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.

Our 11-year anniversary happened back in June, but I gave the missus her gift today.  I took her to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta to see “The Sound of Music.”  It’s one of her favorites, and quite frankly, it took a lot of love for me to go see it.

I’ve never liked the movie as it doesn’t hold my interest for long, and the bad part is it’s a looong movie (yeah, I know I can sit through any type of long sci-fi movie …).  Regardless, I really did enjoy the live musical.  The kids in the production really did an excellent job, as did the rest of the cast.  I survived it, and I liked it.

Back home, I’m sitting here in a quiet room.  Our kids are not making a sound, and it’s just me at this moment.  Quite relaxing.

It’s giving me some more time to think about my priorities, etc.  I’ve done that quite a lot today.  I think this past year has proven fruitful in a few areas of my life, but some have almost been utterly demolished.  It’s time to make some changes in those.

I need to completely let go of some feelings I have toward a couple of folks and situations.  All those feelings are doing is making me  cringe and have bitterness, but that’s not healthy.  God calls on us to not be bitter or resentful, but to forgive and love each other.  I’ve neglected that, and things will be much better once I let go.  I’m certainly working on that as I type.

I also need to get our family’s financial future squared away.  I’m going to have to give up some habits to make that happen.  I spend way too much, despite the fact I’ve gotten a lot better at not being so impulsive in purchasing things.

One thing that will help is when I finally finish my second proton pack and sell my first one.  That will put me at ease in a lot of ways.  I just need to get motivated.  I come home after work, and I don’t think about it.  These last three or four weeks have just about sent my stress levels to new heights, so I’ve resorted to sitting down and playing “Batman: Arkham Asylum” for quite a few hours (and I hardly play video games anymore).  It’s been a total brain dump, and it’s what I’ve needed.  However, it’s time to build the pack and get some cash.

I’m really looking forward to this next weekend at Dragon*Con.  Not many of our ALGB guys can make it, but a couple will.  I’m really looking forward to seeing a lot of the GB Fans guys from all over (not to mention Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt again!).  I haven’t seen the majority of them since D*C last year.  I think we’ll have double the amount we did a year ago.  The big event will be the P.K.E. Surge dinner (I have to plug it since I’m on the Surge staff, lol).  After D*C, I’ll have a month off from GB-related events.  Then October hits full-force since so many people think we’re simply a Halloween group.  *Ahem, no*

I guess that’s it for tonight.  Another shameless plug … if you, or anyone you know, need custom voice-over work, check out BrockParker.tv.  I’m always for hire.  :)

Last night was simply amazing!  We had our first “joint operation” with our buddies from the Georgia Ghostbusters.  The Alabama Theatre in Birmingham hosted a screening of “Ghostbusters,” so you know we were going to do everything we could to have a presence there.  Holy smokes, it was better than I could’ve dreamed.

The theatre folks were sincerely the greatest people.  We got there around 4 p.m., and they had already set up two six-foot tables for us to use for silent auctions and our normal table wares.  They accommodated us in every way, and I have to personally thank Brant Beene (the GM) for everything.  Without him this wouldn’t have been the blowout that it was.

Everyone was going to try and be there around 5, and I wasn’t sure who all was coming.  Everyone slowly started to trickle in as we were setting up, and when it was over, we had more than 25 uniformed Ghostbusters roaming around the place.  We had the Hudsons’ big Slimer, and we had Chace’s Ecto-1G parked out front.  Just a massive turnout!  And to top it off, there were more than 500 people that showed up to see the movie!  Yowza!

When it was movie time, the Mighty Wurlitzer and Stuart (the organist) came up out of the floor playing away.  It was gorgeous!  Kevin, Bo and I were off to the side of the stage waiting.  When Stuart finished the first song, he announced us, and we walked out.  That place was packed!  I welcomed everyone and told a little about the AL and GA groups.

We left, and it was movie time!  Seeing “Ghostbusters” again on the big screen was simple awesome!  I hadn’t seen it in a theatre since its original release in 1984.  The crowd was into it.  And I mean INTO it.  They laughed, they sang along, cheered LOUDLY when both the Ecto and Winston appeared on-screen the first time and even quoted some of the most famous lines.  These folks were hardcore GB fans.

At the end, Bo, Jud, David and Sean came out covered in shaving cream (marshmallow).  They got a huge pop from the crowd!  We all posed for photos during the night, met a lot of folks that couldn’t believe there is such a large group like ours in the state and got a handful of new members.

I couldn’t have been happier if I tried.  My heart was so full of joy because this is what we’re about.  We’re about the charities and the communities, and a lot more people now know about us.

I have to personally thank Brian Shirley of GeekTyrant for coming out and covering this for his site.  This will be seen by untold thousands, if not more than a million people.  Also thanks so much to Chace, Mitchell, Jaime, Glenda, Liz and Steve for crossing state lines to be a part of this.  It’s our turn to come to Georgia, so name the time and place!

Photo galleries of last night’s GB-fest are here and here.

While the night couldn’t have been better, I have sad news this afternoon.  I had initially spoken with former GM Cecil Whitmire about our participation in the movie screening earlier in the summer.  It wasn’t until I talked to Brant a couple of weeks ago that I learned Cecil was very sick.  Last night, Dan (the historian in the lobby) told me Cecil was on his deathbed, and I’m sad to say he passed away this morning.

Please keep Cecil’s family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.  The Alabama Ghostbusters send our condolences.