First off, I apologize for the title.  It’s how I feel, though.

Secondly, 2010 will always be a year I put down in my “strongly dislike” column.  Sure, it had its good moments, but I would say that was only 25 percent of the year.

Let me break down the good stuff first:

Family

My wife and kids have remained pretty healthy this year.  Amy and I have grown closer, especially at the end of the year. She has been a calming and solid force throughout some tough times right now.

Sports

My awesome alma mater kicked off the year by beating the snot out of U of Texas for the national championship.  My employer ended the year #1 and will play for the national championship in January.  Both teams produced back-to-back Heisman winners, so that makes my home state look pretty sweet all around.

Ghostbusters

The Alabama Ghostbusters literally exploded with memberships and charity donations.  We did a TON of events and simply had a great year altogether.  I’ve made a lot of great friends in the group.

I got to see Tom Merrit and Veronica Belmont again at Dragon*Con.  Always a highlight of my year!  Plus, tons of GBs from around the country came and made it an awesome experience again!  We are co-hosting PKE Surge next year with our Georgia Ghostbusters family, as well as other awesome GB fans.  It should be an absolute blast!

I finally got to hang out with Ernie Hudson (“Winston”)!  We ate dinner with him, and I got to spend a lot of time with him.  He really is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.

Thank you, Mattel, for giving us awesome GB toys (despite you draining my wallet).

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Before heading to bed, I’d like to toss a couple of things at you, if you don’t mind.  The Alabama Ghostbusters are holding a Thanksgiving food drive this Saturday in Hoover.  You can find all the details at http://charity.alabamagb.com.  We’ll be there in support of the United Way of Central Alabama.  Please come out and help us feed those less fortunate for Thanksgiving.

Also, we’re still raising money for our own Ectomobile.  We have a spectacular piece up for auction that will hopefully put us at our goal.  It’s a stained glass art piece entitled “Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good!”  You can check out more about it here, or go straight to the auction here.  It ends Saturday, November 27 at 7 p.m. CT.

*Blows dust off blog*

“… Hi.” – The Joker upon seeing Harvey Dent in the hospital in The Dark Knight

Been a little while, right?  Life has been busier than ever.  Working 60+ hours a week is taking its toll, but it’s a necessity.

I have all next week off for Thanksgiving, at least from one of my jobs.  That will be nice to sleep in all week.  I’ll still do some work from home because we’re on a tight deadline for the website rollover.  I’d like to get it done so I don’t have to work through the Christmas break.  I’m so close I can taste it.

On top of work, some medical issues have come up for me.  I don’t want to get into it on here, but please keep me in your prayers.  Nothing overly major at the moment, but they could progress into something much worse if I don’t work on them.

I’m so ready for some time off.  I always seem to reach this point every November.  I’m ready to take a breather from everything extracurricular, too.  The first weekend in December will be my last for those things until late January.

I thought I had a lot more to say, but apparently I don’t.  I’ll end on this note:  The Alabama Ghostbusters will be raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for a few months.  My Montgomery team needs $150, so I ask you please give a little if you can: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/ALCWalkEvents?team_id=223209&pg=team&fr_id=15983

Time for bed.  Another extremely long day is around the corner.  Much love and peace to you.

We at Alabama Ghostbusters are working on a major project that will greatly benefit our charity appearances, but we need your help. If you are willing to donate money, time or services to achieve this goal, please send me an e-mail.

I can’t go public with it yet, but I can give you the details if you are willing to help us out.

If  there is one thing I’ve learned over the last few months, it’s that Southeastern Conference football and friends from rival schools don’t mix too well in my social media universe.  In fact, it’s causing my feelings about some people to change, specifically how I behave around them.

I’ve got a couple of really good friends that I don’t talk to, or a lot around anymore.  There have been so many things said on Facebook and Twitter that strike my heartstrings in such a way that I’ve lost the desire to communicate with them face-to-face.  I’m not talking about just from them.  I’ve done my fair share back to them, so it’s both of our faults.

I’ve blocked several people from my Twitter list, and I’ve closed off my Facebook status updates to countless people.  I’ve also trimmed my news feed back from seeing anything they have to say.  They’ve done the same to me, but I keep them as my “FB friends” instead of outright deleting to show them I’m not wanting to completely shut them out of my life.

I feel it’s a survival mode.  Not to save my life or theirs, but to try and salvage real life, real world friendships.  I couldn’t even look or talk to a couple of people in church today because it’s gotten so bad.

That is absolutely pathetic, and it’s bothering me that we’ve let status updates, tweets and football rivalries get in the way of being good friends.  There is so much more to life than this, but living in my state college football is practically a second religion.  It literally tears families and friends apart, and it has effectively started that trend in my own life.

What makes it so much worse for me is I graduated from one school and work for its chief rival.  I love both of these places dearly, and it absolutely tears me in half when I hear either side rip the other.

I know I’m making it all too personal for no good reason.  This rivalry was here long before me, and it will be here long after.  However, it’s making me miserable while I’m on this earth.  I love my alma mater, and I wouldn’t trade anything for my job and where I work.  I chose both these places, and they chose me.

I just wish I could sort out all these nasty feelings I’m getting toward people on either side.  It’s going to take a lot of prayer and time to heal these wounds.  This is not what I wanted my social media life to become.