Retrosepctively speaking

Time magazine announced its Person of the Year. A tie between Bill Gates, Mrs. Bill Gates, and Bono. Last year, I named my own person of the year, as voted by readers. This year…well, keep reading.
I began the year getting violently sick and puking in offpat’s bathroom. Unfortunately, that turned out to set the tone for the whole year. 2005 was all about Pain and Suffering.

You tell people you had your appendix out, and many will say, “Oh yeah, I had that when I was six. Recovered in a week, and got lots of presents.”

You don’t even know.

I don’t know if readers of this blog even get the idea after all I’ve written. My appendix was slowly getting infected over the course of two years. When it finally began to rot, I tried to ride out the worst pain of my life for three days.

April: Surgery, incontinence, pain.
May: Residual surgery and muscle pains. Re-infection from food-borne bacteria. More incontinence. Yeast infection as a side-effect of the antibiotics.
June-July: Fatigue, inability to stand up for long periods of time.
Aug-Nov: Abdominal muscle pains, feeling like I did 200 sit-ups every day. Never, ever knowing when it would all finally go away.

Those of you with significant others, can you imagine going through that ordeal alone?

I don’t dismiss for a second the valued contributions everyone made to keep me afloat. But in surgery, I was alone. At home again, I was alone. Having to depend on my nearest family, I became closer to them, even as some other family members were becoming more distant.

That was the real Pain and Suffering. The metaphorical kind came with MAD COWGIRL, a movie production that dominated my life in the three months prior to hospital. At times, it was hard, but I wouldn’t trade the memories for anything, and the friendships formed will last, I think (not sure Walter Koenig has any idea who I am still). It also led to my directorial and starring debut in the experimental PAIN AND SUFFERING. I had a conversation at a party last night with a director who could not understand why I would want my first film to be something nobody wants to see. Maybe I’m crazy, but the idea of annoying the shit out of people with endless repetition amuses me to no end. Plus it’s the movie I can get made right now.

Other highlights of the year include time spent with my brothers in January, mainly discussing “if him, and him, if they fighted, who would win?” Also the trip to Vancouver for SICK GIRL and the various ROMAN shoots, even if I end up on the cutting room floor in both instances.

I had no romantic life this year, and I suspect the whole incontinence thing didn’t help. I had the Unnamed Screenplay, which may finally be back on track. Very early in the year, we had THE LOST shoot.

I made many new friends this year, including the team at Pererro, where I eventually joined the group blog. When they cite you as a mentor and then invite you, how can you not? David and Julie first met me at a low point in my life, and when someone likes you then, you know it’ll work out.

And my Man of the Year…there is no other choice, and really, he’s also the man of the past three. The man who held down the fort when I was down, because I knew he could and would. The man I have almost literally trusted with my life.

Not to mention the man who will probably put out my most anticipated CD for 2006.

My webmaster #1, the King. Whom I subjected to one of the worst movies of the year earlier tonight.

If you don’t know him, all I can say is it’s your loss.