Inevitable 2012 wrap-up randomocity

Okay, here are my thoughts about the year that is about to come to an end. C'mon, you knew this was coming!

• While I was not surprised to see Obama win re-election I still breathed a sigh of relief when the election was called for him by all the networks. A GOP win would have created a nightmare that would not end for decades. So, I slept easier that night. Now, to retake the House . . .
• I didn't record a single song all year. I've devoted most of my creative energy towards prose and screenplay writing. I have attempted a few musical projects but my heart just wasn't in it.
• I said goodbye to my dog, Atari. I inherited him from my best friend, who couldn't keep him anymore. It had been years since I'd had a pet of any kind, even longer since I'd had a dog (I'd always had cats before) and having him in my life changed everything. He was more than my dog--he was my best friend, my child, my constant and loving companion. I still don't know how I made it though the months following his death. Even now I still feel the pain. Atari--I miss you so much, my big silly mutt.
• I also said goodbye to Savannah, after almost 25 years, when the company I work for closed the office there, and opened a new one in Douglasville. I'd always said I'd never live around Atlanta and now, here I am, living around Atlanta. Never say what you'll never do . . .
• My beautiful, perfect, and talented goddaughter, Talyan, continues to add to her acting resume, after establishing a recurring character on the TV show Two and a Half Men (Ava), appearing in a Samsung commercial that got pretty heavy airtime, and now in a play, Land of the Astronauts, in LA. Nothing to do with me, actually, but I'm very proud of her.
• I've started to write and eventually shelved two novels this year. While that sounds like failure it's a learning experience, and I'll eventually resume working on them.
• I started reading fiction again, after sticking strictly to nonfiction for years.
• I wrote a screenplay I'm pretty happy with--Seer II--which is, of course, a sequel to another screenplay I wrote a while back that I'm also happy with, Seer. Seer II is not officially done--I'm waiting on some notes on it from a friend of mine, and there are a couple of things I may change during a rewrite, but the major work on it has been done.
• I turned 50 just a few days ago. Half a frelling century. Where did it go? And what did I do with it?
• While life isn't great, it's not bad, at the moment, anyway. I miss seeing my goddaughter (though Skype is a reasonable substitute to physical proximity, I guess), and I miss seeing her mom, who is my best friend, though I do expect they'll be making a trip in this direction at some point in the coming year. I'm still getting used to this new city, this bizarre mix of the metropolitan and the rural. I'm still learning, cultivating, considering, and banging away. I guess that's a Good Thing.

Don't worry, 2012, you haven't heard the last of me yet! Some unsolicited advice will be coming up in the official year-end wrap up post, out as soon as I finish thinking it over!