The Best of 2008

Lyz De Marco's Facebook status says that she's excited for 2008 to be over. As one reads through the thread, another of her friends asks if the bad really outweighed the good in 2008. That got me to thinking, not whether or not the bad really outweighed the good, but that for all my bitching and complaining, 2008 had its share of good moments. I decided that I probably could list at least a Top 10 Good Things That Happened to Me In 2008. And since I'm in a giving mood, I decided to share that list with you, my loyal readers....all three or four of you. So for you Kelly, Angela, Sean, Sue, Cory (did you make the jump from Geocities to Vox?) and whoever else is out there...here is that list (in no particular order, save that #1 would be #1 were I to go ahead and rank them.

1. The birth and early life of Jack Peter Nolan Goodwin, my nephew, who will turn six months old on New Year’s Day. If there’s a better site to behold than that wide-open mouth laugh of his, I don’t know that I’ve seen it.
2. In early March, Angela and I traveled to Hamilton to see Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band in concert. Anyone who has never seen Springsteen live is certainly missing a great experience. In seeing Bruce, you know you’re seeing a true legend and future Hall of Famer in action. And I can never hear “Dancing in the Dark” the same way again.
3. On Valentine’s Day, after several months of unemployment, I received a job offer from General Dynamics Land Systems - Canada. Not only was I thrilled to be offered a job that meant I didn’t have to go back to retail, but to have the chance to work in the defense industry? How cool was that? If you’ve read my blogs below, you know that I am immensely proud of the work that goes on at GDLS-C. The job has given me a chance to put so much of my background experience and skills to work. (And hey, would I have been able to ride in a U.S. Army Stryker and a United States Marine Corps LAV if I was still working retail?)
4. One of the great fringe benefits of working for GDLS-C is all the important people I have met. I never get a chance to really brag about having shaken the hand of Brigadier General Denis Thompson, Commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, mostly because the only time he’s seen on TV is when a Canadian is killed there, but I have met the man. I’ve also met the odd Marine or U.S. Army Colonel as well as various military VIPs as they’ve come through the plant for one reason or another. But certainly the biggest VIP I’ve seen and met at work is Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who toured the plant during a brief stop in London back in August. Not only did I get to follow his entourage around, but at the end of the tour, I got (at his suggestion, no less) a photo op with the leader of our nation. I’m sure there are probably many political types out there who would frown at my being proud of having my photo taken with the Prime Minister, but I have that photo on my dresser even as I type.
5. Reuniting with some old friends on Facebook. The Internet can have it’s plus and minuses as far as I’m concerned in this regard. I mean, while it’s great to be able to reconnect with old friends, family members and former co-workers, it’s also kinda sad to find out that some people don’t want to reconnect (or think they do one day and then decide they don’t the next). However, let’s look at the positive, shall we? I couldn’t tell you for sure how many more entries on my Facebook friend’s list I have now than I did a year ago, but I do know I have managed to reconnect with quite a few people in 2008. And there is one person in particular (and I won’t say who he or she is, but they know who they are) for whom reconnecting through Facebook is something I have been wanting to do for years. I truly “cherish” our correspondence as of late and hope it can continue. For all 152 members of my Facebook Friends list (and everyone else for that matter), I hope that 2009 is an enriching year. Drop me a line from time to time and we’ll catch up where we need to.
6. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling finally came to Canada and even though Oshawa got the pay-per-view, they delivered a pretty satisfying house show at the John Labatt Centre in London, for which I was in attendance. Even though, with my Thursday nights being very Office-centric, I don’t really watch TNA all that much, I still try and keep tabs on what is going on with their storylines and title pictures. And it was great to see a strong show by someone other than WWE in London. (Ironically, I’m planning to write a blog about the wrestling situation in London in the near future and woke up Christmas morning, more or less rough-drafting it in my head.) It was great to see Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe and Petey Williams (and I’m sure I’m forgetting someone or other) in action for the first time. Despite barely filling half the arena, the men and women of the TNA roster made the audience feel as if they were at the Skydome for a pay-per-view. The highlight for me was seeing the Phenomenal A.J. Styles in action. I’ve been a big fan of Styles’ for many years, so to be able to watch him hit the Styles clash and the Pele kick live was awesome. I would hope that this is not the last time TNA comes to London (and that there’s a bigger turn out next time.) And of course, as I said, TNA wasn’t the only wrestling in London over the course of 2008. Although unless I’ve forgotten something, there were no local indy shows here, WWE did come for a Smackdown/ECW taping, which is always an experience to be enjoyed. The WWE sure knows how to go all out when they do their TV tapings. Batista, CM Punk, commentators Jim Ross and Mick Foley, Edge and Vickie Guerrero and Tommy Dreamer were all on hand. I forget who Dreamer fought but man, did they do a wicked hardcore match.
7. It had been almost 20 years since I’d walked the halls but in late January/early February, I found myself back in the Residence at Lambton College. Because the actual student housing has been moved over to a former motel on the edge of the college campus, our old “Res” was all but deserted. Thankfully, one of the security guards was only to happy to give us a guided tour of the place. It was rather surreal to be standing in 1-42, the room where I spent two very pivotal years of my life. Adding to that surrealness is that there was no one else around and the halls were so quiet. No impromptu wrestling matches, no Poison songs being played full blast. Nothing save the memories of what we had experienced there and what had happened since. Afterwards, Angela and I went over to the New Res and visited with Cheryl Bell, who is STILL the house mother of the Res. She was nice enough to give us a tour of the new res. (Man, have those kids got it good over there.) I wish I’d been working at the time. Returning to Res as an out-of-work writer wasn’t as good as it would have been had I been able to say “I’m John Milner, head writer for the WWE”…er, I mean, “I work for GDLS-C….or even Your Village News” but it’s nice to know that changed soon afterwards. I was very tempted to go to the Res Reunion in August but circumstances got in the way. If things are still progressing they way they are now, both professionally and (hopefully) personally, I probably will be making the trek to Sarnia if there’s another reunion this year.
8. After nearly a quarter of a century (wait! Can that be right?), I returned to the stage. I’d always wanted to take part in some small theatrical production. I had heard about the South Middlesex Acting Krew and, in fact, had done an article on the group in my waning days at Your Village News. However, whether it was working retail or at the paper, I never really had the kind of schedule to commit to being in a play. However, that changed with the job at GDLS-C. When I saw the ad for auditions in the Transcript, I decided to make the short drive to Appin and see what happened. As it turned out, there were two male parts and only me and Geoff (who would play Tom) turned up for the audition. I was cast as Bill, the befuddled bridegroom who wakes up on the morning of his wedding to find himself in bed with a woman who is not his fiancé. Over the course of the play, Bill must scramble to ensure to keep everyone out of the loop over what really happened, not an easy task as his best man, the bride, the bride’s mother and a chambermaid show up to throw a wrench into those plans. Although there were times where I wasn’t sure that once the lights came up, I wouldn’t draw a complete blank. However, even though I think I managed to screw just about every scene up at least once in terms of my lines, I managed to make it through all 11 performances with my dignity intact…not too shabby considering I was running around in my underwear and a blanket for about 1/3 of the first act. The audiences seemed to really enjoy the performance and were very complimentary about the shows after each. I had a number of people in the audience throughout the course of the run including my parents, my office-mates from GDLS-C and my friends Jason and Val. All of them really enjoyed themselves. I was even given a medal (no, not like the Congressional Medal of Honor) from the people at work and “the Golden Flushie” (a toilet brush with everyone’s name on it…it’s a long story..but needless to say a toilet brush is a major prop in the play). And the reaction that my folks had was really special. I think my Dad may have even been teary-eyed when he told me how proud he was of me. Both Mom and Dad were raving about how impressed they were with me. So I’m really glad I took the chance and went out for that audition. There’s another play in the spring. I’m not sure if I’ll go out for the audition but I’m thinking it probably won’t take much for me to be enticed to do so.
9. Every May, the London Free Press holds its annual Shunpiker’s Tour. I’ve always wanted to get my folks to gas up the car and take part but to date we never have. This year, however, Angela and I decided that, over the course of two weekends, we would take the Shunpiker’s Tour. The tour led us all the way to Dresden and back with stops along the way, including a detour to West Lorne, Rodney (first time I’d been in that…uh…lovely little hamlet…since 1993) and Wallaceburg. Not to mention Chatham and Thamesville. Somehow I got the bright idea to take my Joe Carter and Dwight Schrute bobbleheads along and take photos of said bobbleheads at various stops along the way. (Actually, I was inspired by similar photos of Dwight Bobbleheads on NBC.com.) It really made both trips really, really fun. Amazingly we didn’t run into anybody so noone thought it was weird that two adults were driving around Ontario placing bobbleheads in front of tourist attractions and taking photos of them. (I think I have the photo album of those trips on Facebook.)
10. I was really torn on what to put as my #10 Good Thing That Happened in 2008. There were a lot of other good things that I could have put down here. Instead of having to choose one over the others, I think I’ll just list all the “top contenders” in point form:

• going to Jeff McCallum’s house for a mini-high school reunion
• hanging out with Lyz in London and Toronto a couple of times in late summer
• the aforementioned Stryker and LAV II ride
• the Milner Plague Facebook group
• watching the American election of Barack Obama while IMing Kelly
• visiting Chris and Jim in Port Burwell
• going to a London Majors game and then to dinner with Jasons Kurn and Houlihan and Val

So yeah, a lot of very positive things happened in 2008. By the way, for those of you who are new here, don't expect all this damned positivity to become a regular feature.

But in all seriousness, I hope that everyone reading this can find something about 2008 to remember positively. I know that there are many who are looking forward to better days in 2009. I hope that for everyone, this new year holds promise, productivity and prosperity. All the best from mine to yours.

JM