Optimism ‘R’ Us

It’s occurred to me that, recently, posts on this here silly little blog have grown a bit dark in nature. Whether it’s dastardly deeds in the men’s room or anti-Cowboy diatribes or fretting over the Middle East, I have spent way too much time focusing on bad stuff.

I’m not like that. At least, I don’t want to be like that. So, like Raffi says, I’m going to try to shake, shake, shake my sillies out and wiggle my troubles away.

Here’s a list of things I am truly optimistic about, in no particular order:

• The formerly-Little Mavericks will win the NBA Championship.
• The Rangers are will be competitive in the AL West.
• My daughter will excel on her club soccer team.
• The Israelis will finish the wall, boot the Palestinians over it, and things will settle down to the west of it. The east side may be chaos, but the west side, greater Israel, is going to see a resurgence of economic and cultural prosperity not seen since the 1950s.
• The Stars will win at least one playoff series.
• The Catapult office in Dallas will be a smashing success and will enjoy a reputation for excellence as a service provider and employer at least equal to the rep we have in Austin.
• We will turn at least one 8-week EPM gig into a major account, with multiple resources involved in multiple efforts in multiple locations. This account will continue to employ us for at least three consecutive years.
• My wife will license the RES-Q Wedge to a distributor in a deal all parties involved feel is fair and appropriate.
• My son will learn to tie his shoes and straighten his bed.
• Blu-Ray will win the next-gen DVD format war, and I will finally feel safe buying one of the things.
• Verizon will announce a date when FIOS will be available in lovely and crime-free Frisco TX.
• The Dallas North Tollway will open its extension to State Highway 380 and my commuting life will improve dramatically.
• David Beckham will play a soccer game at Pizza Hut Park and I will finagle tickets to take my kids to see him.
• I will attend some sort of reunion with some of my friends from college.
• I will run the 8 mile Turkey Trot and/or the half at the White Rock Marathon.
• Robynne and I will go to NYC this fall and have a magical visit.

This sorta sounds like a list of New Year’s Resolutions, but I don’t view any of these as “goals”. I really think every one of them will happen and, for those things which are controllable by me or the family or the coworkers, they will happen just by staying the course.

You may notice there’s nothing in here about Iraq, terrorism, the Cowboys, our President, or energy. I’m not too terribly optimistic about any of those things, but that’s for another day.

Regardless, there is a lot to look forward to. And a lot to feel good about. And feel good, I do.

Just in case you thought I was, you know, getting grumpy.