Rant #2,054: A Brand New Me

Welcome to 2018!

2017 is in the rear view mirror, thank goodness, and it went out with the whimper that it deserved in my house.

We celebrated the end of a pretty dismal year by shoveling our sidewalk after a snow that lasted pretty much the entire afternoon.

If you read this column regularly, you know that I hate the snow, and hate shoveling it even more, but I did it myself as the show dissipated. Happily, it was a very fine snow, and it was pretty easy to clean the walks, but nonetheless, it is something that I hate to do.

Later in the day, with that done, we celebrated the end of the year with my parents. We ordered Chinese food from our local Chinese food outlet, and when the order was ready, we picked it up, brought it home, and soon realized that they completely messed up our order.

We had ordered shrimp with lobster sauce for my father, and ribs for me, but neither dish was to be found. We got everything else that we paid for, and these other dishes were left off the bill, so we didn't pay for them, but I know that it was a letdown not having them as part of our meal.

I could have gone back to the Chinese food place and ordered them again, but you know what? I was lazy. I did not want to go out again into the frigid single-digit cold. All I wanted to do was relax.

And we didn't pay for either one according to the bill, so the order taker just messed up, that's all, and we had plenty to eat, so why put myself through that torture?

When that was over, my wife and I watched some movie which I don't remember the name of, which was OK and kept me going, and when that was over, she conked out, and I soldiered on, watching the Knicks win a road game for only the third time this season, and then prepared to do what I always do, watch the ball drop and then watch an episode or two of "The Honeymooners" before retiring to my first sleep of the new year.

Well, something got messed up with that too, as for the first time that I can remember, I missed the ball drop, evidently falling asleep a few minutes before the big happening and waking up with Ryan Seacrest saying something like, "Well, the ball drop is history ... ," or something to that effect as I woke up out of my 20 minute nap that spanned two years, the end of one year and the beginning of another.

Reports are that other than Mariah Carey's exposed phony bosom, I didn't miss much of anything (that is what I read on Facebook, I did not make that comment up).

Yesterday, we visited my sister for a belated Hanukkah get together (don't ask), found out my daughter had food poisoning, and conked out at 8:30 p.m.

So today is the second day of the year, the first working day of the year, and it is a brand new me, looking forward to a year which I have to believe, and of which I have convinced myself, has to be better than last year was.

I don't know if I am going to be correct in my belief, but I am sure going to do everything in my power to make sure that it is a better year.

Right now, going to the morgue that is my work is very unappealing, and I dread the thought of going there for any length of time, not knowing what my future is.

I have to believe that 2018 will change all that, and I will know what my future holds, even if it is a future without a regular job to go to.

Before the new year ended, I learned the plight of three of my former co-workers, and it wasn't pretty. One has only been able to get two part-time jobs--one overnight yet--and the other has not been able to get anything after being out over a year, and applied for disability.

One other starts a new job today, so if I lose my job, it is going to be a crapshoot whether I can get anything, less than anything, or nothing.

So with those odds staring me in the face, I have to plod on, milk my current place of work for everything that I can get out of it, and convince myself that 2018 will be a better year than 2017 was.

It is sort of like self hypnotism, and I hope it works.