Nonsequitur Life

Greetings from the Plague Lands.

Two people who barely leave the house finally caught fucking Covid two days before Christmas.

I cannot taste or smell anything. My whole back hurts. My voice sounds like I’ve been smoking for forty years. I am exhausted.

Bob is mostly recovered with some residual symptoms. I am on the upswing, but lagging behind. As is usual when we get sick around here.

I started working on this survey mid-December and it was a slog from the word go, and now trying to finish it while under the influence of The Plague has been a challenge I did not anticipate.

Anyway.

2024 is the Year of the Dragon.

Awbee may look a bit melancholy, but he is super jazzed that it is finally his year.

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2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

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2023 was The Year of…Oh right, grief…and THEN…fucking Covid…

It just kind of felt like everything had an asterisk tacked on the end of it.

This year was hard for a list of reasons, most of which were made more because of grief. I wasn’t entirely sure what I had to say about all of it and right now trying to articulate it operating at a fraction of my normal brain capacity is just not working.

It was a year that happened.

That’s…enough.

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1.) How did you spend New Year’s Eve?
We played a bit of FFXIV and we watched The Flash (the newest movie). As usual we weren’t paying attention and missed midnight, but I still got kissed. Even if I was hacking up a lung right beforehand.

2.) What did you do last year that you’d never done before?
April/May…wore a heart monitor for two weeks
August…shoveled dirt into my brother’s grave
December…finally caught fucking Covid

3.) Did you keep your new year’s resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I maintained my monthly Last.fm stat posts. I even wrote several non Last.fm stat posts.

4.) Did anyone close to you get engaged or married?
I don’t know a lot of single people these days, I don’t think.

5.) Did anyone close to you get pregnant or give birth?
Nobody close, but there were a few internet-types that I follow that had babies and that was fun to see.

6.) Did anyone close to you die?
No, thank Christ. But there was a lot of talk of death and planning for such as life has repeatedly reminded all of us that making such plans when you’re still able to is important so when life rips that choice away from you, other people know what to do.

7.) How did you earn your keep?
Still maintaining that trophy wife title fourteen years running.

8.) What countries places did you visit?
We spent a lot of time in Eorzea as we always do. And we returned to Azeroth a bit too.

9.) What would you like to have this year that you lacked last year?
A hair cut. Ever since Bob decided to grow his hair out, I have zero motivation to get mine cut. It’s almost to my waist and I’m almost ready to shave it all off. Or at least chop it back up to my shoulders like I used to keep it. Let’s not get crazy.

10.) What dates from last year will remain etched upon your memory and why?
August 25th was the day we finally buried Joe. I don’t know that it will stick in my head as much as November 4th, but for now, it’s there.

11.) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I finally filled up the file cabinet with important papers after it sat empty for years.

12.) What was your biggest failure?
Still haven’t dealt with all of the papers that didn’t go into the file cabinet and need to be shredded and disposed of.

13.) Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had a rough run-in with heart palpitations and other related bullshit and wore a heart monitor for two weeks only to have doctors shrug their shoulders at me because nothing “remarkable” showed on tests.

AND THEN we finally caught Covid after managing to dodge it for almost four years. It could have been a lot worse, but it has sucked immensely nonetheless.

14.) Did you ever encounter the police?
No but they still hang out in droves at the mega church across the road.

15.) What was the best thing you bought?
Honestly? Jinx the Unicorn. That pudgy critter has been a solid companion through a lot in the time that she’s been around. (Jinx would say the best thing was her buddy Jax the Owlbear Cub.)

16.) Where did most of your money go?
Car, house, medical bullshit. The usual.

17.) What did you get really excited about?
Jinx the Unicorn. There’s something magical in that smiley snoot, I guess.

18.) What do you wish you’d done more of?
Cleaning my house. Always.

19.) What do you wish you’d done less of?
Spinning my wheels on writing. There has been a lot of staring at a blinking cursor again.

20.) How did you spend the holidays?
Thanksgiving we stayed home because…reasons? My mom is at a point where she doesn’t want the stress of hosting anymore and that pretty much just leaves A&D and who knows what kind of bullshit Aimless would go off on an ill-informed sanctimonious tirade over so we’re probably better off. (Mike doesn’t have the space and neither do we, and there’s no way everyone would drive all the way up here for dinner anyway. Also I would never volunteer to host anything because I do not like people in my filthy house.)

Christmas we stayed home because fucking Covid.

21.) What are your goals for the new year?
Dealing with that aforementioned mountain of papers that need to be shredded and disposed of.

22.) What was your favorite TV program?
I’m drawing a blank on what TV shows we watched this year. I think I mostly watched stuff on Discovery+.

23.) What were your favorite books of the year?
I actually read a couple books, but I wouldn’t deem any of them as favorites.

24.) What was your favorite music from this year?
Fall Out Boy, Matchbox Twenty, and Semisonic all put out new albums. Toad the Wet Sprocket and The Killers put out new greatest hits albums. Overall it was another Killers heavy year for my play counts.

25.) What song will always remind you of last year?
Miss You All the Time by O.A.R. took on new meaning.

26.) What were your favorite films of the year?
We watched the new Dungeons & Dragons movie and it was actually pretty fun. We went in with low-to-no expectations and were pleasantly surprised. We also watched Everything Everywhere All At Once. It was aptly named because that movie is A LOT to take in. It was a good movie, but it earned a few extra brownie points in my book for its creative usage of Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days.

27.) What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I turned 44. I am now in my mid-forties. We had Culvers for dinner (onion rings!) and doughnuts instead of cake.

28.) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less grief, but that’s not really going to be changing at this point. Not necessarily grief following death, but different forms of loss and irreversible change. It is the current stage of life and it’s inevitable. Also not catching fucking Covid would have been nice.

29.) How would you describe your personal fashion concept?
Hoodies and pajama pants forever and always.

30.) What kept you sane?
Bob more than ever before. Music and Jinx helped a little, too.

31.) Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
The usual music makers are good for a distraction.

32.) What was a valuable life lesson you learned this year?
I wouldn’t call it a life lesson or even valuable, but I came to the realization that I am nearly two full years in on taking a thyroid pill every single morning and I grossly underestimated how long it would take to get used to drinking a glass of water at 8AM every day. As in, I have not gotten used to drinking a glass of water at 8AM every single day. It is still a gag-inducing struggle and I don’t know why. Even on days I am more awake, have already brushed my teeth, whatever-else-might-be-different. Room temperature water goes down easier than cold , but it is still like trying to choke down food that makes me gag. I drink water all day long without issue, but something about that time frame that just does not work. (The obvious solution would be to change the time I take it, but that would then require changing when I take everything else and impact when and what I can eat because chemistry. And I really don’t think waking up even earlier would be any easier either.)

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Onward and upward.

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for a night like this Darren Criss