So it's time for my annual holiday letter and year-end summary. I just sent the note to most of my non-digital friends. The people who don't read the blog or at least don't admit to reading it. Come on! Quit lurking. Expose yourself. Lord knows, I can't be the only one around here with his digital pants around his ankles.

I could write about all the happenings of the last year, but really, seems redundant if you are a regular voyeur around these parts. It's all there. Most of it at least. And certainly far more than my family appreciates. I still don't know why my mother insists on reading this crap. It's wildly masochistic on her part. Eh. I guess she lives for that. She isn't complete unless at least one of her children is aggravating her.

I'll give a quick summary:

New job same as the old job. New girl (sorta), bye girl (sorta), no new girls now, still convinced that the odds of me finding love (or even a reasonably stable single female amongst the Barbie Army) in Orange County are just slightly lower than my winning the lottery. Same house (almost ten years now), same roommate, and I still love her dearly. She rocks like a hurricane. Sold the Mustang for something practical then immediately ran out and bought my first motorcycle, one that goes so obnoxiously fast that I routinely dust Porsches on PCH just for giggles. However, for a toy that has such a reputation as a "chick magnet" this bike really hasn't seen any action yet. Climbing trip to Italy. Got sick and rained out of half of it. Add to that the dry anal rape that is the current exchange rate with the Euro and I'm so over Europe. Bought two investment properties, both are rented, both about to be sold, both have taught me that real estate is an incredible pain in the ass, but one that can be really lucrative. Kinda like gay porn. I still do lots of things that scare the living hell out of my mother like climbing rocks and riding bikes and stuff, but not as much anymore. My job still had me all over the place, not so much in San Fran any longer (of course this happened at precisely the same time that Tassy moved back to Oakland), and frankly, my knees are starting to show the ill effects of fifteen years of abuse. The recent presidential election has further proved to me that Americans are generally foolhardy with respect to politics, and after a few days of nervous ticks, I finally embraced the result as just another four years of excellent blog fodder at the expense of our fearsome leader. And other than my usual Jimbo angst and general sense of self-loathing, I've been OK I suppose.

But then of course there is the recent big news I have been eluding to for a couple years now.

As most of you know, I was approved for up to twelve months leave of absence. For those of you who don't know, I have been saving money for the last few years to take a little sabbatical. I had actually hoped to take it with last year with my ex. We all know what happened to those plans. I am currently planning on leaving in January for up to six months of travel. Maybe more. I'm starting in South America - Chile and Argentina, for Patagonia visits and then perhaps back to Brazil. I still have friends there in both Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo. Then on to Antarctica if I can find a cheap boat. This right now is the biggest challenge. I have not found a cruise cheaper than $3500. I'm trying ot do this for $2K or less, without having to sleep in steerage. From there it's on to Australia for some rock climbing and eventually a tour up the coast to the Great Barrier Reef. I may toss New Zealand into that leg if I have the time. Then onto China, and if I have time, SE Asia and India. As you could guess, it all depends on the finances. I still need to figure out how much I really have, how much it's really gonna cost, and how much I'm really prepared to spend. I probably have enough saved for a year or more, but I'd prefer not to live on grubs and berries. I also need to decide If I am keeping the house. Right now it seems likely as the cost difference between my rent and a storage unit for all my crap is almost negligible when compared to the advantages of maintaining a "base camp" in the states.

I'm heading out solo, but I hope to meet up with friends in South America and Australia. I'm also hoping some of you will join me. Not for the whole trip mind you. I know most of you have those "jobs" or "kids" or "lives" or "responsibilities" that prevent you from tossing the conventional wisdom of mortgage and career out the window and living out of a backpack in some foreign dirt hole for months at a time. However, I know for a fact that a lot of you do take two weeks of vacation every year. So take a week or two and meet me somewhere on this stretch! I'm totally fun on a trip, no matter what my ex might tell you. Don't listen to her anyway. She's Canadian, and you can't trust any of those people.

Do you feel like seeing the Great Wall and eating food of highly questionable ingredients? Catch up with me in China! Want to see Patagonia? Meet me in Chile! Want to see obnoxiously beautiful people in really small bathing suits? Meet me in Brazil. Want to see obnoxiously intoxicated people in no bathing suits? Meet me in Australia!

Either way, I need the time. I need to regroup. I need to figure out where I'm going next in my life - at least professionally if not personally. I don't plan to stay in OC upon my return. I'm looking at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, etc. Somewhere west. That middle part of the country and I just don't see eye to eye. My whole liberal vegetarian rock climber thing. Go figure.

So anyhow, best part of the deal, I have 300,000 frequent flier miles saved up on American, so most if not all the big International flights (read the expensive ones) are totally free. Yeah, I may not have been happy with my work, but I sure can't complain about the rewards.

Let me know if you are interested in tagging along for a little while. I don't want to hear any lame excuses like "I need a liver transplant" or "I have kids to feed" or "I'm getting married that week." It's way cheaper than you expect, and I promise not to make you nuts. Most of the time.

Anyway, I'll be using my blog for travel stories and pictures when I leave. I'll just be a more global internet slut. I broke two millon hits on Digitalcatharsis last week, and it freaked me out. Who are all you people?

And if any of you know how to get cheap boats to Antarctica, I so need to know more. I just gotta know what a field of one million fish-eating penguins smells like. Can you imagine? Yummy!