Bryan W. Alaspa 1End of the year and end of the decade
December 31st 2009 22:59
It’s hard to separate the end of this year and the end of the decade from the things that happened in our world from the things that happened to me personally. I imagine that it is like that for most people. Our personal timelines are always interwoven with the events of the world. In the last decade, however, we have seen some amazing public events. Some of them should be celebrated, while others mourned. That’s true personally as well.
The decade started out great for me. I was working for a dot com and enjoying my job. I was also in love with this Canadian girl named Amanda. I thought I knew where life was going to take me. I would work for this company until she graduated from college and then I would move to Toronto and so would she. We would start our lives together.
In 2001, the job at the dot com was gone. In fact, the entire dot com boom was over. I was working for a benefits consulting company. I loved the work. I even came in on Saturdays…willingly. Then September 11, 2001 happened and the entire world was shaken. Everything changed that morning. I was driving to work and heard the local news station switch to a New York station for reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I was listening, pulling into the parking lot, when the second plane hit.
That year I started getting sick after meals. Day after day, I ate in fear. I spent a lot of time eating chicken broth. I was poked and prodded and probed for months. Finally it was determined I was lactose intolerant and sensitive to gluten and wheat. My life, as far as eating went, was changed.
In January of 2002, the Canadian girl told me she didn’t love me anymore. She told me over the phone. I spent that night in tears. I spent many nights in tears. I shut down completely, emotionally, for the better part of two years. There has been no real “official” girlfriend since then.
That year Green Day’s “American Idiot” came out. I ended 2002 with the stomach flu. I started it with a broken heart and ended it throwing up. Somehow that wrapped up that year nicely.
My brother was married now. He was living in New York. He had witnessed what happened there when the towers fell. We saw how travel changed. We worried about the man who seemed like a moron in the office. We celebrated when the right country was invaded and then worried when the wrong one was.
I bought a townhome. Everyone told me real estate was the best investment.
The war in Iraq was declared “Mission Accomplished.” Yet, soldiers were still dying there.
The war, the right one, in Afghanistan was forgotten.
We were told that arguing against the war was “unpatriotic” and “against the soldiers.” Michael Moore was booed at the Oscars when he railed against Bush and the war.
I grew tired of the townhome. I put the home on the market. It remained there for almost a year.
I lost my job at the world place in the world to work, Aon Consulting. I got a job working in HR, again, at a place called Wolters-Kluwer.
The Chicago White Sox brought baseball glory to Chicago for the first time in a century. The erased the Black Sox scandal and won the World Series. It was the greatest moment in sports, as far as I was concerned.
I spent the night at a haunted mansion. I began writing on a freelance basis. I was soon let go at Wolters-Kluwer, but had enough freelance clients to keep myself afloat for a year. Then I started working at a PR firm.
I wrote a lot of books. I wrote a book about ghosts. I wrote about true crime. I wrote about disasters. I wrote about Illinois. I had book signings and readings and talked on radio stations around the country.
I celebrated when the painfully horrible regime was ended in 2008. I cried when the new President gave his speech. He still has my vote.
I became an uncle. I have learned to see life through the eyes of a child again.
I have published my first book exclusively as an eBook at a time when, for the first time, at Amazon.com, they sold more eBooks than physical books.
I look toward the future with hope, fear, and anxiousness. There is so much still to do and, yet, so little time. I hope we will be allowed to make the journey together.
See you in another decade.
The decade started out great for me. I was working for a dot com and enjoying my job. I was also in love with this Canadian girl named Amanda. I thought I knew where life was going to take me. I would work for this company until she graduated from college and then I would move to Toronto and so would she. We would start our lives together.
In 2001, the job at the dot com was gone. In fact, the entire dot com boom was over. I was working for a benefits consulting company. I loved the work. I even came in on Saturdays…willingly. Then September 11, 2001 happened and the entire world was shaken. Everything changed that morning. I was driving to work and heard the local news station switch to a New York station for reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I was listening, pulling into the parking lot, when the second plane hit.
That year I started getting sick after meals. Day after day, I ate in fear. I spent a lot of time eating chicken broth. I was poked and prodded and probed for months. Finally it was determined I was lactose intolerant and sensitive to gluten and wheat. My life, as far as eating went, was changed.
In January of 2002, the Canadian girl told me she didn’t love me anymore. She told me over the phone. I spent that night in tears. I spent many nights in tears. I shut down completely, emotionally, for the better part of two years. There has been no real “official” girlfriend since then.
That year Green Day’s “American Idiot” came out. I ended 2002 with the stomach flu. I started it with a broken heart and ended it throwing up. Somehow that wrapped up that year nicely.
My brother was married now. He was living in New York. He had witnessed what happened there when the towers fell. We saw how travel changed. We worried about the man who seemed like a moron in the office. We celebrated when the right country was invaded and then worried when the wrong one was.
I bought a townhome. Everyone told me real estate was the best investment.
The war in Iraq was declared “Mission Accomplished.” Yet, soldiers were still dying there.
The war, the right one, in Afghanistan was forgotten.
We were told that arguing against the war was “unpatriotic” and “against the soldiers.” Michael Moore was booed at the Oscars when he railed against Bush and the war.
I grew tired of the townhome. I put the home on the market. It remained there for almost a year.
I lost my job at the world place in the world to work, Aon Consulting. I got a job working in HR, again, at a place called Wolters-Kluwer.
The Chicago White Sox brought baseball glory to Chicago for the first time in a century. The erased the Black Sox scandal and won the World Series. It was the greatest moment in sports, as far as I was concerned.
I spent the night at a haunted mansion. I began writing on a freelance basis. I was soon let go at Wolters-Kluwer, but had enough freelance clients to keep myself afloat for a year. Then I started working at a PR firm.
I wrote a lot of books. I wrote a book about ghosts. I wrote about true crime. I wrote about disasters. I wrote about Illinois. I had book signings and readings and talked on radio stations around the country.
I celebrated when the painfully horrible regime was ended in 2008. I cried when the new President gave his speech. He still has my vote.
I became an uncle. I have learned to see life through the eyes of a child again.
I have published my first book exclusively as an eBook at a time when, for the first time, at Amazon.com, they sold more eBooks than physical books.
I look toward the future with hope, fear, and anxiousness. There is so much still to do and, yet, so little time. I hope we will be allowed to make the journey together.
See you in another decade.
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