Schadenfreude Really IS a Bitch But Happy New Year Anyway!

I have a Facebook account. It's like having a superpower, really. I get to peak into all of my friends' lives as though I had x-ray vision, except people are willingly putting up information and the little gossip-monger in me could not be any happier. But I find that sometimes I use this power for evil instead of good.

Shamefully, there are a few people out that provide me with a lot of personal entertainment. When I read that something difficult has occurred in their lives, my mean little heart does a happy dance. If something positive happens to those same people, I feel a vile twisting jab of irritation in my belly. I subversively want to see these people have an epic fail, just so I can laugh and feel vindicated.

Some great person I turned out to be.

In all honesty, sometimes I catch myself doing this and it turns my stomach. I'm a nicer person than this. I can be better than this. When I get really mean, I think about what's going on in my own life and remind myself that bad things can happen to anyone at anytime. Hell, my car just got bashed up by a deer, it's gonna cost me some money to get it fixed...not to mention, I owe $400 to my condo association on January 1st. These are all things I wasn't counting on. It definitely puts a crimp in my 2009 plans for global domination.

Here's the point in my post where I talk about a New Year's Resolution. (...I do solemnly swear that I am up to no good...) I haven't made New Year's Resolution in many years and if I do they are generally something nonspecific about going to the gym more often without any clear goal (that way if I fall off the wagon there's no associated guilt). I think this year, or at least for the first few weeks of January (heh), I should strive to be a nicer person, think more positively about my fellow man, and wish for good things to happen to everyone I know. Here's to a safe, healthy, happy and lucky New Year.