2006 was a whirlwind year. It was made more complicated by the fact that Cupertino Hexachrome Fruit did the transition to Intel products that year, meaning that their entire product line was turned over in 12 months – which makes life complicated when your job is managing a large inventory of said product. It was also the year I moved from the workbench to an office, and had a legit desk job for the only time in my life – that is to say, my job took place at my desk rather than everyone else’s. It was fun, it was exciting, it was in many ways the high-water mark of my Silicon Valley career, and at the end of it all I got to spend Christmas here rather than in the ancestral lands. And I even finished the year with a new automobile for the first time in 13 years, complete with the return of Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff to my Sunday afternoon ridearounds.
But.
Something was wrong, something was missing, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Ultimately, that was when I curtailed my previous primary online presence in an attempt to get out and build a real-world social life. It didn’t work out quite like I’d planned, despite my best efforts – the attempts to find another Irish pub in the style of the 4Ps failed miserably, although I did find a couple of drinking establishments that don’t get nearly enough run.
I think what I realized at the end of 2006 was that although I had finally learned a year earlier “I’m not the person I was,” I hadn’t made any headway toward figuring out “well who am I now” – which led to all manner of oddities. I changed jobs, there was an abortive run at a community-college programming course, there was an abortive stint with an a cappella choir, there was RCIA right up until two days before I would have been required to produce a sponsor and start the formal process, there was a two-week trip to England and France, there was an attempt at regular walking around the neighborhood for exercise and head-clearing, and I think I may have even tried giving up caffeine for Lent. Nothing worked, and a slew of health problems and family issues all piled up to make 2007 miserable right up until New Year’s Eve.
2006 was a good year, and a good Christmas all things considered, but I don’t think I appreciated it until the following year turned to shit. I just remember everything feeling crisp and cold and quiet. Right now, I could totally go for that.