2020: message_topic.aspx?topic=651849
2019: message_topic.aspx?topic=651155
2018: message_topic.aspx?topic=650451
2017: message_topic.aspx?topic=649505
2016: MIA
2015: message_topic.aspx?topic=646551
2014: message_topic.aspx?topic=643933
2013: message_topic.aspx?topic=639963
2012: message_topic.aspx?topic=632553
2011: message_topic.aspx?topic=620902
2010: message_topic.aspx?topic=605245
2009: message_topic.aspx?topic=584031
2008: message_topic.aspx?topic=552174
2007: message_topic.aspx?topic=506882
2006: message_topic.aspx?topic=447821
2005: message_topic.aspx?topic=375305

Career: C-
Still at the job I took when covid hit. I'm still pretty uninterested in the work, but the expectations are low, the work/life flexibility is good, the pay is not bad, and they like me. So i'm chillin for now. Have had other more important things to focus on this year, but hopefully in 2022 I'll look again for something more fulfilling

Family: B
Parents continue to deal with health problems, although they've been relatively stable in recent months. I wish I could see them more often, and for the kids too. Every year that goes by the more grateful I find myself for my sister. Kids are mostly doing well, although the typical teen/pre-teen complications have certainly made things more interesting lately. School has been a source of frustration for my oldest two this year. Next year they'll be starting high school and middle school which is crazy. Every year that goes by and my kids still love me, I count as a success.

Love Life: D
Been very challenging this year. It's frustrating to be at this point in my life and still haven't figured out how to make a relationship work consistently the way I envision, but I guess that's life :\ I will say that I'm grateful that through the challenges, I have come to better understand myself than when I was younger.

Social / Friends: C
Despite covid, had some success finding new social opportunities. Went out a lot in the spring/summer. I'm planning on signing up to play softball in the spring so hopefully that'll be fun too. Still don't have as many friends or have as much fun as I did in NJ/NYC but I'm working on it.

Health: B-
Managed to avoid getting covid, despite the gf and her kids getting it. Had a super bad case of poison ivy this summer but other than that no other physical health issues this year. Mental health still lots of ups and downs. I said last year that I keep trying to put myself in positions that I think will make me happy, and mostly just find myself disappointed. That was true again this year but somehow even worse so. I find myself going through phases where I regularly drink more than my liver probably appreciates, although I somehow never get drunk or hung over, haven't gained any weight, and my last blood test was reasonable. consequently I end up mostly ignoring the potential negative impact on my health. I've been trying to keep a water bottle around instead and save the booze for weekends. Started going to the gym again last month. Tryna get sexy for my 40th birthday next year I suppose.

Money: A
This is the first year I've ever been able to truly say A for money. Ridiculous considering the closest I've said before was in 2006 when I gave myself a 9/10 for the year and I was excited about getting a promotion that I think I was making like 25% of what I make now. This is the first year I'm debt-free since I got married which is another thing that is stupid af to have to say. Crypto has been good to me this year too.

Overall: C-
I said last year I felt overdue for a real kick-ass year in 2021. If anything it's probably been one of the most disappointing years of my life. I'm determined to make 2022 my bitch.

12/23/2021 1:57:23 PM

Career: A
I have a stable job that I enjoy. It’d be great to make more money, but realistically it would take something really major for me to change careers. It’s a family business. That is really rewarding. It is also challenging at times. But I get along with coworkers and employees and I am passionate about what I do. And business has been pretty good the past few years. No real complaints here

Family: A
Family is good. I have a good relationship with my family (and my wife’s family). There are aspects of my family’s life that I wish would improve. But overall, it’s alright. We get along. We love each other. We live close by and can visit. Luckily our ability to visit (immediate family, at least) hasn’t been majorly impacted by covid. Because i work directly with multiple members of my family, our “bubbles” have a lot of overlap. Therefore we’ve felt pretty safe being able to do small family gatherings and maintaining close contact with immediate family. Distant relatives is different. Haven’t spent nearly as much time as normal with cousins and out of state family due to covid.

As far as my household….my wife is pregnant with our first. Due in Feb. So the family is growing and we’re excited. We’re doing good.

Love life: B+
My wife is great. Our relationship is really good. As I said, she’s pregnant so we obviously have had sex at least once. Only real complaint here is just her work schedule. She’s a nurse and has about an hour long commute. We both wish we had more time together. We do hope to be able to work out a better schedule for her once the baby arrives.

Social/Friends: D
This is where it’s been rough for us. I could’ve included some of this under “Family” since I consider these people family. But whatever. Our (my wife and I) best friends have experienced the loss of a child this year. We were very close to the child. And due to covid, we felt especially close to him since they were very careful about who visited them (don’t feel like going into all the detail, but he was a sick child). It’s been incredibly difficult for them. And it’s been difficult for us. We grieve their loss. We also want to be supportive of our friends in their time of need. The balance of grieving ourselves and supporting them is tough. A separate friend has also experienced a tragic, unexpected death in her family. It’s emotionally draining and causes emotional fatigue. These tragedies did not happen directly to me, so I feel guilty complaining. But during a time where we have limited social interaction and a smaller circle than ever before, witnessing tragedy and loss is very tough. The friends I have are really great people and some of them have experienced unimaginable loss this year. And I think it has all taken a real toll on me (and my wife). And I feel kinda silly typing that out, because it wasn’t my tragedy. It was somebody else’s. But we’ve done a lot of mourning and grieving this year.

Health: B
Physically I’m healthy enough. I could eat better and work out more. But overall I’m good. All of the above stuff certainly impacted my mental health and, like I said, has really taken a toll. Not to mention the constant cloud of covid hanging over us. Mentally, it can be a lot sometimes. But I think I do a pretty good job compartmentalizing things and not allowing the bad things to consume my thoughts.

Money: A
We finished our remodel/renovation on our house this year. In all likelihood this is our “forever” home. We spent a lot of money, but we had budgeted and saved and were able to pay for the renovations without borrowing anything (aside from the original mortgage). We are fairly simple people in how we spend our money. If our bank accounts had an extra digit or two that would be super. But we’re able to live comfortably (not luxuriously) without pinching pennies and counting every dollar in and out. As I said, we’ve got a baby on that way and hopefully my wife can cut some of her hours in 2022 after the baby is born. That would mean less money, but we feel pretty confident that we can make it work regardless.

Overall: C
I don’t know. A lot of good stuff happened to me/us this year. We finally moved into our newly renovated home. We are having a baby! But I have really struggled with some of the stuff I talked about in the Friends section. It has not been an easy year in many ways. To put it in the most simplest terms, a lot of really good people that I’m close to had some really shitty stuff happen to them this year. And while I’m thankful that the shitty stuff didn’t happen to me directly, I’m still impacted by the shitty stuff that has happened to my loved ones. The feelings of grief and loss and tragedy have been compounded by covid and the inability to escape. My wife and I aren’t big on travel or eating out or going to football games, but those are things we’ve missed out on due to covid and work. Looking back, the rare occasion that we would go out to eat and go out for drinks with each other or friends was a great way to unwind. We didn’t do it a lot, but now we do it even less. I think the best way to describe it is…during covid when we are more isolated, the lows feel more low and the highs don’t feel as high because we don’t have people to celebrate it with. I’m not somebody that generally cares about New Years and resolutions and stuff like that. But we’re due for a good 2022. Im excited about the baby on the way. A little nervous. But hopeful and optimistic that me and those around me will be able to feel some relief and more joy and happiness in 2022.

[Edited on December 23, 2021 at 4:14 PM. Reason : W]

12/23/2021 4:09:03 PM

12/27/2021 8:29:30 AM

10/10

12/27/2021 9:24:03 AM

made lots of money. marriage has pretty much failed; she moves out in a day or two. status quo otherwise.

12/28/2021 7:33:14 PM

RIP theDuke866's marriage.



GNSP

12/29/2021 4:10:04 PM

Don't feel bad, Duke, only reason mine hasn't ended yet is bc of the kids.

12/30/2021 2:47:22 PM

Career: B+

Work from home did not last sadly and I've been back since March/April, but my boss finally reinstituted a flexible schedule where we can do one or two days working from home each week in December. I've set my team for once a week so we have minimal impact to onsite coverage. On the plus side one of my shitty coworkers got laid off and we got bonuses and raises this year! Also got a nice position change for the most productive member of my team so that was nice. Ben a bit of turmoil at work though, so that has made other things more stressful.

Family: B+

Mostly fine. No new losses thankfully and got to see the extended family more this year. Wife still isn't really talking or seeing her mother so that has made my life easier. Kids are doing pretty good going back to school fully in person. Oldest is still having some issues with anxiety/stress and not looking forward to becoming an adult, even though he is a senior and turned 18. Probably just going to community college next year for the first two years and then transfer out, although he's recently expressed some interest in the Navy. He got his license but still hasn't even driven on his own. Our youngest is very well adjusted and has done great as a freshman in high school. He's very social, has a wide group of friends, does well in school and participates in multiple extracurricular activities (Scouting, marching band, and TKD). He just got his high red belt yesterday and is on track for black belt in 2022 and also making decent progress towards his Eagle Scout rank.

Love Life: B

Usual ups and downs as we are on year 19 together. Wife has been stressed from work and new meds that she was put on this year but thankfully off now, but really did a number on her. We did find some time to get away for our anniversary last February and just planned a trip for our upcoming anniversary to Asheville in 2022.

Social/Friends: B+

Pandemic didn't help much on the social aspect again this year. One of my closest friends moved back from Vegas to Raleigh this Fall, so that has given me some chances to hang out with him again. Additionally I've made a number of new friends from a couple of hobbies I've been pursuing so that has been nice to have more people to hang out with and chat with people who have similar interests.

Health: C Lost more weight for a while when working from home but going back to work onsite and eating out more I put quite a bit back on. Also probably drinking a little more since a cool new bar opened by my kids TKD studio, so I often drop by there 2-3 times a week for a drink. As far as I know though, no one in my immediate family has had Covid in any variant so that is a bright spot and seems to indicate we are doing pretty well on balancing activities with safety.

Hobbies: A+

Got a new mirrorless camera body this year. My aviation groups I've been running really kicked off big in 2020 and especially in 2021. Since we opened up more from the lockdowns we've had several big hangouts which have gone well. Additionally I got in to skeet/trap shotgun shooting this year as I got a nice starter over-under shotgun for trap shooting. Found a place right down the road from me that is really nice and pretty cheap. Definitely an older group than me but always fun to go break some clay at Buckhorn.

Money: A-

Haven't done much saving this year and no new raises until the end of the year with the state budget approval. But from stashing away the pandemic checks and the child tax credits (plus just not really going anywhere in 2020) we were able to afford to take the kids on a two week vacation to the northeast. We hit 13 states (only missed Delaware) on that trip and had a blast. Paid for it all in cash, so no debts. Continued paying down our last couple of debts (one car and her student loans) but other than that, no real change.

Overall: B+

At times been a stressful year at work, but

12/31/2021 4:24:18 PM

Through late 2020/2021, I've taken/been forced to take new roles that I've mostly hated but Ive also used to bump salary by about 40%.

Other than that pay increase 2021 sucked almost across the board

1/3/2022 3:32:24 PM