And I haven’t even looked at it except to approve some comments in a year. And before that, it had been six months.

I’m quite sure the only people who land here have either searched for the phrase “The Best Nachos Ever” or “Hey Everybody I’m Looking at Gay Porn,” but just in case…

My last year or two have been absolutely insane. I’ve moved into a new house, I’m teaching fiction writing at Columbia College, I write a column for my local paper, and I’m slugging through being a poor artist (I DO NOT LIKE IT) trying to finish my thesis/novel.

Right at this very moment, I’m listening to the radio and killing time until I have to take my 1 1/2 year old Border Collie to his Agility class, and also waiting for a promised gigantic, dangerous and horrible blizzard. We were warned to stock up on supplies. I bought a couple of pot pies, a box of hair dye, and a bottle of vodka.

I don’t know. Maybe I’ll resurrect this puppy. I’ve been swearing to myself that I’d set up my website (victoriagonia.com, don’t bother, there’s nothing there right now) and blog on a regular basis. I’ve also been swearing to myself that I’d clean out my closet, but I still have jeans in there from the mid 90′s, so don’t hold your breath.

Next month, I will have had this blog for four years.  That might sound somewhat impressive, but no.  I haven’t posted much in a while.  I’ve been somewhat neglectful for a while now.  It’s not that I haven’t wanted to…it’s not that I haven’t had anything to say…

I’ve just not been saying it.

I’m not making any promises here.  I’m not going to claim that this post is the beginning of a new slew of posts.  I’ve absolutely no idea if I’ll even remember tomorrow that I posted tonight.  All I know is that Cat Stevens is coming out of my speakers and that’s sending me back in time a bit.

Not that I’m going to tell you about it.

What’s happening right now, at this very moment, is me, drinking some inexpensive yet very tasty wine, and being a bit sad still about my friend Frank Crist being dead for some eight months now.  Maybe it’s the wine.  Maybe it’s the dead thing.  Maybe it’s my birthday coming up.  I had no problem with thirty.  But I was a wreck at 29.  I’m hoping 40 won’t be a problem, but, well, DAMNIT.  I’m about to turn 39!

No.  Really.  39.

I don’t feel 39.  Though, what is 39 supposed to feel like?  I mean, my parents have a good quarter-century on me, and they’re having the time of their fucking lives, at least it certainly seems like they are.  So that’s something to look forward to, right?

This all sounds strange.  Because the thing is, I’m really loving my life right now.  I like everything I am doing.  I like all of my five-odd jobs, and I don’t even mind that together, they don’t create a living wage.  I feel free and clear and happy.  Yes, HAPPY.  Say the word ‘happy’ six or seven times really quick. It kinda loses meaning, doesn’t it?  Weird, huh?  I’m HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

It looks like I spelled it wrong, doesn’t it?

Here’s this thing:  I really miss Frank.  A fair bunch of people have died in my lifetime, people who meant something to me in one way or another, but none like Frank Crist.  There’s even a handful of people still in my life whose death, if it happened tomorrow, might likely devastate me more, I don’t know.  But right now, at this moment, it’s Frank’s death that’s got me all wrapped up in madness.

And it happened many, many months ago.  Damnit, I miss him.  I miss him because he would have been so happy for me right now.  He’d be cheering me on and encouraging me in my dark moments and dragging me, kicking and whining and moaning, out of my self-pitying moments, and he’d do it all without saying a goddamn word.

It is wrong for Frank to not be alive in this world.

It’s just wrong.  Excuse me while I go sit on the couch and drink cheap-but-tasty wine and smoke cigarettes and be mad and feel sorry for myself.

Click the post title to get to the link.  Something’s wonky with this template.

Rule number one: Don’t talk about Western Springs

The fun never ends with me, does it?  That is a link to the first in hopefully a long, long line of columns I’m writing for my local paper.  In the paper version, there’s a picture of me!  A random kid recognized me when I was walking down the street!  It was crazy!  And no, I don’t use this many exclamation points when I’m writing the column.  That’d be silly!  And really annoying!

The funny thing is that a day or so after I turned the column in to my editor, Business Week named my town the second-best place in the country to raise children.  Obviously, they didn’t get the memo.

Yep!

I will be appearing live on msnbc tomorrow, sometime between 11 a.m. and noon CST, talking about the response on Newsvine.com to the Democratic Debate happening this evening.

Live. On television.

Hopefully, there will be a link available to video of my appearance, and if so, I will post it here. But I fully expect you all (all three of you) to be watching.