#i've been anxious about summer ever since winter was almost over man. this sucks so bad

[skiddlecat]

okay i . cannot reblog that bushfire season post because it is Genuinely stressing me out to think about <3333

[oldmanbayou]

2022 survey

I have updated my Livejournal every single year around this time of year with this same exact survey for the past 20 years. I don't keep an active livejournal anymore, but my memory for things sucks when I don't write them down. So the documentation is of personal value to me and something I like to shuffle through and look back on every so often. Hence why I make it a point to continue my tradition and make that one update every year.

Now that I've freed myself from the shackles of 140 characters, I suppose I can just leave it here!

1. How did you ring in the new year for 2022? I couldn't remember anything about it so checked my twitter and this is what it has revealed: "I missed new years because I was too busy trying to get a damn hard drive that’s been dead for 10+ years to work. I WILL GET THIS THING TO WORK BY 2023 AND FIND OUT WHAT’S ON IT STOP TELLING ME TO GO TO BED."

(note: I spent the bulk of January on this thing and never got the hard drive to work.)

2. Who did you kiss at midnight/your first kiss in 2022? Ames probably.

3. What did you do in 2022 that you'd never done before?: Managed to successfully grow winter squash from seed to harvest for the first time. I've tried growing winter squash every single year I've had a garden and they always had a good start, but they take so long to mature that much can go wrong and I never actually made it to the end! Until THIS year.

4. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make any. My resolution for next year is to opt out of sibling/in-laws birthdays, not out of dislike for my siblings, but because having to take the time to shop for someone's birthday every single month has become a point of stress for me. It was fine when there were 4 birthdays to worry about in my family, but with all the marriages and births, now there's 12 to consider and I can't keep up and then I just feel like an asshole. So yeah, no more birthdays. Sorry, guys.

5. Did anyone close to you give birth?: Honestly, I have been remarkably checked out this year and haven't been paying any attention whatsoever to anyone's personal news and it's been absolutely grand. I have a vague memory of receiving an invitation to someone's baby shower some time this year but I never RSVP'd and now I can't remember for the life of me who it was for. Do I care? Nope!

6. Did anyone close to you die?: hmmmm I should probably check on that one.

7. What places did you visit?: Disney World, Indianapolis, Erie Pennsylvania

8. What would you like to have in 2023 that you lacked in 2022?: Organizational skills.

9. What dates from 2022 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?: Fuck if I know, I haven't known what the date is since January 1st.

10. What was your biggest achievement of the year?: The garden.

11. What was your biggest failure?: I can't keep my house tidy.

12. Did you suffer illness or injury?: I have caught every single motherfucking virus ever known to man this year and feel like I've spent more days getting over another goddamn cold than I've spent feeling well and healthy. Whether I'm diligently masking with an N95 or not, whether I've been around a crowd of people or 1 nonsick friend outdoors nowhere even near anyone else, I seem to get sick almost every time I dare leave the house. Various people have asked me "are you immunocompromised?" so many times in the past year that I'm starting to wonder if I should get tested for something? I dunno. On top of catching just about everything under the sun like a toddler new at life, I have been testing positive on the covid rapid tests made by Roche, and ONLY Roche, consistently since June 30th. It's totally a joke now and I test every month on the 30th just to check on the status and make sure I still have my supernatural powers, but when it was new news, it super fucked up my summer and I wasted most of July feeling anxious and isolating just in case I'm diseased and putting a hold on house projects requiring help and continued to miss out on summertime outings just like the last two pandemic years because even after multiple PCR tests to confirm the test is bullshit, like, pretty much no one was willing to be around me, the weird ass diseased freak with chronic covid. Not that I blame them, I wouldn't want to be around me either knowing my track record! (Ames, if you're reading this, thank you so muchly for so bravely going to the beach with me. That was the highlight of my whole summer and makes it feel like it wasn't a TOTAL wash). Also I got my bivalent booster the day it came out, it wiped me the fuck out for 3 days, and then I caught real covid anyway a week later, my second breakthrough infection in less than a year lmao (for the record, NO, I'm NOT counting roche covid). Also got my flu shot and what do you know, I got the flu a month later. Whee. (I am not at all implying vaccines don't work, just that my immune system's a garbage idiot.) So please forgive me that I've been enormously fed up and after all of my "will people please just wear a MF mask" campaigning, I too have recently given up on wearing a mask in most circumstances. You all want personal responsibility? This is a two-way street and if you don't care about killing me with your gross plagues, then I sure as hell don't care about killing you.

13. What was the best thing you bought?: I am so torn between overalls from Duluth and the rabbitruck! The overalls have been lifechanging, but the rabbitruck is COOL.

14. Whose events required celebration?: Grimey performed with John Hodgman on stage.

15. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?: it's between the supreme court and the new dark lord of twitter and I'm ashamed that I'm putting them on the same level.

16. Where did most of your money go?: probably house projects

17. What did you get really, really, really excited about?: fried paneer at Epcot and pea blossoms

18. What song will always remind you of 2022?: my 2022 music craze has been space age tiki lounge music.

Compared to this time last year, are you: a) Happier or sadder?: happier

b) Thinner or fatter?: Fatter I guess? I honestly don't know, I haven't weighed myself in like a year. I think I was probably anorexic last year though.

c) Richer or poorer?: richer

19. What do you wish you'd done more of?: engaging in summer and fall traditions, seeing my siblings/niece/nephew

20. What do you wish you'd done less of?: roche covid isolating

21. Did you fall in love in 2022?: no

22. How many one-night stands?: No.

23. How many people did you kiss? No.

24. What was your favourite TV program?: I watched and half-paid attention to the plant series David Attenborodid and enjoyed it, whatever it was called.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?: I've been so unaware of the happenings of others that no, not really. The certain hypocrites in the media who have been a particular outrage this year I very much hated before, so I can't really consider them.

26. What was the best book you read?: I can barely get through a tweet without feeling bored and wanting to move on, nevermind an entire book.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?: Kate Bush

28. What did you want and get?: rabbitruck and a cricut maker

29. What did you want and not get?: brussel sprouts

30. What was your favorite film of this year?: I watched one film, I don't remember what it was, I quickly regretted it, it was long and miserably boring like almost every other movie made after 1997 is, I will never attempt to watch anything ever again, I am extremely elderly.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?: I turned 38. We went to the Brimfield Antiques Faire and I bought a bunch of old stuff.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?: having civil rights, not having manmade climate change

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020?: overalls

34. What kept you sane?: psych meds

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?: Link

36. What political issue stirred you the most?: Roe

37. Who do you miss?: my niece and nephew

38. Who was the best new person you met?: have I met any new people.....hmm...hmm....no, no I have not.

39. Who were your closest friends in 2022? Ames, Erin, Justus, Kelly, Jessie

40. What are you doing to ring in 2023? Grimey's not going to be home so probably getting into shenanigans that he'd get all stressed and worked up about like a skittish cat if I did it while he's home like tearing down the ugly stained drop ceiling in the dining room that I know under all the tiles is piles and piles of mouse shit and ripped up bags of insulation, and the knowledge peeves me every time I go in there. OR I might just fuck it all and play Zelda until 4:00 AM.

41. Who do you plan on kissing to ring in 2023? Ames

42. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022: If other people are ok with spreading death and disease, then they must also be ok with receiving it, so let them have at it.