@KDemo My work year was as follows - finally got an AM shift after the last 8 years on the PM. That's good! I wasn't able to actually start that shift. That's bad. Then I finally got a promotion. That's good! That moved me back to a PM shift. That's bad. I'm making like 40% more money. That's good! I'm working about 50% more hours and I'm salaried. That's bad. 6 months later I get a raise. That's good. It was a 0.6% raise. That's bad. Then corporate says "hey, we're going to give you a better raise because your position in range is pitiful." That's good. Two weeks later "yeah, about that...we calculated wrong and you won't get that much more." That's bad. I find out in the next week if I get to go AM in February. That would be good. The AM shift would be Tues-Fri. That's bad. tl;dr at least I didn't finger my dog
Found out early I got the AM gig. That's good! My boss wants me to start training for Saturdays starting this Saturday while maintaining my Mon-Fri PM schedule. That's bad : it means I'll be working 6 days a week for the next month and a half. Oh, and 0630 Saturday comes might early when you normally leave work at 0200.
There isn't all weird rollercoaster news-I get to fly down to Miami tomorrow to watch my Yellow Jackets in the Orange Bowl. This will be first time I've been able to go to a bowl game since the 1998 Gator Bowl victory over those Samwise humpers from Illinois. Free 5th row tickets and a nice hotel room that my buddy won in a contest. Then we get to hit up the poker room and watch more football to ring in the new year. 2015 might be the best yet.
@theco2 For me, happiness is defined as: Having friends so close they are family, being able to pay my bills without worrying about money all the time, being able to sit in the sun and read or stay up all night watching old movies with my pets, travel to interesting places and come home to the friends and pets and lazy days in the sun. I make it a point to find joy in little things every day. In my experience, happiness doesn't come wafting down on a cloud of good fortune. I have to search it out. One of the main tricks was learning to recognize and savor it.
@moondrake Sounds good to me. It definitely is the little things and I love how you include your pets, in there. If it weren't for my dogs I would be downright crazy, by now. One of them might be helping lead me that way, though.
@theco2 I would say Simba is my main source of daily happiness. We're having a burst of cold weather, so today is "fun with the sweatshirt". He loves it and tries to put it on himself. I made a video a few years back which is pretty funny.
@moondrake Oh, look, he's helping! How fun! laughing
Our oldest cat (she's 21 now) came from my mom and we're pretty sure she's deaf. And if you're familiar with deaf cats, they get loud. Well, the past few months she's taken to going out in the yard (it's safe, the fence has been modified to keep cats in the yard and not roaming the neighborhood). She likes to lay in the sun and DH started putting down a folded up towel for her to lay on, which she does. But eventually she gets up and goes into his shop, screaming all the way. He figured out yesterday it's because she wants him to move the towel. He does and she's good.
Sometimes our pets help make it all worth it, you know? The love they give us without asking much in return. Simba looks like a lot of fun (and a handful).
@lisaviolet My best friend's sister has a deaf albino cat and she has talked about how loud that cat is. My cat has decided her preferred water source is to lap it up off the shower stall floor. At first she was satisfied with just doing that after I shower, but then she started demanding it at all times of the day. So I keep a cup by the bathroom sink to pour water on the floor of the shower stall for her. Simba is a double handful. They keep me busy, which is a good thing.
@moondrake What a gorgeous dog! Looks like Simba's helping isn't exactly helping, but it is funny. We use to have a Westie that would slip out of his sweatshirt, when he got too hot.
Well, let's see... I had to put my 20 year old cat (who was basically my child as I have no kids) to sleep. Ended up with a herniated disc that was impinging on the nerves and causing me a great deal of pain. My stepfather's Parkinsons really took a nose dive this year and he's not doing well. My actual father ended up in the hospital with pneumonia - twice. The dementia isn't helping make things any easier (his - not mine yet). Right now my foot feels like I have a stress fracture and I'm praying it heals before my Canadian ski trip in February.
But, there was meh. And Irk. And Glen. And all the awesome meh people (employees AND meh-ricans). So a little flash of light shone in my dark tunnel this year. Thanks folks.
@Cinoclav sorry about your cat.. I dread when my older ones die. All are 13 going on 14, all three have medical issues, one has a terminal disease (so far she is not ready to be put to sleep). They so become a part of our life.
@Kidsandliz Thank you. It's still difficult. I probably wouldn't dwell on him as much if I had other pets but he was the last of the gang, having said goodbye to two dogs in recent years. Hoping for the best for yours!
It sucked moose dick, honestly. But hey, on the upside, this new medical thing is going to make 2015 look like moose bukakke, so 2014 will be the good old days at some point.
Mine was pretty great, to be honest. We bought a nice townhouse at the beginning of the year and moved out of the crappy place we were renting. My kids are relatively healthy, we adopted a second dog, and Meh started taking my money. I have no complaints.
Grandmother passed away. Had to take a pay cut at work. Bank account got drained because of some fraud (got the money back a few months later). Fell hard and fast for a girl, only for her to tell me she loves me and then dump me in a 48 hour window. So definitely not a good year.
Well, in January I got health insurance for the first time in 9 years, then I broke my kneecap. Still healing up from that. In February my old cat, Lucas Kittywalker, died. In June my midling cat, Little Miss Meeks the Monster, apparently took a long walk with a coyote, I still have Satchmo and Maximillian Caticus, so still get some cuddles. My hubby's health got a little worse, no help for it. My youngest daughter and her husband graduated from college and moved back home, they're building a cottage on our property for their own home. And I lost a long time friend. So all in all, I think the year was a draw. Better next year?
@hems79 And me too… although I have had a few temp ones and a friend is letting me live in their basement rather than my car… Make sure you get food stamps. Then at least you can eat. You too @helloalice (about the food stamps)
Overall it was a pretty damn good year. Hubby & I celebrated 1 year of homeownership, like @PurplePawprints we adopted a second dog, I haven't lost my job (yet, seems like it's just a matter of time), I paid off almost all my debt, (mortgage and one $5k loan left to go), paid cash for Christmas gifts for the first time in I can't remember how long. My 80-year old Mom continues to enjoy good health and remains independent and fairly mobile. Hubby's parents moved from Pennsylvania and now live 30 minutes away. (Still not sure if that's a good thing or not.) I had a chance to participate in the silliest scavenger hunt ever created and had a blast being part of a team of definitely warped individuals. Last, but far from least, Meh and everyone here. I love this happy, but fairly dysfunctional, world that has been created here.
it was a pretty Meh year that was turned to shit in the last week or so, and topping off the poop cake of 2014? My grandmother died this morning, I need to go cry again
The highlight of 2014 for me was stumbling across Meh. To think about that fact I obviously lead a very boring, dull and meh life..........but love it. Meh is always the bright spot in my day. Meh is always there for me and always brings a smile.
@1wally1 Yeah, while it appears 2014 was a rough year for quite a few of us, Meh has been a consistent bright spot. Thank you @snapster, I hope this year has been as entertaining for you as you have made it for us.
@JonT Definitely truth. While I gave a shout out to the boss man above simply for starting this venture, I just want to give extra credit to you and the gang. You're pretty awesome at this gig and the rest of the group consistently goes above and beyond to help us customehrs. (Especially now that we've learned ceramic mugs don't bounce!) Btw, not sure I ever said thank you for sending along my prize, so Thank You.
It was awesome! In 2012 I said our last Disney meet (a bunch of internet friends started meeting up in 1999 on my birthday) would be 2013. That was the fifteenth meet and the parks had gotten busier, the group dynamics had changed and it just wore me out. So, 2014 was the first year since 1998 that we didn't have a big group at Disneyland for my birthday. As a matter of fact, we didn't even GO to Disneyland for my birthday this year. I got to stay home! (For those of you who got the exchange bags from me, the buttons included I made for the Disney meets). It was nice.
I realized that the Tower of Terror really isn't so terrorble after all and rode it repeatedly. (We have annual passes and we try to get up once a month as long as our passes let us - cheap passes with blackout dates.)
Then I got an awesome Fuku as a kickstarter. Well, it was actually for the hubs, but he doesn't give a rat's ass about this stuff, he probably doesn't even know he's a kickstarter. There was an iPad mini, brand new, but no charging cable (that's an expensive charging cable for whoever donated this box) and JBL speaker dock to charge it!
I had my first colonoscopy, the prep was killer - the not eating part (I've never considered soup as food and broth is only colored water and I never imagined I'd cry because someone was eating a PB&J sandwich in front of me and I never imagined a PB&J sandwich could smell so good), but the results were clear and I've got another ten years before I need another one of them.
I was voted in as scapegoat on Meh for the last month of the year and it's been great fun!
We did lose three kitties this year, two (siblings) to kidney disease, they were 19 years old. Another to cancer, started off as chylothorax (fluid in the lungs) and we spent many hours at the vet's office. Once the fluid situation was taken care of (look up Rutin, it's a homeopath or something and Captain getting it on a daily basis helped keep the fluid from building up). But the absence of the fluid left room for the cancer (which most likely caused the fluid build up in the first place) to grow and it grew quickly. The day we said goodbye, he had run through the yard, scratched posts with great joy, then his breathing took a turn for the worse. There was nothing more to be done and we took him to the vet to say goodbye. We lost three cats in two days' time. But it's part of the life cycle, I figure we start dying from the minute we draw our first breath. It's gonna happen to all of us at some point.
But best of all, I woke up in the morning three hundred and sixty-four times! (There's still tomorrow - my last day of scapegoat hood and our 29th anniversary.)
@Kidsandliz Thank you. It was rough. With Georgie and Gracie, I kind of expected it, George had been getting subq fluids for years. But Captain was a surprise and it came on so quickly. Diagnosed in May. Gone the beginning of July.
@lisaviolet I had one who was cuddling one night, dead in the morning with no warning last Feb. She was only 3.5, Vet never figured out why. I have another one who is dying. She stopped eating again so am back to force feeding her. Otherwise happy, grooming herself but she won't be around much longer. She is almost 14.
2014 was a pretty damn good year. I have a job and a roof over my head. I have a fantastic group of people close to me. I got a giant freaking TV from Meh, I got to play on stage at a large event with one of my heros, got to play one of my bucket list venues. All in all, super blessed and have no business complaining about the boring crap that did happen during the year when considering all the kickass stuff.
2014 was kind of a bookmark year in between important events. I was very close to having to declare bankruptcy last year due to some bad money management decisions. I went to my credit union and sat down with a loan officer to talk about my options, and she just magically fixed everything-- refinanced my house and included all the credit card debt I was drowning in, bundled it all into one very low interest house payment I could manage comfortably and pay off in less than four years. I felt like I'd been thrown a life preserver by a complete stranger. I took over as my mom's legal guardian and moved her near me, which is a lot of extra work and responsibility, but I also get to spend time with her which I have not had since she moved away almost 30 years ago. In three weeks I get to retire, and I'll be netting very close to my current take-home pay, plus anything I can scratch up for contract work. After about a decade I'll be eligible for social security benefits which will help balance out the extra costs of getting old. I'm in great health and my best friend is also retired, so we should be able to really enjoy ourselves in the coming year. My dog is 8 which is elderly for a Great Dane, and my cat is ancient, 16 or 17 years old, but they are both in great health as well. In two years my house will be paid off and I can dedicate those funds to travel. I am a happy camper.
@moondrake Wow ... hope you invite that banker for drinks on occasion and have him/her on your Christmas shopping list! That's what a banker is supposed to be ... and hard to find! Cheers to you and your 2015.
It's been a pretty good year for me. Started out asking my girlfriend to marry me on New Year's day (and she accepted). Took a few nice vacations. Got a new deck built. Found out over the summer that I was losing my job of 14+ years on 12/31, but ended up securing another one starting 1/5 with only a small pay cut. Work is giving me 6 months of severance that I'll be able to use for my kids' college funds, to pay off some debt, and to save for a rainy day. And, finally, "met" a bunch of cool folks on meh.com that I enjoy bantering back and forth with on a somewhat daily basis. No real complaints here.
To everyone who had a shitty year, I hope 2015 is much, much better. My clinical depression has deepened, I don't much like people, and I'm holding onto my job. No love, no riches and health OK. And my cat sleeps in the bed with me. So by American standards I'm doing pretty meh I think.
This year I cut expenses and positioned my family to be fully debt free in Feb 2015. I accepted a new role with a company. On 01/12/15, I will have a fantastic opportunity with greater pay and bonuses to boot. Right now (12/30), my cheeks are resting comfortably on some Ko Olina, Ohau sand and my Uber white skin is getting some long overdue sun. Oh ... and my wife brought Kona coffee with toasted coconut topping to me this morning.
I'm not poor, not rich. I see proof I can get to where I want to be. I have the opportunity to get what I want (with a ton of work). I feel pretty good.
2014 was not a disaster. No pets or family members died, finances stable, health ditto, good neighbors. Bought my once-every-decade new car (Mazda CX-5). The blind spot monitor saves my life about once a month. Retirement annuity comes from the same appropriation from which congressional salaries are paid, so reasonably secure. The housekeeper and gardener haven't shown up for years now, and I really need them. Drowning in cat fluff; Roomba can only do so much.
@OldCatLady Ooh, I plan on buying the 2016 CX-5 when it comes out this spring. I waited as they're making some desired changes, primarily including the new Connect infotainment system that the 3 has. Can't wait. Hope you're loving yours!
@Cinoclav I really, really love it. Did a ton of research, test drives etc. The acceleration absolutely shoves me back into the seat when I floor it, and it corners like it's on rails. Feels much peppier than the specs say; I haven't had this much fun since my MGB, a thousand years ago. The power driver's seat is positively decadent. I did have to keep the manual on the driver's seat for a few weeks while I worked through Pandora, the backup camera, phone pairing etc.
@OldCatLady Awesome, glad you love it! I'm pretty spoiled now as I drive a fully loaded Subaru Tribeca. Considering my commute is about 75 miles round trip I refuse to give up all my amenities. I just spend way too much time in my car. This is the longest I've ever kept a car. It will be 7 years by the time I trade it in. I'm sooo ready.
@Cinoclav My ghetto van is 25 and can now get antique car plates… Oh my. That being said I'd LOVE a newer car - yah know one where some of the parts didn't come from the junk yard or belt guides that don't need jury rigged from a washer (yeah found that on the internet - it a actually works despite cutting the life of the belt in half or worse) LOL. I am SO looking forward to the day that I am dug out of this financial mess and can go get me a car with good mileage, where the parts are always in stock and is intended to go 300,000 miles or more - unlike my grand caravan.
@Fen_Star Yikes! My mom lost 3" of height after back surgery when she was about 30yo, 8.5 months pregnant with my sister, and slipped on a patch of ice and broke her back. She had to deliver the baby in traction, which was such a harrowing experience her hair changed from red to brown and never changed back. Hope they are able to resolve your problem!
First, I'm sorry to hear that so many of you had a bad year -- here's to hoping that was the darkness before the dawn and things get so much better in 2015 and beyond. I <3 you all.
As for my year, I have to say it was pretty amazing. I met the woman I plan to marry (sooner rather than later), moved into an awesome and cheap apartment that's still in the city, started working at Mediocre and met a bunch of cool people and made some friends, took a few really fun trips, and I'm optimistic that things will only get better next year.
On the plus side I got hired on at my first non-temp job since '07 and I'm in the best shape of my life. On the down side the job is stacking hardwood lumber and I'm 15 to 20 years older than the kids I'm working with and I hurt every day. With a little luck I will get transferred to shipping, less lifting, more running.
@WINTERMUTE I had a manual labor job this summer (been unemployed from my professional job for 2 years this Dec 20th, two cancers had a hand in that) in the hot sun (90+ degrees daily). I found it took me about 3 weeks not to come home beyond sore and tired, and I realized those who talk about working until they are 70+ do not do manual labor for living.
Some of the best moments this year were from Meh (Gishwhes- such a thrill! Thanks again @katylava!), the slot machine (thanks so much @djames85 - you made my grandfather's Christmas), and the general community. Went to an awesome wedding for a cousin (he dj'd most of it himself), and saw the new baby from another cousin.
Well, I bought my first house, bought a hybrid, went to see Letterman one of my last times, went to Comic Con for the fourth year in a row, and visited my old college friends on Labor Day. Oh, and my Meh button streak went unbroken.
2014 was my best year. Got to be a Boxer in a charity boxing event, went to opening day for the first time, took care of my first born for the first year of her life, found the joy of homebrewing, and became a meh forum person.
In January, I got to experience my first blizzard (which was actually really fun for me). Then the airline ran out of planes and that blizzard got me stranded for an extra day. But St. Louis is not the worst place in the world to get stuck. I eventually made it back to work in time to get written up and demoted for refusing to comply with new, unethical practices. In the Spring, I moved out of my ghetto apartment and into my grandparents' old house to help keep it occupied and maintained. It needed a lot of work but I was excited about the project. In my new position at work, I met some cool new people I otherwise wouldn't have met and was able to see a broader scope of how our organization was operating. That latter bit helped me to make the decision to resign. No job lined up at the time, but a huge weight off my shoulders and I've never looked back. Over the summer, the sewer line in the house finally gave out to the tree roots growing in it & I've been couch surfing and staying with family the last few months waiting for that to get fixed. Still no permanent job but my PRN and temp work have kept me going.
It's been a crazy year, but God has taken care of me in some pretty substantial and surprising ways. I have food, shelter, warm clothes, time with family I wouldn't have otherwise had... And when the real world gets a little too intense, I have this community to retreat to. So, no complaints here, I'm ready to see what 2015 has to bring!
I love your positive view on what many would regard as negative events. Good on you for taking a stand with your employer, few would have had the courage.
@moondrake Thank you. I won't pretend I've been skipping around spewing rainbows through it all, but eventually I had to choose to either accept reality and work with what is or sit around being angry about the way things should be. (and wash, rinse, repeat every time I forget that little lesson.) As for the job thing, I was shaking so bad I couldn't read my signature on my write-up. ;)
Well I'm not dead yet for better or worse, so I couldn't answer lower than "Not too good" since it easily could have been worse. Though in all fairness I've been in limbo for 4 years heading into a 5th, so life in general has and probably won't be any different. Here's to hoping I suppose.
The Good 1) 10 week temp job at min wage this summer (was laid off 2 years ago Dec 20th due to being "too expensive for their insurance - EEOC complaint pending - 2 cancers 9 mo apart) 2) temp job as an adjunct teaching 1 course starting Jan 12 (online) 3) living in my friend's basement rather than my 25 year old ghetto van 4) people (mostly the adoption community is paying it forward since I have helped a lot of them when they adopt troubled kids talking them through hard times, etc., taken some of them into my home for a week or two to give them a much needed break…) have helped me financially keep health insurance and made medical bill payments (payment plan - I owe so much I will be dead of old age before it is all paid off I think) via my gofundme (http://www.gofundme.com/78d3nc), including several generous souls from meh 5) the fukus have given me things to sell where I have made some money which helped (even though I would have preferred to keep some of that stuff) and birthday presents for my kid, and meh has made it possible to very cheaply acquire presents to give at christmas 6) the 1990 ghetto van will get antique car plates which are cheap!! and never need renewed!! 7) folks on this community were part of a 3 way trade so I could give my kid a 30 pin Sony Dream machine for her birthday (mine came DOA in that fuku) which completely made her day! And the most recent exchange added to the chirstmas pile for her and her two little kids. Thanks meh and @studrec!
The not so good 1) one of my 13 year old cats is dying (not ready to be put to sleep yet - but close) 2) I am out of money and had to take a cash advance on my credit card to make my January health insurance premium payment (direct withdrawal - would have bounced otherwise) 3) the follicular non-hodgkin's lymphoma is likely relapsing (although it is good that I can wait to deal with this until 2015 as I would otherwise have had 2 out of pocket deductibles in one year - COBRA and BC/BS - no medicaid expansion in this state) 4) could not afford to go home for christmas to see my extended family (1000 miles away) 5) the ghetto van needs some necessary expensive repairs (like ball joints, etc.) that I can't afford to fix and some "optional" ones like an AC compressor which I suppose is optional even in the summer here in the deep south due to the state of my finances but OMG that was miserable all this last summer with that broken. 6) living in my friend's basement as she has 7 kids, some of them very troubled like my adopted kid (the most of hers and mine are adopted at older ages, I had one of her's in unofficial foster care when she blew out of her international adoption to keep her out of real foster care - I used to be a foster parent, under other circumstances I would have adopted her but I didn't think it was fair to her since I have a cancer with no cure and kids need parents for a long time, as it is I worry about my kid) and dealing with that kind of chaos all over again (my kid is 22 and currently living with a boyfriend - don't even want to think of her, her 8 and 19 month old all in this 18x18' basement room together) - her husband got transferred, they have a high school senior so husband went west, everyone else is moving this summer.
So I guess that is 7:6 so it comes down on the good side of things… although with the stress I am under at times I tend to forget that.
@Cinoclav Admire might be a bit misplaced, but thanks. I can have my days with pity parties… I do what most people would do though - put one foot in front of the other, doing whatever I can to try to dig out of this mess and hope eventually things will turn around… there isn't much other choice really.
Swell
The only way to sum up my year:
@Shamburglar - Yes, like that. Started off the year at work with Dictator Cruella Evilboss.
(continued) That's bad. She left, and we had no boss for a few months. That's good. Now they hired a new boss. The jury is still out.
@KDemo My work year was as follows - finally got an AM shift after the last 8 years on the PM. That's good! I wasn't able to actually start that shift. That's bad. Then I finally got a promotion. That's good! That moved me back to a PM shift. That's bad. I'm making like 40% more money. That's good! I'm working about 50% more hours and I'm salaried. That's bad. 6 months later I get a raise. That's good. It was a 0.6% raise. That's bad. Then corporate says "hey, we're going to give you a better raise because your position in range is pitiful." That's good. Two weeks later "yeah, about that...we calculated wrong and you won't get that much more." That's bad. I find out in the next week if I get to go AM in February. That would be good. The AM shift would be Tues-Fri. That's bad. tl;dr at least I didn't finger my dog
@Shamburglar Never go full finger on the pooch.
@Shamburglar I swear we work for the same company.
@Shamburglar
Found out early I got the AM gig. That's good! My boss wants me to start training for Saturdays starting this Saturday while maintaining my Mon-Fri PM schedule. That's bad : it means I'll be working 6 days a week for the next month and a half. Oh, and 0630 Saturday comes might early when you normally leave work at 0200.
There isn't all weird rollercoaster news-I get to fly down to Miami tomorrow to watch my Yellow Jackets in the Orange Bowl. This will be first time I've been able to go to a bowl game since the 1998 Gator Bowl victory over those Samwise humpers from Illinois. Free 5th row tickets and a nice hotel room that my buddy won in a contest. Then we get to hit up the poker room and watch more football to ring in the new year. 2015 might be the best yet.
Still earning less than I was 8 years ago, so I have that going for me.
My girlfriend slept with someone else so.... meh
@xEBRONx Eh, she wasn't that good anyway.
If you answer anything other than Meh, you're on the wrong website.
@theco2 I was thinking the same thing.
@theco2 I really am. I am not a meh person at all. I am a "Define happiness then go and get it" person.
@moondrake Define it, already. I'm waiting, patiently.
@theco2 For me, happiness is defined as: Having friends so close they are family, being able to pay my bills without worrying about money all the time, being able to sit in the sun and read or stay up all night watching old movies with my pets, travel to interesting places and come home to the friends and pets and lazy days in the sun. I make it a point to find joy in little things every day. In my experience, happiness doesn't come wafting down on a cloud of good fortune. I have to search it out. One of the main tricks was learning to recognize and savor it.
@moondrake Sounds good to me. It definitely is the little things and I love how you include your pets, in there. If it weren't for my dogs I would be downright crazy, by now. One of them might be helping lead me that way, though.
@theco2 I would say Simba is my main source of daily happiness. We're having a burst of cold weather, so today is "fun with the sweatshirt". He loves it and tries to put it on himself. I made a video a few years back which is pretty funny.
@moondrake Oh, look, he's helping! How fun! laughing
Our oldest cat (she's 21 now) came from my mom and we're pretty sure she's deaf. And if you're familiar with deaf cats, they get loud. Well, the past few months she's taken to going out in the yard (it's safe, the fence has been modified to keep cats in the yard and not roaming the neighborhood). She likes to lay in the sun and DH started putting down a folded up towel for her to lay on, which she does. But eventually she gets up and goes into his shop, screaming all the way. He figured out yesterday it's because she wants him to move the towel. He does and she's good.
Sometimes our pets help make it all worth it, you know? The love they give us without asking much in return. Simba looks like a lot of fun (and a handful).
@lisaviolet My best friend's sister has a deaf albino cat and she has talked about how loud that cat is. My cat has decided her preferred water source is to lap it up off the shower stall floor. At first she was satisfied with just doing that after I shower, but then she started demanding it at all times of the day. So I keep a cup by the bathroom sink to pour water on the floor of the shower stall for her. Simba is a double handful. They keep me busy, which is a good thing.
@moondrake can I share your video of facebook it brought me a smile when I needed one
@moondrake Now for the pants...
@Foxborn Sure! Thanks for asking.
@moondrake What a gorgeous dog! Looks like Simba's helping isn't exactly helping, but it is funny. We use to have a Westie that would slip out of his sweatshirt, when he got too hot.
Well, let's see... I had to put my 20 year old cat (who was basically my child as I have no kids) to sleep. Ended up with a herniated disc that was impinging on the nerves and causing me a great deal of pain. My stepfather's Parkinsons really took a nose dive this year and he's not doing well. My actual father ended up in the hospital with pneumonia - twice. The dementia isn't helping make things any easier (his - not mine yet). Right now my foot feels like I have a stress fracture and I'm praying it heals before my Canadian ski trip in February.
But, there was meh. And Irk. And Glen. And all the awesome meh people (employees AND meh-ricans). So a little flash of light shone in my dark tunnel this year. Thanks folks.
@Cinoclav sorry about your cat.. I dread when my older ones die. All are 13 going on 14, all three have medical issues, one has a terminal disease (so far she is not ready to be put to sleep). They so become a part of our life.
@Kidsandliz Thank you. It's still difficult. I probably wouldn't dwell on him as much if I had other pets but he was the last of the gang, having said goodbye to two dogs in recent years. Hoping for the best for yours!
I got a job at Mediocre!
@katylava I don't know if I should consider that good or bad. :)
@theco2 there's an obvious middle ground you can choose
@katylava Hooray for Meh!
It sucked moose dick, honestly. But hey, on the upside, this new medical thing is going to make 2015 look like moose bukakke, so 2014 will be the good old days at some point.
@editorkid Moose backache would be such a mehs
@editorkid ummm....@Moose might have something to say about this.
@editorkid
@Moose A møøse ønce bit my sister.
Meh-velous. :-/
Mine was pretty great, to be honest. We bought a nice townhouse at the beginning of the year and moved out of the crappy place we were renting. My kids are relatively healthy, we adopted a second dog, and Meh started taking my money. I have no complaints.
Grandmother passed away. Had to take a pay cut at work. Bank account got drained because of some fraud (got the money back a few months later). Fell hard and fast for a girl, only for her to tell me she loves me and then dump me in a 48 hour window. So definitely not a good year.
@TheArtimus Gosh your year sound like it was stressful. I am sorry about your grandmother.
Fantastic! Here's why:
Well, in January I got health insurance for the first time in 9 years, then I broke my kneecap. Still healing up from that. In February my old cat, Lucas Kittywalker, died. In June my midling cat, Little Miss Meeks the Monster, apparently took a long walk with a coyote, I still have Satchmo and Maximillian Caticus, so still get some cuddles. My hubby's health got a little worse, no help for it. My youngest daughter and her husband graduated from college and moved back home, they're building a cottage on our property for their own home. And I lost a long time friend. So all in all, I think the year was a draw. Better next year?
@meow57 Sorry about the bad news, especially the cats. Love their names though.
@meow57 yes sorry about your cats…sad. Good thing you had health insurance!! That was lucky.
The only good thing this year for me was meh.
I lost my job at the end of January. Packed everything up and moved to a different city. Now it's December and I have no job, no money, no prospects.
But meh is pretty swell.
@HELLOALICE Sounds like me.... Just replace "January" with May, and replace "Packed" with About to pack and that's me exactly.
@hems79 And me too… although I have had a few temp ones and a friend is letting me live in their basement rather than my car… Make sure you get food stamps. Then at least you can eat. You too @helloalice (about the food stamps)
Overall it was a pretty damn good year. Hubby & I celebrated 1 year of homeownership, like @PurplePawprints we adopted a second dog, I haven't lost my job (yet, seems like it's just a matter of time), I paid off almost all my debt, (mortgage and one $5k loan left to go), paid cash for Christmas gifts for the first time in I can't remember how long. My 80-year old Mom continues to enjoy good health and remains independent and fairly mobile. Hubby's parents moved from Pennsylvania and now live 30 minutes away. (Still not sure if that's a good thing or not.) I had a chance to participate in the silliest scavenger hunt ever created and had a blast being part of a team of definitely warped individuals. Last, but far from least, Meh and everyone here. I love this happy, but fairly dysfunctional, world that has been created here.
I've got no real complaints, but it probably fell short of A-meh-zing.
it was a pretty Meh year that was turned to shit in the last week or so, and topping off the poop cake of 2014? My grandmother died this morning, I need to go cry again
@Foxborn So sorry to hear that @Foxborn. Deepest sympathies to you and your family.
@Foxborn :( Sorry for your loss, all of us at Mediocre are sending love your way.
@Foxborn I'm so sorry about your grandmother. My deepest sympathies to you and your family.
@Foxborn so very sorry for your loss. Love to you and your family.
@Foxborn I'm so sorry. Gentle (((((Foxborn)))))
@lisaviolet @1wally1 @bluedog @JonT @Cinoclav thanks More love than I expected all you all the best
@Foxborn I'm so sorry. :-( Sending hugs, love, and prayers your way.
@Foxborn I'm so sorry...
The highlight of 2014 for me was stumbling across Meh.
To think about that fact I obviously lead a very boring, dull and meh life..........but love it. Meh is always the bright spot in my day. Meh is always there for me and always brings a smile.
@1wally1 Yeah, while it appears 2014 was a rough year for quite a few of us, Meh has been a consistent bright spot. Thank you @snapster, I hope this year has been as entertaining for you as you have made it for us.
@1wally1 I'm so glad to hear that, there's pretty much no better feedback a community manager could get. :) I hope to keep it that way.
@JonT Definitely truth. While I gave a shout out to the boss man above simply for starting this venture, I just want to give extra credit to you and the gang. You're pretty awesome at this gig and the rest of the group consistently goes above and beyond to help us customehrs. (Especially now that we've learned ceramic mugs don't bounce!) Btw, not sure I ever said thank you for sending along my prize, so Thank You.
It was awesome! In 2012 I said our last Disney meet (a bunch of internet friends started meeting up in 1999 on my birthday) would be 2013. That was the fifteenth meet and the parks had gotten busier, the group dynamics had changed and it just wore me out. So, 2014 was the first year since 1998 that we didn't have a big group at Disneyland for my birthday. As a matter of fact, we didn't even GO to Disneyland for my birthday this year. I got to stay home! (For those of you who got the exchange bags from me, the buttons included I made for the Disney meets). It was nice.
I realized that the Tower of Terror really isn't so terrorble after all and rode it repeatedly. (We have annual passes and we try to get up once a month as long as our passes let us - cheap passes with blackout dates.)
Then I got an awesome Fuku as a kickstarter. Well, it was actually for the hubs, but he doesn't give a rat's ass about this stuff, he probably doesn't even know he's a kickstarter. There was an iPad mini, brand new, but no charging cable (that's an expensive charging cable for whoever donated this box) and JBL speaker dock to charge it!
I had my first colonoscopy, the prep was killer - the not eating part (I've never considered soup as food and broth is only colored water and I never imagined I'd cry because someone was eating a PB&J sandwich in front of me and I never imagined a PB&J sandwich could smell so good), but the results were clear and I've got another ten years before I need another one of them.
I was voted in as scapegoat on Meh for the last month of the year and it's been great fun!
We did lose three kitties this year, two (siblings) to kidney disease, they were 19 years old. Another to cancer, started off as chylothorax (fluid in the lungs) and we spent many hours at the vet's office. Once the fluid situation was taken care of (look up Rutin, it's a homeopath or something and Captain getting it on a daily basis helped keep the fluid from building up). But the absence of the fluid left room for the cancer (which most likely caused the fluid build up in the first place) to grow and it grew quickly. The day we said goodbye, he had run through the yard, scratched posts with great joy, then his breathing took a turn for the worse. There was nothing more to be done and we took him to the vet to say goodbye. We lost three cats in two days' time. But it's part of the life cycle, I figure we start dying from the minute we draw our first breath. It's gonna happen to all of us at some point.
But best of all, I woke up in the morning three hundred and sixty-four times! (There's still tomorrow - my last day of scapegoat hood and our 29th anniversary.)
Yeah, it's been an awesome year.
@lisaviolet oh my gosh - 3 kitties in 2 days. That is hard.
@Kidsandliz Thank you. It was rough. With Georgie and Gracie, I kind of expected it, George had been getting subq fluids for years. But Captain was a surprise and it came on so quickly. Diagnosed in May. Gone the beginning of July.
@lisaviolet I had one who was cuddling one night, dead in the morning with no warning last Feb. She was only 3.5, Vet never figured out why. I have another one who is dying. She stopped eating again so am back to force feeding her. Otherwise happy, grooming herself but she won't be around much longer. She is almost 14.
2014 was a pretty damn good year. I have a job and a roof over my head. I have a fantastic group of people close to me. I got a giant freaking TV from Meh, I got to play on stage at a large event with one of my heros, got to play one of my bucket list venues. All in all, super blessed and have no business complaining about the boring crap that did happen during the year when considering all the kickass stuff.
Nice bell-curve in the responses.
2014 was kind of a bookmark year in between important events. I was very close to having to declare bankruptcy last year due to some bad money management decisions. I went to my credit union and sat down with a loan officer to talk about my options, and she just magically fixed everything-- refinanced my house and included all the credit card debt I was drowning in, bundled it all into one very low interest house payment I could manage comfortably and pay off in less than four years. I felt like I'd been thrown a life preserver by a complete stranger. I took over as my mom's legal guardian and moved her near me, which is a lot of extra work and responsibility, but I also get to spend time with her which I have not had since she moved away almost 30 years ago. In three weeks I get to retire, and I'll be netting very close to my current take-home pay, plus anything I can scratch up for contract work. After about a decade I'll be eligible for social security benefits which will help balance out the extra costs of getting old. I'm in great health and my best friend is also retired, so we should be able to really enjoy ourselves in the coming year. My dog is 8 which is elderly for a Great Dane, and my cat is ancient, 16 or 17 years old, but they are both in great health as well. In two years my house will be paid off and I can dedicate those funds to travel. I am a happy camper.
@moondrake Wow ... hope you invite that banker for drinks on occasion and have him/her on your Christmas shopping list! That's what a banker is supposed to be ... and hard to find! Cheers to you and your 2015.
@james078 I send her a Christmas card every year. They really aren't supposed to take gifts or get chummy with clients.
It's been a pretty good year for me. Started out asking my girlfriend to marry me on New Year's day (and she accepted). Took a few nice vacations. Got a new deck built. Found out over the summer that I was losing my job of 14+ years on 12/31, but ended up securing another one starting 1/5 with only a small pay cut. Work is giving me 6 months of severance that I'll be able to use for my kids' college funds, to pay off some debt, and to save for a rainy day. And, finally, "met" a bunch of cool folks on meh.com that I enjoy bantering back and forth with on a somewhat daily basis. No real complaints here.
best year ever got my dream computer setup made tons of money and have more job offers then i know what to do with
@qjb1999 Congrats and Cheers!
To everyone who had a shitty year, I hope 2015 is much, much better. My clinical depression has deepened, I don't much like people, and I'm holding onto my job. No love, no riches and health OK. And my cat sleeps in the bed with me. So by American standards I'm doing pretty meh I think.
This year I cut expenses and positioned my family to be fully debt free in Feb 2015. I accepted a new role with a company. On 01/12/15, I will have a fantastic opportunity with greater pay and bonuses to boot. Right now (12/30), my cheeks are resting comfortably on some Ko Olina, Ohau sand and my Uber white skin is getting some long overdue sun. Oh ... and my wife brought Kona coffee with toasted coconut topping to me this morning.
I'm not poor, not rich. I see proof I can get to where I want to be. I have the opportunity to get what I want (with a ton of work). I feel pretty good.
2014 was not a disaster. No pets or family members died, finances stable, health ditto, good neighbors. Bought my once-every-decade new car (Mazda CX-5). The blind spot monitor saves my life about once a month. Retirement annuity comes from the same appropriation from which congressional salaries are paid, so reasonably secure. The housekeeper and gardener haven't shown up for years now, and I really need them. Drowning in cat fluff; Roomba can only do so much.
@OldCatLady Ooh, I plan on buying the 2016 CX-5 when it comes out this spring. I waited as they're making some desired changes, primarily including the new Connect infotainment system that the 3 has. Can't wait. Hope you're loving yours!
@Cinoclav I really, really love it. Did a ton of research, test drives etc. The acceleration absolutely shoves me back into the seat when I floor it, and it corners like it's on rails. Feels much peppier than the specs say; I haven't had this much fun since my MGB, a thousand years ago. The power driver's seat is positively decadent. I did have to keep the manual on the driver's seat for a few weeks while I worked through Pandora, the backup camera, phone pairing etc.
@OldCatLady I mean on the passenger's seat, of course. It's about 5" thick.
@OldCatLady Awesome, glad you love it! I'm pretty spoiled now as I drive a fully loaded Subaru Tribeca. Considering my commute is about 75 miles round trip I refuse to give up all my amenities. I just spend way too much time in my car. This is the longest I've ever kept a car. It will be 7 years by the time I trade it in. I'm sooo ready.
@OldCatLady Well you have to pay them (housekeeper and gardener) yah know for them to show up...
@Cinoclav My ghetto van is 25 and can now get antique car plates… Oh my. That being said I'd LOVE a newer car - yah know one where some of the parts didn't come from the junk yard or belt guides that don't need jury rigged from a washer (yeah found that on the internet - it a actually works despite cutting the life of the belt in half or worse) LOL. I am SO looking forward to the day that I am dug out of this financial mess and can go get me a car with good mileage, where the parts are always in stock and is intended to go 300,000 miles or more - unlike my grand caravan.
@Kidsandliz I can pay, but finding them is hard. I got spoiled when we lived in Italy.
I used to be 6', now I am 5' 9.5".
Because I have compression fractures all down my back from osteoporosis. Doctors still don't know why a 26 yo male has osteoporosis.
@Fen_Star Yikes! My mom lost 3" of height after back surgery when she was about 30yo, 8.5 months pregnant with my sister, and slipped on a patch of ice and broke her back. She had to deliver the baby in traction, which was such a harrowing experience her hair changed from red to brown and never changed back. Hope they are able to resolve your problem!
@Fen_Star Possible Ehlers Danlos syndrome?
@Fen_Star Well sure sucks!! I hope they find a solution to your problems.
First, I'm sorry to hear that so many of you had a bad year -- here's to hoping that was the darkness before the dawn and things get so much better in 2015 and beyond. I <3 you all.
As for my year, I have to say it was pretty amazing. I met the woman I plan to marry (sooner rather than later), moved into an awesome and cheap apartment that's still in the city, started working at Mediocre and met a bunch of cool people and made some friends, took a few really fun trips, and I'm optimistic that things will only get better next year.
@JonT We're all invited to the wedding, right?
@bluedog On my end, sure! I'll just have to ask her ;)
On the plus side I got hired on at my first non-temp job since '07 and I'm in the best shape of my life. On the down side the job is stacking hardwood lumber and I'm 15 to 20 years older than the kids I'm working with and I hurt every day. With a little luck I will get transferred to shipping, less lifting, more running.
@WINTERMUTE I had a manual labor job this summer (been unemployed from my professional job for 2 years this Dec 20th, two cancers had a hand in that) in the hot sun (90+ degrees daily). I found it took me about 3 weeks not to come home beyond sore and tired, and I realized those who talk about working until they are 70+ do not do manual labor for living.
Some of the best moments this year were from Meh (Gishwhes- such a thrill! Thanks again @katylava!), the slot machine (thanks so much @djames85 - you made my grandfather's Christmas), and the general community. Went to an awesome wedding for a cousin (he dj'd most of it himself), and saw the new baby from another cousin.
@dashcloud That just made one of my best moments of the year.
Bought a house
Well, donated a kidney and I didn't fail all my finals...so I guess overall it was an okay year.
@Stratman WOW I think donating a kidney tops anything the rest of us have done. Hope the person you donated to is doing well.
Well, I bought my first house, bought a hybrid, went to see Letterman one of my last times, went to Comic Con for the fourth year in a row, and visited my old college friends on Labor Day. Oh, and my Meh button streak went unbroken.
Yeah, it's been a busy year.
2014 was my best year. Got to be a Boxer in a charity boxing event, went to opening day for the first time, took care of my first born for the first year of her life, found the joy of homebrewing, and became a meh forum person.
In January, I got to experience my first blizzard (which was actually really fun for me). Then the airline ran out of planes and that blizzard got me stranded for an extra day. But St. Louis is not the worst place in the world to get stuck. I eventually made it back to work in time to get written up and demoted for refusing to comply with new, unethical practices. In the Spring, I moved out of my ghetto apartment and into my grandparents' old house to help keep it occupied and maintained. It needed a lot of work but I was excited about the project. In my new position at work, I met some cool new people I otherwise wouldn't have met and was able to see a broader scope of how our organization was operating. That latter bit helped me to make the decision to resign. No job lined up at the time, but a huge weight off my shoulders and I've never looked back. Over the summer, the sewer line in the house finally gave out to the tree roots growing in it & I've been couch surfing and staying with family the last few months waiting for that to get fixed. Still no permanent job but my PRN and temp work have kept me going.
It's been a crazy year, but God has taken care of me in some pretty substantial and surprising ways. I have food, shelter, warm clothes, time with family I wouldn't have otherwise had... And when the real world gets a little too intense, I have this community to retreat to. So, no complaints here, I'm ready to see what 2015 has to bring!
I love your positive view on what many would regard as negative events. Good on you for taking a stand with your employer, few would have had the courage.
@moondrake Thank you. I won't pretend I've been skipping around spewing rainbows through it all, but eventually I had to choose to either accept reality and work with what is or sit around being angry about the way things should be. (and wash, rinse, repeat every time I forget that little lesson.) As for the job thing, I was shaking so bad I couldn't read my signature on my write-up. ;)
Well I'm not dead yet for better or worse, so I couldn't answer lower than "Not too good" since it easily could have been worse. Though in all fairness I've been in limbo for 4 years heading into a 5th, so life in general has and probably won't be any different. Here's to hoping I suppose.
My year has been a mixed bag.
The Good
1) 10 week temp job at min wage this summer (was laid off 2 years ago Dec 20th due to being "too expensive for their insurance - EEOC complaint pending - 2 cancers 9 mo apart)
2) temp job as an adjunct teaching 1 course starting Jan 12 (online)
3) living in my friend's basement rather than my 25 year old ghetto van
4) people (mostly the adoption community is paying it forward since I have helped a lot of them when they adopt troubled kids talking them through hard times, etc., taken some of them into my home for a week or two to give them a much needed break…) have helped me financially keep health insurance and made medical bill payments (payment plan - I owe so much I will be dead of old age before it is all paid off I think) via my gofundme (http://www.gofundme.com/78d3nc), including several generous souls from meh
5) the fukus have given me things to sell where I have made some money which helped (even though I would have preferred to keep some of that stuff) and birthday presents for my kid, and meh has made it possible to very cheaply acquire presents to give at christmas
6) the 1990 ghetto van will get antique car plates which are cheap!! and never need renewed!!
7) folks on this community were part of a 3 way trade so I could give my kid a 30 pin Sony Dream machine for her birthday (mine came DOA in that fuku) which completely made her day! And the most recent exchange added to the chirstmas pile for her and her two little kids. Thanks meh and @studrec!
The not so good
1) one of my 13 year old cats is dying (not ready to be put to sleep yet - but close)
2) I am out of money and had to take a cash advance on my credit card to make my January health insurance premium payment (direct withdrawal - would have bounced otherwise)
3) the follicular non-hodgkin's lymphoma is likely relapsing (although it is good that I can wait to deal with this until 2015 as I would otherwise have had 2 out of pocket deductibles in one year - COBRA and BC/BS - no medicaid expansion in this state)
4) could not afford to go home for christmas to see my extended family (1000 miles away)
5) the ghetto van needs some necessary expensive repairs (like ball joints, etc.) that I can't afford to fix and some "optional" ones like an AC compressor which I suppose is optional even in the summer here in the deep south due to the state of my finances but OMG that was miserable all this last summer with that broken.
6) living in my friend's basement as she has 7 kids, some of them very troubled like my adopted kid (the most of hers and mine are adopted at older ages, I had one of her's in unofficial foster care when she blew out of her international adoption to keep her out of real foster care - I used to be a foster parent, under other circumstances I would have adopted her but I didn't think it was fair to her since I have a cancer with no cure and kids need parents for a long time, as it is I worry about my kid) and dealing with that kind of chaos all over again (my kid is 22 and currently living with a boyfriend - don't even want to think of her, her 8 and 19 month old all in this 18x18' basement room together) - her husband got transferred, they have a high school senior so husband went west, everyone else is moving this summer.
So I guess that is 7:6 so it comes down on the good side of things… although with the stress I am under at times I tend to forget that.
@Kidsandliz Somehow with everything you have going on, I still picture you sharing all these things with a smile on your face. I admire you.
@Cinoclav Admire might be a bit misplaced, but thanks. I can have my days with pity parties… I do what most people would do though - put one foot in front of the other, doing whatever I can to try to dig out of this mess and hope eventually things will turn around… there isn't much other choice really.