I love this thread. Look at us, making each other happy at the end of a rough year and the beginning of an uncertain one. I love us.

So 2017 is going to start with me going on a date. Well next weekend. I'm nervous because Will and I were a long distance online relationship for so long I haven't actually been on a date in a long time. A really really long time.

Congratulations, askye!

Anyhow, I got ANOTHER round of secret santa gifts!!! Some lovely tea, socks, soap, a little box for 'junk', a Supernatural coloring book (YAY!) and a lovely set of pastels and some pastel paper. Thank you so, so much, Secret Santa! What a wonderful surprise to come home to on an otherwise gloomy and blah day.

This past year kind of sucked. I made a job change for my mental health and professional development and it has turned out to be not at all what I hoped. I'm angry at a good friend and mentorevery day. I don't feel good about myself, and it's damaging our friendship. Plus I took a major financial hit that i had not fully anticipated. I have eight weeks to find something else during the period when nothing happens, aka Carnival. I have no desire to start my own business but I may not have a choice.

I got out of the Mildew Hut and into a better apartment, but my old landlord won't pay back my security deposit and my new roommate is an emotional child.

I haven't been in a relationship or had sex in over two years. I'm smoking again, right now in fact. I lost my Queen Bitch Kitty to kidney failure.

Plus the whole Loser in chief to be thing.

The good: my sister is doing better, I volunteered for two campaigns, I made some new friends, a lot of people think I'm cool, I've lost twenty pounds without really trying thanks to Effexor so my clothes fit again. And you people. You people are awesome. Thank you for being awesome.

If anything good comes of all this shit, it's that to survive I will have to burn off a lot of fucks about what people think of me and trust my own judgment.

I have been elfed again! I got a pack of Adventure Time trading cards (woo!) and a lapel pin of a unicorn in an ice cream cone (a unicorn! in an ice cream cone! YAS!) Buffista Elf, you are the wonderfullest.

Oh! Yay!!! That was from me but I thought it was lost in the mail because I sent it before anything else.

Yay!!! Thank you! You're the best!!

It did look a little trampled. I'm not sure what happened, but it made it!

That sounds almost like a fight song, smonster. You deserve to fight for yourself, and you deserve to count every victory, large or small.

askye, I hope your date goes well.

2016 will never be my favorite year. On top of the political and other macro-news that everyone is aware of:

Beginning of May: I have surgery to correct a severely deviated septum and extremely narrow sinus passages.

Middle of May: We lose Seamus to a rare form of cancer. (Rare in cats, anyway -- it isn't uncommon in dogs.)

July: Hubs's back goes out.

August: Hubs has two surgeries to correct his back. Which means I have to drive him everywhere through the end of October, which requires some delicate balancing of work and family commitments while Boss is trying to position me for a promotion (that I don't think I'll ever get, but that's another story).

November: Hubs has bariatric surgery.

December: Arthur becomes ill with what is diagnosed as pre-leukemia. Although the folks at the University of Georgia vet hospital are wondering whether he might have had only a simple infection.

I am not expecting a better 2017, certainly not on the macro level. I keep reminding myself that I'm now eligible to retire next year. (September 2018, to be more exact)

I also got a dumpster fire 2016 ornament from smonster! SO PERFECT. Thank you!

I have all the things assembled to send a gift to my Elfster-select, and will be able to mail it on Friday. Sorry for the delay!