Did anyone else puke out the last decade during its waning days?

From what I've heard, I'm not the only one. Usually when people talk about being sick or having some bug that's been going around, I say, nope, I've been fine. But here I was drawn into the same nasty mess as everyone else.

And I have to wonder--especially after watching and reading what everyone seems to have thought about the 00 decade at large--if it wasn't some massive psychosomatic purge by a large component of the populace.

We'd been holding in our bile and, as the new decade came in sight, we let it all go.

I might be wrong about this. I'm not a doctor.

I spent the last few days of the decade wondering if I was ever going to get better. Or if there was something worse wrong with me than just a bug. Something that, public option forbid, might make me seek out a doctor.

But then, just a few hours before the turn of the new year and decade, my salad and grocery sushi stayed down. And the knot disappeared. Was I over it?

I can't remember the last time I ushered in a new year on my own. Or relatively sober (I had a couple glasses of wine over five hours). But after days of feeling horrible, the thought of getting trashed and then feeling horrible--again--after maybe kicking the bad juju, well that seemed stupid. Maybe I'm growing up.

So now I'm thinking positivity is a good forward push for the new newness ahead.

Not that positive thinking is always easier than negativity.

Football season was a bust this year. Both of my teams were bad. Stinking bad. So I had to let them go. Kill them off and hope the draft and recruiting brings us new hope. Releasing the pressure of pigskin winners made me feel much better.

But the UNM Men's basketball team finished the year/decade in astonishing form. 14-1 after non-conference play. They start in on the conference schedule this Tuesday. I've watched a lot of these games on the telly, as my brother has the special cable allowing access to the elusive Mountain network. Rarely was there a cakewalk game. I'm positive and I always think we're going to win, but wow, nothing seems to come easy. Even for a nationally ranked 14-1 college basketball team.

I'm officially starting my job search again. I did this two years ago as well. I could see the signs (especially in the cold, cold January 2008 air) that something bad was happening with the economy, and I'd need steady income. Six months later I started getting the steady dollars, but it's time to move on.

It wasn't a good time to job search then and it's not now either. But I'm positive there will be something for me out there. Something different. Hopefully something better.

There used to be a children's book called Could Be Worse. It started with a kid thinking things were bad, and then this old guy went through all the ways it could be worse. I'm not sure if the worst worse thing was the apocalypse by aliens or asteroids or global warming, but I remember being a little disturbed by the whole thing.

The idea that you should feel good because the real bottom is so far away seems a little tough to make a single digit aged kid to think about. Of course, it could be the worst worse thing was that the TV broke. I doubt anyone died or anything.

So I'd like to think we hit bottom sometime last decade. And, that being the case, it's mostly up from here. I'm feeling good about that. Because it means things are getting better.

Matt Worley looks to the future with the sun on his face.