Falling on the ice, Wal-mart shrimp, and a wedding round out an eventful 2006

I fell on the ice today. I was leaving my apartment and slipped on some icy stairs. No one was around, and after the ten minutes it took me to realize I was still alive and not in a recently frozen over hell, I took some time to think. I thought about suing my apartment complex. I thought about my new wife, and how she would survive without me. Then I thought some more about suing my apartment complex.

But I also had some time to reflect on the semester and the year. As I lost feeling in my limbs I reflected on the year’s beginning. I spent New Year’s Eve 2005 with my parents. We partied pretty hard. So hard, in fact, that we weren’t in bed until 10:30PM. Impressive, I know. Sparkling apple cider, shrimp from the closest Wal-Mart; we lived it up.

Popular wisdom holds that all good things must come to an end. The party that began that night, however, was just beginning. With all of the school and the work, 2006 was pretty much the best year ever. Ok, so that’s not entirely true. The year was actually a little bland. Sure, I got myself married, came two semesters closer to graduating, and ended up with a severely herniated disc following today’s fall, but the rest of the year wasn’t that exciting.

I take that back. Gas prices fell, and that was something worth getting patriotic about. I’ll be the first to admit that filling my tank this winter got me a little teary-eyed. $2.21 a gallon still isn’t great, but it did make me see the wisdom of the Iraqi war. OK, so again I’m just making that up. The Iraqi war put a pretty big damper on 2006, and unless things change in a big way it’s probably going to end up ruining 2007 as well. And when I say a big way, I’m talking at least $1.50 a gallon.

On a different note, I did start doing my own laundry this year. In fact, the harsh lessons it has taught me and the pink underwear it has given me to wear this semester were some of the reasons I ended up getting married. My wife, however, was also looking for a way to get out of doing laundry. So while the excitement of the wedding carried us through 2006, this next year will probably find us naked, and not for that reason.

While this year started with a big party, it ended with me falling down my apartment complex stairs. Kind of a bummer (no pun there), really. But I think that’s why the powers that be loaded up the end of year with so many great holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s are easily the best three days of the whole 365, and their combined revelry alone is enough to carry me from January through October one more time.

Now if I could just get someone to carry me off my apartment stairs and to the hospital. I’ll see you next semester.

Zach Pendelton is a senior majoring in English. Comments and questions can be sent to zpendelton@cc.usu.edu