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Archive for January, 2009

Bloggers and webwhores around the world are making “year in review” posts right now. I’m not very good at instantly recalling and ranking The Most Important Things That Happened Last Year (seriously, I’m not even capable of ordering food in a drive-through — something every other moron in America is MORE than competent at). I do feel really excited about 2009, though. It’s like the past four months have been a slow, gradual process of skill-building, cleaning-up, clarifying and prioritizing to prepare for a great new year/rest-of-my-life.

Before I sum up my too-personal stuff, here’s a picture of me from way back in February of 2002, before my members-only area opened, right around the time I met “my houseboy” before she became Delia:

And photos from a couple of my favorite shoots this year:

Probably the most important thing that happened in 2008 was we both started going to twelve step meetings. If I just said, “the most important thing that happened in 2008 was Delia stopped drinking” it might make more sense to people, but that really isn’t the most important thing that happened. The most important thing for me (and equally important for our relationship) is that when she stopped drinking this time AND started going to meetings, I had to start getting my OWN shit together instead of thinking things were just hard because of her alcoholism. I sort of thought everything was perfect before EXCEPT for her drinking, but the month after she stopped? It totally wasn’t perfect, because I had a complete meltdown. Obviously I know *I* am not perfect and I know a lot of the ways I’m an asshole (and will continue to be no matter how hard I sometimes try to stop being), but I really didn’t have a plan or consistently work towards or ask for any help being a better, happier, healthier, nicer person. Working and worrying about other people (what they’re THINKING, what they’re DOING, what they EXPECT from me, how I think they’re so fucking WRONG/fucked up, etc.) were my top priorities. I didn’t really accept that me being a crazy asshole was/is my absolute biggest problem.

They seem like a simple concepts to apply to life — just worry about your OWN shit, don’t try to control anyone/thing except yourself — but no matter how much I know those things on a rational level, applying them on a daily basis is a struggle and going to meetings helps me with that in a way nothing else ever has before.

Getting back on Ritalin has helped a lot, too. Another thing that’s helping is making exercising a priority — on December 5th I moved “exercising” to the top of my to-do list. I’ve exercised 21 days out of the past 29 (walking, dancing, stretching, DDRing, pilates, etc.). I need to keep reminding myself that my health is a bigger priority than work — that taking care of myself IS my job and the foundation of doing everything else better. And being less of a crazy asshole.

This year when I filed our 2007 taxes (late, in October) I also had to face that we didn’t meet our money goals in 2008; like, our sales were almost exactly the same as in 2007 when my goal was to double it (not as insane as it sounds, especially given our growth rate in years past). It’s not that I’m not thankful — I know that lots of people made LESS money in 2008 than 2007 — but there’s really no excuse for us not to be making more money. Yes, it’s hard. But it’s at the point now where we really NEED to, and that challenge/brink-of-disaster is good for me because it focuses me. I’ve been pushing everything to the sidelines that is not an efficient way of meeting our sales goals and promising myself not to pick those things up again until our goals are met and I can *justify* doing all those extra things and have the *resources* to do them well.

We also tried harder in 2008 to take days off. We didn’t succeed in doing that consistently/regularly, so I should make that a resolution for this year. In general 2008 taught me that I can do more work better by not trying to do so MUCH of it and by working on improving myself.

In between meetings, exercise, Ritalin, fewer goals in my field of vision/better priorities, I felt really good about taking down the 2008 calendar and hanging up 2009. Everything feels like it’s falling into place and I feel more patient about the time that’s taking than I ever have before, and massively excited about the way Delia’s and my relationship with each other is evolving and deepening — our need to spend non-work time with each other and making/hearing music, fucking, laughing, kissing, talking, cleaning house, playing games, etc. is another huge motivator to push other stuff off the table so we can just ENJOY each other.

I am still going to be an asshole in 2009, but I will be a healthier asshole with a more flexible pucker. I know I won’t STOP blowing hot, rank air but I will concentrate on cooling it down and remind myself to focus on cleaning myself up from the inside out to reduce my stench. I will be a more kissable asshole in 2009, and if all goes well perhaps I will be wiping myself with money by the time 2010 rolls around.

Yes, an asshole can dream.