Sun 29 Dec 2024:
I started this post on 12/30/2023, worked on it on New Year’s Day 2024 and again on January 10th, and never got back to it. As 2024 is coming to a close, I thought about completing it properly before starting my 2024 Year In Review, but decided I would post it as I last left it (with a few edits for clarity and privacy). This is more of a reminder for Future Diana about what happened in 2023, anyway, and the Brain Dump section at the end pretty much sums up what I had already forgotten.
It’s not that 2023 was a bad year, per se. Nothing super tragic happened to me or anyone in my immediate family. It’s just that my mental health and my physical health did some perverse do-si-do, my hormonal changes were magnified by work-related stress, and all of these things contributed to a feedback loop that I couldn’t shake.
That said, there were plenty of good times in 2023: Hanging out in Ann Arbor, visiting my Mom in NE Ohio, meeting up with friends here and there, and lots of generally pleasant family time.
Blog
I blogged a lot less in 2023, posting 46 entries in total. Four of those were just publishing unfinished posts from my drafts, and well over half of the remaining posts were just quick snapshots or one-line status updates that would have gone to Twitter once upon a time.
I guess I didn’t want to sit with my thoughts, although it would have done me good.
Work
In 2022, I worked on-site for 116 days, worked from home for 115 days, and logged 30 days off (including holidays). In 2023, I took about the same number of days off, but with only 7 days in-office and the remainder of my working days logged from home. If not for our IT Director scheduling a monthly in-person meeting starting in August, I would only have been downtown for work a couple of days this entire year — not counting a brief trip to swap out my old laptop for a new one.
Being on-site might have made our rollercoaster of a year a little easier to take.
Part of the stress stemmed from being given privileged information about the possible future of the company, but being unable to take any action on it.
Brain Dump
- Jan: Washer repaired
- Feb: Connor chose to play trombone
- Feb: Work announcements of vacating Summit Center and 4H sale to Gentiva
- Feb: My co-worker N was diagnosed with Lymphoma (not Crohn’s as previously suspected)
- Mar: Started seeing a med psych instead of my GP
- Mar: Changed dentists
- Mar: Work announcement of reorg of the Senior Care Data Warehouse team under Shared Services
- Mar: Family daytrip to Ann Arbor
- Apr: Returned to red hair after quite some time
- Apr: Connor found a cheap skateboard (with tight trucks) at a garage sale
- May: I made my first baby quilt (for a co-worker who was later laid off due to a reduction in workforce)
- May: Started taking the antidepressant Pristiq
- May: Learned that my Aunt Sammie died in April
- Jun: Aaron patched the holes in the driveway
- Jul: Visited my Mom and a former co-worker who lives near her
- Jul: Had the condenser replaced in the Sportage
- Jul: Started Hormone Replacement Therapy
- Aug: Took Connor to DCI Live at Levis Commons (unbeknownst to us, for the first and last time)
- Aug: Had the driveway resealed ($500+)
- Aug: Connor started 6th grade (Junior High)
- Sep: Connor’s 12th birthday at Funagins
- Sep: Dinner with the Sheets family in Maumee
- Oct: Connor got his long hair cut short again
- Nov: Bought a new microwave
- Nov: Received student loan overpayment refund
- Nov: Washer repair again: brake & drive assembly
- Nov: Connor got suspended for stealing locks