Year In Review, 2018.

Whelp, that was an interesting one, huh?

Everything started more or less normally. Work, weekends, and Vegas trips. Work-wise, was plugging away at a thankless job and continuing to grow more and more disillusioned. Surrounded by employees and bosses that didn't understand what I did and didn't appreciate when I did it. An owner stopping my inventory process right in the middle to completely re-vamp the database that I used all day every day, with no warning. Most importantly, a new "boss" was hired as operations manager and became my direct report. Dark foreshadowing.

Weekends were the usual, out to Polk street to party it up, with the twist that during the course of the year I started leaving Polk in the evening to head down to SoMa to go to Butter and Driftwood and occasionally Cat Club. Predictable, somewhat routine but still fun. Got nowhere whatsoever during the entire year with the opposite sex, but my strong "oh well" attitude made that not much of a big deal. Then a recovery Sunday every week staying in and watching Netflix while eating JJ's chicken.

Vegas was fun if not groundbreaking. Went in April over my 49th birthday, stayed at the Trop (meh) and the Cosmo (surprisingly meh due to being in an old City room but still a great place in general). Then a super quick unplanned June trip at Park MGM (also meh and unfinished at this point) to see NIN, who were great. The August trip was fine, 3 great days at MGM Grand and 2 not so great days at Palms Place.

All was more or less proceeding as had the previous 6 years before it, a tolerable job, a decent weekend life and plenty of time/money for Vegas.

Then came October. A bad review from a bad boss. A very pissed off and unhappy me. And finally, my finagling my way out of the job with unemployment benefits secured, a $5K severance and more or less no bad feelings, though a very pointed clause in the exit contract that I would never apply again for a job there. Which is fine, I wouldn't. Once I'm resolved to leave a company and decide it's not for me I'm gone. And that's what the decision came down to - I asked myself, now that I'm almost 50, did I want to spend my last 15 working years with this company and the simple answer was no. Having the 401k funds to cash out made it a no-brainer. I don't like the idea of not having the retirement cushion, but I still have the 15 years to work on that, and that's even assuming I'll MAKE it to retirement age.

However, the Vegas train must always be running, so the trip I had planned before leaving the job played out anyway. Just back a week from the last trip of the year and it was a good one, and I'm glad I went despite the hit to the finances. Being cooped up in my little hobbit hole for the last 3 months with no outlet was getting tough, it was great to be able to go and blow off some of the remaining 2018 steam.

So that leads to today, January 1st 2019. The resumes go online tomorrow. The days will be filled with at least a couple hours of job hunting and a mile or more of walking to try to stay in some semblance of health. Having the still mostly intact 401k funds and UI means I don't have to rush the process and leap at the first thing offered, I can take my time and let things play out for a few months until the UI runs out and shit gets real.

I don't put a lot of faith in "the new year will change things" motif but this year more than others it seems like it almost has to. The holidays being over means I'm in the market for the hopefully last job of my life and that's certainly a change. May be some changes on the horizon too for the Vegas life but that remains to be seen. April is on the books and that's enough for now to put that dragon back in his cage for a few months and allows me to focus on getting the career and the finances in line - Vegas has to play 2nd fiddle to that for a while.

So here's looking forward to a positive and hopeful 2019. My 3-month "vacation" is over, let's get on with it.