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2013 was a big year for me. The consensus I've seen from many of my friends and acquaintances is that is was, largely, a bad year for them. For us, it was busy and stressful, but it was also considerably better than 2012 or '11. It wasn't even close.
Many of my years have been utterly terrible. I don't know that they really bear going into in-depth, here. I've also had a few pretty good ones, but I think that since I've reached the age of majority, life has been very difficult for me. I want to say, specifically, that I'm glad I'm still here; there are far too many people who can't say the same thing.
This year started out with me finally finding employment. There's the old adage, "This food is terrible, and there's not enough of it!" Well, my job isn't especially great and I don't always get enough hours, but I've had jobs that made me miserable to a truly dangerous degree, and this one doesn't. Kay and I are paying our bills. This is the year we're both working in tandem. We're paying our bills and getting ahead a little. For me, that's really better than anything. The relief we feel is palpable. My greatest hope for 2014 is that this minimum status quo won't be threatened. Our needs are really very meagre, but I can say that we're presently pretty happy with our current situation.
2013 was the year we tried to get Stand Alone Media to flourish and we didn't succeed. Maybe the problems we ran are obvious now, in retrospect, but the company did not take off. As with our focus in organizing and restructuring our living environment, though, we're reconsidering our strengths as a two person operation and using Stand Alone as a potential side job to bring in supplementary income. We already owe for the equipment we've purchased, but it's a sunk cost. Aside from that, there is literally no overhead. It's possible we won't return on even our very small investment for a long time, but the experience didn't sink us, so at least we learned a lot from the attempt.
Last year was also the year of our wedding ceremony. It's hard to believe we've been married for a year and a half, and it's been since last spring since we've had the event. It's been a hell of a few years. Kay and I figure that if anything should have prevented our relationship from working, it was the intense frustration and nerves from our very first year of dating while incredibly broke.
Kay's parents paid the house off, which was an incredible, slightly unbelievable moment of generosity. It probably wouldn't have happened it we weren't so broke that we risked defaulting and tanking Kay's parents credit rating before their retirement, but not having to pay the house payment is what makes our living situation not just possible but fruitful right now. In a strange way, our being utterly broke might work out to our long term benefit only because of this, then, since life would be very difficult otherwise. In those terms, we're happy enough to eat part of the cost of the wedding ceremony.
Those are the really big moments. At first, I didn't think I'd have any particular resolutions for the new year, but there are two concrete things I want to do and one thing I want to resolve to maintain that are important enough for me to mention them. The first thing, which I've already been working hard on, is to control my alcohol intake and drink more responsibly. I've been doing this for months, mostly successfully but with some occasional utter cockups. It's for my health, and knowing that I have a family history of suicidal depression, mania, and alcoholism made me realize that I needed to act a little more responsibly. I feel better, sleep better, and my mental faculties are sharper. I'm also concerned about how I treat my friends, and I know that I've been a problem for them in the past, so I'm moving in the right direction.
The other two resolutions are almost simple issues of planning and putting that into practice. I want to go on vacation to New York (the city and the state in general) during the upcoming spring season and put my application in for graduate school to several locations for fall semester. I'm finally in the place I need to be at for both of these things, and that's very exciting for me.
Many of my years have been utterly terrible. I don't know that they really bear going into in-depth, here. I've also had a few pretty good ones, but I think that since I've reached the age of majority, life has been very difficult for me. I want to say, specifically, that I'm glad I'm still here; there are far too many people who can't say the same thing.
This year started out with me finally finding employment. There's the old adage, "This food is terrible, and there's not enough of it!" Well, my job isn't especially great and I don't always get enough hours, but I've had jobs that made me miserable to a truly dangerous degree, and this one doesn't. Kay and I are paying our bills. This is the year we're both working in tandem. We're paying our bills and getting ahead a little. For me, that's really better than anything. The relief we feel is palpable. My greatest hope for 2014 is that this minimum status quo won't be threatened. Our needs are really very meagre, but I can say that we're presently pretty happy with our current situation.
2013 was the year we tried to get Stand Alone Media to flourish and we didn't succeed. Maybe the problems we ran are obvious now, in retrospect, but the company did not take off. As with our focus in organizing and restructuring our living environment, though, we're reconsidering our strengths as a two person operation and using Stand Alone as a potential side job to bring in supplementary income. We already owe for the equipment we've purchased, but it's a sunk cost. Aside from that, there is literally no overhead. It's possible we won't return on even our very small investment for a long time, but the experience didn't sink us, so at least we learned a lot from the attempt.
Last year was also the year of our wedding ceremony. It's hard to believe we've been married for a year and a half, and it's been since last spring since we've had the event. It's been a hell of a few years. Kay and I figure that if anything should have prevented our relationship from working, it was the intense frustration and nerves from our very first year of dating while incredibly broke.
Kay's parents paid the house off, which was an incredible, slightly unbelievable moment of generosity. It probably wouldn't have happened it we weren't so broke that we risked defaulting and tanking Kay's parents credit rating before their retirement, but not having to pay the house payment is what makes our living situation not just possible but fruitful right now. In a strange way, our being utterly broke might work out to our long term benefit only because of this, then, since life would be very difficult otherwise. In those terms, we're happy enough to eat part of the cost of the wedding ceremony.
Those are the really big moments. At first, I didn't think I'd have any particular resolutions for the new year, but there are two concrete things I want to do and one thing I want to resolve to maintain that are important enough for me to mention them. The first thing, which I've already been working hard on, is to control my alcohol intake and drink more responsibly. I've been doing this for months, mostly successfully but with some occasional utter cockups. It's for my health, and knowing that I have a family history of suicidal depression, mania, and alcoholism made me realize that I needed to act a little more responsibly. I feel better, sleep better, and my mental faculties are sharper. I'm also concerned about how I treat my friends, and I know that I've been a problem for them in the past, so I'm moving in the right direction.
The other two resolutions are almost simple issues of planning and putting that into practice. I want to go on vacation to New York (the city and the state in general) during the upcoming spring season and put my application in for graduate school to several locations for fall semester. I'm finally in the place I need to be at for both of these things, and that's very exciting for me.
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