Baby steps for me! You can do it, 2014! You can save us...

May 2014 end well for everyone, and may the future years never do anything to me like this year did. Ave, my beloved. You and Shadow look out for each other.

Oh, it's open! Hi, thread. First 10?

I'll have to return once I have a suitable farewell summation.

Hello thread! Verdict is still out on 2014. Giving it a few weeks to redeem itself.

Hmm. There's been good and bad this year...I'd say overall tipping to the good but I'ma give it a few more weeks and hope it weights even more strongly that way. Hope.

Been a crazy year, and I probably won't have a final verdict until some time in January.

There was Arthur's kidney transplant and the adoption of Joey, the donor. Sadly, we lost Marie, but she made it to a ripe old age of 16. Sadly, I had to stop volunteering at the animal shelter because we don't want to risk transmitting infections to the immune-suppressed Arthur. Which also throws my post-retirement plans into confusion.

Work has been extremely busy as my boss is pushing me forward, thinking I might have a chance at a promotion. (I'm cooperating. But he's more optimistic about it than I am. We'll know more about who's right when annual evaluations come out, probably in January but possibly before the end of the year.)

Hubs seems to have settled in to retirement, finally. Now I need to keep him on his meds and make sure he gets enough sleep.

This year has been interesting, that's for sure. I lost my wallet in NYC and got it back, and going through that made me suspect that I might actually be an adult. I finally got to do some sightseeing in SF. I climbed a volcano in Ecuador. My dad had another heart attack. I hung out with people a lot and cooked a lot and walked a crapton of miles. I finally saw Eddie Izzard live. I started taking online classes, which has made my brain happier. And pretty soon I'm probably packing up my life and moving to the Bay Area after 8 years in Chicago. Provided that someone will hire me before I flip out like a mammal.

So far the end of 2014 has been full of pain, anxiety and frustration.

Last month I had my teeth cleaned for the first time in several years, they were like - everything looks structurally sound. Then 3 days later my molar broke - I had a cavity. They tried filling and then said I needed a root canal then that wasn't going to work so they pulled it. It took, basically a whole month. I have severe dental anxiety so it wasn't the easiest of times.

Now I have a flare up of painful bladder syndrome and keep having to leave because it's too painful to walk, stand , bend or realy sit.

On the other hand, I moved from being on the phones at work to being on the sales floor. I've done mostly okay but missing work hasn't really helped. But I got a good review at my yearly and a small raise.

I went home during the summer.

Will and I are still togehter and still just doing our thing. I haven't been knitting but I've been playing around with collage and art a bit.

I'm also seeing a therapist who I adore and a shrink I hate. I'm trying to work on that.

I guess the biggest thing for me this year(although I'm still writing, that hasn't broken through all that much, but I do think I'm on the right track with it, which is good)is that my volunteer commitments, always a factor around election season, have become less anonymous and more responsible since I started doing stuff for PDA. In some ways I do the stuff that nobody wants to do, but maybe I'm better at it, or at least not overscheduled as many of the organizers are(I round up a lot of the numbers for donors and on the phone lists, which seems to be a hated chore for some yet no big deal to me personally, but I kind of like it when they thank me as though I pulled someone's ring out of the toilet.)I do some social-media things, so I'm on a team for almost the first time ever. Oh, and I got retweeted by Clay Davis.

I survived the year. Calling that a win.