reymonkey | Ringing it in

Happy New Year! The neighbors just put on a fantastic fireworks show, which freaked out Squeaks. She went to go hide under the bed upstairs, her usual refuge during thunderstorms.

Entering the new year with mixed feelings. I just got through my second Christmas in a row jobless, and that never feels good. I'm extremely grateful we've got some financial support keeping us from being homeless, and making sure we have food to eat, but the holidays really suck when you angst over not being able to buy the people you care about and the people helping you keep on anything nice. There was much making of stuff, arts and crafts. I made the pretty girl a white stag plushie that went over well.
In the past I've done that thing where you post the first line of the first entry of each month for the last year, but I'm afraid to. It was a shitty year, and I'm sorry to be pessimistic but that's what it comes down to. I've had kind of a bad new year's day, where I was feeling relieved that I've gotten a little money in from odd jobs, and then my car door got broken. Broken in the sense that it can't be closed. We're expecting sleet tonight, and I keep thinking about how my car is sitting out front with the door hanging open, and I can't do a thing about it until Monday. I'm a little afraid to even recap the year, because having to put Spider down tends to swim up in my mind.

So! Good things only!
* New member of the household, Froggy, who plays fetch and goes meep and seems healthier from the start than Spider ever was.
* Coloring book and just recently a sticker to go with it for the recycling company.
* The Pretty Girl is in school and enjoying it, even if she did have to switch to DeVry after the local college screwed her over.
* Started playing The Endless Forest which is pretty and makes me draw more. Wish I had a better video card so it would play right. Maybe I can save up pennies.
* DSL. Wow. So nice to finally be able to watch videos. I know we're always behind the technological curve but I'm just glad to only be slightly behind instead of a lot behind.
* Our rent is still getting paid. We're not starving. We're hanging in there.
* My car still runs. Hopefully the door won't be hard to fix, but man, when I dug it out of the snow it started up on the first turn of the key. They don't make 'em like they used to.
* We seemed to get over our myriad illnesses in time for Christmas.
* Haven't lost anyone I know but the cat, this year. To the best of my knowledge, right now, nobody I know has cancer or anything else terminal.
* For the first time ever, the man I voted for won the presidency. OMG. That really does feel like a piece of history, still.

I'm not big on resolutions, but I need to get out of the house and walk more. I was doing pretty good on it until the real winter cold hit. I'd also like to try and do some sketching every day. That's harder than it sounds, but I pulled it off once before when DBear got us all doing the NaCreWhaMo thing. I'd love to be one of those people who sketches every day for years with a nice pretty sketch blog, but I'm only holding myself to one month, just to do it through January, and maybe it'll become a good habit from there.

Okay, it's getting well into the new year, and bed is calling because my back is messed up right now. Happy New Year everybody, and let's all hope the next year is an improvement. I know so many people have had a rough time.