It’s time for another in our ongoing series of looks at the good and the bad about my life at the moment…

Downside: I just spent the last of my usable funds at the grocery store and I don’t get paid until Wednesday morning, so if anything bad happens I’m in a world of hurt.

Upside: I have everything I need, right now, to get through ’til Wednesday morning.

Downside: It’s a world of thugs and bums out there tonight. Every two blocks I passed one or a group of shambling guys in dark clothing. They didn’t indicate a desire to eat my brains, so I’m assuming they’re just normal, living bottom-dwellers rather than actual zombies.

Upside: The thugs and bums, even the ones who wanted something from me, were all very polite.

Downside: It’s awfully damned chilly out there, which requires bundling up, which means that after a hike to the store and back I’m cold and sweaty. Bleh.

Upside: The fog is absolutely perfect out there tonight. Seriously. I love a good foggy night. That made the whole trek worthwhile, I tell you.

Downside: It’s already 8:00 and I haven’t actually relaxed or had any kind of fun yet, and bedtime’s only a couple of hours away.

Upside: Tomorrow’s Friday. ‘Nuff said.

As long as nothing goes pear-shaped for the next five days or so, I’ll tentatively call January of 2009 an upside in general. My optimism is sometimes misplaced, but it gets me through the day…

The last few days were better than the couple of weeks which came before. Visiting friends from afar and closer to home, exchanging presents (at long last!), walking on damp but safe sidewalks, enjoying the benefits of public transportation once more, and getting out of the house combined to give me a somewhat more cheerful outlook on life. It wouldn’t have taken much to improve on my headspace from a week ago, of course.

On the downside, it looks like our company’s insurance rates are going up again and I’ll be paying $100 more per month. Say goodbye to anything resembling a discretionary budget, folks! Oh well. I was enjoying life too much as it was, right?

On the upside, I put the new domain into place over at the newly-renamed but otherwise-unchanged anime forum. One of these days, perhaps, I’ll be able to afford some sort of advertising to bring in new faces…

I haven’t written here in the past few weeks because I was waiting until I had something cheerful and/or entertaining to say. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened, but this morning I decided not to continue ignoring the gaping hole that my journal has become.

So, let’s recap: Between coming down sick and the arrival of The Winter Storm Of The Millenium, I’ve done almost nothing. Not even “nothing of note” or “nothing particularly fun,” I mean I’ve done nothing. No dates (other than a couple of  “let’s trudge through the snow for some Arby’s” type of meals out with Kyla, and bless her for helping keep me even remotely sane and upbeat this month), no hanging out with the kids, no holiday get-togethers (other than the one The Roomie hosted at our house), not even going to the office but for a couple of days last week. I’ve barely gone shopping. So many canceled plans litter the month that I don’t even want to think about them or I’ll become truly angry.

Or depressed. Which is what happens when I realize that today would’ve been the last of the Moti-Vent Calendar entries… if I hadn’t thoroughly botched the job of lining up material that I had permission to use. Way to go, me!

And, thanks to Tri-Met still canceling several of the bus routes I depend upon, which is thanks to the snow that isn’t slated to let up until Friday, odds are good that I won’t be going anywhere or doing anything tomorrow, either. My first real sojourn out of the house this week is likely to be… going to work on Friday, while most of our clients have the day off.

Merry blank blanketty blank Christmas to you, too, 2008. Now hurry up and go away so we can see if 2009 will be even the slightest improvement.

Today’s lesson? Always read the fine print.

I don’t know when, or if, I’m going to try another “creative project.” They all seem to go down in flames one way or another.

Have a nice weekend, everybody. I’ll be back… eventually. I suppose.