Happy Holidays

December 19, 2022

This year has been full of surprises - both good and bad.  Good things included getting a substantial pay raise/promotion at work which was provisional at first.  Then I had to go through the recruitment procecss when the job actually came into my department as a permanent position - and I passed.  Personal development kept moving forward, and I had a surgery done in September which relieved me of a lot of upper back, neck, and shoulder pain - and allows me to wear things that button up.  Nice to not have certain endowments hanging down to my waist.  So those were positive things for 2023 - plus Cristal the kitten and a bearded dragon who doesn't quite have a name yet - pretty sure she's a girl and she and Cristal are about the same age.  I have also cultivated wonderful friendships this year with my "AA family."  Great people - true friends.  I had some bad toxic episodes in the past with people who I thought were friends, and they were not.   I also continue having a great relationship with my lifelong friend, Doug.  Our friendship has spanned DECADES and we can't believe we're as old as we are now.

Challenges this year - my 94 year old mom had some bumps.  After telling her for the last few years that she should no longer live alone, she had an incident in late May/early June that finally convinced her that this was so.  She had a rough time of it, and then had a heart valve replaced recently which sent her into a bad episode again - bad drug reaction.  The surgery was successful, but her reaction to whatever drugs they gave her was horrible.  It may be our last Holiday season with mom. 

The other awful thing this year was our loss of Simone.  The thought of being without her during the course of a work day was unimaginable just 6 months ago; she always participated in daily meetings, hung out on my printer, and was always quick to wave her arms - much to the amusement of my co-workers.  Her daily 'meltdowns' carrying her kittyon a stick are terribly missed.  Her health started taking a turn around September and it kept getting worse until she wanted to do nothing but sleep, eat, get up to visit the box and get water.  Her former antics were gone.  She developed an autoimmune disease called "Pillowfoot" and meanwhile, there were tumors growing in her body which were aggressively growing.  It was simply awful watching her go.  It was the blackest Black Friday ever when we had to make the decision to end her suffering.  The pain we are feeling is taking a long time to wane.  Anyone who has ever had a pet knows the pain; I swear it's worse than human family members!

So that's about it for 2022.  2023 is a "milestone birthday" for me; and two of my friends are right there with me - July, August and September birthdays.  We'll have some kind of celebration and "let the soft drinks flow!"