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Aw, Dammit, Now I’m All Misty-Eyed

It was a weekday morning much like this one when I first put fingers to keys and wrote the very first post this weblog would see. In it, I explained a bit about what I had in mind for the site — my hopes, my plans, and my hopelessly short attention span. That was one full year ago today.

In many ways, not much has changed around here. I still have big plans — and too little time to get to them. I still sprinkle ridiculous words like ‘snootful’ and ‘backwards-ass’ and ‘parentheseses’ liberally throughout my entries. And, of course, I still lose my train of thought at the drop of —

(Hey, something weird just hit me. I’m usually really good at identifying voices — commercial voiceovers, documentary announcers, cartoon characters, and the like. But I just figured out, after many dozens of episodes, that King of the Hill‘s Bill Dauterive is none other than one of my favorite characters, the inimitable Jimmy James of News Radio fame. Not to mention Milton from the movie Office Space. I don’t know how I missed it for so long.

No, I don’t know what the hell that has to do with anything. Look, these are parentheses, all right? I can talk about anything I want to in here. That’s what they’re here for, you know.

And no, I don’t really know what ‘inimitable‘ means. Shaddup.)

As I was saying, some things never seem to change around here. I dunno — maybe the meds and the support groups and the primal scream therapy aren’t working. But not everything has stayed the same since this baby’s inception. For one thing, this isn’t BlogSpot anymore, Toto. After a few months in the original digs, WTHWI? up and moved house to a private server, and the domain you’re soaking in right now. Besides that, there’s now just a dozen shy of 500 posts here, plus another 100-plus ‘100 Things’ entries, more than twenty standup comedy sets, and lord knows how many total words. (And how many parentheses. But now there’s another set. Woo hoo!)

Meanwhile, my particular set of circumstances have changed a bit, too. Oh, the important things have stayed pretty stable — my wife hasn’t thrown up her hands and left me yet, and we’ve still got our house, and the faithful family pooch. But the job I had when I started blogging is but a distant memory — I got laid off before my one-month online anniversary, and spent the next quarter looking for another spot. Hell, I’m not even the ‘new guy’ at my job any more — now I’ve got people washing my car for a change. Oh, baby.

More importantly, though, I’ve met — or at least ‘met’ — some of the coolest and most interesting people imaginable in the past year. Bloggers, readers, random bypassers — I’ve traded emails with all of them, and learned some pretty amazing things from everyone I’ve come in contact with.

(Yeah, ya grammar Nazis, I know it’s ‘with whom I’ve come in contact’, or something even more stilted, if that’s frigging possible. Just let it go, would you? It doesn’t even look right. Now get outta here before I dangle a participle where your gerund don’t shine.)

Anyway, it’s been a good year; that’s all I’m really trying to say. And if you’re reading this, then I’ve got you to thank for the magic.

(Unless this is your first time here, of course — if that’s the case, then you’re officially part of the magic of the second year. You’ll get your heartfelt thanks in due time. Wait your turn, there, Skippy.

Unless, of course, you’re sick of all this and you’re gonna stop reading now and never come back, in which case you’re not really helping anybody. Poopyhead.

Ah, but you’re bluffing, it seems, because you’re still reading. Your mouth says, ‘ew! ew! get it away!‘. But your eyes keep reading. Oh, yeah — I gotcha now.)

So, I suppose the point is simply, thanks. Thanks for stopping by, and for reading, and — if you’ve been so kind — for emailing or commenting to let me know what you think. Year number one at WTHWI? has been a blast, folks; I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble we get into together over the next twelve months. You guys rock!