1 W-2

I received my W-2 for 2005 today. Why is that significant?

Because this marks the first year in 5 years where I only have one -- where I only worked for one organization all year.

In 2004, I worked for 3; in 2003, I worked for 3; in 2002, I worked for 2; in 2001 I worked for 2; in 2000 I worked for 2; 1999 is the last time I worked for 1...

...ahh, 1999. That was a landmark year in job history too. That was the first year where I left my summer job at the bakery when my junior year in college started, but came back to work there over Christmas break (the landmark part being that it was the first time in the history of my summer employment that I bothered to come back!). I loved that job. It was high stress, early mornings, and full of big egos -- egos that it seemed I was captain at soothing and amongst whom it seemed only I could negotiate, short of the owner's edict. It was mayhem and madness and anal retention and hilarity and endless inside jokes that come from being in a confined space together doing something tedious for too long. And I had a crush on two of the people who worked there. It was great.

So this year I'm going to do my taxes like it's 1999, but tonight I'm going to raise a toast to the bakery (terrible pun -- get it?) with a glass of hard-earned wine.

Hoorah!