Year in Review

It's been 10 days...I started working on this post New Year's day. I really wanted to do a year in review, a countdown of my 2004. But other than December, I didn't remember much from last year. I resort to my handy livejournal only to realize between the months of February to May went post-less. That's three months, a quarter of the year, a significant piece of the pie.

So...2004. What was so special about it?

It was a leap year. Every leap year has been an election year. Every election year coincides with an Olympic year. In the Lunar calendar, it was the year of the monkey. It was "Double-Spring plus Smooth-Month." Mom's Roman Calendar birthday landed on the same day as her Lunar Calendar birthday. In a country that covets primetime soap operas, support bombing of innocent citizens, and promote end-zone celebrations, the "people" decided that values were key in bringing our country back together. Not so much the people, just the Electoral College, who knew one of two words, "Blue" or "Red." Never since 1999, when the Dot-com bubble burst, have the words "You're Fired" been used so often. Donald's Trump two-words rang louder than "How you doin?" and "The tribe has spoken" but had no such luck against, "She Bangs!" And as powerful as William Hung banged, it was Joyce's "Of course!" that gets the gold in 2004.

America saw gold in Greece. China emerged victorious as Liu Xiang hurdled his way into Olympic gold...and hurdled the world into Beijing for the 2008 games. Amid victory and defeat, judging and drugging controversy clouded over Mt. Olympia. Not to be outdone, our very own San Francisco Chronicle released transcripts of Barry Bonds' grand jury testimony.

There I stood, April 12, 2004, opening day at SBC Park, formerly knowns as Pacific Bell Park. Both Houston and San Diego came out saying that Barry will not hit 660 in their parks. Giants down 4-2, bottom of the fifth. 2 on, 2 outs. Bonds walks to the plate. With 45,000+ cheering him on, Matt Kinney lays a fast ball down the middle and within seconds, the baseball is lasered into the stands. Giants take the lead. Bonds takes a trot around the diamond. Willie Mays emerges from the bullpen with the Olympic torch he so solmenly carried 8 years ago for the Atlanta Games and performs the proverbial "passing of the torch" to Barry. That may have been a Monday, it may have been a payday, it may have been tax day. But for me, that will always be 660-Day.

86 years of frustration was lifted up of New England as Doug Mientkiewicz caught the final out of the final game of the 2004 baseball season. The same year the Patriots win their 2nd Superbowl in three years, the Red Sox found a way to reverse the Curse of the Bambino. The rest of world, though, still needs to figure out how to reverse the Curse of Lance Armstrong as he dominated the Tour de France, again.

The year started off with a "BANG!" landing dad in the hospital with his acute heart attack. 2004 ended with a "BANG!" when the Wrath of God attacked the heart of South East Asia, landing more than 150,000 people permanently. Wedding bells rang loud as 4 of my closest friends tied the knot, paving the way for me to become the next Non-bachelor. Google IPO'ed at $180 and is still hovering around $200. The stock market seemed to finally pick its way out of being a bear and as lady luck would have it, Mark was able to earn enough cash to buy his way out of living with me. I lost a roommate, but Joyce and I discovered a new family, a spiritual family that we can call home. Joining my first fellowship and exercising my gift as a peer mentor has led me to believe that I indeed have a purpose in life. Rediscovering this lost facade of me has made me a much better person. I lose my temper less, I'm a lot happier, I'm a lot more virtuous and with Francisco looking up to me, I've made myself a better role model. Originally, I set out to help someone. Turns out he's done for me, much more than I can ever do for myself. Workwise, I've finally got my first promotion and am slowly climbing that ever growing corporate ladder.

Somewhere in between all that, I finally made the committment to spend the rest of my life with Joyce.

Best memory of 2004: June 27, 2004 on top of Cuesta Ridge in San Luis Obispo, I got down on my knee and asked the king of all questions.

Would I expect 2005 to be any better? As Joyce would say...."Of Course...."