Looking back

Well, I'm still fighting off the last remnants of the Death Flu, but things are getting better. I finally got some antibiotics yesterday, and can keep food down for the first time in a week. Things ought to be truly back to normal in another week or so, I'm guessing. It would be sooner than that if it weren't for my school's aforementioned habit of keeping the windows and doors open all the time when it can't be more than 10 degrees (low 50s in Farenheit) outside! But I'm getting there.

So, with New Year's Eve suddenly upon us, what do you have to say about 2004? What were the good and bad points of the year?

I'll start. By just about any measure, 2004 was the best year I've had in quite a while. Here's why...
THE GOOD
After two years, I finally escaped from a nightmarish work situation and from increasingly stifling DC.
I realized a dream I'd had for years of working overseas, and have loved nearly every minute of it.
However accidentally, that escape coincided with the election of a bunch of thugs back home whose rule I'd prefer not to live under anyway. (Anyone who is thinking of criticizing me for running away from my country when it needs me - come back when you have spent the better part of a decade working for progressive causes, usually at a much lower salary than you could otherwise have expected to make! I did my part, and I've earned the right to try something new - especially something where my efforts are rewarded instead of ignored and abused.)
I've had my loved one here with me since August, after a year and a half of living thousands of miles apart.
I got all the help I needed with my grad school applications, and got a lucky break or two on things like the GRE scores.
Thanks to a variety of circumstances over here, I lost that weight I'd been trying to get rid of for a few years.

THE BAD
I do miss central heating at a time like this!
Applying to schools is demoralizing by nature, and I had hoped last time that I was done with that part of my life.
If the back-to-school plans don't work out, finding a job back home won't be any easier next year.
The elections really were a disaster from where I stand.

So, on balance, it's been a great year. Here's hoping it keeps up in '05! Everyone feel free to add your own good and bad in the comments.