2021: Review and Resolution

This year went really fast! Or maybe my failing memory just makes it seem so?

THE GOOD STUFF:

MONEY. I love money. I'm thankful for my job. I would like more money. I like free money. I'm an investor!

PANDEMIC PAINTING. It was so fun to brighten my house up with cheerful colors and patterns!

OUTSIDE BEAUTIFICATION: I started with the driveway. Pressure washing was hellish work. Then I patched all the spaces and cracks in hopes the weeds can't wiggle their way through forcing me to weed this driveway several times a year. It's old, but now so pretty and clean. This has made me a fanatic about my driveway. I don't like leaves falling on it!!

I got some FREE! pavers and put them all over the back area so I can avoid having to replace the gravel. I'm hoping it keeps the weeds down and saves me some work.

FRAGRANCE FREE FRIENDS. I am so thankful for friends who are willing to be fragrance free...and who put up with my weirdness caused by chemical poisoning. I'm sorry if I'm irritable and moody, opinionated and bitchy. Maybe that has less to do with MCS and it's just me, but they put up with it anyway.

COLON. I'm afraid to even say anything here. If you've read my other posts on my colon failing to work, you know what I've been through. And if you've read my Hashimoto's Thyroiditis posts you know about my thyroid issues. I finally found a doctor who would prescribe me a very unconventional compounded prescription for thyroid. After six weeks of drug experimentation, my colon started working! It's been working for the last month, but there are times it seems as if it doesn't want to. Again, I'm hesitant to be happy about this because I don't know how long all this good fortune will last.

LIFE! I'm still alive! The coronavirus and all it's variants hasn't killed me. I haven't even been infected a second time! I managed to avoid getting a vaccination even with all the bullying I received from doctors and strangers. I almost caved, but after reading the side effects and talking with a friend who said, "I have enough health problems, I don't need to give myself more on purpose!" I backed away slowly and decided to chance it. I'm pretty isolated. No one has come to my house for a long time. I don't go out much other than for groceries or supplies and I always wear a mask.

THE MIDDLE STUFF:

RECONNECTIONS. I get really excited when I reconnect with someone I haven't seen for a whole lifetime. Especially if it's a surprise and they contact me out of the blue. We catch up and then it's over. That's a bit disappointing. The last reconnection I contacted someone through Facebook, an old friend I hadn't seen for decades. She took months to respond. She seemed really excited, but she wanted to reconnect via Zoom ONLY. I didn't/don't have Zoom capabilities. Her response, let me know when you get it! She just wasn't interested in writing even a little. It was weird.

COMPUTER. I bought a new computer. My old one was on the blitz. This one is nice and fast. Then my monitor started blacking out. No one could tell me why. The store told me to exchange the computer so I had to get a new computer and re-set it up again. UGH. I spent hours and hours online trying to figure out why the blackouts were happening. Yesterday I spent three hours with yet another computer tech. It's guesswork ... nobody seems to know anything but everyone wants to charge me for their ignorance. So frustrating. New computers are supposed to be wonderful and perfect, not tormenting!

PANDEMIC. It hasn't been that bad. Not so different from MCS seclusion. Then came the inflation. I used to buy this loaf of gluten-free bread for $3.25. It went up to $5.99!!! That is one example and it's shocking to me. Cost of housing has skyrocketed. Prices for houses have tripled. Of course, that is kind of good since now I can sell my house for three times the amount I paid and it will sell in less than a week! These damn masks are driving me nuts, BUT they keep us safe from germs and a lot of stink. Then there is the constant fear-provoking media on how the next variant is coming our way and WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE! Like everyone else, so tired of it.

THE BAD STUFF:

HEALTH CARE. Ugh. I hate doctors. You probably already know that as I complain all the time. Useless waste of money. My current conventional doctor refuses to listen to me, hasn't even diagnosed me correctly, refuses to prescribe thyroid meds I need. He thinks Miralax is wonderful and nontoxic, but my blood labs showing kidney damage say otherwise. So I get a new doctor, a naturopath. She's willing to give me the prescription, but she knows so little it's such a waste of money to have to do all the work for her. 

INSURANCE. My health insurance company keeps screwing up my claims. My insurance company's new rates have increased to over $3000 a year!! So I cancelled it! I have no insurance. Old people insurance should kick in sometime next year, but for that we are forced to pay through the nose. There is no solution to this very bad health care system. It's in crisis mode. And then there is auto insurance...It has also increased! I was finally told by an insurance agent our state insurance commissioner ruled insurance companies can no longer discriminate against those with bad credit ratings so in retaliation, they raised everyone's rates! Incredible.

NEIGHBORS. Good god they torment me! Entitled, rude, self-centered, thoughtless, perfumed, bad dog owners who persist in making my life stressful. I worry I'll never get the chance to move. I don't even know where I'd move since real estate is now so overpriced and the pandemic rages on.

AGING. This sucks so much. First, the above insurance horror. Once you get to be a certain age you are forced into expensive insurance by the government. What an atrocity for people who are on fixed incomes! Also I'm having the weirdest memory problems. I'm forgetting simple stuff. It's just not there. It comes back in a few minutes, but until then I'm blank. This can't be good. Aging is scaring the hell out of me. Maybe I'm worrying too much about nothing, or maybe I'll die next week. 

HMMMM: Not a bad year. Kind of normal and average. Typical bad stuff I've been dealing with for a long time. Good stuff is just run of the mill. Nothing spectacular. 

New Year's Resolution: Survive, thrive, keep going.