To follow a motif: Same house, new job, new cat.

Chez ch, this was one of those years that will prove to have been a major shift. I got out of a brain-numbing job and into my own business, which is at once terrifying and exhilarating. It remains roller-coastery, but much less so, and I'm utterly certain I want to keep on this path. I'm also utterly boring on the subject. Sorry, y'all. S got out of a dreadful dead end gig into a much better job that he rocks at. Re: cat, see paragraph 1 above. Traveled to new places, entirely by virtue of my so-called athletic career (a phrase that continues to CRACK MY SHIT UP). Saw buffistas I haven't seen or haven't seen in a long time. That part rocks without reservation.

Most of the changes have been very much for the good, but damn, I could use a nice year of more steady improvements and less massive upheaval.

I'm sneaking this in quickly, as my first set of NYE guests arrive in an hour, with M's 2 buddies and All Will Be Happy Chaos.

I wrote a blog post that recaps a lot of my year here: [link]

But let me add for your delectation, because y'all are my extended family. This year has been both hard and great. Dan and I celebrated our first year of marriage, and you guys know I never thought I'd BE married, so that's a wonder. Despite being perenially broke as hell, we still love each other very much, and are quite happy being geeks together.

I wasn't asked back to my teaching job, and I wouldn't have gone back to that snake pit anyway. I started freelancing full-time, and while money has been very, very tight, it is going well.

And let me just say this, and know it is a true, true thing: I NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO IT WITHOUT YOU ALL. People have been my clients, have helped me with web design, with graphics, with tech, with networking, with testimonals...with love, encouragement, cheers and good criticism. I cannot, cannot ever thank you all enough. I love you.

Despite Dans ex continuing to be a PITA, my relationship with M is strong and good and more satisfying than I ever would have imagined. I never wanted to be called mom; somehow, I am now, and it fills my heart.

I continue to have fantastic friends I have know forever, and the relationships and good and sustaining. My family is in good health, and we love each other.

Despite a couple of rough patches, this has been the best year in a long time for my depression, anxiety and insomnia. Also, I lost 40 pounds, and am the slimmest I have been since my sophomore year of high school. Which was 1987.

I'll be 40 in 2012. 2011 was a hard year, but basically, a good one. Stuff will continue to be hard, but good, I hope. I am willing to, and I WILL, work at it, but I would like very much for my business to pick up and for us to be more financially stable, and therefore, less stressed, in 2012.

Yay Erin! Go you!

As for me, 2011 was okay. The big issue is my mother, who continues to trend gradually downhill, but refusing to admit she needs help. My dad's beginning to suffer some cognitive difficulties as well, and I really don't know how this is all going to play out.

I got shafted by my employers' incompetence and end the year in the exact same place I started it: looking at a looming deadline that they seem incapable of preventing. I spent the month of February sitting on the couch, and lost a great deal in benefits I would have been accruing this year.

OTOH, I did finish a novel, and while it can't be sold, it's likely been read by more people than anything else I've written. The rest of my family appears to be healthy and employed, and my brother's restaurant is doing very well.

This year I plan to: hire more help for my folks, go to Spain, and buy a new house. And do more running. I don't think that's too much to have on the to do list.

I covered most of this ground in the Delurking thread, so I'll try to be brief.

Same cats, same dog, new job, new home! I love the NOLA crazy, most of the time, and just roll with the bad bits. You gotta laisser les mals temps rouler, too. My new house is fab, my new landlady is fab, our combined water bill this month is $22 (instead of $250) and will only go down since she's fixed the leaky toilets and is leaving for a 3 month gig.

Love life continues to be a practice in radical acceptance. We shall see what 2012 brings in that department.

I'm feeling so much better and energetic that it's hard to remember how depressed I ever was, though PMS gives me a little refresher now and again. I am finally tackling my financial woes, and hope to be out of credit card debt by the end of 2012.

I miss my NC peeps, but am making good friends here. Silver, gold, all that Girl Scout sing song stuff.

Like Erin, the events of this year would not have been possible without the Buffistas. Thank you, one and all, and let's hope 2012 is a better year for all of us.

This was certainly an eventful year for me, though pretty much all in good ways. Actually, I think all the eventful stuff happened in July: M and I went on our honeymoon to Brazil (amazing), we moved out of our crappy old apartment with our crappy old landlord into a lovely house with a dishwasher and a backyard (woo!), and I got pregnant. And we've sort of been in rest-and-recuperate mode ever since. OK, and unpacking mode, and traveling-to-see-friends-and-relatives mode, and holy-shit-we're-having-a-baby mode. We're still renting and have no plans to buy a house in Nashville, as much as I sometimes dream about it, because we're hoping that eventually M will get a job back in the Northeast -- which is the ultimate goal, even though it could take years -- and we want to be able to move easily when that happens. Doesn't look like this will be the year for that, but maybe next fall something will turn up.

In the meantime, 2012 is going to be one big adventure, and I can't wait!

2011 has definitely not been more of the same for me. I moved to Toledo to go to grad school in a whole new field (well, mostly new. It is to the medical field what Montessori is to education, kind of...). So, I'm back in an apartment, which my cat (who is back to being an only animal) seems okay with. I am once again single (nothing like going to grad school out of town to overcome relationship intertia). I haven't done any theatre in 9 months or so, which makes me sad, but, you know, grad school. I'll be done in 2 and a half years, although the last year is all outside-of-the-classroom, so I may move out early and go be itinerant in interesting places for that.

(Favorite new joke: Why did the chicken cross the road? Because I fucking carried it!)

In 2012, I will need to find something other than running to do, since my right patella thinks that slipping to the side is the cool thing to do. I will continue to get rid of stuff and not accrue any more debt than necessary. Plus grad school and my research project.

2011 started with me feeling grateful to be alive. It has ended on a completely different note.

In between, my businesses stayed pretty much the same. I accepted a part time position with a friend's company. It's been a stable and satisfying connection. I've been woefully absent over the last three months and hope to make up for that next month.

My life changed fundamentally last week and I'm still at a loss for how to just _be_ in the world.

Fortunately, thanks to Big Pharma, I have survived an awful physical affliction that threatened to send me back to hosptital...so I've got that going for me.

I've always tried to begin the new year as I would want it to continue...active, clean, orderly, hopeful.

All I am now is tired and sad.

Very well cared for, to be sure, but very, very tired. No cleaning. No celebrating. No ritual burning. No enthusiasm.

I've come to peace with my loss, though I know I will feel it keenly for a long time. I'm just having a hard time caring about anything else.

Tonight will be a bath and early bed. Tomorrow, maybe some cleaning.

I have not been able to respond to all the incredibly kind and thoughtful messages I have received, but that will happen soon.

For now please hear me say, once again, how incredibly blessed I am to be a part of this community. Over the last 7plus years I have been given so much _more_ than seems possible from a group of 'invisible friends.' More laughter, more wisdom, more generosity of spirit and material, more learning and more awareness. Even in my darkest moments, I have never been alone.

You are all an amazing gift. Thank you.

I received a surprise present today, a tin of Enstrom's Colorado Almond Toffee.

Thank you, Stephanie!

2011 was a lot less change-filled than 2010 and that was a good thing. The biggest changes was to at work. I'm at the same company but was given the opportunity to change jobs when the contract I was working under (and performing many roles for) ended. I am realizing that my new job feels more like an actual career than any job I've ever had has. In a good way! I'm truly looking forward to seeing where I can go with this.

Bob is doing great. First year of marriage pretty much rocked. It's hard sometimes with him traveling back to IL for work a couple of times a month but it still seems like the best option for him workwise for now. So, we make do. And we really feel very lucky in so many ways. We have been able to pay down a bunch of credit card debt this year (mostly mine, frankly) and were still able to take an amazing vacation (really, best vacation ever for either of us!) and buy a new computer and new bikes. (The bikes were bargains, relatively speaking, but still.) My car is hanging in there and, fingers crossed, it will continue to hold on for a while (I'm really hoping to get at least 200,000 miles out of it and it's at close to 175,000 now!).

The elderly cats are also hanging in there. The diabetic one has had some health issues recently not directly related to diabetes) and is showing his age more than his brother. I need to take him back for some bloodwork after a couple of weeks of antibiotics (which he was a total bitch about taking) and see what comes up. There's a chance that what they are hoping was an infection may be something more serious.

I haven't been able to participate here as much as I'd like due to only being able to post from my stupid phone with a bad keyboard during the day but you are all in my thoughts a lot and I'm hoping that 2012 is full of awesome for everyone!

Whew! Finally got my Secret Santa gift to the post office. Of course, I managed to get there with half the town.

What will we all do if they decide to close on Saturdays?