Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas, and good riddance to 2009

Merry Christmas all. I hope that this has been a good year for you. Unfortunately, 2009 has not really been a good year for a lot of people. Professionally, its been pretty good for me. Halo 3: ODST did really well, the Bungie Store is finally back, Reach is well underway, etc. Other events, however, have made this a generally a shitty year. First, my wife gets laid off from Expedia in some mass layoffs they did. This causes us to have to drop down to one car, which was at times irritating. Then we went through a series of Jarrah getting "almost hired" for various jobs, only to find out the company went with an internal person so they didn't have to add new headcount. Then one of our Great Danes becomes very ill, and after a harrowing night in the vet hospital, a few days of recovery, and a huge vet bill, he's okay. Of course, now he has a $150/month injection to keep him from getting sick again.

Things just sucked more after that - my paternal Grandfather died - and while he had been sick for a while, I wasn't able to get back east to the funeral, which really sucked. And then in October, my maternal Grandmother died - at least I was able to go to that funeral.

Finally in November things began looking up. Jarrah got hired at a great company, I got a new car. Jarrah just stabled her new horse that she got as a gift. After a nice end of year vacation, we'll hit 2010 ready for a good year. This will, with a bit of luck, include a new house for me and my family.

Hopefully everyone has a better year than 2009.

9 comments:

Cryptic257 said...
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Cryptic257 said...

Hey Tom. This is Sean, also known as Cryptic from Bungie.net. I'm sorry to hear about your family and your dog. This year has been hard for me as well. My aunt and uncle lost their house. My grandmother is not getting any better. I'm struggling to make money. I had to take the fall semester off to work full-time.

On a side note, I'll be starting community college next month and am planning to get my GE out of the way. My goal will be to transfer to SDSU or out of state, where I can major in Computer Science.

Glad to hear you got a new ride. What kind of car is it? Anyways, hang in there and keep up the good work on Bnet. Looking forward to Reach and future site updates. I wish you and your family all the best. Let's hope 2010 is better for the both of us. Take care.

:-)

PS: I'm working on a cool thread for the Septagon as well as another project called Bungie Central. I'll let you know when I finish so you can check it out. Later.

Fireskull said...

I'm very sorry to hear that your grandfather and grandmother died. My great grandfather and great grandmother died when I was rather young, but I was old enough to know what happened. I'm happy to hear that your wife got a new job and I hope your enjoying your new ride to the fullest!

Happy New Years and I hope you have a better 2010!

Anonymous said...
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ObiWanStevobi said...

A better year indeed. In 2009, I took a 10% pay cut, and had to take a couple weeks of unpaid leave. My father passed away last year too.

2009 was a rough year for just about everyone. Financially, 2010 is shaping up much better for me. Far too soon what the year will bring, though. Hopefully, some fun playing Reach.

Anonymous said...
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Unknown said...

Hope 2010 has been treating ya better!

This is HALO3syourdaddy from bnet BTW.

I know how you feel with the dog, I have an English springer spaniel and they are known for having issues with their eyes. Needless to say he had this exact problem with one eye last year, and literally 2 weeks after getting everything fixed up, the other eye had the same issue.

2 surgeries and $390 later, my dog couldn't be happier nor healthier. Looking back you know its worth every penny though =)

Anyways I'm going to stop babbling on. Good luck with the new jobs and such, and keep in mind that your work on bnet is greatly appreciated. You do an awesome job ^_^

ObiWanStevobi said...

Update your blog, noob!

Fireskull said...

I second Stevobi's comment!