Jars, I think TCG is going to be taking off the week between Christmas and New Years off, and we'd love to see you! We're also planning on resuming out New Years Day gathering this year, and would love to have you join us here, if you can.

Jars, thirty is going to be awesome and you're going to rock it. Don't stress.

I've been so lurky, I haven't even thought about how to delurk.

It's been a rough couple of years. Lots of loss, lots of illness and not much in the way of the kind of magic I have come to expect in my life.

Bartleby's death, so close on the heels of my own nearly checking out at the end of 2010, just did me in. And continues to color my days, often in surprising ways. Nearly every day, someone still asks me where he is, or even worse, calls my new dog by his name. Little kids tell me that they miss him. As painful as it is, it's also kind of beautiful that he touched so many people. Such a small soul, such a big impact.

The new guy is adorable and sweet and, sadly, just about as dumb/untrainable as a dog can be. I feel like it is some sort of karmic payback. I had the perfect dog, now I have one that looks at me regularly with an expression that says, "I know you are talking to me, but I have no idea why and, frankly, could not care less."

The challenge has been great and my efforts to meet it have not been very successful.

As for business. Oy. It's bad. But, I'm hoping the passing of election season will un-paralyze this company town. Everyone is in a holding pattern, wondering if they will have jobs in the new year.

My next big plan is to help folks overcome public speaking and meeting stress/anxiety using video. Hopefully, it will be fun and fruitful.

On the canine side of the house, I plan to start a Dog Scouts of America chapter to get neighborhood kids involved in leadership and dog powered scooters. If all goes well, I will put together a band of scooters for charity runs and fundraisers for local shelters and for folks like me who need help with major medical expenses for their pets.

I cannot express the depth of my gratitude for this community and their help when things were so bad with Bartleby. The money was a huge, HUGE help and the kindness actually kept me alive.

I love it here and resolve to be around more in 2013.

Sneaking in under the wire.

Personally, 2012 has sucked. So let's talk about nothing personal.

But my mother finished chemo, and she's in remission, so good. My father's eye surgery seems to be working out, and my sister had an amazing time turning 40. So those things are good.

I'm not a lurker, but I figure I'll toss my 2 cents in and maybe encourage more actual lurkers to contribute before the day is through!

since last October, things have been hard. Tom's mother died in late October/early Nov last year, and I'm starting to see that we haven't recovered from the stress of that too well, and when other relatively minor problems come up, they knock both of us over a lot harder than they should.

Hoping to flip that script by tackling my depression, which has come back strong this past year.

Still in New Orleans, and I do love it. I don't even know what kind of rough shape I'd be in if I were still in New England with this depression.

Got to see lots of buffistas this year, both with them coming to me in New Orleans and also when I went to San Francisco a few weeks ago (wheee!)

Good on you, Nora.

I'm glad for your mom, ita.

So yeah, last year my post was on the last day of the thread too.

It's been an interesting year. The basics are all still the same: loving the house, still amazingly working for ourselves hanging out with kids and playing instruments, dog is happy, husband is amazing.

Things have been a little harder overall. The SO is working a ton of extra hours, and now it's physical labor instead of lessons at the music store. It's not infinitely sustainable. But I love him, and I appreciate how hard he's working for us.

I came through the minor depression pretty well and this year has been pretty good, although not without its bumps. The big major thing is that I started working with a trainer and have shed 10 pounds today! But it does take time, so I feel like while I'm keeping up with that, I'm not necessarily keeping up with everything else I need to be.

Anyway, more introspection in Good Riddance, but on the whole, it's been a pretty good, if more physically difficult and tiring, year.

have shed 10 pounds today!

Wow. That's amazing. How many did you shed yesterday?

Heh.

Okay, okay, I knew that was unclear when I typed it! Since August! But today marks the tenth! It's actually .2 above my goal, but I'm also a week ahead of my goal date, so I think I'll make it.

Hi everyone! I’m popping in almost at the last minute to delurk. I didn’t end up doing an update last year, so I’ll do a two-year catch up.

My health is still not great – today is my three-year anniversary of getting H1N1 influenza, which left me with a fatigue disorder. I’m close to half-way better now, but it still limits my life a lot. It’s a good thing that I love sleeping, because I spend way too much time on it.

I've been studying voice fairly seriously and it brings me a lot of pleasure. I'm not so good at finding performing opportunities, but I'm working on it. It does seem a waste to develop a bunch of repertoire and never sing it anywhere.

My other news is all about my relatives.

My nephew Simon will turn three in December and is gorgeous and hilarious and a load of fun. He is also getting a baby brother around the end of January! We're all very excited. My sister Nora (who posted here as RahRah) is having a bit more trouble with this pregnancy than with Simon, but is healthy and doing well.

My sister-in-law wasn't able to find a job when her contract ended in September, so she, my sister and Simon moved in with my mother. That's working really well and makes visits very efficient.

My other sister, who posted here as Helena Handbasket, got married at the end of September. Nora and I were bridesmaids and it all went really well, although Helen had to work way too hard to make it all happen.

She is a working nurse now and she and her new husband (who is a really great guy) just bought a house. Isn't there some sort of law against baby sisters growing up?

When I posted on delurk two years ago, I wrote about issues with my brother's daughter. The good news is that he has been visiting her around three times a year (he lives in a different province) starting when she was six months. When I wrote two years ago, I thought he wasn't going to have anything to do with her other than paying support, so that is a huge improvement. The bad news is that she turned two in September and the legal stuff is not worked out yet.

I've met her once, when she was nine months old. My mother got to see her more often, but it has been nearly a year since she last saw her. This all seems ridiculous (and sad) to me, but I don't get to be in charge.