And so another year closes to an end. With it comes the usual wrap-ups and so longs and farewells and so here's mine. Now, the crazy thing about this year is that I can acutally say it was a good year. Which I hardly ever say because it's been awhile since it was a good year and because I'm afraid that saying something was a good year will lead to horrible, horrible things.

We shall see.

Other than a few detours here or there, everything was good. Occasionally great and somtimes completely blah, but still kind of good. And a lot of things happened in it: went to Austria & Germany, got written up in the Examiner, got a raise, won fantasy football, reconnected with some old friends, discovered I loved playing volleyball. But actually, as I look back at the past year, the coolest thing that happened was my getting the foul ball at the Phillies game.

I know, weird, huh.

See the thing is that while all the rest of it was cool, it was all things I had some level of control over and something I worked for. Going to Europe, for instance, was a matter of waiting on friends to make their plans and then pressing a few buttons on a computer et viola. Getting the foul ball was the one completely random, totally cool thing to happen.

Which is why it was so cool.

That and the fact it took me about 36 years of my life to get one of those suckers and I know plenty of people who've been to more games and lived more years than I have without getting one.