Nothing will last forever.

Before I lose the motivation and time to do so, I figured I'd better post a little farewell to 2008. It was an eventful year, not only personally, but culturally as well.
In 2008 we saw a female candidate that had a serious shot at becoming vice president, however disastrous and vomit-inducing the choice may have been. (Thank you, America, for not making me live out the next four years awash in her idiocy.) Our economy has continued to flounder, businesses are closing not only at home, but abroad. The rate of joblessness has skyrocketed. The real estate world has continued to crumble. Automakers needed bailing out. Wall Street needed bailing out. Everyone needed bailing out. Scandal after scandal has come to light, including our own governor being brought down by a newsman's wet dream of prostitution and betrayal. Stars have not just fallen from grace but crashed and burned onto the screens of our televisions. But as tumultuous as 2008 may have seemed, this country did something that surprised even the most skeptical nonbelievers. This year, we saw this country rise up and come together to elect the first black president with the hope that he can actually make the long-awaited change we crave in Washington. To use a trite quote: "It's been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gon' come. Oh yes it will."
The upcoming year has the possibility of being one of the most historical in a very long time, whether for the good or bad. In January an estimated 1 to 2 million people (depending on what projection you read) will gather in Washington D.C. to be a part of Barack Obama's inauguration. I will be among those and though I didn't win the regional "lottery" for tickets, I will happily stand in whatever spot I can get to be a part of history. Americans made a monumental choice on Nov. 4 and the hopeful energy still teeming from that decision is palpable.
Though times in recent months have seemed dire, I still have hope that this is not the end and that brighter skies are just around the bend. I may be fooling myself by putting my faith in something that seems unreachable or at least very far off, but I have to. And as cheesy as it sounds, I have faith in the people of this country. I have faith that we will not be discouraged so easily, and that perhaps the imperfect situations we are forced into may will us into waking up and demanding a better life. As I type this I can't shake the feeling that it sounds like the idealistic visions of a naive 20-something, but maybe that's what we need. Maybe in 2009 we need to wash ourselves of the dirt that has tainted our dreams and the baggage of cynicism that has weighed down our hopes. Or maybe I'm just feeling unusually hopeful this evening. Either way, I am excited to see what the coming year will bring. Nothing is expected and anything is possible.

Tea, lager and laughs.

Never in my life could I ever have imagined that I would be erecting my Christmas tree with two Englishmen while drinking tea and listening to Wham's "Last Christmas," but there we were. Last night Kev and Ben assisted me in putting up my (regrettably) plastic tree. Now, because I'm a bad blogger and don't update with as much fervor as I intended when I began this thing, there has been no mention of these two since my travel entry. To make a long story short: The Englishmen were in Cork for about a week looking for work when I arrived. Their plan was to secure jobs, a flat and a new life away from England. After about a week and a half of desperately searching for work, they said bullocks to it and decided to do something crazy with the savings they had left. So, not but a few days after I returned from my trip I received a Facebook message from Ben stating that he and Kev were in Dublin airport waiting to board a plane for San Francisco. I urgently suggested that they, at some stage, come and see me in sunny C-town. After about a month or so in California and a hedonistic stop in Vegas, they arrived at Hancock International on Nov. 15.
Since then, we've spent many a night swimming in lager and chatting endlessly about the differences between our cultures. I've introduced them to my co-workers and my "home" friends, and both groups have given rave reviews of the duo. On Thanksgiving I took on the epic task of preparing my mother's traditional meal for the first time. Considering they'd never experienced a Thanksgiving, I thought it only proper to prepare for them what I've had every year of my life. It came out almost as good as mum's and I think they enjoyed it. They asked me exactly what Thanksgiving meant and why we celebrated it as a nation. After bumbling through an answer about Pilgrims and Indians and Columbus, I sheepishly looked it up on Wikipedia (yes Steph, Wikipedia) and gave them a semi-appropriate answer. The bottom line as far as tradition goes, I said, was that we were to eat a gut-busting amount of food and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.. both of which we succeeded in doing. After the meal, we settled in for a few episodes of the British version of The Office. The blending of cultures was beautiful. Haha.
So, now they're here until Dec. 14. I intend to take them to Niagara Falls on Saturday if the weather cooperates... or even if not, I think I'm going to try to make the journey regardless. They will be able to say they went to Canada too, maybe that's an accomplishment in England... here it's merely a burden. I hope to give a full and proper reflective entry after they've departed, but I wanted to try and get down some of the stuff I know I'm going to forget. It's funny that, no matter what the situation, once you get into a routine, things seem to be so normal and mundane even though the experience is anything but. Hopefully the feeling of this experience will remain, even if the details have gone.