This actually happened.

This time last year, a very good friend and I were, to put it mildly, very unhappy in our relationships. So one day, before the end of the year, we made a pact -- that by the end of 2011 we'd at least be rid of our current guys, and hopefully be with another, better man.

Fast forward to now.

It's been a rather interesting year in my own love life, to say the least, but no, I'm not with the guy I was a year ago, thankfully. For that, I count my blessings. 

(Side note: Girls, never, ever, EVER be with a guy who continually tells you things that put you down and make you feel like shit. A REAL man will love you, support you, and stand up for you and defend your honor if he finds out his friends are dissing you. Don't let his own lack of self-esteem put a damper on yours. You're better than that and you deserve much better.) 

(There are obviously details that I choose not to get into online in a public forum, but the above is enough. Sad to say, looking at my own track record vs. my self-esteem is not a pretty picture, but I digress.)

Anyway, since our conversation a year ago, my good gal pal has gotten divorced (with my assistance of a referral to an attorney friend) and reunited with a long-lost love of hers, and is now engaged to him, happier than ever. I'm extremely happy for her (not to mention glad to have been of assistance, though I'm sure it would've happened without me, regardless).

So the other day she and I were having a text message conversation (which is as good as any these days, right?), and apropos of nothing, she said,

Oh, and you fulfulled the New Year's resolution. No more [ex's name]. Feels years ago, doesn't it?

To which I responded,

You fulfilled it more. You've got another man!

She admitted,

I had a head start. I already knew last New Year's that I'd be with him this New Year's.

I replied,

I've got another cat. I'm not sure I like how this is going!

(I took in a friend's gray cat, Nermal, last summer when she and her husband moved to New York.)

Regardless, though I'll admit 2011 has been a rather tumultuous year, I gained a cat, found out who my friends really were, and can't complain too much.

I never really made any real resolutions last year, and I'm OK with that. I decided to stop trying to pigenohole myself on my own damn domain and just write about whatever I wanted there. 

Which is not to say that I won't post here, of course. This is an area of the web I've reserved for stories from my past, and I intend to keep it that way. No, I haven't updated this as often as I wished, but the great thing about the past is that those stories won't change. Maybe the way you tell them, or the way you see them, but overall, what happened is always past-tense.

And regardless of anything else, I hope to continue to keep this an area of the interwebs I can reflect on the past, and tell my stories the way I remember them. 

Thanks for reading, and may you have a happy 2012, no matter if the person you're kissing at midnight is the one you will be a year from now. ;)