Bingo Card

Swistle mentioned doing New Year's Bingo Cards as resolutions. (link here)  It kept popping into my head after reading it so now, halfway through January, here we are.

I had a few ideas pop into my head, then I reread Swistle's post and borrowed a few.  That prompted my brain to think of a few more but then I was stuck.  Finally, I consulted the interwebs and filled in the remainder; only about three of them though.

So, like always, play along or just follow along.  I just needed something positive to focus on for a while. Goal setting is also a good thing, I guess. lol  

I'll try to do like a quarterly update of progress.

Chatty Email, because OMG Seriously

I've plenty to say and no energy to say it. 

Meanwhile...

Today’s music stuck in my head is Morning Train.  I didn’t like this song 40 years ago and I’m enjoying it less today. (link)

I just browsed the college community education catalog to dream about any class that I could take. I have zero intentions on following through, yet I persist in looking at the catalog when it arrives; as if I’ll suddenly become a different person.  Although there is a free Medicare class that I might take as Kevin is planning on retirement in the next few years.  That’s the stage my life is in right now and isn’t that jarring and weird.

I still have color Christmas lights in my office window and around my monitors on the desk.  There’s some burnt out bulbs and that’s okay.  I relate with them right now.  I just need some whimsy and light gdammit.

Also, I made it through the holiday without buying holiday décor.  Then, the clearance sales got me in their grip.  It was just a few trees, some LED ones and a candle.  Then there’s the birds. Have you seen the birds?  Well, they were at the Target and now other stores are selling them.  I bought a grumpy little bird in a red coat at Michaels then got a Queen and Consort at the wallyworld.  I did not buy a King because: no.  But they’re more Winter than Christmas. But then I just took out my Valentines Day birds.  I have issues.

I ordered a Blind Date with a Book online again.  This one was a “Surprise Me” category and I got a spicy book; including a spicy cover. (A Rogue’s Rules for Seduction – a Last Chance Scoundrels book)  While this order wasn’t a choice I would have consciously made, I like the allure of opening these mystery book orders and getting the stickers.  I am a child of the 80’s after all.

It’s 50 degrees today and I might mention that it’s January in the PNW.  This is unnatural, for sure.  Social media memories show that we had six inches of snow a few years ago.  I would enjoy snow right about now.

Last year I received a journal in my favorite color and I’ve put it to use in an interesting way.  I made a list of screenshots from my phone into categories: Trips I want to take/places to see.  Hikes I want to do.  Ideas to try.  Therapy notes of ideas/quotes that I’ve read on the social media.  I’ve pasted in postcards and stickers that my BFF has sent me over the past year(s) to keep me on the right side of the dirt during all of this chaos.

Then I saw there’s a Junk Journaling trend on the social media, which is very similar.  I like the idea because it encompasses chaos.  Write a sentence a day, or a paragraph, depending on your mood.  Tape a photo on that page, or a menu or receipt to remind you of that particular day.  Write a quote or a song lyric.  Just something to acknowledge that day or week or month.  Anyway, I thought that was a good idea for those of us who WANT to journal but just aren’t wired that way.

Kevin gave me a cup warmer for my desk and I have to admit, it’s pretty awesome. As a result, I tend to drink more coffee in the mornings now.  Before, it would get cold and I’d just dump it down the drain.  Now I can’t believe that I didn’t do this sooner.  It feels lazy because I work from home but it feels necessary if one works in an actual office.

We’ve watched two things that we really enjoyed after a long drought of television we both enjoy.  His & Hers is TENSE but good.  There was a little yelling of “C’mon, really” but overall we really liked it.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, The Man Inside is just perfectly lovely.  Funny, charming, low key emotional.  We’re halfway through the second season now.

I made Jambalaya!  Well, not totally from scratch.  I saw a recipe on the ticktock and asked Kevin if he thought that he'd like it.  He said he didn't want sausage or kielbasa so I went full Sheldon Cooper and used hot dogs.  I used Zatarain and added red & green peppers, onions, and diced the hotdogs. Also, it said to use chicken broth instead of water (?)  The first time it came out perfect and we really liked it.  The second time I added too many peppers and hotdogs.  It was still good, just spicy and hot-doggy.

Okay, hopefully this provided a few minutes of distraction for everyone.

2025 Recap...Reluctantly

 It’s here! The New Year Review Questionnaire!  You could do it too, it can be a good or fun way to look back on your year. Although no one really wants to look back at these past years.  Sigh, Let’s do this anyway.

1. What did you do in 2025 that you’d never done before?

Had to call a plumber.  The family & friends possess many skills and plumbing is not one of them.  $835 later and I don’t have to think about plumbing ever again. (knock wood)

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 

• Paint doors – Nope, I can’t decide on a color
• Debt Reduction – also Nope.  This is the Year of Broken Things
• Writing & Reading – Improved, not achieved

My resolutions for 2026:

1.  Just get through the year.  I have low expectations for anything good.

2. Paint the doors,  I’m trying to avoid resale grey and I like sage or black but I dunno

3.  Write more (no, really)

4. Did anyone close to you give birth? 

No, we are out of that particular milestone for a while

4. Did anyone close to you die? 

Friends but no one close.  Celebrity deaths this year however…sigh.

Wait, close call for my father-in-law over Christmas…it could still happen.  

5. What states or countries did you visit? 

Oh Canada and no other states but have traveled from one end of Western Washington to the other.  We were supposed to go to the Oregon Coast but we just haven’t made that happen.

6. What would you like to have in 2026 that you lacked in 2025?

Peace.  In all of the ways.

7. What dates from 2025 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Kevin running a personal best at the track and all of our friends there to watch and celebrate with us.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? 

This won’t make sense to some, I finished Monica’s Closet. This has been a want and a to-do for literal years.  (bloggity post upcoming, stay tuned)

     

9. What was your biggest failure?

 Writing and debt reduction.  So much fail

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Another laser surgery on one eye. The other eye will be done sometime in 2026

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Honda CRV.  It just made everything so much easier.  Who knew that I would finally age out of driving a truck….wait, that was in 2024.  Ummm, then nothing.

12. What is the best thing you created?  It can be a spreadsheet, organizational thing; it could be a human!

Along with Monica’s Closet, I have been working on making the office cozy.  I’m nearly there.

13. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Kevin, for keeping it all together when the world keeps throwing punches

14. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

This will be my answer perhaps for eternity: The entire GOP & its brethren

15. Where did most of your money go?

Ugh. Bills

16. What did you get really excited about?

It just wasn’t that kind of year again. I was mildly - but skeptically - excited about the election.

17. What song will always remind you of 2025?

The Big Goodbye - AJR

 Would if I Could – Ernest

I am Not Okay – Jelly Roll      

18. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder?  Sadder. And Angrier.

– thinner or fatter? Same somehow.

– richer or poorer? Poorer but still remarkably lucky

19. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Writing.  I always wish that I had spent more time writing

20. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Paperwork & phone calls

21. How did you spend Christmas and the New Year? 

• Eve –  At the hospital then at home. We had cereal for dinner.
• Day –  Next door with the fam and it was lovely, despite it all.
• Eve –  Home, low key
• Day –  Home, low key

22. Did you fall in love in 2026?

Every day.

23. What was your favorite TV program? 

Shrinking

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? 

Nope, not that I'll discuss here.  lolsigh.

24. What was the best book you read?

Jane Eyre.  I had read  it years ago then joined my BFF’s family’s book club.  I’d forgotten how much I like that book.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? 

Greylan West

26. What did you want and get?

 Working from home for the foreseeable future

27. What did you want and not get?

 Gosh, I can’t think of a single thing. We are also at that time of our life.

Well, also, I really wanted a certain “president” in prison. 

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

I don’t really watch new movies anymore.  The Life List on Netflix was good.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

57 – I did nothing.  No chores, no work, just ran two errands in the pouring down rain then read/slept/watched television all day.

40. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Tiny bit less death

41. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2026?

This is a repeat: Lazy…Yoga pants and hoodies or tshirts, no shoes unless walkies

42. What kept you sane?

Walkies with Lucy.  Stupid little walks for my stupid little mental health

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

44. What political issue stirred you the most?

The Election 

45. Who did you miss?

My mother-in-law, still

46. Who was the best new person you met?

Being a feral hermit, I don’t usually meet new people now. The new IT guy at work is nice, I guess. lol

47. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2025

It can always get worse.