I will note that the fall of 2000 was a very nice time indeed, as drugged episodes are wont to be.
My personal mythology says 2003 was the best year of the decade, maybe even better than the Saiyuki heydays (August 2000- May or thereabouts '01); and that nothing afterwards even came near. But that's not true. I have extremely fond memories of 2008, even with all the snow-- the Woxin natter, the Pratchett reads, the Chinese films I was watching around this time in the bright March sun. But that was a calmer kind of happiness, more adult by comparison to either '03 or '00. And high time too, I suppose. 'You're not a giddy fifty year old any more.' Alas. Giddy fifty-year-old-dom was such fun.
(I have a sinus infection, again; hence the melancholy.)