2006 Recap aka Enough Already

Warning: The following blog contains inappropriate language, sappy memories, emotional pandering, stupid abscure in-jokes and has been writen before I drank my morning green tea. Read at your own risk.


So let me preface this with the thought that 2006-2007 wishes and promises and ect. Are sort of lame. People reaffirm their dreams, hopes and ambitions in a drunken haze on New Years and then promptly send them to the background come the next week. Whatever. So here is my compromise; I will expound a diatribe of the year just hence through the contoured lens that is yours truly, and I shall fill it to bursting with emotion, memories and hope. I will however stave off the vice of “promises and goals for the new year” which similar editorials tend to embrace. Let us now embark from the harbor and sound the fog horn; this one is about to get going.

So 2007. Sucks to be you 2007, simply because you have a shit ton to live up to. I will not lie, 2006 has been a banner year for Rick Inc. This is mainly because it is the year we “went international with it.” Aside from a haphazard cannon ball run into Canada a few years ago, I have never been outside the country. I mean Canada for one day doesn’t really seem to count if you ask me. I’m not even sure if I was sober for most of it. I didn’t even have a passport. I mean c’mon.

This year was different though. If I remember correctly (which I probably don’t, I am thinking back 2 years, not 1 probably, I will correct this once back home…) I rang it in with the O Side squad last year in Ocean Side complete with Corbo nuttiness and everyone wasted. I think. I have to look back into my picture archive, which is absent at the moment. But in either event 2006 ended in Jersey with Corbo, Brad, Way, Brick, Sarah and a whole host of others. It was good. Granted I was sick and pounding OJ and water, instead of beer and Jack Daniels, but who cares? Good people make the night, not drinks. Though the pimp ass Corbo Sempai whipping out the Dom is always makes for a nice treat.

But anyway, this year was sort of marked by my travels. I did a lot of moving around, seeing different people, and growing. I flew into DC to see Merri, where I found out I got into the Jet Program. I was in NYC a crap load of times with various members of the Core 4. I went to Europe with Craig for 2 weeks and saw London, Paris, Interlaken, Munich, and Prague. At the end of July I flew to Japan, and in December I flew to San Fran, then to New York again to ring in the New Year, only to find myself typing again at my cluttered desk in Sanwa, Japan. I know many of us are from different walks of life; to some of us international travel is something that has become second nature and barely noticable. For some of us just getting out of America seems like a fantasy in and of itself. For me it was the later, and I am really happy about finally doing it.

Other things happened this year. I put some solid nails in coffins with old relationships. I discovered new relationships and new people I never thought I would. 1 year ago if you told me I’d be sitting in the back of a small go-cart sized car blazing down the streets of a small farm town in Japan while listening as two African dudes chant along with tribal music from their home land I would probably just look at you weird or ask you to stop smoking shit before you talk to me. Still, this has become my reality. It is not uncommon for me to be in a room with people from France, Scotland, England, Canada, Germany, Japan and various places in the states arguing over “should Dan pour cereal in is mouth, then milk, then do some cartwheels and see how it tastes?”

This year is the first time where I have truly lived on my own as well. I have my own apartment here in Japan, and aside from it being a mess sometimes, I get by. I pay rent, conserve water, separate trash and do my own laundry. Again, for some of you this has been the norm since you left for college, but for me it was a first doing these all on my own, which is pretty cool. I really truly feel in control of every aspect of my life now. It’s an odd power over one’s self that leads to the actualization of the idea that I can in fact do anything…….

Wear a Santa Clause/Easter Bunny/Hippie costume to work? Check. Assist Japanese cheerleaders in a cheer in front of hundreds of people? Check. Bike up the Swiss Alps? Check. Eat ramen and Gyudon back to back nights? Check. Spend a whole day cleaning? Check. Spend an entire day playing Final Fantasy? Check. Jump off the fourth floor of a building into a chute? Check. Eat French food in an open air café facing the Arc De Triumph? Check. Have multi-millionaires hang on my every word? Check. Get wasted with a grand master of an ancient martial art after training under him? Check. Doing a pub crawl with two Canadian twins, one of which plays professional hockey, only to see them bloodied up the next morning in a German laundry-o-mat? Check. Chase a girl from a boat side hostel in Prague to an Airport in San Francisco? Check. Watch as friends become mothers, fathers, husbands, wives and fiancés? Check. Watch as my friends succeed, fail, strive, cry, laugh, fight, help, hurt, find love and get heart broken all while being there with them and experiencing all of the above? Check.

These are only a small sample of things I can conjure at the moment. It’s a bunch of pieces to the story that has made up this last year, and it was a sweet one. I’m glad I wrote a good portion of it down too, because it’s going to make a hell of a read when I am somewhere older wondering where all the time went. It’s hard to imagine that in the space of 365 days the world as you know it can change dramatically without the assistance of a war, a famine or any of the like. Its mind boggling to think that it all happened with steps I made in the sand of this world.

It would also be total bull shit if I said I did any of it alone. Along the way family, friends, co-workers, rivals, and random individuals helped me on this path. I’d have never made it through Europe, nor do I think I would have gone without Craig. I might have given up my dream of it if wasn’t for the inspiration from Karen and the kind words of Nick and Brad. All of my music would suck instead of just half and my weekends would have been pointless without Tom, Bob and Mike. How could I be brave enough to go on my own and have the confidence, pride and smarts to make it happen without my parents? I couldn’t laugh through the tough days without mom and I couldn’t walk nearly as tall without watching my dad do it every day. How could I feel wise without a younger sister to advise and torture? How could I distill it all and reminisce without Coach and Kirk and Chaz-bot? Who would read all of my stupid short stories if it weren’t for those poor people at Maharam? Who would read this if it weren’t for you?

There are too many names and too many people to even try to list, but thank you. I’m sure if your reading this then you and I probably had a moment somewhere in the last 365 days too. Thanks for that, because it’s made the journey all the more interesting.
Thanks to any of you reading this, because you made these little crazy moments in my life worth writing about. Also thank you pre-emptively, because I know we are going to have some fun times in the future too.
So thank you 2006 for being totally kick ass. Maybe you had a good year too. Maybe yours sucked the big one, and it got baloomped all over. Anyway it went I want you to join me in kicking 2007’s ass. Who knows where we are going to go. Who knows who we are going to meet? Who knows the new things we are going to do. Jeez I am writing this crap and I am getting excited. I feel like it’s the upbeat ending monologue to a season finale of the Rick Show, where all sorts of plot threads get finished up and some are just starting. It doesn’t matter though because there is definitely going to be a season two. So lets end this sappy mess right here, because I think you get the gist. (Gist reminds me of the word zeitgeist, because that word is fun and sexy to use in a sentence. Impress your friends with this new word!) So yeah, tune in next time for the next exciting episode of Rick. I promise there will be plenty of fan service.