Out With The Old Year…

When I look back on 2007, I don’t think of it as a bad year, but in a lot of ways, it was certainly a stressful one, filled with a number of unexpected events.

The unexpected events began in January, when I decided not to pursue Masters Degree in Spanish. This left me somewhat suddenly without direction in life, which, though not an unfamiliar position for me, is certainly an uncomfortable one. The fact that I reached the decision after the long process of getting into graduate school, buying textbooks and starting the semester didn't really help things.

And that was just the beginning. Soon after, Caroline’s great-grandmother passed away somewhat unexpectedly, and we traveled to Alabama for the funeral. A couple months later, we were all very surprised to learn that my grandmother was very sick, which led to two sudden trips to Colorado (once to see her and once for her funeral).

On top of that, factor in two car accidents (I’m really not a bad driver, I promise), two hospital visits, one of which included surgery, and at times, some fairly significant work-related stress, and you get a pretty decent idea of what my 2007 was like.

A lot of good things happened in 2007 as well, and like I said, it wasn’t exactly a bad year, but at the same time, I’m not really sad to see it go.

Appalachian State? Did you not watch the Michigan game?

I thought the Arkansas Razorback basketball was going to be good this year. Apparently, I was wrong.

That’s really all I can stand to say about that right now.

Trauma

According to Wikipedia, the speed of the release of particles from the mouth during sneezing is a source of much speculation, but some estimates place it as high as 650 mph.

I can believe it. I have long suspected that sneezing is by far the most traumatic experience of everyday life, and that if sneezes lasted longer than the blink of eye, the strain would probably be too much for the body to take.

This line of thinking was reinforced last night, when I made the mistake of sneezing while still recovering from the appendectomy. I could have sworn that the cut had ruptured, and it definitely goes down as one of the most painful experiences of my life.

I’ll be living in mortal terror of sneezing for the next few weeks.

Absence

Those of you who read The Doc File may have noticed that there hasn’t been much to read lately, as my posting has been sporadic at best.

Among the many reasons for my absence from blogging (new computer game, busy at work, computer problems) was an unplanned trip to the hospital over the weekend from which I returned without my favorite appendix.

As the stapled-up gash in my side has forced me to take a break from work and other activities that involve me not being at home, I’ll try to get caught up on things that I’ve wanted to blog about over the past several days and haven’t been able to.