Are you looking forward to or dreading 2005? As the ball drops in Times Square, I see Fate slipping a horseshoe into the boxing glove of life, and wondering what fresh hell this coming year will bring:
• At least one and possibly both of my cats will die this year • My mother is in very frail health • I am hanging onto my stress-filled job by my fingertips, as we have a new boss • I’m going to night school, which means I will not have one free moment to call my own, and little sleep • My finances are stretched tighter than Joan Rivers’ face.
I see nothing positive coming my way in the next year and a whole lotta trouble.
My husband starts a new job on January 3 - he’s been stuck in a job he hates for two years now. My mother is having a second surgery for breast cancer next week, and facing radiation therapy after that. I have a younger brother whom I love very much and who I cannot see, as he is on the run from the law. My best friend’s mother passed away unexpectedly yesterday, so there’s a funeral coming up pretty fast - and earlier this year her 18-year-old nephew was killed in a car crash. I’ll be 40 tomorrow. My in-laws are starting to slip badly, both physically and mentally, and my husband’s elderly aunt has surgery coming up for blocked arteries; I am the official family caretaker, so all the medical stuff will be falling on me. Another one of my good friends, only 37 years old, has recently been diagnosed with Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis and has just been turned down for disability benefits. And, this is the third year in a row in which I will NOT be going back to school to get my degree.
But - my marriage is strong and happy, my teenage daughter is sassy and independent. I have an incredibly loving and caring group of friends that has become my extended family.
This new year will start off stressful, but I have high hopes.
Well, lessee, here. I normally hunker down in my Bunker of Solitude on NYE, but a young lady of my acquaintance has just made a number of flirtacious remarks concerning our possibly meeting up during the evening in question, and last week I received an E-mail from my boss in which the previously unknown words ‘bonus’ and ‘pay rise’ appeared, so either things are looking pretty good for Q1 2005, or, much more likely, I’m being set up by the Ogs for the usual crushing disappointment.
I am one of those people who sees nothing magical in starting a new calender. Nothing but the date changes at midnight on the first of the year. All the crap from previous years doesn’t get wiped clean to be started anew on 1/1. No, it’s always the same old crap with a new date.
I’ve taking many beatings from the loaded boxing glove of fate and struggled with my Joan Rivers face-like finances for a few years now. I learned not to say “well, it couldn’t get any worse” because that’s when fate really has to prove you wrong. So basically I expect the new year will bring the same old suckitude.
2004 was a pretty good year, despite losing my last grandparent and splitting with my girlfriend of 3.5 years. I got a good job after a 2 year search and paid off most of my credit card debt.
2005 is looking to be better. My credit card debt will be gone by April, my student loans will be gone by June. I’ll get a new girlfriend, who will probably be one of my best friends for the past 12 years. I’m going to Vegas for the first time ever to celebrate my 26th birthday. Lots to look forward to.
In 2005 I’ll be working out the kinks from my degree program, starting piano again, losing more weight, getting a new computer (hopefully!) and returning to biking / hiking. So I’ve got big hopes for this coming year…
August through December was pretty rough for me, with some notable periods of exception. But I’m feeling good the last couple of weeks, and besides, you can’t lose what you don’t have. On top of which, I figure I’ll get to read Eve’s posts throughout 2005, so that’s a nice boost right there.
I have a new camera which I am not disappointed with. I feel like this may be the next step in a photography-related future.
I think I may quit drinking. Not out of force-of-will but because I actually don’t think I am dependent on it. I can sleep without it. I have more confidence and understanding to go from drinking to not drinking. For example I know that if I stick it out for just 4 days, each day after that is a piece of cake. I don’t need to drink, I don’t even want to drink.
My new years relolution is to get a car. A car will give me some freedom. I hadn’t bothered before now because I didn’t want to do all the messing about involved in getting a car. I am the type of person for whom spending money involves pressing ‘purchase’ on a webpage, and then answering the front door 2 days later. But I have decided driving is too much fun to be denied by laziness.
A fresh allocation of holidays from work.
Negative
Another year for my mother/father/grandparents to get older and closer to death, an event which I dread and don’t know how I would cope with. I have never had someone close to me die.
Less in by bank account for january than I thought because of some damn late transactions.
Slight fear that I will fall back into a rut of procrastination.
If 2005 is anything like the past 3 days, I would like to skip the whole year. On Monday I found out my wife has been keeping 2 check registers, one that looks good to me and another that has the actual checking account balances. Because her income came up short many time the past year, she resorted to voodoo economics. We are now down 2 house payments and it is going to be 3 tomorrow. We are also behind on a couple credit cards I did not know about. The finance company is talking forclosure. One of the missing house payments is because of the problem dropped in my lap yesterday.
August of 2003 my wife was rear ended in an auto accident. She suffered what were considered minor soft tissue injuries. She settled with the insurance company last February. Shortly after that she began to suffer from severe neck and shoulder pain. In August she had surgery and a plate was put in her neck to support 3 vertabrae. She still suffers from severe bouts of pain and has been seeing a pain specialist. All the post settlement medical bills have been paid by my health insurance through my job. On around the first of December, my insurance company let me know that they were going to attempt to subrogate over $30,000 in medical claims with the insurance company of the guy that rear ended my wife. Of course, that insurance company denied all claims and used the release signed by my wife. Now my insurance company is saying my wife and I are liable for over $12,000 in medical costs. We found out yesterday that none of the medical claims have been paid by my insurance company since August. We were sued (never served, don’t know why yet) and a default judgment was granted. My checking account was cleaned out last Thursday resulting in the bounced house payment check. Plus there are over $15,000 in other unpaid medical bills.
2005 is looking pretty good at this point. . .that is to say, it’s looking exactly like 2004, which was pretty good.
The major new thing I’m looking forward to is racing my bicycle this year, which ought to add some excitement.
I’m kind of hoping my grandmother dies this year because at least that means it’s not going to be a protracted mess. She’s lived a full, funny life. It won’t be sad for her to go at this point. It was more sad to see her have to give up beer and cigarettes 5 years ago.
Barring unforeseen catastrophe, I say, “Bring it on.”
Well, le’see… in 2004, I had eight months of unemployment and a broken leg and in 2005, I’ll have … at least six months of unemployment and a broken leg.
I guess, in comparison, 2005 will be slightly better but that’s not saying much.
At the moment, I can’t even see straight. Some Plague from Hell has taken residence in my worn-out body, sleep-deprived as it is from endless driving all over New England to visit sundry relatives and friends for the Holiday. On Christmas I was, fortunately, spared the full brunt of the Disease, but on Sunday I attempted to go skiing with my niece and nephews, which proved to be an unwise endeavor. I lasted a half-day before I had to retreat and begin praying fervently to the porcelain god. Since then, practically everything that goes into my body sprays out again in one or other direction. My fever peaked at 101.9, and now has settled to a relatively comfortable low-grade 100.1 (got me one o’ them digital therm-o-meeters). That means I no longer wish for my spouse to hit me over the head with a brick rather than endure waking life. Massive doses of antihistamine-laden cold remedies have taken the more compassionate place of the brick, but have also left me in something of an incoherent stupor most of the time, (as the quality of my posts the past couple days has amply demonstrated). I’m sweaty, I’m weak, I stink mildly of undigested spewage, I can feel every hair follicle (and each one of them aches)…
My goal, set for myself in October, was to lose ten pounds before the New Year. Well by golly, I’ve done it! I think I even overshot by a couple pounds, so that must be a good sign. Given such an auspicious ending to 2004, I’m guessing 2005 is going to be Jim Dandy with a side-order of A-Okay!
2004 was dreadful for us, so it wouldn’t hard for 2005 to be better.
In July, my wife lost her job. A week later, she went into the hospital for appendicitis, we thought. If turned out to be colon cancer. The tumor and half her colon were removed. She’s doing chemotherapy, now. The visible side effects are limited to mild nausea, which she has pills for. However, in order for her to get the next bi-weekly treatment, she has to get good scores on a fistful of blood test numbers. For the last two cycles, she’s had to wait four weeks to get good numbers.
I fell off my boat onto the rocks in October. Just a broken rib and a collapsed lung. That’s healed, but I can’t seem to shake lose from a persistent depression. Since I retired, my self-respect has fallen off to nearly nothing. I’ve started to work out again. I even hired a trainer. It’s hard to force myself to exercise when everything seems pointless.
2004 was a highly annoying year filled with highly annoying political figures. I think 2005 will be a bit better by default, since it’s not an election year. I got tired of the Bush and Kerry campaigns and celebrities. Plus, there was there a devestating earthquake and tsunami a few days ago, and terrible hurricanes last summer.
Personally this fall has been shit. Especially the last week. My uncle was diagnosed with cancer and he isn’t expected to live much longer (and although I never really liked him, it is a downer). And to bring in the New Year, my cat was euthanised twenty-four hours ago and that’s still painful.
I’ll start a permanent part-time job after January 1. It’s with the people I’ve been working for as a contractor, on and off, for the past four years. These people have been my absolute favorite to work for. Twenty hours a week, professional autonomy, easy commute, office full of gentle lunatics. If I’m gonna work, I might as well work there. Should be pretty cool.
Other than that, I basically live week to week. As long as I keep my weight down, go to the gym regularly, and can keep on shopping, I’m happy!
(Eve, I hope things turn out better for you in the coming year than you’re anticipating.)
I dunno. Nothing dire in the immediate future, so it could go either way. Or it could be just like 2004 which was mostly just sort of … same old, same old, I guess. I’m in my mid-forties, so middle-age started getting the boot in with some ill-defined but annoying aches and pains. No relationship, and no immediate prospects, barring some unexpected luck with Match.com, and a dismal social life due to my persistant failure to find a people to hang out with in this particular corner of suburbia. But I’ve been working on it, so who knows?
At work, they claim that good things are happening and the company will experience growth. That would be nice – the last few years have been pretty lean. But we’ve heard it before.
Anyway, I’m not expecting much, but I guess there’s the potential to be pleasantly surprised.
I am looking forward to the new year. My husband and I are moving to TN, we are hoping to buy a house, and I will be starting a private practice. Challenges, certainly, but the flip side is that we are leaving a city we don’t like, moving to be near family, and I will leave a stressful job.
