2009 Wrap-Up (a few days late)
Jan. 4th, 2010 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassI'm a little slow on my 2009 wrap-up post this year, because I've been truly wracking my brain to come up with more than a paragraph. But what the heck. I'm going to start writing and we'll see where my fingers take me.
The two major stories of "Julie's life, 2009 edition" were work and moving out. This past year saw the continuation and conclusion of the longest-running employment I've had so far, being 19 months altogether, 14 of them as a full-time employee. I've come to the conclusion that working full-time is hard, especially when you're on a shift that goes from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm. Yes, it's nice to have a bit of time to sleep in, but when you only get out of work at 6:30 and arrive home at 7:15, maybe you only finish dinner at 8:00, and much of your evening is already gone. It was also very hard to continue with my "extra-curriculars" (karate and SCA, primarily) when I only left work at 6:30.
Speaking of which, there's a reason why karate and SCA are not major stories of my 2009: they were pretty much non-existent. I didn't go to karate a single time in 2009, which makes me very sad and probably contributed to my 15-pound weight gain over the last year and a half. I think I only went twice overall since I started as a full-time employee. In terms of the SCA, I went to the moot in March, two events, a bardic workshop in Albany, and Pennsic. That was the sum total of my SCA involvement for the year. Which, compared with my heyday in 2002-2005, is pretty pathetic.
Gaming was a weird one. I wasn't in any games at all until mid-way through the year, and I was feeling the lack so much that I joined a play-by-email Stargate game just to get some of the "I need to pretend to be someone other than myself" bug out of my system. Around July, I joined three games: a D&D game (whence comes the Voice of Doom posts), a far-future game run by Ian (essentially defunct now), and a Cyberpunk game run by Kyn. So at least I'm getting back into that, which I consider a Very Good Thing.
While the down-side to working is that I had to cut out most of my extra-curriculars to maintain even a semblance of social life, the upside is making lots of money. Specifically, the combination of living at home and working full-time boosted my net worth from essentially nothing (in April 2008) to nearly $25,000 at the end of 2009. This enabled me to feel comfortable quitting my job in December without another one lined up right away. If nothing else, having money gives options, and options are always nice to have.
The other major event in 2009, of course, was my decision to move out of my mom's basement and into an apartment with my boyfriend. We've been living together for three months and a day, and it's been an interesting transition. On the whole, it's been nice. There have been a lot of moments of adjustment, large and small, and no doubt there will be many more to come. But I'm looking forward to seeing where the next year is going to take us. Incidentally, our three-year anniversary was on New Year's. This thought makes me happy.
So, as things stand at the beginning of 2010, this is where I'm at: I'm unemployed but have a large cash cushion to tide me over for almost a year. I'm about to start French classes to stimulate my brain and make me more employable. I'm (hopefully) about to start karate training again, to get my weight back down to where it was before I started working. I'm still not doing a ton on the SCA front, but I've got plans. I'm living with my boyfriend and happy about it. I'm rested from my month off and looking forward to the new year.
And that's pretty much it from me. Happy new year, everyone, and may it bring much joy and prosperity to you.
The two major stories of "Julie's life, 2009 edition" were work and moving out. This past year saw the continuation and conclusion of the longest-running employment I've had so far, being 19 months altogether, 14 of them as a full-time employee. I've come to the conclusion that working full-time is hard, especially when you're on a shift that goes from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm. Yes, it's nice to have a bit of time to sleep in, but when you only get out of work at 6:30 and arrive home at 7:15, maybe you only finish dinner at 8:00, and much of your evening is already gone. It was also very hard to continue with my "extra-curriculars" (karate and SCA, primarily) when I only left work at 6:30.
Speaking of which, there's a reason why karate and SCA are not major stories of my 2009: they were pretty much non-existent. I didn't go to karate a single time in 2009, which makes me very sad and probably contributed to my 15-pound weight gain over the last year and a half. I think I only went twice overall since I started as a full-time employee. In terms of the SCA, I went to the moot in March, two events, a bardic workshop in Albany, and Pennsic. That was the sum total of my SCA involvement for the year. Which, compared with my heyday in 2002-2005, is pretty pathetic.
Gaming was a weird one. I wasn't in any games at all until mid-way through the year, and I was feeling the lack so much that I joined a play-by-email Stargate game just to get some of the "I need to pretend to be someone other than myself" bug out of my system. Around July, I joined three games: a D&D game (whence comes the Voice of Doom posts), a far-future game run by Ian (essentially defunct now), and a Cyberpunk game run by Kyn. So at least I'm getting back into that, which I consider a Very Good Thing.
While the down-side to working is that I had to cut out most of my extra-curriculars to maintain even a semblance of social life, the upside is making lots of money. Specifically, the combination of living at home and working full-time boosted my net worth from essentially nothing (in April 2008) to nearly $25,000 at the end of 2009. This enabled me to feel comfortable quitting my job in December without another one lined up right away. If nothing else, having money gives options, and options are always nice to have.
The other major event in 2009, of course, was my decision to move out of my mom's basement and into an apartment with my boyfriend. We've been living together for three months and a day, and it's been an interesting transition. On the whole, it's been nice. There have been a lot of moments of adjustment, large and small, and no doubt there will be many more to come. But I'm looking forward to seeing where the next year is going to take us. Incidentally, our three-year anniversary was on New Year's. This thought makes me happy.
So, as things stand at the beginning of 2010, this is where I'm at: I'm unemployed but have a large cash cushion to tide me over for almost a year. I'm about to start French classes to stimulate my brain and make me more employable. I'm (hopefully) about to start karate training again, to get my weight back down to where it was before I started working. I'm still not doing a ton on the SCA front, but I've got plans. I'm living with my boyfriend and happy about it. I'm rested from my month off and looking forward to the new year.
And that's pretty much it from me. Happy new year, everyone, and may it bring much joy and prosperity to you.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-04 11:01 pm (UTC)Currently there are three players ( my Tremere, a sorceress and a spear-expert caveman ) + the GM and we would really like to have a fourth or fifth one ( if only the GM would stop playing the obnoxious french paladin NPC to complete our party.... )
So if you would be interested... or know anyone who would...or whatever....drop me a line it would be great!
the slots are open for anything because of the background of the game ( the whole of Creation is being broken up and some future alien people are trying to save as much as they can by picking and putting together lifeforms from different universes...chaos ensues....
Neways...just a thought... and HAPPY NEW YEAR!0
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 07:53 pm (UTC)