As it's now December 31st, last day of 2018, and I have here my Top Ten Things Of 2018!
There were a lot of important (and not so important) things that happened this year that didn't make the list: TUMBLR slitting its own throat by banning adult content; a new pair of glasses; snowstorm, aka blizzard, Toby; Johnnie returning to Philadelphia (with his wife) from Shanghai; Ollie's batch of DC Comics graphic novels at insanely low prices; having a date (and some bedtimesexxyfun) with one of my ex's Tim; scorching heat in July, freezing cold in January, record temps both; Mom starting the year in early January with a visit to the emergency room with the flu, and ending is just yesterday at the same place with the same thing; one entire week of no 'decongesting'; tooth issues, like cracking a tooth and losing half of it in Sept, and then deciding on getting some bridges at the end of the year; hanging out and getting to know mom's 'friend' Howard (he's a nice guy), etc. But with all that, THESE below are the top ten!
10. Avengers Infinity War
Marvel continues to hit it out of the park! This movie was damn near flawless. A perfect culmination of ten years worth of previous movies! It's worth every single penny of the billions in profits it's made. Marvel knows their shit.....unlike DC movies, which continue to be just...shit.
9. New Mattress
(old mattress on top, new mattress on bottom)
Back in September a local furniture was selling their mattresses at half off. My old mattress I had had for 15 years or so. And I figured with the discounts, I'd get a new one.
Big. Fucking. Mistake.
See, my old mattress had a mattress pad on both side. That made it fluffy and comfy. I didn't think about that when I bought the new one...that does NOT have a mattress pad. Oh. My. GOD! It was so hard. So rigid. So uncomfortable. I had to go buy a sheet that had extra padding attached and put that on it, just to make it so I can lay on it. But its still, even now, not really comfortable. Oh, I'm used to it and can sleep on it, but it's not at ALL like my old mattress...even though that one was 15 years old.
I've learned my lesson. If I ever again in my life buy a new mattress (which probably, realistically, wont happen) I'm getting it with a mattress pad already attached!
8. Rye Bread
I've always eaten white bread, but it's not that good for me. I don't really like wheat bread at all. This year, back in February, I was ordering a sandwich from Rutters, and I saw the option for rye bread. I've never had rye bread before so I ordered it. And I LOVED it! Now, that's all I get. Both at Rutters and it's what I buy for here at home. It's much better for me than white and tastes a LOT better than wheat! So it's a win/win! And it's a change to my diet that I have no problem making or keeping!
7. Plays
Last December, my theater buddy, Michelle, and I decided this year, we wanted to see an average of one play a month. So our goal was to get to 12. We did good at first. By May (the fifth month) we had seen 7 plays! And then.....we kinda slacked off. Right around Thanksgiving, we were chatting and she said we were only at 9, we needed three more plays! So we crammed three of them in in ten days in December. For 2019, we've sworn to not ignore the summer months.
In the pic abover, left to right, front row to back:
It's A Wonderful Life; The Barbara Ingram School Winter Extravaganza
Chicago; The Addams Family; Death By Design; Harvey; The Fantastiks
Hairspray; Shrek; Cabaret; Deadly Murder; The Queen Of Bingo
In the top row are two plays I saw without Michelle: The Play That Goes Wrong and Deceiving Granny.
And all the ones we saw together were local productions and all but one (The Queen Of Bingo at The Totem Pole) were amateur. We've already talked about some plays this year upcoming. Hopefully we won't be cramming them all in right before Christmas again.
6. Belle Broke
Lovely way to start off the year. New Year's Day, not 12 hours into the new year, I drive to Rutters to get my morning coffee before heading out to mom's for lunch, and I can't get the key out of the ignition. Won't budge at all. So then that involved the AAA, towing her twice, my local mechanic, the Volkswagen dealership, parts needed to be ordered, several unplanned days off work, and some unforseen expenses. ultimately, though, Belle get repaired and is running fine. And I found out I had some pretty darn good friends who unexpectedly offered me the use of one of their cars, which I was prepared to take them up on. But then the part arrived at the dealership earlier than expected, so I didn't need to. Hopefully, this New Year's Day is a little more....unexciting? Conventional?
5. VUBOQosity!
This year, I've hung out with VUBOQ quite a bit more than before. He's invited me several Saturdays up to The Cabin Of Ill Repute in West Virginia. He came to my house once because he was running a 10K in my little town. We had planned on hanging out for the day, but it was cold, damp, rainy, and I was sick with some stomach bug. So he just ran the race, came back to my place, cleaned up, we ate at the Waynesburger, and then we back to the cabin. But this year, we've played my favorite board game The Road To The White House a few times, and I even got him his own copy of th game for the cabin itself. We shared many vegetarian meals up there, food that I never would have eaten, as well as some alcohol I wouldn't have tried either. And lots of fun conversation as well. And none of this includes the time we spent together, with all the other Puntabupeeps, in NYC in August. And after all this VUBOQness this year, I'm looking to a whole lot more in the new year.
4. Old Man Issues
In February, my lower right back started hurting. I feared it might be my kidney (since I'm diabetic, I don't wanna fool around with that). Went to the doctor. After tests, he says, it's just skeletal/muscular issues. Still hurts periodically (although not as bad) throughout the year.
Last year I had physical therapy for the strain in the bicep of my left arm. This year, while that still hurts, my right arm started hurting the same way. Both shoulders hurt when I wake up in the morning, but it gets better quickly and doesn't bother me too much.
I cracked a tooth in September and ended up losing half of it. And now, the dentist and I decided I needed to get some dental bridges, so that'll be fun and costly (although those are necessary).
I got new glasses, but I still have problems reading small print and without enough light.
In addition to being sick with the stomach bug in May when VUBOQ was here, in January, I was knocked on my ass by some of the worst flu I've ever had. Had me down for most of the week. It was only the second time in the 22 years I've been at my job were I was off sick more than two days and needed a doctor's excuse to come back. I missed the entire week as a matter of fact.
My knees crack a lot and hurt sometimes when I take stairs or get up off of chairs.
And it's only gonna get worse. Yeah, getting old sucks.....but as they say, it beats the alternative.
3. New York City
This year, Tam left the Middle East and returned to Canada. And before leaving North America again for Central America this time, she (and Kristen The Kid) came to NYC and got an apartment for a week. For a weekend, I, john eliot, and Michelle M. stayed there as well. VUBOQ came up for an overnight. And we had a few hours long party attended by Craiggers (we got to meet his man Steve), Adam and Drazen (we got to meet baby Jack and his hair), Mikey and Ty (we got to meet Annabelle), and FDot!
A group of us also went to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art and then later to THE funniest thing I have ever seen on stage: The Play That Goes Wrong. And we ate at many varied, but always awesome, restaurants.
But the best part of the trip was just hanging out at the apartment with old friends who I haven't seen in many years!
2. Democrats Take The House
This one should be on EVERYONE'S yearly list, but I know it's not. Now, FINALLY, we'll have a governmental check on the obscene, chaotic, insanity of the tRump administration. If tRump and his supporters have not liked the Mueller investigation....well they aint seen nothing yet.
We're gonna get a HURRICANE of subpoenas from the House. Into his Administration, his campaign, his finances, his tax returns, his university, his children, and all the corrupt practices that his corrupt Cabinet members have been perpetrating on the USA. Yes I'm going to LOVE watching it all crumble, but much more importantly, no more of the destructive bills of the last two years will see the light of day again.
Thank God.
Oh it'll be ugly. And messy. And nasty. But it's the ugly, messy, nasty first step to saving this country from the pox in the White House that has befallen it.
1. Diabetes
My diabetes has basically been uncontrolled since I've been diagnosed. A bright spot this year is that, in the 6 years I've been tracking it, this is the first year in which my A1C level never tested above 8.0. But that's not much to brag about really (it SHOULD be under 7.0 all the time, or under 6.0 if you're not a diabetic).
Then, in July, the outside of my right big toe started getting sharp pains. Never having had one before, I thought it might be an ingrown toenail. Ended up going to a podiatrist (for the first time) and finding out it's not. Its some calcium growth at the base of my big toe. Made it much better with new shoes and specific insoles.
But after this, I finally decided it was time to see an endocrinologist (a diabetes doctor). I finally got to her ten days ago. After a two hour meeting, I had some of my meds changed. And after having taken them for that ten days period, the results have been simply phenomenal! In that time, I have not had a blood sugar level over 180. And I have only it over 160 four times (out of 20 times checked). It's crazy how swiftly and totally that has worked.
So I can only hope the progress continues in the new year. And I've got home this cuts down on the sometimes pins and needles in my foot. And the foot aches. And the eye issues. And maybe even lose some weight as well.
I just want to hopefully make my uncontrolled diabetes, more controlled. Because this will continue to have very detrimental effects on my health otherwise.
So that's this year's Top Ten! Some good, some bad. Hope you're year was more good than bad.
POLT
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