Its been a tough year.

Wow what a year.

I lost my job. Didn't really lose it, but it became another job. New insurance, new benefits, job interview.

My mother died. Really did. My sister came up, a day late and a dollar short as usual, but she arrived. My brother too. We had tried to do, no I should say that I had tried to do the big Christmas thing last year, but my sister couldn't make it, my brother couldn't make it, my girlfriend was hung over. The only people who made it were my Dad and Paula and officially they don't do Christmas. I say officially because Paula loves to give and get presents. She just says she doesn't like Christmas because she thinks it will make Dad happy. So my one last chance to have a big family Christmas was doomed from the start. I should probably put this at the beginning since it technically happened last year, but things tend to flow and this is about how my family was a pain in the ass with the whole mom dying and the funeral and all. Brother in real pain. Sister being a pain. I guess she was out of her mind, but it seemed just like being a pain.
I yelled at my sister. She was just being such a pain in the ass. Wouldn't stop preaching homoeopathy. I acknowledged it. I understood it. I thanked her for her sympathy. Then I asked her to give it a rest. Several times. Then I yelled at her.

This made my other sister sad. That made me sad. Then we went to the funeral.
I loaned my girlfriend two hundred. I helped her move. I complained because her kid was in the way instead of helping.

I got a new job. It was the same job with a different name.

My uncle died. He took care of my mother's estate. Told me repeatedly not to do anything with my mother's estate. He'd taken care of everything. Leave those letters alone. DON'T OPEN THEM! You have to understand. This is a powerful little man. I didn't open them. They're piling up. But every time I try to open them I hear his voice. I feel really guilty that he died. I told him what I really thought about the house he recommended that I buy. That I bought. I told him how the heat was expensive, the furnace needed replacing. He'd said the old radiator system was going to keep the house really toasty warm. I didn't visit him in Syracuse after he moved into the assisted living place. I hate Syracuse. I didn't visit him in the hospital in Syracuse. He was sick, but my cousin told me there was nothing 'really' wrong with him. He'd talked at my mother's funeral, about how his time was coming. Six weeks later he was dead. We'd talked a lot over the recent years. We were bachelors together. We did historical research together. It seemed like more than genealogy. We talked sports. We talked family. We talked stocks and medicine. I was like an old man with him, but he was like a kid with me. I told him things I haven't told anyone else. I still stop and think "I've got to tell Uncle Paul that". I miss him.
My other sister had surgery and then had to be in a show. I had to take her to the surgery. Watch them put a needle in her and boy she didn't like that. It was painful to watch her in pain.

We had a flood. No, really. A big ass, hole in the ground, three days off work, flood. And I was on call.

My friend lost her sister. What can you say. She was young and beautiful and meant so much to my friend. She was, is, heartbroken. Its just a hole. You can't fill it.

I got hit by a deer. Insurance. Car repair. Pain in the ass.

I had to replace my furnace. It now runs efficiently - wild. Won't always shut off when it should. Not a pain in the ass. Not much.

I got two cats. They need, litter, food, flea powder, spray, collars. I NEVER vacuumed at the old house. Never. AC After Cats - I bought a hand vac and repaired the upright.
Cats need shots and fixing. Cats are remarkably stupid. Cats are warm too.
I had to fix the cats; not unlike the car and the furnace I suppose. It was all more money!

I had to fix the car.

I got my job back. At least in name. I am told I'll start with the old company January first, but first I had to apply, and theoretically I have to take a drug test and a physical too. They're on their third Personnel person since they decided to move us back. I faxed in my app. They lost it and then went away on vacation.

My sister got sent to the hospital. By my brother. I said she was nuts. Before that she flew off to Montana and a story I don't think I can tell here. Can't tell for two reasons. 1: I don't really know what happened. 2: She supposedly will never talk to my cousins again. She's sane now and it really makes a difference. Its almost like coming back from the dead. Its actually fun and interesting to listen to her, to talk to her now. I always loved my sister, and I liked her too, but she had been a pain in the ass. Now she's helpful. That's a big change.
All of this probably contributed to making my Dad sick. He's at the point now where his hearing and health are so bad, I need to go to his doctor's with him. I took him to his colonoscopy. A person shouldn't look at the inside of his father's colon. I'm just going out on a limb here I know, but I'm sticking by it. His father's colon shouldn't look like my father's colon either. Pink is good. Yellow is bad.

My friend's father died. He had been great to me too. Went there often on Christmas eve. The whole family had welcomed me with open arms. It was embarrassing how generous they were to me. I had had a snit and not talked to them for a while. One thing about missing my Uncle was that he, like me, was Donohue. Its hard to explain what being Donohue means, but if you look at not talking to a whole family over some stupid dispute during a game. And for years. Then maybe you get an idea. I believe in some stereotypes, in some degree. I think Irish people are nuts, and not always in a good way. He was Donohue. I say now that I am Donohue. It is liberating. Its also nuts.
It was really good to see them all again. It was really bad that it was at the funeral home. This was my third funeral this year. Its been a tough year.

I asked my girlfriend for the two hundred back.
My girlfriend left me.
I still don't have the two hundred. I miss it.