I was going to write about New Year's Eve tonight, about how I've had very few wild ones in my six-plus decades on Earth.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/6a00e39827d9ad88330168e4bdd255970c-800wi.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1487" title="6a00e39827d9ad88330168e4bdd255970c-800wi" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/6a00e39827d9ad88330168e4bdd255970c-800wi-300x226.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="226" /></a>But then I saw a post on Facebook from one of my friends, Tina Bacas Gibson. Three words. Three simple words.

<em>"Fuck you, 2011."</em>

I don't blame her. I certainly don't know all the reasons she might have had for feeling that way, but I do know she lost a sister to cancer this year and that might just be enough.

Years are rarely all good or all bad, but we generally remember them for the overall impression they leave with us. I lost my job in January 2008, but eight months later my little granddaughter Madison Nicole was born. That's why I can't really hate 2008, even though my dad died in March of that year.

This year hasn't been all that great, although it followed a year in which a number of wonderful things happened. We have been really struggling in the second half of the year, and my lovely wife's health has been a big problem.

But calling 2011 a total loss would be a mistake, because once again Pauline and Ryan came through and gave us another grandchild. Little Lexington Wesley was born in November.

[caption id="attachment_1488" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Maddie, Lexington and Ryan"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/20111217_12.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1488" title="20111217_12" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/20111217_12-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

Next year may be a good one. Virgile and Sterling will return from Greece for language training in Washington, D.C., and Pauline and her family will wrap up their tour in Surabaya and start three years in Jamaica.

Our whole family will be in two time zones.

That in itself ought to make 2012 better than 2011.

Hope it's better for Tina, too.

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