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fullupwithfire) wrote2018-12-30 11:54 pm
fullupwithfire) wrote2018-12-30 11:54 pm
Entry tags:
2018 In Review
End of year meme! Because it looked interesting. I've seen a different version of this pop around as well, that ends with a few less questions and maybe has a couple differences; I stole this one from cosmolinguist.
1. What did you do in 2018 that you'd never done before?
Moved out of Florida! Less good: been to court (not for my case, at least). I... think there may be something else but not sure what.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make official resolutions, but I did a goals list for Snowflake, with four creative goals and four life goals. I failed at the creative ones entirely, but managed two of the life goals! (Leave Florida, and keeping up my financial end -- which I am technically not achieving yet, but we've figured out how to wring the amount of hours I need out of the online work I'm doing, so I'm honestly hoping that going into 2019, I can do much better at that for once. And that's without the attempt I hope to make at professional editing.)
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Also no.
5. What countries did you visit?
I have never actually left the United States.
6. What would you like to have in 2019 that you lacked in 2018?
Financial stability, mental stability, bravery, doctors, therapists, transportation, self-motivation, organizational skills.
7. What date from 2018 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
To be honest, I'm awful at remembering specific dates, but 5/26 is the day we left Florida and 9/17 is the day we moved into the new apartment, which were both helpful days.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Leaving Florida should not be my answer to everything should it? Uh, in addition to that, I'm actually pretty proud of myself for getting the work off the group, figuring out how to wrangle the hours I need out of it, and mostly keeping up with doing it every day since I started. I've skipped a few, mostly when we had to drive around and/or I had family stuff (and I think like one really bad pain day), but I'm really bad at self-motivation and doing this kind of stuff, so that's pretty good.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I really greatly intended to get my permit and start learning to drive this year, and I just never managed to get through that process. I am almost entirely certain I can pass the test when I go, but I have to get my stuff together (mostly literally -- I'm not sure I have enough proof of address) in order to make it happen.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I suffered a great deal of pain, especially the last couple of weeks, at least some of which was probably illnesses (I'm pretty sure there's been a tooth infection, I just haven't had the ability to get to a doctor; that should change next month). Also, I fell down the stairs in the summer and that screwed up my leg for a week or so.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
I have a desk of my own! It's a corner desk with a shelf up top and two tiny shelves that rotate sticking up off the side and I am really fond of it. Also our coffee table, which is really cute and has sides that flip up to enclose it. We did not buy a ton of furniture but I was really please with the bits we got, basically.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Bast continues to be so much better to me than I deserve; my mother did so much to help us move; and my little brother got a job in the field he wants to work in and has been learning a lot, and just generally impressing me with how he's growing up.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Many, many of the people in charge. On a smaller personal level, my asshole ex-stepfather continues to be fucking awful. And my grandmother randomly decided to be awful to me and Bast while we lived with my mother, which was exhausting.
14. Where did most of your money go?:
Moving, acquiring apartment, and food/bills/rent.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?:
Leaving Florida, again. XD Getting my cats back -- we went without them while we stayed with my mother and apartment-hunted, from end of May til the very tip-end of September. Seeing Florence and the Machine live! Living in a place where people actually do things for Halloween. Having a cold Yule and getting to sit around the fireplace for the night.
16. What song will always remind you of 2018?
Uh. One song is hard. Probably most of Chime and High as Hope, because they came out this year and I listened to them a lot -- especially Florence, as concert happened. Also I spent a lot of time on The Bifrost Incident this year.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier, I think? Feeling like I'm pulling my weight has been good for my mental health lately, and finally getting out of Florida feels like a giant accomplishment. And it feels like the wringer of stuff going on for my family may finally be ending, so while I'm still stressed, I'm hopeful next year might be slightly easier.
ii. thinner or fatter? Pretty much the same.
iii. richer or poorer? Mmm, about the same right now with hopes of being slightly more comfortable financially after the next couple months.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Socializing; people are still both terrifyingly difficult and something I badly want. Writing and creative endeavors. Reading. RP.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stressing. Hurting. Dealing with the asshole ex-stepfather.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I guess this is meant to be done before the last days of the year, heh. I guess how did I: I spent my holiday (Yule) at my mother's, opening gifts and then spending the night awake around the fire, hanging out with people and eventually reading fic while everyone slept. I spent Christmas Eve watching game shows with my mother and grandmother, and then movies with my mother and brother, and then Christmas Day sleeping.
21. Did you fall in love in 2018?
No.
22. How many one night stands?
None.
23. What was your favourite TV programme?
That aired this year: The Good Place is the only thing I can manage to keep up with, the humor isn't always my taste but the character work and plot more than make up for it; and I really enjoyed Castle Rock, way more than I anticipated. That I watched at all: I am so bad at tracking what I watch for the first time, but I did start Lucifer, and I found the first season to be a great time and look forward to the rest of it.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Absolutely.
25. What was the best book you read?
Honestly I don't think I got through a book this year, either for the first time or rereading.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
It's not a new discovery to anyone else, but I got really into the Mountain Goats this year.
27. What did you want and get?
To leave Florida and get an apartment we liked.
28. What did you want and not get?
My learner's permit, emotional stability, court stuff with family I don't want to get into publicly.
29. What was your favourite film this year?
New release: Ocean's 8 was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we got to see it. New to me: We discovered Coherence and it's the kind of film I could get seriously obsessed with if I let myself.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28 and to be honest I don't... entirely remember? XD We had vague aspirations of either going to Nashville or going the caves in our town that got destroyed by it being suuuuuper hot and possibly by me having pain. I believe there was food and cake and maybe Mario Kart.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Mmmm, mostly the court stuff, and/or just life and the country being better off. More money and/or better health would definitely have helped but honestly, it was a more satisfying year in many ways than it could have been.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2018?
"This fits me and has texture that I do not hate, mostly t-shirts", which is my personal fashion concept every year. I... have dreams of trying to get things that are, if not fashionable, at least interesting or happy-making to me, but I have not achieved it yet.
33. What kept you sane?
Marginally saner than I might have been, at least. Bast and not being in Florida.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None.
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Politics have largely blended into one exhausting, terrifying lump, so just... the state of everything. I know I should be more informed, but I am anxious to the point of fearing everything already; for the sake of not actually being incapable of leaving my bed from fear, I'm gonna keep things vague for now.
36. Who did you miss?
Beth, my best friend who lives in California. I was hoping I'd be able to see her in April before I left, when she came to visit family, but that didn't work out. (However, hopefully I'll see her this coming summer.) And honestly I've had a general sense of missing talking to many people a lot of this year.
37. Who was the best new person you met?
I... do not think I met a lot of new people this year? (This year both flew by and took forever and timing is weird, it is a tiny bit hard to figure this out.) I did however add a ton of new people on Dreamwidth recently and look forward to getting to know you all better!
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2018:
Man, I don't even know. That eventually things can happen?
39. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Probably my mother, but mostly for practical reasons (when are you coming, do you need help, etc). Just to talk, Beth.
40. Quote a song that sums up your year:
First one that comes to mind is this:
The only constant is change
And you never know what you'll find
Yeah, tomorrow I might wake up nice and clean
And I might believe the things I said I didn't mean
And this might turn and wind up just the way we'd dreamed
And I might become the things I swore I'd always be
Well, we're always on our way
We're on our way
(We On Our Way - Radical Face)
41. What was your favorite moment of the year?
Again, 'getting out of Florida' is probably not something I need to make all my answers, but... yeah. Or getting our apartment. Also a good one.
42. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
Not something I'm comfortable getting into publicly.
43. Where were you when 2018 started?
In Florida, in Bast's mother's apartment, watching the ball drop.
44. Who were you with?
Bast, and their mother.
45. Where will you be when 2018 ends?
In our own apartment, in Tennessee.
46. Who will you be with when 2018 ends?
Again with Bast and their mother.
47. What was your favourite month of 2018?
I don't even know; there's been a lot of ups and downs. I feel like it's easier to pin the bad ones than choose between the ones that had good in them.
48. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2018?
Nope. The only alcohol I really had was a tiny bit of rum in the hot buttered rum at Thanksgiving/Yule.
49. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2018?
None.
50. What are your plans for 2019?
In no specific order: Keep working, get my learner's permit, go to doctors, hopefully see Beth, possibly do a little bit of travel, hopefully do some writing, get professional editing site off the ground, and keep on getting through.
cosmolinguist.1. What did you do in 2018 that you'd never done before?
Moved out of Florida! Less good: been to court (not for my case, at least). I... think there may be something else but not sure what.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make official resolutions, but I did a goals list for Snowflake, with four creative goals and four life goals. I failed at the creative ones entirely, but managed two of the life goals! (Leave Florida, and keeping up my financial end -- which I am technically not achieving yet, but we've figured out how to wring the amount of hours I need out of the online work I'm doing, so I'm honestly hoping that going into 2019, I can do much better at that for once. And that's without the attempt I hope to make at professional editing.)
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Also no.
5. What countries did you visit?
I have never actually left the United States.
6. What would you like to have in 2019 that you lacked in 2018?
Financial stability, mental stability, bravery, doctors, therapists, transportation, self-motivation, organizational skills.
7. What date from 2018 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
To be honest, I'm awful at remembering specific dates, but 5/26 is the day we left Florida and 9/17 is the day we moved into the new apartment, which were both helpful days.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Leaving Florida should not be my answer to everything should it? Uh, in addition to that, I'm actually pretty proud of myself for getting the work off the group, figuring out how to wrangle the hours I need out of it, and mostly keeping up with doing it every day since I started. I've skipped a few, mostly when we had to drive around and/or I had family stuff (and I think like one really bad pain day), but I'm really bad at self-motivation and doing this kind of stuff, so that's pretty good.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I really greatly intended to get my permit and start learning to drive this year, and I just never managed to get through that process. I am almost entirely certain I can pass the test when I go, but I have to get my stuff together (mostly literally -- I'm not sure I have enough proof of address) in order to make it happen.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I suffered a great deal of pain, especially the last couple of weeks, at least some of which was probably illnesses (I'm pretty sure there's been a tooth infection, I just haven't had the ability to get to a doctor; that should change next month). Also, I fell down the stairs in the summer and that screwed up my leg for a week or so.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
I have a desk of my own! It's a corner desk with a shelf up top and two tiny shelves that rotate sticking up off the side and I am really fond of it. Also our coffee table, which is really cute and has sides that flip up to enclose it. We did not buy a ton of furniture but I was really please with the bits we got, basically.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Bast continues to be so much better to me than I deserve; my mother did so much to help us move; and my little brother got a job in the field he wants to work in and has been learning a lot, and just generally impressing me with how he's growing up.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Many, many of the people in charge. On a smaller personal level, my asshole ex-stepfather continues to be fucking awful. And my grandmother randomly decided to be awful to me and Bast while we lived with my mother, which was exhausting.
14. Where did most of your money go?:
Moving, acquiring apartment, and food/bills/rent.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?:
Leaving Florida, again. XD Getting my cats back -- we went without them while we stayed with my mother and apartment-hunted, from end of May til the very tip-end of September. Seeing Florence and the Machine live! Living in a place where people actually do things for Halloween. Having a cold Yule and getting to sit around the fireplace for the night.
16. What song will always remind you of 2018?
Uh. One song is hard. Probably most of Chime and High as Hope, because they came out this year and I listened to them a lot -- especially Florence, as concert happened. Also I spent a lot of time on The Bifrost Incident this year.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier, I think? Feeling like I'm pulling my weight has been good for my mental health lately, and finally getting out of Florida feels like a giant accomplishment. And it feels like the wringer of stuff going on for my family may finally be ending, so while I'm still stressed, I'm hopeful next year might be slightly easier.
ii. thinner or fatter? Pretty much the same.
iii. richer or poorer? Mmm, about the same right now with hopes of being slightly more comfortable financially after the next couple months.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Socializing; people are still both terrifyingly difficult and something I badly want. Writing and creative endeavors. Reading. RP.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stressing. Hurting. Dealing with the asshole ex-stepfather.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I guess this is meant to be done before the last days of the year, heh. I guess how did I: I spent my holiday (Yule) at my mother's, opening gifts and then spending the night awake around the fire, hanging out with people and eventually reading fic while everyone slept. I spent Christmas Eve watching game shows with my mother and grandmother, and then movies with my mother and brother, and then Christmas Day sleeping.
21. Did you fall in love in 2018?
No.
22. How many one night stands?
None.
23. What was your favourite TV programme?
That aired this year: The Good Place is the only thing I can manage to keep up with, the humor isn't always my taste but the character work and plot more than make up for it; and I really enjoyed Castle Rock, way more than I anticipated. That I watched at all: I am so bad at tracking what I watch for the first time, but I did start Lucifer, and I found the first season to be a great time and look forward to the rest of it.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Absolutely.
25. What was the best book you read?
Honestly I don't think I got through a book this year, either for the first time or rereading.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
It's not a new discovery to anyone else, but I got really into the Mountain Goats this year.
27. What did you want and get?
To leave Florida and get an apartment we liked.
28. What did you want and not get?
My learner's permit, emotional stability, court stuff with family I don't want to get into publicly.
29. What was your favourite film this year?
New release: Ocean's 8 was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we got to see it. New to me: We discovered Coherence and it's the kind of film I could get seriously obsessed with if I let myself.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28 and to be honest I don't... entirely remember? XD We had vague aspirations of either going to Nashville or going the caves in our town that got destroyed by it being suuuuuper hot and possibly by me having pain. I believe there was food and cake and maybe Mario Kart.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Mmmm, mostly the court stuff, and/or just life and the country being better off. More money and/or better health would definitely have helped but honestly, it was a more satisfying year in many ways than it could have been.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2018?
"This fits me and has texture that I do not hate, mostly t-shirts", which is my personal fashion concept every year. I... have dreams of trying to get things that are, if not fashionable, at least interesting or happy-making to me, but I have not achieved it yet.
33. What kept you sane?
Marginally saner than I might have been, at least. Bast and not being in Florida.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None.
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Politics have largely blended into one exhausting, terrifying lump, so just... the state of everything. I know I should be more informed, but I am anxious to the point of fearing everything already; for the sake of not actually being incapable of leaving my bed from fear, I'm gonna keep things vague for now.
36. Who did you miss?
Beth, my best friend who lives in California. I was hoping I'd be able to see her in April before I left, when she came to visit family, but that didn't work out. (However, hopefully I'll see her this coming summer.) And honestly I've had a general sense of missing talking to many people a lot of this year.
37. Who was the best new person you met?
I... do not think I met a lot of new people this year? (This year both flew by and took forever and timing is weird, it is a tiny bit hard to figure this out.) I did however add a ton of new people on Dreamwidth recently and look forward to getting to know you all better!
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2018:
Man, I don't even know. That eventually things can happen?
39. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Probably my mother, but mostly for practical reasons (when are you coming, do you need help, etc). Just to talk, Beth.
40. Quote a song that sums up your year:
First one that comes to mind is this:
The only constant is change
And you never know what you'll find
Yeah, tomorrow I might wake up nice and clean
And I might believe the things I said I didn't mean
And this might turn and wind up just the way we'd dreamed
And I might become the things I swore I'd always be
Well, we're always on our way
We're on our way
(We On Our Way - Radical Face)
41. What was your favorite moment of the year?
Again, 'getting out of Florida' is probably not something I need to make all my answers, but... yeah. Or getting our apartment. Also a good one.
42. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
Not something I'm comfortable getting into publicly.
43. Where were you when 2018 started?
In Florida, in Bast's mother's apartment, watching the ball drop.
44. Who were you with?
Bast, and their mother.
45. Where will you be when 2018 ends?
In our own apartment, in Tennessee.
46. Who will you be with when 2018 ends?
Again with Bast and their mother.
47. What was your favourite month of 2018?
I don't even know; there's been a lot of ups and downs. I feel like it's easier to pin the bad ones than choose between the ones that had good in them.
48. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2018?
Nope. The only alcohol I really had was a tiny bit of rum in the hot buttered rum at Thanksgiving/Yule.
49. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2018?
None.
50. What are your plans for 2019?
In no specific order: Keep working, get my learner's permit, go to doctors, hopefully see Beth, possibly do a little bit of travel, hopefully do some writing, get professional editing site off the ground, and keep on getting through.
no subject
Also, for what it's worth, one thing I learned this year is that "I know I should be more informed" about politics is not as true as I used to think. You've correctly identified that making yourself sick over things you're almost powerless to change is no good to anyone, and it's healthy to step back from all the horrid details if it keeps your brain from disintegrating. I know spending eight days around my parents' TV news diet was brutal for my mental health. So thanks for looking after yourself by not feeling like you have to ruin yourself in the name of being better informed.
no subject
That's definitely a really good point, and ugh, I can understand that feeling with parents -- my mother lets the news run in the background a lot, and while I understand why to an extent, because until very recently she wrote short articles on recent events and it was easier to keep up with her workload if she went into it knowing what was likely to turn up, it was also really uncomfortable. ♥ Thank you.