End of 2024 Survey in Those Public Entries

Is it too much to hope that time will freeze at 11:59:59? And that we’ll all be caught in some type of Twilight Zone/Groundhog Day thing until someone Luigi Mangione’s the Orange Shitgibbon, Fake Hillbilly Fuckboi, Brain Worm Dude, and Muskrat, on down?

What did you do in 2024 that you’d never done before?
Took in a pregnant cat and helped her raise her kittens. I mean, I kind of did that when my parents got Harley, but they were doing most of the work. This time, it was just me, Nyx, and Smudge.

Oh, and tonight, I went to a French restaurant. You read that right: I’d never been to one before. The food was delicious.

Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I deal with my issues as they come up.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nyx, if cats count, and I think they do. I still miss the beebees, but I know they all went to good homes.

Did anyone close to you die?
My paternal grandmother, on November 4th. She’s the second person on my sperm donor’s side of the family to die on my birthday. (The first was my stepmother, in 2003. Rot in piss, you evil bitch.)

Did anyone close to you get married?
Nope.

What countries did you visit?
None, sadly. My mother went to El Salvador, though.

What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2024?
I honestly didn’t have a terrible 2024 -in a lot of ways, it was a marked improvement over 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 combined- and I’m not anticipating 2025 will be an improvement. In fact, I’m counting on being the person taking a huge drag on a cigarette (or a blunt, either one works for me) and saying “I fucking told you that would happen!” while everyone else is going all Surprised Pikachu because things are bad.

…Okay, I’d like to have a furnace that doesn’t make the one from A Christmas Story look functional. Good enough?

What dates from 2024 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
February 16th-19th: My maternal grandmother’s celebration of life and burying her ashes.
July 25th: The cat distribution system brought me Nyx.
September 1st: Nyx had her kittens.
October 30th: I surrendered Nyx and the kittens to the Humane Society.
November 1st: I came to my senses and brought Nyx home.
November 6th: FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I paid off almost all of my credit card debt! I still have about $6500 left, but considering that this time last year I was something like $27k in credit card debt alone, I will absolutely take it. Plus, I can pay off the rest well before 2025 is over.

What was your biggest failure?
I think I should have kept Shadow, and maybe Salem, too. But it’s one of those things, I don’t know if I could have cared for four cats the way they deserve. Plus, I’d have had to find money for three spays, and believe it or not, spaying a cat is ridiculously expensive. Vermont is kind of lacking in low-cost spay and neuter clinics, and I think I was just above the cutoff for an income-contingent spay for $27.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
I’ve been in a funk for the last few weeks. I don’t know if it was travel burnout (Thanksgiving with the family in Indiana, then CPE December 9-13), seasonal depression, or what, but it’s basically been me on the couch, with a cat, maybe knitting, maybe playing a game or half-watching the Golden Era episodes of The Simpsons, since I got back from CPE.

What was the best thing you bought?
My knitting needles. Even if I am going a bit crazy on the yarn. Don’t ask me why I needed to buy six skeins of Trendsetter’s Tiger yarn (two each red, orange, and green), I just did. I’ll make something with them! …Eventually. No idea what, but I will.

Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The people who voted for Kamala Harris.

Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Fucking idiotic, self-righteous, do-nothing except complain online and sniff their own farts leftists. I don’t care why you let a fascist win to “own the libs,” the fact of the matter is, you let a fascist win. If you didn’t vote for Harris, you can shut the entire fuck up for the next four years. Deadass, I want to hear zero syllables from any of these morons about how shitty things are. “Fuck around and find out” comes for all of us, and now it’s leftists’ turn. I hope the sense of moral superiority is worth it, when every Palestinian in the West Bank is dead, Elongated Muskrat is the real power behind the throne, and trans people are being rounded up and shuffled into gas chambers. I mean, is it worth it now, with women dying from gone-septic miscarriages in states where abortions are illegal?

Where did most of your money go?
Basic living expenses. If you’d have told me, four years ago, that ramen noodles would be selling for 50 cents a packet, I’d have asked what the hell drugs were you on.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Nyx having her kittens!

What song will always remind you of 2024?
“Poison” from Hazbin Hotel.

Compared to this time last year, are you
Happier or sadder:
Um… I’m more pissed off than anything, truthfully.

Older or wiser:
Both. I’m realizing now that 40 looks really, uncomfortably close, from this side of 35.

Thinner or fatter:
Probably about the same.

Richer or poorer:
Richer, because I’m not drowning in credit card debt anymore.

What do you wish you’d done more of?
Self-care. I also wish I’d canvassed more and gotten more people excited about voting for Harris. One vote can’t change anything, I know that, but millions of people didn’t vote this year, and even one million more votes could have changed everything.

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Doing nothing.

How did you spend Christmas?
With myself and my cats. It was lovely.

How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?
Well, I worked until 5, then I went to the restaurant, and now I’m at home. I’ll probably finish up the scarf I’ve been working on, and decide if I want to frog and redo the one I’m making for my stepdad.

What was your favourite TV program?
Hazbin Hotel and The Simpsons. True story, I watched the episode “Convenience Airways” from the latter while I was waiting to board the plane to CPE. Given that was the fourth flight I’d taken in three weeks, it felt timely. Especially the part about Homer being put on every other airline’s no-fly list, “even Spirit!”

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No. I mean, I might have hated them, but they were so pathetic and up their own ass, it’s actually funny. Of course, that could just be me tacitly admitting that if I don’t laugh about things, I will absolutely Luigi Mangione some people.

What was the best book you read?
Probably the Discworld books: The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort, Wyrd Sisters and Hogfather.

What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don’t know if I discovered any new music this year.

What did you want and get?
Another cat. And then another five cats on top of that.

What did you want and not get?
Any other president besides Shitgibbon. I think I might have even preferred Nikki Haley, and I can’t stand her.

What was your favourite film of this year?
I didn’t really watch many movies this year, to be honest.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 36 in November, and I worked that day.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Anyone but Shitgibbon as president. And a winning MegaMillions or Powerball ticket. Hell, even a winning Vermont Lottery ticket. I don’t need or want to be a billionaire, I just want enough money to pay off my remaining debt and live comfortably.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024?
“Well, nothing goes better with black than black… And do I really need to wear a bra?” (Yes. Yes I do. I have 36Fs, the bra is essential.)

What kept you sane?
Friends, family, cats, and knitting.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Shirley Manson.

What political issue stirred you the most?
Ugh… Do we have enough time/booze/weed/other drugs of choice to examine this?

Who do you miss?
My bee eff eff. Someday our schedules will line up.

Who was the best new person/people you met?
My coworker J, and her boss. If my boss doesn’t start helping me into a better/higher paying position, I’ll have to talk to J’s boss and see if she doesn’t have a position for me.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024:
People suck, mostly when they’re using poor brown people in the Mideast to pretend like they don’t.

A quote that sums up your year:
“Christ on a stick, what fresh hell awaits us now?”