All right, one more year in the can, one more reminiscence from yours truly. Those regular readers out there probably remember that this is something I’ve done the last two years and have thus made into a tradition for myself. In fact, this tradition has spread to at least one other blog (that I know about). I think it is a fun exercise to look back and to see what you can actually remember (if anything) from the last 365 days. I mean, that’s a lot of time. What the hell were you doing? Well, here at least I try to figure that out.

I read over my last two years in preparation for this. You know, things haven’t really changed much. Especially last year. I have a feeling what I’m about to write is going to mirror what I wrote last year pretty closely. Which isn’t a completely bad thing. I mean, the last two years, not that bad. Not exactly thrilling or exciting either, but on the whole the time didn’t suck.

Anyway, I could wax philosophic (am I using that term correctly?) all day long, but we might as well get to the task at hand. What exactly happened this year, Ben? Well, I’ll tell you:

–A Whole Lot of Workin’ Goin’ On–

So this is how Year Two at Bose in Manchester went down: The year started off pretty sweet with the departure of our prick of an Assistant Manager. Our District Manager at the time was encouraging him to take his next step forward as the Manager at the Logan Airport Store, and we couldn’t be happier to help him up the corporate ladder. I say we, but it was mostly me. He and I just didn’t see eye to eye, more than really anyone else I’ve ever known. It was really a shame, because he down deep wasn’t really a bad guy, he just had some anger management issues. Talk about mood swings. Damn. Things could not have been better after he left though. Finally everyone on the staff got along really well. All elephants left the room. You didn’t have to worry about what you might say and could just have fun.

His departure did start another alarming trend that seems to have become an annual tradition at the Bose store the last two years. It seems every springtime half the store decides to leave, putting the rest of us in the hard place of having to work overtime every week at the height of summertime. First the Assistant Manager, then Emmy got a job offer leading a summer camp, then Sean got a sweet job offer working in a recording studio right in Times Square. We weren’t bitter about any of it. It was all for the better. But Jeremy, Rachel and I had just done the EXACT same thing the year before (the two of them the year before THAT). Let me tell you, when you first start a job after not working and you have nothing better to do, OT is a blessing in disguise. You start to love those paychecks, especially since Bose really helps you out on OT. But doing that again? Well, you start to appreciate not having anything to do a whole lot more. The money doesn’t really mean as much.

After our AM left Jeremy got promoted to the AM position, thus leaving the door open to me becoming the Lead Demonstration Specialist. Man, that change made work a lot more fun. It’s pretty much my old job, but with more responsibility and more to do. For someone who likes being in charge and gets grumpy when he’s bored, this was a good change.

Almost immediately after the promotion our store switched districts from New England to New York, which meant suddenly I had to go to a Lead meeting that the New York district was having. Now I had to take a trip down to Delaware to meet a bunch of people I’d never met or talked to before to have a meeting about a job I didn’t yet know. That was a tad bit stressful (only helped along by the fact that I felt like shit at the time).

Luckily the meeting was a lot of fun (despite how I physically felt) and it taught me a lot about what exactly my job responsibilities were, since at that point I still really had no idea what I was suppose to do as Lead. Plus I got to take my longest road trip on my own thus far, all while breaking several laws along the way. Yea!

We finally did get some new employees. Another John, hand picked by myself, and Jeff, both of whom helped me get my first taste of mentoring. They both seem to be working out really well. I got my fair share of crazy applicants though. If you are ever talking to me and there is a lull in the conversation, ask me about Bernie. I’ll tell you his entire life’s story, mainly because he told it to me…in complete monotone. I’ll never forget you Bernie. I’ll never hire you either, though.

Finally I’ll tell you about a bad trend we’ve been having. Ever since really hurricane Katrina hit and gas prices went sky high our traffic at the store has really dropped down. We’re just scrapping by and I really hope things change soon, because I’m not really sure how long we can last going the way we are.

–My Life and My Car–

Somehow my most interesting stories usually revolve around my car. That’s probably has something to do with how other than work, that’s where I spend most of my time. First, let us all say goodbye to the Chevy Lumina Euro. You served me well. One blustery March day though I got a little over confident about my car not drifting into the thick layer of icy slush surrounding my tires and fishtailed my car several times before doing a 360 and sliding off the road Dukes of Hazzard style. Luckily I didn’t hit anyone else, nor did I hurt myself, nor did I crush my car. What I did do was cut the break line and escalate the hiccups that my engine was suffering from. We fixed the breaks but it didn’t take long before I started feeling really uncomfortable driving that car.

Thus I went car shopping. I looked at a total of one car before making my decision. What a shopper I am, no? What can I say, I really liked the Mazda 3 and really felt like the Chevy was going to kill me. Hello Mazda 3. God I love that car. Hopefully we will be long friends. And with gas prices going up the way they did this year I saved myself a lot of money crashing my car. No kidding.

Mazda 3 and I (I still haven’t given that filthy car a nickname) have been able to expand my base of operations and have made road trips a lot easier. Thus my trips to Delaware and Pennsylvania this year. I hope to be making even more trips next year. If only I could get some more bonuses so as to afford the gas.

Of course the Mazda 3 I got was not the standard Mazda 3, but the S-class. S standing for Sport, I assume. I was going to get the basic thing, thinking I didn’t need more than that, but of course I changed my mind as soon as I hit 80 test driving the thing on the bypass. Oh car, I love you.

That speed can have its disadvantages, for sure. For instance, I was pulled over twice this year! First time was on my birthday after I had been drinking. Just got a warning that time. Second time I was trying to drag race my way away from an asshole driver. Yeah, got busted that time. D’oh.

–Health Problems–

I got a new prescription for my glasses this year, as when I drove down to see Josh for the first time I found I had trouble with the road signs. Got me a nice, classier pair of frames out of the deal at the same time. Unfortunately, somehow, some way at the same time I caught something. I still don’t know what. I think it might be an allergy. It’s been going on too long to be a virus. Something is causing the glands behind my ears to swell, which in turn is causing me to hear a ringing in my ears almost all the time. Sometimes it is better and I don’t notice it, sometimes it is worse and drives me nuts, but it doesn’t seem like this is something that is going to go away. Once I get my better insurance I’ll have to have it checked out again, but I don’t know really what they can tell me at this point.

The good news is that as of yet, at least, I don’t seem to be suffering from hearing loss, which is my biggest fear right now. Also good is that it has caused me to reevaluate the volume at which I listen to things and has made me a strong proponent for awareness about hearing loss for our generation, which is much more at risk for serious hearing issues in our old age than we might think.

–Health Woes Ain’t Just for Humans Anymore–

I wasn’t the only one feeling under the weather this year. My computer also felt like downloading, oh, say every spyware program on the internet this year. I was just minding my own business when suddenly my computer wouldn’t work anymore and just completely freaked out, so that operation of it became about as fun as performing your own dental surgery.

I took the computer over to Jeremy’s (not from work, but ironically in Jeremy from work’s previous house) and he solved my problems through the wonders of high speed internet. See, the problem was that with my incredibly slow dial-up connection I was pretty safe, except for the fact that I hadn’t downloaded an update for the computer in, say, two years. After much freaking out that I would have to wipe the hard drive we finally got it working again, and I got a new external hard drive out of the whole deal!

–Powerball, My Ass–

Right around the time when gas prices shot up and it cost a lot more to fill up at the tank, I didn’t something rather uncharacteristic of myself, which is to say I bought a Powerball ticket. Stewarts puts up Powerball tickets on their gas pumps with the current jackpot on it, and I couldn’t say no. But that wasn’t the only one. I’ve started playing once every time I fill up at the pump, which is twice a week, same as the amount of times they pull numbers. I’ve won $14 in the process. My God, one time I almost thought I won and went and had myself a heart attack.

I have thought quite a bit about what I’d do if I did won recently. In fact it tends to be my favorite game when things are slow in the store. What would you do? I really want to travel. I’m hoping we do better at the store this year so I might be able to make that happen on my own.

–Other Adventures–

What else can I write about, hmm? Well, how about when I went to go visit Mike in good ol’ PA and we toured the great landmarks of Lancaster County? Like that mall that was literally in the shape of a cross. There has got to be something wrong with that. Or when we had to jump in and out of the capital building to see the dome because a wedding was just about to start.

There was always my trip down to Pleasantville with Josh so that some skanky 15 year old trash could proposition us. That was fun.

Oh, so many good times.

–The Madness–

I guess finally we will end on everyone’s favorite bit of madness, the year end tallies. Because what kind of madman would I be if I didn’t flaunt it out for all to see?

CDs Bought in 2005: 141

Total # of CDs I bought 2004: 211

DVDs Bought in 2005: 417

Total DVDs Owned: 995

Total # of DVDs I bought 2004: 288+

Total # of DVDs I owned in 2004: 578

Total Movies Watched in 2005: 427

Total # of movies I saw 2004: 352

Total # of movies I saw 2003: 362

Total Movies Seen in the Theater in 2005: 76

Total # of movies I saw in the theater, 2004: 59

Total # of movies I saw in the theater, 2003: 57

Total Movies Seen for the First Time in 2005: 357

Total # of movies I saw for the first time, 2004: 291

Total # of movies I saw for the first time, 2003: 246

I’ll let the curious do all of the math. I’m tired. It’s been a long year.