So, how was your 2014 and what are your hopes for 2015?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

For me, 2014 has been a roller coaster. It started out with both my husband and I employed and so I was looking forward to finally getting around to the house maintenance that is so desperately needed, but I lost my job and my husband hated his job and went to a lower paying one, so it’s back to having to watch my pennies and no maintenance getting done.

It’s also the year that my health started to change. I’ve always been the healthy one of the family, but not this year. I had to go to the emergency room in February and then I got a sinus infection in August, which has caused me to have Dysquesia, which is disgusting. I’ve been off and on so many different antibiotics because of bad side effects, that I think I’ve lost count.

I hit a deer on the 1st of December. I just got my car back after three weeks and $8000.00 in repairs. Thankfully, I only had a small deductible. And I wasn’t hurt.

But it’s also the year that my daughter adopted my beautiful grandson. He and his wonderful sister (who is also adopted), are the light of my life. They make me laugh and crawl around on the floor like no 58 year old should. So on balance, it’s been a good year. I think.

I’m hoping for better health in 2015. I’m hoping for a good job. Well, I’d rather win the lottery and not have to go to work anymore really, but since I never play, that’s not very likely. I’m hoping for continued good health for all of my loved ones. I’m even still hoping for universal health care and a congress that will work together for the good of the people, but that doesn’t seem very likely either.

What about you guys?

2

2014 was pretty horrible.

I’m hoping 2015 will be better, but that’s setting the bar pretty low from the start.

3

I retired from one of my careers at the end of 2013 to run the Taekwondo school full time. 2014 was good for us in that aspect. We’ve still got some growing to do but we are at an all-time high in terms of membership.

Alas, we are not at a high enough number for me to take more than a pittance salary from the school - yet. If we keep on in 2015 like last year, we’ll do very well indeed.

4

The year 2014 was pretty good up until September 12th. That’s the day a driver decided it was more important to change a CD in his truck than keep his eyes on the road. When he looked up there wasn’t time to keep from hitting my dad, who was on a motorcycle.

So that SOB got to celebrate Christmas this year, but my dad in in a grave in the cemetery.

My hope for 2015? That the DA gets off of his fat ass and charges the guy with something. Manslaughter, vehicular homicide. take your pick. The man who killed my father should pay for what he did.

5

My condolences for the loss of your father, Baker. That’s terrible.

My 2014 has been boring. Still working as a programmer for the same company. The pay is good, but the job is boring, boring, boring.

Got a technical book published with Prentice-Hall, and I’m working hard on another book. All my attempts at fiction have failed.

My forays into online dating have met with repeated defeat. I should get back on the horse, but I’m quite happy laying here on the ground.

In July 2015, I’ll be able to quit my job without having to pay back $10k. Not sure where I’ll end up, but even if the next place turns out to be boring, it will be a different kind of boring.

6

It went pretty well. An MRI found a couple of very small aneurysms in my head, but nothing life threatening. I look forward to 2015 being an uneventful year. I’m hoping for one or several of those insight flashes on playing guitar, where you smack your head (not too hard, in my case) and say “Of course!” I hope to visit my kids at some point. I’m hoping my woodworking skills can take a quantum leap. Otherwise, I’m just hoping for business as usual. I may buy a new car, but will probably wait for the 2016s to come out.

7

2014 was a great year. It’s also been incredibly stressful.

Last year I got engaged, so this year we set a date and careened towards the wedding. The wedding itself was fun; the lead-up was not. I can’t believe how glad I am to be married to my wife–it feels wonderful.

My PhD has suffered however, and I’ve had to extend the deadline. My supervisors have been (quite rightly) frustrated by RL getting in the way of my research.

Now we’re doing modifications to our house to get it ready for us to live in. When family cultures clash…

This year I also saw a geneticist, specifically for a diagnosis for my muscular dystrophy. This will inform our options regarding starting a family.

So, for 2015 I have the following hopes:

[ol]
[li]Move into our home and settle into a routine[/li][li]Complete my PhD[/li][li]Get a proper diagnosis and consider starting a family[/li][/ol]

8

Really bad years I celebrate by gathering all the calendars in the house and burning them in New Years Eve - I won’t be doing that this year. All in all it was a slightly “meh” year. I accomplished all of the trips I wanted except the “biggie” (a motorcycle trip across Rte 6), I accomplished the personal things I wanted if not always how I wanted to, no one critical to me died - and as the years pass that gets to be more and more rare. I would take a dozen more 2014s over say a 1994 and be content.

Not really excited for 2015. I’ve changed jobs, am changing habits for the better I hope, and being Lutheran change frightens me somewhat. Plus I’m well past my “sell by” date. Add to that the general world outlook and ------ as long as I’m here to report back next year, we’ll call it then.

9

2014 was…fairly unpleasant to my family.

Like Baker, I lost my father this year. It was not unexpected, but still sudden when it came. Before coming home under hospice care, he was in ICU for 3 weeks. During that time my 43 year old brother had a massive heart attack and was in CCU in the same hospital.

I had major dental issues this year, but I’ve just come to expect that most years. I did manage to make and keep a doctor appointment (strongly motivated by my brother).

I was offered and accepted a significant promotion that starts Jan 1, so work is going well, but my real hopes for 2015 are less bad personal stuff.

10

2014 was great. I met a woman I’m crazy about and… Well, that’s about it, really; still great.

And I expect a wonderful start to 2015, at least.

11

2014 was not a good year. My husband had shoulder surgery and was off for 7 months. The day he was supposed tp gp back to work his dad died. He had no more time to take.

He boss did give him one day to go to the funeral, but HR has been sending nasty letters threatening him with termination.

Financially we’re hanging on by a thread.

I found out he cheated on me with his parents’ caregiver. I’ve forgiven him, but it still hurts. We will move on. It turns out he thought he was in a relationship, but he was just a trick. She’s been selling filthy videos on line for years. No one in the family cares, since she does take good care of them, well, Mom, now, and she works cheap.

Every New Years’ day he does the polar bear swim. He didn’t in 2014. I’ll push him in this year, it it will change our luck!

12

2014 has had its ups and downs, but is in neither the all-time worst nor best lists. 2015 might bring some big changes, I guess, and I’m not a fan of change (who is?). I’m starting the new year with some tough decisions in my immediate future, so I’m apprehensive about 2015. I hope resolution is in my future.

13

When the year started, I was working a temp job that I rather enjoyed, despite a certain coworker who made me crazy. The company was willing to keep me on part time when the temp period was over, and I was looking forward to it, till the psycho I worked with pushed me over the edge. For the first time in my life, I quit a job, so starting in March, I was retired again.

In late August and most of September, I was on a cruise with my mother around the British Isles, then transatlantic, including a stop in Iceland. I loved seeing so many different places, but only having a few hours in each one was frustrating. And it was the first time since 1973 that I’d spent so much time with my mother - she and I are just waaaaaaaaay too different. I’m glad we went, but I doubt that I’ll vacation with her ever again.

The year ended with my husband going back to work after 18 months of retirement. He has things he wants to do with his motorcycle, and we couldn’t finance it from our pension budget, so he plans to work 2 more years, part of the income for his fun stuff, part to be tucked away against future travels.

As for the coming year, since he’ll be working, we won’t be doing all the traveling we discussed. My niece is getting married in July, so we’ve got that ahead of us. And I may or may not do another temp job - we’ll just see what’s out there. Plus I’ll continue to hope that my daughter quits supporting the lazy lump she calls her boyfriend, but she’s 29 and it is her life after all…

14

My 2013 ended really badly, so a considerable chunk of 2014 was digging myself out of that. I still haven’t, it’s been a mediocre but frustrating failure, though it has at least ended better than last year did.

And one thing I learned from that was I can’t plan ahead anymore. Reliability doesn’t exist anymore, you can’t trust anyone or anything to follow through. So I have to take things in very small steps and hope it doesn’t fall apart at any moment.

My 2015 is a complete unknown. The best thing about it is that today I was offered a very short job, which will at least ring in the new year on an upbeat note.

15

It sounds like you just need better friends. I don’
let many people into my real life, but the ones I have would follow me into Hell carrying two buckets of gas, if I asked. It’s reciprocal.

Remember, a friend will help you move. A best friend will help you move bodies.

16

Some good points and some not so good points for me this year.

My eldest is doing wonderfully well in school. She’s in her school’s gifted and talented program and her latest report card was a thing of beauty and straight A’s. She was twelve yesterday and just a delightful little person – smart but with a core of child sweetness that makes her excellent company.

Her sister was diagnosed with some educational developmental issues. It stinks but at least she’s going to be getting a lot of help next year including preschool every single day.

My book did well enough to come out in paperback next month. I wanted to write another one but I did not get to it. I’m hoping I will be able to create a new proposal and get an agent in the coming year, especially with my youngest in preschool. I want to hone my writing skills so much more. There are days when I get depressed because I realize just how much I still have to learn and how little I know even now.

My husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in July. We didn’t get to London this year as I had hoped but there’s always next year.

So sort of a year in holding without much progress on certain goals but with hope for the future. I suppose that’s all most of us can ask – a little joy here and here and only a small taste of sorrow.

17

The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades. :slight_smile:

2014 was mostly good.
–Stock market/investments did really well
–Big improvement jobwise (took new position in advanced development group)
–Both I and the Missus got good bonuses this year.
–Paid off the house
–New RV (getting ready for retirement)
–Kids continuing gradual but steady “launch”, we’re mostly empty-nesters now.
–My daughter finally broke up with Useless*, and will hopefully find better SO candidates.
–Got to land on, and launch from, an aircraft carrier.
–Multiple vacations during the year, West Coast, Gulf Coast, inshore fishing, hunting, 4-corners and Navajo Res.

The bad:
–Lost a favorite relative, but it was expected (age/illness)
–Lost my favorite dog, not expected (sudden illness)
–Mizpullin’s company is being sold and she won’t be employed next year, but we’ve planned for this and don’t expect much upheaval for us.
–Age is really starting to catch up to my parents, and I’ll have to start dealing with the results soon.

Every year seems better than the last to me, and I expect no change for 2015. New job for me, and I expect the missus will find one soon. A few companies tried to “poach” her earlier so I expect they’ll have an opening after hers is sold. The kids keep doing well and getting more independent. We have a LOT of travel plans for next year, and are excitedly poring over maps and stuff. I’m hopeful and excited about the coming year.

*He and the big Danforth anchor on my boat perform roughly the same function. I came downstairs one morning and found all his pictures torn up and in the trash. Apparently he’d made a pass at her BFF, showing his true colors and getting himself banished in the process. I haven’t celebrated that much since my frathouse days. :smiley:

18

2014 has been a year of sustained fear and grief for us.

January: one of the nicest bosses at my agency dies of an unexpected heart attack.

Sometime in the spring: my favorite boss at my agency gets brain cancer (same kind my father had); it will kill him by September.

Also spring: our beloved dog Sadie develops serious arthritis pain in the hip she’d had repaired when we adopted her years ago. For a long time we struggle to find pain relief for her, finally finding a mix of painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and a nerve blocker that returns joy to her days.

Also spring: wife’s nephew, freshly out of jail, blunders into a parole violation. After a long suspenseful wait, he is given 12 additional weekends in jail by one jurisdiction. On the third such weekend, the OTHER jurisdiction seizes him on a bench warrant, and he spends the next five months in holding waiting to face THAT judge.

April: our pet bird Buddie dies mysteriously; found unmarked in her cage.

End of April: wife’s older sister (whose only son is in jail) gets laid off in a cost -cutting move…She’s older, and they are afraid she might retire on their plan.
May-June: wife’s younger sister’s pancreatic cancer returns. It does not respond to treatment; by fall the diagnosis will be terminal.

July: Simone, our other dog, a Daddy’s girl and the apple of my eye, suddenly becomes unable to walk. She makes repetitive head movements and hunkers down on her pad, trembling in terror. Certain that she has a brain tumor and we are losing her, we spend an entire day at the neurologist. Turns out she has had a traumatic disk extrusion that bruised her cervical spinal cord. She eventually makes a full recovery.

Four days later, Sadie is rushed to the emergency room with breathing trouble, and is diagnosed with a huge tumor in her chest. She’s only 11. We have to say goodbye at 4 in the morning.

August: the neighbors ask us to watch their unnamed pet fish. He’s languishing in a small bowl filled with poop, lying on his side, refusing food. I try to walk the line between intervening too little or too much, but water changes aren’t helping, so after a few days I buy a whole aquarium setup. He begins to show interest in food and his environment. We name him Blueberry. The neighbors return from vacation and do not ask for him back. He seems happier, but never recovers from the terrible water quality, succumbing to his eye infection (despite medications) after having a name for only 45 days.

September: wife’s older sister gets breast cancer. The one whose son is just getting out of holding. This turns out to be operable and probably survivable – great news, although overshadowed by the terminal diagnosis of the third sister.

All fall: my closest co-workers lose five family members between them.

November: we are sick much of the month.

December: we adopt a new, painfully old dog from the shelter. Fourteen days later he stops eating. It’s a huge tumor – see my current MPSIMS thread.

December: my elderly mother develops swelling in her knee. The cartilage is gone…this may be permanently disabling.

I have undoubtedly forgotten some events. 2014 has been horrible and I’m happy to kick it to the curb.

19

Got my youngest daughter married off this year, in a complex wedding in California where half the people came from Germany. But everything worked, and our visitors had a lot of fun. Plus, they are moving to the US, Vegas, in January, so for the first time in 14 years the entire family is in one time zone.

Got fed up with work, so I’m taking it easier. My retire next year, may not, depending on various factors. At this point they need me more than I need them. I’m pretty much guaranteed a job longer than I want to work. It would be awesome if I got laid off, since I’d get a pile of money to retire, but it ain’t going to happen.

So sorry for those who had bad 2014s, and best wishes for a great 2015 for all. Remember, we are living in a science fiction world.

20

Well, it started out with my manager fighting to keep me on as a temporary part time worker, and ended up with my being a permanent full time worker.

This is the first time in seven years I’m hoping the new year turns out the same as the old one.