10 THINGS I LOVED IN 2009 (in no particular order)

1. Seeing my sons get along like best friends
2. Mass production of dark chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups…finally
3. The huge sack of fair trade coffee my buddy brought me from Ethiopia
4. Dexter-Season 4
5. Seeing “A Steady Rain” on Broadway and watching Hugh Jackman brilliantly disappear into his role
6. My Kindle
7. Chicago NOT getting the Olympics bid and Mayor Daley finally NOT getting his way
8. Bryan Adams’ voice live in concert
9. Finally discovering the comedic genius of Louis C.K., and having our whole family laugh ourselves silly
10. Still getting to write songs for a living

10 THINGS I DID NOT LOVE IN 2009

1. Chris Brown
2. The unbelievable traffic in Chicago
3. The last episode of “Dirty, Sexy, Money”
4. Chris Brown ( this dude gets 2 slots because any guy who beats up a woman is a chickenshit douchebag)
5. Seeing “The Today Show” become nothing but a showcase for trivial, meaningless attention whores
6. Airlines losing my bags. I mean…seriously…is there a task on earth that requires LESS intellectual ability?…and yet they just….can’t…handle it.
7. “The Proposal.” My answer is, uh,….no.
8. Surrendering to the fact that the word “Illinois” is synonymous with “dirty politics.”
9. Seeing the bar for what passes for “talent” get even lower
10. A summer of constant rain

10 THINGS I HOPE FOR IN 2010

1. The health and safety of my family and friends
2. A feeling in my gut that President Obama has a clue as to what the hell he’s doing
3. For our national news to care more about reporting a story accurately than simply reporting it first
4. The merciful disappearance of Octomom, Balloon Boy’s idiot father, and Jon Gosselin from any and all media outlets
5. An emergence of sanity from any and all media outlets that would enable #4
6. For Rod Blagojevich to get exactly what’s coming to him
7. Prolonged laryngitis for Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Chris Matthews, every woman on The View, ….I could go on here…..
8. A return in this country to a thing called “courteousness”
9. A cure for Cystic Fibrosis
10. The safe return of our troops