It’s been almost a year since I got unceremoniously dumped from my former employer, which turned out to be a weird blessing in disguise.  Consequently, my life has taken a lot of (strangely successful) twists and turns since then.  But as I look back on the last 12 months, I’m reminded of a few of the things I oddly miss.

For instance, I used to travel for work at least one or two weeks out of the month. Now I’m lucky to have a weekend getaway to St. Louis or Des Moines.  Marriott actually wrote me an e-mail that said, “Where the hell have you been lately?” Just so we’re clear, traveling on my own dime isn’t nearly as fun as traveling when all expenses are paid by some random client in some random city.  Chances are I’ll never visit Fresno or Reno or Long Island ever again. 

I miss blogging in earnest.  A year ago I was blogging every day for MoxieQ, writing about whatever pop culture nonsense caught my eye.  Heck, I was plunking out two or three blogs a week for my own website too.  I was Writey McWriterson.  Now I’m lucky to write two or three blogs A MONTH because of time constraints.  My adoring public isn’t so adoring anymore.  And my ability to be pithy on command needs a swift kick in the tuckus.

Because I missed him fiercely, I recently hired back my beloved housecleaner, Kenny.  During those tumultuous months of unemployment, Kenny was the first to get the boot.  I vowed I would never give up Kenny, but cooler heads and smaller wallets prevailed.  Now Kenny is back where he belongs … tidying up after my sorry ass.  Even weirder?  My new station has cleaning people who painstakingly rearrange the things on my desk every night in some sort of deranged OCD stupor.

Don’t tell her, but I occasionally miss my old boss Laura.  (It’ll go right to her head.)  Oh sure, I still see her when she stumbles over to Casa Mackie occasionally with a bottle of wine so we can giggle, gossip and make fun of everyone we know.   Actually, I miss that we used to do that a lot more often when we worked together.  Happy Hour, anyone?  Don’t get me wrong, I love my new boss Jim more than anyone knows, but he would likely be appalled at my love of the grape. Laura didn’t just condone it, she helped raise the bar … uh, at the bar.

I miss having interns. Maybe we can change that soon.

My BDay is coming up at the end of the month, and I’m reminded about how much better my life is than it was last year at this time.  That’s what it’s all about, right?  But I couldn’t let twelve months pass without waxing nostalgic and being sentimental about a few things near and dear to my heart.