with something upbeat about the coming year. But frankly I just don’t feel enthusiastic about pulling it together into a full blog post. It’s not the worst year we’ve been through, but it was far from the year I hoped it would be. And I’ve already blogged most of the major high and low notes anyway.

2005 will bring a real change – I start my MBA program at USF in the 3rd week of January. It’s been more than 15 years since I was last a full-time student, and as the day gets nearer I find that I am more than a little nervous about the whole thing.

I’m not such a mature adult that I don’t still have the same kinds of anxieties I had those many years ago when I last started at a new school — Will I do well? Will people like me? What should I major in? And there are new anxieties I didn’t have back in my college days — Have I made the right decision? Can we really afford for me to be more or less non-income producing for so long? Will I be able to get a better career out of this endeavor, even at my age?

I’m better able to handle anxiety now that I used to be — I’ve had a lot of practice at it — but these are the things that occupy my mind as 2004 rolls to a close. What 2005 will bring I don’t know. I’m eager to find out, though.

And the bad news goes on

Maybe it seems trivial in the face of the ongoing mega-disaster in Southeast Asia (I’m waiting for the death toll to pass 100,000 – it’s pushing 80,000 so far), but actor Jerry Orbach has also died.

In performances that spanned half a century, the Bronx-born Mr. Orbach came to embody two beloved New York archetypes: the musical matinee idol, to which he gave a refreshingly modern spin with his rugged and idiosyncratic persona, and the shrewd, irascible cop, a role he honed to a razor’s edge as Detective Lennie Briscoe on “Law & Order.”

Orbach was a star in the original casts of Chicago, Promises Promises, and The Fantasticks, and appeared in productions of The Threepenny Opera, Carnival, and the Gower Champion production of 42nd Street, among many other stage credits.

Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of seeing Orbach perform live, although I’ve certainly seen plenty of episodes of Law and Order.

At least 2004 is almost over. Maybe we’ll get a rest from bad news for at least part of 2005. Although somehow, I doubt it.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is Scott’s and my 8th wedding anniversary. We exchanged cards and cooked up some nice steaks for dinner, but don’t really have the time or money to do much else to note the occasion. Hopefully by the time our 10th anniversary rolls around we’ll be in a position to celebrate in higher style — like maybe a vacation.

What matters most, though, is that we’re still together and happy. The rest is icing on the cake.

Disaster Blogging

The Moderate Voice has a great roundup of blogger reporting and photos of the disaster in Southeast Asia.

Massive egotist that I am, my initial reactions on the subject were relief that my sister had left Thailand before it happened, and wondering what would happen to Scott & I if a tsunami hit here. We live 2 blocks from the ocean.

At any rate, it’s horrible. I wish there was more one could do when nature is this savage, but other than trying to comfort the living and bury the dead, there’s not a lot.