Aww, you guys are all so inspiring to me.

It's not even 10:30 here, and I think I may well be asleep before midnight for the first time in years. Since my day started at 6AM on the East Coast and consisted of a flight across country followed by an afternoon in the ER with poor, flu-ridden ND, I think I've had enough excitement.

As for 2012, it's kind of a fog, honestly, which tells me something about the frenetic pace we've kept up all year. It was a year largely dominated by work, for better or worse, and I would like 2013 to be a little more about life outside of work. ND continues to be my best friend as well as my husband, but we didn't make as much time for each other in the speed of the year. I guess that's as near to a resolution as I'm going to get.

We did adopt three new pets this year—the grey boy kitties in January, and our goofy puppy Newton in November—and they have all brought us tremendous joy. No new pets in 2013. We're full up.

Mostly, I would like this coming year to be a happy one for all of us. And I think that's all I have to say about that.

Happy New Year and I hope it is for all Buffista's and their families.

I usually don't do end of year wrap ups, mostly because very little happens to me.

I'm still temping at a really boring job and not quite making enough to live on, so my credit card debt continues to rise alarmingly. And I have no prospects for change.

2012 was the year I gave up. I've stopped looking for a job and just hope that a temp one eventually leads to something permanent. I'm tired of rejections or no answers at all.

I still have Fibromyalgia, my car is deteriorating and I can't fix it and to add insult to injury, my apartment is cold and I can't seem to control the radiators.

2013 had better be...better!

Happy New Year everyone!

Year of the Water Snake. Kind of cool.

quester - I hope that you have a better year this year. (I'm suffering from a cold apartment too. . . wtf crappy heating systems?)

(I'm suffering from a cold apartment too. . . wtf crappy heating systems?)

Seriously!

eta because I somehow quoted the wrong post. WTF?

My year in review was much, much better than last year. There was still some tough stuff with the students (a double murder, lots of horrible stuff in the kids' lives, big problems for the partnering orgs) but that's why we're doing the work.

I quit a couple of things that were negative for me even though they looked positive and that was a good call.

We took two great trips to Santa Fe, and did a bunch of other travel, including seeing Buffistas in four cities!

The SO went on tour over the summer and it was nutty with an opening act and film crew and general mayhem, but it was a lot of fun and really good for our work (we really expanded our mailing list). I went to the last of my crazy anarchist Christian music festival, and will miss that, but learned to make cigar box guitars, which we will do with our students this year!

And I did some social justice work of which I'm proud.

So overall, much better in mental health, in relationships, in work, in life.

Now that most of the Secret santa (but not the Slacker santa?) exchange is done, do we want to talk about the Mardi Gras exchange?

I would love to make it multi-holiday, but that seems like it would stretch it out too long, so how about this:

Gifts should be purple, gold or green, or otherwise connected with Mardi Gras (so King Cake counts! )

Yes, no, other ideas?

Yes. And I think single holiday is good. If we want to do other little gift exchanges for other holidays, we can propose those in Press once this thread is closed.

I think the Mardi Gras Exchange is a great idea, but I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to participate this year.

What if it was a Mardi Gras/Easter/General Spring exchange from 2/12 (Mardi Gras) to 3/31 (Easter). I want to participate, but to start up right now is too much for me, in a month, I'll be good.