Mostly, 2011 was mostly situation normal for me. No real lows or highs. But my job, which was never terribly satisfying, was always a pleasant enough place to work. It's been reorganized into a far more corporate and bureaucratic department, and I fear this means that "pleasant place to work" element will be removed. (Also maybe paranoid fears about being made redundant.) So I have been thinking a lot about moving on...Inertia is strong in me, so I hope for some kind of opportunity and the balls to overcome it. Some times I worry that I have been in the velvet prison of the civil service for so long I won't even know how to work in a real job anymore.

My parents are in their 80s. My dad had a heart incident this spring and my mom is a weird place of deafness and burgeoning senility which she is stubbornly in denial about. So I worry about them a lot. They're at an age where you just don't know what will happen.

I wish that 2012 is good to Buffistas. I know it can't be sunshine and glitter all the time, but here's to hoping that the breakthroughs column has many more checks than the breakdowns column.

SUNSHINE AND GLITTER! A perfect world!

Well, this was a year of changes. mr. flea's postdoc was set to expire in August, and he job searched and searched. At various points I looked up places like Berlin, Dublin, Ada OK, and Los Alamos. But we ended up in Cincinnati - possibly the most prosaic on the list! - and a place we'd actually lived before (and met, even.) He started his job in mid-September, and we all moved up Oct. 5. The kids are in an excellent-rated elementary school, I have a job in my field (though currently temporary, underpaid, and with a control freaky boss), and mr. flea really likes his job, which could easily be a forever job (unless a Republican president manages to actually abolish the EPA.)

But I'm not settled at all. We're in a temporary apartment; we have a house for sale in Georgia; I don't feel like we've found the right school community or neighborhood or job community (for me). I hate moving; I moved about every 3 years growing up and the longest I have lived in one city is 5 years (Durham NC) and I hate the instability of it all. I really wanted to be settled for a really long time in Georgia, although I hated the weather, and it will take a while for me to accept this move and find my way.

2011 was much like 2010 for me. Same job, same husband, same cats, same house.

Too many people I know suffered loss in some way. I keep telling the universe to lay off my friends, but it doesn't listen.

I know 2012 will have at least one change for me, as I will end up in a different lab by the end of the year. We'll see what else happens.

billytea - Ryan continues to be v. amusing.

He surely is. He's also reached an age where we can actually reason with him. With mixed results, but fairly often he'll listen. (Like the night I explained to him how the food he eats sends nutrition to all of his body, so it was important to eat good things, and he actually agreed to eat his vegetables. Refused again the next night, but it's something.)

Kat, if you haven't gotten the address yet, you can ask your giftee an anonymous question. If they respond, everyone will be able to see it, but it they don't mind that it'll work.

yeah guys, I've actually been working on this, just getting no response. There are multiple issues at play.

Kat got the address for her giftee from Suzi, just FYI.

perfection.

I can echo most of Sheryl's post - same job, house, and cat. Also, while nothing much happened to me, the year was far too cruel to far too many of my friends.

For me, I feel like 2011 was mostly spent laying groundwork for 2012, in terms of identifying some long-buried issues that I need to deal with, and finally taking steps to move my job into more of a career path.

I do hope that in 2012, I can get some F2F time with at least some of y'all.