Today marks the first anniversary of my "freedom".  It's been exactly one year (and an hour or too) since I came out to my parents.

"I just wish it was THIS easy for everyone of us. I guess I'm just lucky that I have a family like mine. We may not be emotionally open amongst ourselves, but we sure stand by each other through thick and thin.

It's IN to be OUT!"

It was one hell of a year:  twists and turns, ups and downs, tops and bottoms.

2006 was not exactly a great year for me and I'm hoping 2007 will be. 

I never thought that I would love working in the morning. I thought that it would be such an ordeal waking up in the wee hours.  I thought I would have a very difficult time adjusting to this schedule, but I thought wrong.

For the past 3 days, I've been getting up at around 4AM, grab a cup of coffee, check my emails and surf the internet, take a shower, then dress up and head to work at 6AM. I'm so loving this schedule!  I feel like I've been re-energized, and that's a good thing.  A few weeks earlier, I felt so weak and lazy.  I felt like I was dragging myself to work.

In the past couple of days, I got my groove back.  I'm now very eager to go to work.  I'm thinking that this can be attributed to the rolling out of the new training program I developed.  I'm conducting a T3 (train-the-trainer) and training a class at the same time - and I'm so loving it!  The last time I conducted a training session was more than 6 months ago.  It feels so good to finally break my boring interaction with my computer at work.  This is a more than welcome change for me. This reminded me of the reason why I wanted to be part of the training department.  Memories of my trainer days have started to come back.  It's very satisfying and fulfilling to impart knowledge and develop people.

Flashback: Two years ago, around this time.
I was just promoted to Operations Trainer.  I handled my first few classes for a start-up account.  I only had 2 days off for the month of December (no Weekends Off!). One class after another. Growing pains, but no complaints.

In the recent months, I've been complaining about how bored I was with my work even though I had too much on my plate.  I had issues with juggling different tasks, some of which were too much for me to handle.  Or so I thought.  Training a class again has given me perspective and brought back my element.  The morning shift has, too.

I guess I just needed a break from the monotony.

Now I'm all jazzed up and excited - even with the many things I still have to do concurrent to the training class:
Stage Management, technical and sound direction, and hosting  for West Idol Season 2, articles for the company-wide newsletter, development of a training performance tracking system for this set of agents I'm training, training program analysis and evaluation planning, multi-media and web-design changes for this program. 

I guess this is a great way to end 2006 (even if I will only have a few days off in the coming weeks). Hooray for me!

A quick look at my December 2006 and January 2007 calendars... Vacation anyone??? Goodluck to me.

Legend

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I WILL BE WORKING FROM 6AM TILL 2PM GODKNOWSWHATTIME FOR THE DATES MARKED IN BLUE ABOVE

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These are only SOME of the reasons why I'm not excited about the coming holidays and about the new year. sigh...

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This is what I feel like today... Can't wait to get hom and crash into my bed...

I never thought that I would survive more than a month without a TV.  I did, for about 11 months and still counting.  I ain't got a TV here at home.  I can't wait to move to a bigger 1-BR Unit this January so I can finally buy a TV, Gustav says he doesn't have enough space for a TV so no TV for now.

But not having a television set does not mean that I missed out on some good shows in 2006. Thanks to torrents and Azureus, I got to watch some great shows that came out in 2006 (and earlier) in the US and elsewhere.

Heroes
America's Next Top Model (Cycles 4,6 and 7)
Kyle XY
Prison Break (seasons 1 and 2)
The Amazing Race 10
Grey's Anatomy (seasons 2 and 3)
House (seasons 2 and 3)
Sean Cody, Corbin FIsher, Randy Blue, Blake Mason
Desperate Housewives
Scrubs
Little Britain
Project Runway
Project Catwalk

These shows kept me company in times of boredom, loneliness, self-pity, and plain tv-watching mode.

Some of these shows haven't even been shown locally, which leads me to asking myself this question: "Do I still need a TV?"

We'll see in 2007.

2006: A Look Back (episode 1)

[PEOPLE]
best friend: Nicky and JoPai
gained any friends: I think

[PLACES]
went out of the country: Nope.
moved: Yes.
new school: No
how many times on an airplane: 4

[YOU]
have you changed: I guess (and hope it was for the better)
new look: Yes! Definitely.
most depressed time this year: Err, shouldn't it be most non-depressing time of my year?

[LOVE]
did you fall in love: I thought I did.
did you get heartbroken: More than everyone knows.
who was your summer love: Hmmm... The Beach?

[SEASONS]
favorite Season: Summer
least favorite season: 
good birthday: Nope.
highest temperature: urm...didnt keep track

[FINAL QUESTIONS]
snuck out: of work? i think
kept your resolution: what resolutions?
got arrested: No.
drank alcohol: A Lot
kissed a girl: Yes, that Korean Girl.
had a crush: Yes. A Lot.
got dumped: Yes.
lost a family member: NOPE
got bad grades: what grades?
got a myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ajkenji
kept a secret: Yes.
told a secret: Yes.
done something you totally regret: NO Regrets like Robbie WIlliams

In 2006 I...

[ ] broke a promise
[X] made a new best friend
[X] fallen in love
[X] fallen out of love
[ ] been in over 2 relationships
[x] lied
[ ] went behind your parents back
[X] cried over a broken heart
[ ] disappointed someone close
[x ] hid a secret
[x] pretended to be happy
[ ] kissed in the rain
[x] kissed on a first date
[ ] layed under the stars
[ ] kept your new years resolution
[x] forgot your new years resolution
[x] met someone who changed your life
[x] changed your outlook on life
[x] sat home all day doing nothing