Another year come and gone. 2004 was a GOOD year for me. A new job, a new apartment, a new life. The love of a wonderful woman. There's been some lows.. my mom's health is, generally, abyssmal, my brother is a self-important little jerk and I probably got deeper into debt this year. But all in all, 2004 was a good year.

So once again, let's look back at...

2004 In Review

I spent New Year Eve of 2004 with many friends at Maureen and John (blackfelicula and mechanchaos) with the Brain. It was a great deal of fun. We hung out, chatted, played good games and just enjoyed each other's companies until Kristen and I left because Kristen couldn’t keep her eyes anymore.

NASA lands Spirit on Mars.

As a surprise, the entire Brain gets together in Batavia to celebrate Kristen’s birthday at a Crapplebee’s. The food was expensive and not that great, but the company was nice. :)

I traveled to Philadelphia for an interview with Jacques Whitford on Thursday January 22nd. We all know how THIS turned out.

Meet up with dustkitten, marzitash and fenix137. We meet up at a local mall, eat food, wander for a little bit and then they go home. Good times.

Janet Jackson bares a nipple in the Superbowl halftime show due to a "Wardrobe Malfunction"

Head off to Geneseo with Kristen, meet Ken and Matt to be part of Running GAGG (Geneseo Area Gaming Con). Played Paranoia. Won Chez Greek and Chez Geek 2. It was a good time :D

Phone Interview, on February 13, with PBS&J, kicked total ass on the phone interview.

Valentine’s day came – and I had a valentine! I don't remember what we did, but I remember it was romantic.

Fly down to BWI, on February 19, and have an interview (eventually – after they realize I’m actually there :o ) with Mike, Joe and Bill. The interview went well. Well enough that when I got home, there was a phone call waiting for me from HR telling me congratulations, there were some hoops to jump, but I was in.

I finally get the call on February 27th. I’m hired. I have three weeks to put my affairs in order and get my ass down to Maryland.

Martha Stewart is convicted for perjury.

My mom goes to the doctor, in early march (just in time for my goodbye party) and tells me she’s got a major infection and needs to be on an IV again.

My father offers to finance a newer car for me. I end up with a 2001 Ford Taurus (very much like my old Mercury Taurus)

"Spain's 9/11" - Terrorists attack four commuter trains in Madrid, killing nearly 200 people and leading towards Spain pulling out of the war on terrorism.

Goodbye Buffalo party in Buffalo. Jen, Robby, John, Maureen, John, Kristen, Dawn and Oli all get together in Buffalo and hang out at UB all day playing fun games (Need to get Beth-humped with words. Need to.) – Good times, only slightly marred by the fact that when I get home to help my mom with IV at night, we put the IV in wrong and it pumps blood into the tubes instead of medicine out of the tubes.

Drive down to Maryland on March 15th. My first of many of these long winding drives.

Come back up that weekend, to be a part of Cousin Freddie's and Ellen's reception, in Buffalo. It was really nice and the entire Perlstein family (with dates) were there.

Officially start working for PBS&J on March 22nd

Move into my new apartment. Just me and a car load of stuff.

My first night in my new apartment, the upstairs neighbor had their music on too fucking loud. I couldn’t sleep (not that I was comfortable in my new apartment without my stuff and on an air mattress). Eventually I go upstairs to ask the neighbor to turn his music down. He comes out with a gun. He tells me he thought I was a robber (and I still sneer, because of course robbers KNOCK ON YOUR DOOR).

Officially said goodbye to Chaotic. I hadn't been to Chaotic in a long time. Came back the first week at the apartment and realized that it just didn't feel like home anymore. I love the people I befriended there, but the actual place itself is... meaningless now.

Kristen loses her midnight shift job the weekend I was coming home to get my stuff. Probably one of those blessings in disguise.

My stuff and kitties are all moved in. It was relatively painless, but I guess I think somewhat less of Cousin Freddie now after watching him yell at some poor innocent girl because he didn't get what he wanted from them.

Verizon sucks. I call, asking for DSL. They sign me up, send me out the DSL modem.. and only after I've received the modem "realize" that they can't promise me signal at my address.

I get into the webgame Kingdom of Loathing. Still, officially, into it (I play a few rounds occasionally), but it’s lost it’s luster.

I run up to New Jersey for a weekend to see dustkitten and kareila, leaving my kitties behind. It was fun, but I don’t see myself doing something like that again.

Kristen comes for a weeklong visit to find a job. The moment she used my phone number and address, she got a ton of job offers. She finally finds one working for a company doing help desk with the Department of Treasury. She goes home to pack herself.

I join one of the two PBS&J softball teams: Lookin’ To Score. I so suck! But it was fun! :)

I come home for Yom Kippur. My first time back home since I’d moved out. It was… difficult. Mom was being clingy. Josh was.. is.. being unhelpful.

Prison Abuse scandal erupts when pictures of prisoner abuse at the Abu Gharib prison are shown on television. Pictures I don't think I'll ever get out of my head.

Kristen moved into my apartment. We live together for five months.

Bill Cosby earns my undying respect for telling black parents to stop being knuckleheads and get their kids educated.

Kristen and I drive down to Rochester to clean her apartment up on Columbus Day Weekend. It was, in the end, a generally good event, even though it was especially stressful the day we drove down (what with Kristen’s car being towed and other goodness.)

I come down with a case of.. Vertigo? Terrible dizzy spells that occurred randomly and made doing.. pretty much anything... difficult.

On top of the Vertigo, I really get disgusted with UPS. Read here for a refresher as to why UPS sucks down here.

dustkitten starts her idea for a Music Xchange. I join in when it starts.

Ronald Reagan dies.

Kristen and I spend a year anniversary together. The week before the anniversary, we go see the newest Harry Potter together. The weekend after, we go to Medieval Times together. Twas goodness :)

I start reading Quetionable Content, thanks to a link from mythagon.

I join xiombarg’s “Unsung” campaign. It’s a completely different style of RP than I’m used to, but it’s been neat (when I could get there :p )

Kristen and I go to Virginia and meet up with evil_erato and go to some pagan festival in a store called Esoterica. I’m forcefully reminded why I don’t really consider myself much of a pagan/wiccan anymore.

Kristen and I go home for July 4th. We don’t spend much time together, but it was, generally, a better weekened than our first weekend home. Well, except that Kristen gets stung. I go tubing for my first time ever. On our way home, we stopped by Rochester and hung out with the Brain, it was good in a sort of bittersweet way.

I remix "Dance Machine" into a xx Hardcore Mix xx. It really is (to my ears) cooler than the original. Yay! :)

Go to see Carbon Leaf in concert with Kristen. It was a pretty good concert, but I maintain that they are better in a studio than live. Just my less-than-humble opinion..

Work proclaims that, for five weeks, we all need to be working 50-hour weeks. Ugh. This totally kills my schedule. Thank god for Kristen being around helping me getting certain things done.

Due to the lead of the musical going to the hospital, Josh ends up the lead in “Fiddler on the Roof”, his dream role. I head down and see him and, indeed, he’s rather good.

The 9/11 commission comes out with their report. The report blames U.S. leaders and intelligence gathering communitties and offers strategies so that this does not happen again. Both candidates support the 9/11 commission's suggestions.

Kristen and I see TMBG in concert. I definitely enjoyed them more than Carbon Leaf. Kristen, on the other hand, never really got into the concert.

I start reorganizing my MP3s: taking all artists with more than three mp3s and tossing them into folders and changing the genre to less general titles.

Kristen and I spend my birthday going to Golden Corral and then hanging out at home playing geek games :D

The 2004 Summer Olympics come and go in Athens, Greece. Nothing happens amidst the olympics (Thank god)
I met Rachel, a friend that Kristen had met. She seems cool so far. We haven’t hung out too much yet.

Go to an open meeting of the S.C.A. with Kristen. The people seem cool, but… I don’t think it’s my thing.

Kristen and I go to the Maryland Rennaisance Festival – Much fun!

kareila finds out that she’s pregnant... on alierak’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Robby!

Kristen moves out… and we realize we were both happier and generally living together living together. *sigh* oh well.

And I get into another fight.. with the Washington Post. Because I want to stop receiving the paper and they, apparently, did not wish me to do so. That eventually ends for the best.

Kristen and I go BACK to the Maryland Renn Festival. This time I have plans of things I want to do and see. I have a great time. Kristen, trying to playing good hostess to numerous other friends, doesn’t seem to have as good a time.

The SpaceShipOne, a private space shuttle, went to the edge of earth's atmosphere and back twice in one week.

Afghanistan hosts their first ever democratic elections. Hamid Karzai becomes their first president.

My father stops paying my mom alimony and child support. She’s still pissed about it, though it doesn’t help that he did this just before she got very sick again.

Kristen’s sister, Katie, gets a job up in Washington. It starts out as temporary, but eventually, they buy Katie off and now it is permanent.

The Election happened. Not sure what else to say. We all know how that turned out… sadly.

A few days after the election, an all out assault on the city of Falluja occurs. Sadly, the insurgents continue to escape the U.S. army.

Yassar Arafat dies. Good riddance.

Public schools in Georgia start putting labels on science books mentioning that Evolution is only a theory. Let the mocking continue.

I join Gold’s Gym in an attempt to actually start losing weight again.

My computer goes Kablooey.. or at leas the OS does. Luckily, (and as much as Kristen hates it) the Compaq restore disk does it’s job. Also, my cell phone suddenly dies too.

The same weekend my computer gets FUBAR’ed, I get a call that my mom is in the hospital with an infection. It seems like she got a rather virulent strain of pneumonia while IN The hospital.

Tens of thousands of Ukranians protest their elections, saying it was rigged. Sadly, it appears they were correct. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., it appears that Ohio was having some election issues themselves, issues that won't affect the presidency, but might affect who is governor of the state.

Thanksgiving weekend! Kristen and I had tickets to Buffalo. It was, mostly, a good visit. I spent half the visit in the hospital with mom, who was in good spirits. The other half was in front of mom’s computer, trying to fix it (Josh did a number on it.)

I got an Ipod! Ipod = Love! :D Also, I got my cellular phone replaced with a spiffy new model.

While I get an Ipod (and while mom is in the hospital), Josh convinces mom to let him use her credit card to buy a new laptop. She says OK, but after grandma and me talking to her, because Josh hasn’t been financially responsible, mom agrees to get him to take the computer back. Which we do. In the end, for a brief moment, my entire family (mom, grandma, dad) all put up a unified front against Josh. Josh took his anger out on me (I was the one who took the computer back.). I still haven’t gotten an apology.

After an intensely long trial, Scott Peterson is given the death sentence for the death of his wife and unborn son.

Despite the fact that I’m not doing as well as I should, at work, my bosses stick by me and even offer me a raise (the raise I would have gotten if I’d done better work), because they knew I was trying.

For Christmas, I hang out with tikva, zaph and a girl named Jen. Best. Christmas. Evar!

A Tsunami hits Sri Lanka, Tailand and 8 other nations, killing thousands.

I take and pass my Certified Floodplain Manager Exam. I am now Howard B. Kellick, E.I.T., CFM.

Lots of good computer games this year: Sims 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Zoo Tycoon 2, DDR Extreme.

Best movies of the year are Shrek 2, The Incredibles and I Robot

Best new CDs of the year are TMBG's "The Spine", and Chumbawamba's "Un"

Best new songs of the year... I'll edit this AFTER my "2004 in Review" CD goes out. :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't remember what we did, but I remember it was romantic.

Oh yes you do. You just don't want to mention it publicly. s;)

Couple of date corrections: we moved my stuff out Memorial Day weekend in May, not Columbus day in October. (Move-in was...late September? Or was that Columbus weekend? I'll have to go check...) And while I don't think you actually went back for Passover, Yom Kippor (September) is in the wrong place, so I'm guessing that was something else.

2004 in Review

2004 In Review

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