The things next year is built upon

The biggest thing that happened this year is I married my best friend and beautiful woman Sarah, under a full moon on the beach, surrounded by our kids and friends who have stuck with us. There was a lot of laughter afterwards at Marlin Monroe's where Jenny O threw us one hell of a party! Every month there is a full moon and we take it to celebrate our love and our marriage.

Then Dedra drove us to the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (an oxymoron) so we could fly to Atlanta so we could then fly to Belize. Standing to make a connection in the Belize City International Airport, my phone buzzed and it was Johnny O.

"I am so sorry," he said.

"For what?" I asked.

"I have no idea," he explained.

Sarah climbed in the cockpit of the little plane and we flew to the peninsular and the honeymoon was on.

We visited a lot of places this year. Atlanta (I thought it was a good idea at the time), Daytona Beach, Athens (Go Dawgs!), St. Martin of course, the Bahamas, Memphis, Seattle and the San Juan Islands and Key West. Each is now a catalog of memories that we share in our hearts.   They are stories to tell.

There was the Carnival of Friends and our first cruise. Mark, Mitch and Dedra remain risen from the dead so we had reunions. Joey Finch came out of nowhere and we are both so thankful he's enriched our lives. The members of the Bored continued to gather and Sam Adams, who plays damn good live music on the island, kept at it in Bar Church.

Sean and Wen McNally just picked up and came to Tybee as though they were manna sprinkled down from heaven. Glenn and Vicky Arnold thought it was such a good idea they sprinkled themselves in too.

We had a Toga party, a saran wrap party, tapas party, birthday parties, and other festive gatherings for no apparent reason.

The year was not without controversy. The Tybee Island Police Department started profiling Goddess and Winston, the little gay dog. There's already been one court appearance and they'll be another next year.

It's been a year of changes, transitions and discovery. There were bad things but it was mostly good (though Sarah is simply great!). The kids are all great! Dani got married and I got to officiate (Welcome to the family Pete!). The beach remains beautiful, the marsh smells pungent (like the aroma of sex in the Tropics) and Shirley's sad little holy dock is the holy of Holy's.

The Bicycle didn't get drunk much. The Palm Tree with the oyster face, coconut bra and grass still makes me smile. A fire burns in the Chiminea this time of year. Fran is still alive and beautiful in her thousand different ways.

And people have written or called, many of whom I thought were dead or irrelevant  and said the nicest things to warm my heart.

These are the things that next year is built upon.