With just hours left until the famous ball drops in Times Square, most people will take the time left in the year to reflect on the year that was. Me? I can't wait for this horrible year to end - and for the New Year to begin.

The last 365 days have been a true year of Hell for me. It began with very painful internal heart surgery on January 7th that cost me yet another of my nine lives - and ended with a very painful heartbreak that cost me even more of my already dwindling pride and self-confidence. In between those two very unhappy events, I had to endure betrayal, drama and financial stress - so you can only imagine how badly I want that ball to drop.

Don't get me wrong, there are some very happy things that happened to me this year. I got to work with Matt Lauer on a "sweeps week" episode of the Today Show, I helped NASCAR film a segment with Driver Jimmie Johnson, I traveled to Chicago to see my Godchildren Alexis, Mason and Cole along with my "sister" Kandice and "brother" Dan, I went to Ohio and met even more members of my South Park family, I moved into a brand new house that is free of negativity and drama - and I got to know some dear "old friends" of mine that I have wanted to meet for some time, including Julie and Deborah, whom I was communicating with for years and was finally able to meet in person. And - I got to know Summer, a very dear friend of mine, on a much deeper level than friendship - and plan to get to know her a lot more as we enter 2004.

When I first started writing this, I was going to focus this column on all of the horrible things that have happened to me and how much I hated this year. In fact, I was even going to call it, "From Heart Surgery To Heartbreak - GOOD RIDDANCE 2003!" But after talking to Summer, and after discussing all of the good experiences I had this year, I realized that while there have indeed been a few catastrophic events that have taken place this year, there have been many smaller but positive events that, when looked at together - actually outweigh all the negative experiences I had to unfortunately endure throughout this very tough year.

So while this year on a whole was one I would not wish to experience again, if I look at all of the experiences I went through - perhaps it wasn't such a bad year after all.

Thanks a lot for the different perspective Summer - it's gonna be a very Happy New Year indeed.