Me = Pre-Clarence George Bailey

Hey look, mister - we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer? Nick, It's A Wonderful Life Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You claimed you were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me "a warped, frustrated, old man!" Who are you but a warped, frustrated young man, crawling in here on your hands and knees begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds. Nothin' but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy. You're worth more dead than alive. Mr. Potter [to George Bailey], It's A Wonderful Life I don't remember when the last time I watched that movie was. A very long time, that's for sure. I'm sneaking in this post while J is out (braving the snow and ice that covers the city today) to get Chinese food. K is asleep and I'm left here thinking. I've been thinking all day, actually. Sometimes that's not a good thing. Sometimes I end up feeling like throwing my hands up in the air and screaming WTF?! I’m not so far removed from being exactly like George Bailey in the beginning of the movie. I’d say I’m pretty much feeling exactly the same way. Don’t worry, I won’t be going near any bridges. I may lock myself in the bathroom for 15-20 minutes, though. So the last day of 2006 has been pretty much like the entire year: for every good thing there were 3 bad things. The morning started off fine. As time went by, I worked on getting K to take a nap. Everything I had read said that children should be rested and fed before getting pictures taken. That was my goal today. I wouldn’t be here typing this if that had been accomplished. K napped for shit all morning. Somehow, he did get an hour nap in from 10:40 – until about 11:45. He woke up cranky and hungry. Just. Great. We get ourselves ready for the pictures, get out to the car, clean the snow and ice off of the car and make our way to the studio. Half way there, the windshield wipers stop working. Completely. J pulls over, gets out to see what the hell is the problem. He can’t figure it out and gets frustrated. We were thisclose to canceling the appointment but since we were only 3 minutes away, we just went. Just. Fucking. Great. When we pull into a parking space, guess what….. Wait for it…. Wait for it… Wait… . . . . . . . . . . The goddamn wipers start working again! J lets out a grunt. I don’t say a word. The pictures went fine, surprisingly. We had one set taken as a family and one set of just K. K did really well. No meltdowns, no spitting up on his clothes. The appointment itself was short and we didn’t get to use any props, but that’s okay. This was really more of a test run than anything else. We can use props later. They had us review the pics on a shitty monitor, so I hope they turn out okay. I think K’s will be fine, but the family one worries me. Mainly because what you see on a monitor isn’t always what comes out on the print. Due to the increasingly shitty weather, we didn’t get to go to Best Buy to look at video cameras or Alltel to look at the Motorola Razr phones. Mommy really wants a new phone! I got a gift card to use and it’s burning a hole in my pocket! That just made the day seem even more shittier. We were more or less cooped up at home. K hated it, J hated it and I hated it. Like I said, for every good thing…shit happens. I’m so hoping 2007 is better. I’m not naïve enough to expect perfection, but I am hopeful that the “drama” will subside. This is no damn soap opera, this is my life.