I think "Buffistae" is cute, and wouldn't condemn anyone for using it, but the plural will always be BuffistaS in my heart.

Oh dear...I'm starting to worry about whether or not the Secret Santa gift I posted to the States has got lost in the mail. I was a bit nervous, because I didn't send it by recorded delivery or whatever. Hmm. Still, I think I sent it around the 20th, so I'm not going to start freaking out yet, because that's only, what a fortnight or so.

But, possibly, I may need to send a second Secret Santa gift. We'll see. Wish me Postal Service -ma!

While I can't claim worst year ever, it was the best.

Bad:

My cat got sick , his illness took over my life in way i didn't understand, then we had to put him down. We still ache.

DH got into the oddest job situation ever , where he knew it was going to end, but he was still there for awhile . Messes with your head. He now has a new job, his severance from his old job is becoming a decent nest egg for us. Yet DH has still not recovered from the brain mess up.

Many friends spent too much time this year looking for a job

Good

we put in the dinning room and kitchen floors -- nothing like physical labor that improves the nest to help with the mental attitude.

Family -- all good. Matt's parents have given us some scares, but they seem to rally.

Most everyone that needed a job, had found something. Not everyone, but I have hope.

What I want most for the next year : A lessening of this economic fear. It causes paralysis on an individual basis,to businesses, to countries, and to the world. I spent the last 6 months of 2008 fearing. I can't do it anymore.

Here's a take on 2008

[link]

I've been trying to come up with what to say about 2008. So far I got nothing.

I've been trying to come up with what to say about 2008. So far I got nothing.

Well, you did clean out your closets. So you got that going for you.

I've been trying to come up with what to say about 2008. So far I got nothing.

You could try bitter irony.

Maybe start with the horrible pain and work your way back to the death, maintaining a leitmotif of unrelieved stress and random financial hardship.

A lot of people had shitty 2008s, but you and Drew managed to tag team a real doozy. I'm glad you had each other and I hope the next year is really pretty freakin' boring, with lots of sustained pleasures for you both.

Megan, you are so very right. I need to bring you back to help me finish the job.

Hec, thank you. It really was such an awful year, and I think I've been so focused on trying not to feel sorry for myself and trying to remember that we are still very lucky in so many ways that I haven't really let myself just say, "Yep, that pretty much sucked donkey balls." Sometimes it's nice to admit that it was really just shitty.

But being the optimist that I am, I am determined to make 2009 a great year. Nine is my favorite number, so I'm expecting good things.

I'm still formulating what to say about 2008. I steadfastly refuse to write it off as a bad year. Yes, there was plenty of heartache and bad, but when I really step back and look at the year I can also find some amazingly good stuff. I am planning on putting it all together soon enough, I just need to sit down an start to sort through it.

2008 started and ended with funerals and death. A member of my extended family overdosed on New Years Eve 2007 and died at the age of 25. 2008 began with watching that grief and anguish.

My uncle died last week on December 30 and I find myself in the same place, but closer to the center. 30 years ago today, Uncle Larry got in a horrific car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He fought back from that, and fought so much more. This was so sudden he didn't have the opportunity to gird himself for the battle, and he lost.

In between, things were pretty quiet, for the most part. The widow of our beloved friend (who died in November 2007) passed away in February, and that was the funeral that I couldn't go to. I had a valid excuse, but the bottom line was that I just didn't have the mental and emotional reserves to go.

Tom lost his job in August, which led to no small amount of anxiety, but which ultimately led to a change he's needed for quite some time now. Also in the "Win" column for 2008 was the acquisition of the newest and totally beloved member of our family, Taz the Cat. He is awesome. In July, we also had a wonderful vacation up in Maine that was everything a vacation should be.

2009 should bring change, and I'm hoping it will be for the better. The plan is to finish up my degree this spring and find a new and more challenging position. Tom and I are hoping to celebrate 5 years of marriage in the fall by visiting San Francisco and Northern CA. My sister will have her 3rd child in June. Whatever is unforeseen, I hope I will be ready for it.