aloha!

i think in the ever-so-brilliant film, "miss congeniality," (for those unfamiliar, just check your local cable stations - it might as well be on every weekend) there is a conversation about how "aloha!" means both "hello" and "goodbye" so i found that it was an appropriate title with which to wrap up the year/start anew. and no, i'm not going to hawaii.

i started a post last night. it involved me drawing this parallel between one of my favorite shakespeare plays, "much ado about nothing" and my life in 2007. perhaps it could've been worthwhile, but as i started recapping the year (in far too much detail i might add), i realized, there was no need. there's no way i'm going to forget this year and what happened in it. most all of it is etched in my heart and has really become a huge part of who i am. this has been a year of me being shocked by the actions of other people, experiencing love and how you have to entrust the objects of your love to God (including letting them go), discovering new passions in ministry, crying more than in any year i can remember, seeing friends off to africa , into marriage, or into the life beyond this one, moving into a place of my own by myself, creating new works of art, gaining new best friends, listening to new music, getting my first tattoo, joining an online dating site (for better (thanks to a redeeming individual) and worse), traveling to new places, oh, and of course watching every episode of buffy the vampire slayer, which i mocked a year ago, but now revere as a favorite television program.

i also bought new jeans yesterday. that is a grand accomplishment indeed. from all my women out there, can i get a "woot! woot!"?

i suppose i should also add, that this might be one of my last posts (at least as you know them). one of my greatest joys from this blog has been the comments that i get from not only people i know, but also the random people that stumble onto my blog. who would've thought that i would have someone find my blog BECAUSE i posted about giovanni's roll out piano? it's a crazy world out there.

so, the "hello" part of aloha! is that i'm switching things up as far as my musings go. i want to hear what america thinks. so, in order to do that, i'm going to ask questions. i'll give my answers to the questions too, but i don't want that to be the focus. whether variety truly is the spice of life, i don't know. but listening to people is key, and i need to practice that. so, tell me who YOU are. you shall be my muse. bewilder me in 2008. happy new year. let's grow together.