Expectations can be tough to meet. Or they can be cake. Sometimes the cake is frosted.

My biggest expectation of President Obama is this: no more stupid wars. But I realize there are some who believe he will create a Heaven on Earth. Or, at the very least, wave a magic wand and make it all better.

More than likely, it'll be a spoonful of sugar to help the bitter medicine go down. And maybe our expectations are the spoonfuls of sugar.

We all want things to get better, but we're still not sacrificing much. If a retailer goes under, we want all their merch for free. We won't pay full price for anything anymore. Of course, this might just mean that full price gets hiked up and then everything is marked down to about what full price used to be. A matter of perception.

I cruise eBay for bargains. There is a certain price I will pay for an item based on my own internal math. This means I don't end up the buyer of many auctions. Why would I pay (with shipping) what is full retail price for something slightly used. There seem to be a lot of people who end up doing this. Maybe it's the hunter/gatherer thing. Or they want to feel they "won" something. It's not winning a prize, it's buying something.

And there you go, I'm one of those people who won't pay full price. As I said last week, I went to the Circuit City liquidation, and I didn't buy anything. I shant return. I never really liked Circuit City, even though I would, on occasion, buy things there. I hated the way they presented movies and music. I can't really tell you why it's much different from Best Buy, but it is. I've spent fifteen minutes circling the store for something on sale, only to find it nearly hidden from sight. I've followed one of the clerks around as they did the same thing (no one seemed to know where stuff was at Circuit City--even in their own department).

Is this why Circuit City went down? Maybe not, because Hastings is laid out even worse, and they still seem to thrive.

My expectation for this year is simple: I'm going to get through it.

I don't have big plans or wants or needs. I did have a list of things I needed to upgrade, but I might not end up completing that list by year's end. This doesn't depress me, it actually makes me feel somewhat pragmatic.

I hope we don't lose a huge slew of local stores. I lost a few I shopped at (as frequently as I needed their products) last year. Having said this, I don't mind losing big chain stores. It's easier for me to only have a couple of choices of where to buy clothes and other crap. My loyalty to faceless retail giants only goes so far: and that is the price of their products.

Maybe I just don't expect anyone to do anything for me, which makes it that much nicer when people do.

I hope Obama is able to fix the things that are broken. I hope it doesn't take too long, but this is government, and government ain't swift. Doesn't matter who is in charge.

It still took Bush a year and a half after 9/11 to invade Iraq. Of course, he had a lot of bullshit to push on everyone. Did anyone who voted for him expect that? Notice they didn't use sugar to make you swallow the pill. They used fear of a nuclear bomb.

And how long will it take to fix that horrible mistake?

I expect it will be longer than I feel it should be, but shorter than President Obama's time in office.

Matt Worley expects he'll be disappointed a few times this year.