Can I just tell you? I am so motherflippin’ glad that 2008 is over I could scream. From a whirlwind relationship to finally finishing my Master’s degree, this past year has felt like two years combined. I mean epic shit going down around my ears every damn day. And now I’m ready to go into 2009 with a renewed focus. 2008 tested me to my limits; 2009 will hopefully be a whole lot easier.

January

‘08 started off hectic. I had a new job at the Startup from Hell, complete with a terrible commute, shitty pay, and two chucklehead PCU rejects. I couldn’t get out of that place soon enough! It’s one thing to be the only Black dude in a department of a company, but when the company is only four people deep, it’s easy to feel like the outsider. I think it’s because they wanted me to be more of their wingman than their front-end designer. I guess that’s the nature of startups. Speaking of starting up, I was beginning a relationship with Che/Gaara and things were just loverly.

February

After finally leaving the Startup from Hell (where they actually stole some of my personal belongings once I gave my two weeks), I wound up back at — of all places — Big Company, Inc. At the time, it was a good decision because there would have been a homicide at the startup if I stayed there one day longer and my shit wasn’t returned or I was reimbursed for the loss. Me and the beef were going into month two, and even had a romantical Valentine’s Day. Things were looking up.

March

Birthday month! The work/school/boyfriend combination was thick. I rejoined Metroblogging Atlanta (although my presence has been hella light — blame the aforementioned combo), we got the nation’s fourth Black governor, and the city got hit by a tornado. I also got hit by a tornado of a different kind — Che/Gaara kicked me to the curb after a fabulous Easter brunch at Chequers. He still wanted to be friends…whatever that means. I think I’d have preferred the $30 I dropped on his half of the meal.

April

Breakups are a motherfucker, particularly when the other person you caught feelings for dropped you like a bad habit, but still wanted to be all up in your life. I must’ve missed that class in school, because that fish don’t fry for me. Anyway…can you believe I’m still getting mail asking why this site is called Black Gay Blogger? Gon’ ‘head somewhere with that bullshit; I’m not trying to hear it. Want to know what else I wasn’t hearing this month? The breakup. We were still chatting on the phone on a regular basis like we’re still a couple! Leave it to yours truly to go out with him to Applebee’s and get smashed off watered down over-priced margaritas and say some ignorant shit. Yeah, I’m handling things like a real champ.

May

Someone at Big Company, Inc. started this nasty little rumor that I was going to resign from there once I got my Masters degree. Because of this, my reputation there was turning to mud. Not like it wasn’t mud to begin with, but now that the merger was really starting to be completed, the work sitch went from hostile to volatile with the quickness. Oh yeah, and MyPartner’s screening processes are hella lax. I posted some of the studs who’ve contacted me. Sex-ay!

June

BGB.com turned five. Obama is in it to win it, y’all! And so began the slow, event-filled march towards Election Day. I also went on a vacation this month to see Twin in Rochester, and see one of my favorite bands — Beady Belle — perform for their first time in the US! And I got all my CDs signed! I was very close to almost getting back my old job sans Micro-Manager. I was very excited. But then it fell through because those yatches Hortense and D.A.W.G. put their collective clubbed feet down about it. Hmph. I won a prize package from the Buick Heritage Sweepstakes. Guess what though? Six months later and I hadn’t gotten jack shit. Skip Gates, you owe me a DVD, negro! But if The Root needs a new web design, call me.

July

July was hot and busy. Wish I could say the same for my dating life. Went out with this hottie, but he turned out to be a nottie. Don’t look a gift Project Runway party invite in the mouth — remember that. CNN showed the world what it’s like to be Black in America and failed. That’s all.

August

We lost two great talents in the entertainment industry (Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes) in one weekend. Also, older men love me. Like 50+ up. Tell your gramps. Oh yeah, and the Black Weblog Awards. Crazy! Jesus, Joseph ,and Mary; it was crazy this year. I don’t want another year like this for the Awards.

September

Sarah Palin stepped out on the world stage, and we were never the same again. Tech recruiters kept approaching me offering me the same job I currently have like I’m Goonie Goo-Goo or something. I saw a great improv play at the Alliance (alone, natch), and stuff at work got to the point where even the most mild-mannered designers were rebelling and writing profanities on the dry erase boards. I can’t say I really blame them though. Shit was wild. Buffy tried to get me to start another Black gay social group, and I met some local bloggers when Royce from The Excitable Bore rolled through town. My site also got added to the GLBT section of Alltop.

October

Jeez, I have missed so much this year. Or rather, because of work and school, so much stuff just blipped on my radar, and I didn’t really stop to think about a lot of it. That’s so not me. Big Company, Inc. throws the gauntlet in terms of how the new management really feels about the designers. It’s basically their way or the “get the fuck out” way. Not so welcoming. I dropped some knowledge about the whole “lack of minorities at Future of Web _______” conferences to little fanfare. Both “Chocolate News” and “DL Hughley Breaks The News” debuted…and that’s it. Political profundity from the man who voiced the Gadgetmobile? Ha, you wish!

November

Black president, y’all! I got out and voted, I volunteered as a poll worker, and I helped make history. Did you? Yeah? No? Well, it’s all good now anyway. Shit really came to head for me once my whole retro pay situation worked out, and just like they forecasted six months ago, I left that bitch. Hasta la vista! Oh yeah, and Prop 8 didn’t pass and a whole lot of White gays started calling foul at Black voters. Delusion at its grandest, I tell ya. I also decided to create an LLC and use my skills to really pay my bills for myself, and not for some soul-sucking mega-conglomerate.

December

December was a bit of a blur, and there’s some stuff that went down which I didn’t discuss on the blog. I did talk about the new browser for African-Americans (aka BlackBird), as well as worked on a lot of back-end stuff with this site (upgrading plugins, upgrading Wordpress, etc.) We also lost another great talent in the divinely sublime Eartha Kitt. Now what I didn’t talk about was that I picked up a few clients and began my freelance business. My latest project was a total Wordpress revamp of The Gay Guy’s Love Coach, which I think went really well. Now I can create Wordpress themes from scratch. Need one? Get at me. But perhaps the biggest thing this month was finally cutting off Che/Gaara.

Y’know, when an ex says they want to be friends…that’s a crock of shit. I knew this before, and tried to suspend belief about it because dude seemed sincere about it. On the real though? Dude didn’t even know how to be a decent friend, and when he admitted he had been in two other relationships since we broke up (who has three fucking relationships in a year?), I was done. It was like, who was this person? And my sentimental ass got him presents for Christmas being all nice and shit, and I get repaid with a week of silence and no returned messages or phone calls. So that’s how you wanna play it? Fine, sucka. Friendship over. It’s probably best that I said my peace over e-mail and left it there, because if I would have seen him again, I would have most likely decked him or slapped the shit out of him. Or both. I have not wanted to resort to violence with any other ex I’ve had, but that really got my dander up.

Lesson learned? Don’t date a Communist. Cheap-ass, low ambition, self-imposed squalid-living, self-centered bastard.