In case you hadn’t picked up on this already, I’m not a very sappy person. I’m more of a reactor than a brooder. When I get dumped, I don’t eat cartons of ice cream; I’m more likely to date your best friend or chop off all my hair (a la Britney Spears).  And I’m one of those cold-hearted bitches who didn’t cry during Titanic. My friends will never let me live that one down.

Anyway, this non-sappiness of mine doesn’t lend itself well to New Years (or to writing vows, but that’s a whole different story). Nostalgia just doesn’t come naturally to me. I don’t understand why we would dwell on Top Ten lists or mope about old acquaintances who’ve been forgotten (if you can’t remember them, why do you care? And isn’t that why we have Facebook…so we don’t forget?). Nonetheless, I was attempting to reflect on my  past year for the sake of not being a total downer. A lot has happened: I moved, got engaged, began my blog, and started a new job. But the practical me won’t let me forget about some of the struggles I’ve also had in the last year: a lot of family difficulties, a less-than-ideal financial situation (we are in a recession after all), I moved even farther away from my family than I already was, and there have been a number of illnesses thrown in there for good measure. It was kind of a roller-coaster year, actually. And as I was in the middle of contemplating all this “reflecting,” this happened:

Yes, that’s my car. And that’s a tow dolly. My transmission failed, which pretty much means I’m out of a car (it’s an absolute minimum of $2,000 to fix – yikes). This was the grand conclusion to my 2009. So if you ask me today to review my year, it was crap. It was a crap year. Goodbye 2009! And welcome, New Year.