The Friday Five for December 29, 2023, a day late and a dollar short

[anais_pf]

These questions, as well as the introductory paragraph, were written by spikesgirl58.

It’s nearly the end of 2023 and 2024 looms ahead like a sweet, unsullied prize. I will also be taking a break from my duties here at Friday Five. It's been eye opening, informative and fun. Take care of yourselves and I'll see you around.

1. What are you hoping for in 2024?
2. What was your low point of 2023?
3. And your high point of 2023?
4. Do you make New Year’s resolutions or are they just a waste of time?
5. Do you have any traditions for celebrating New Year’s Eve?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DW or LJ. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so please feel free to suggest some more!

**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**

Comments

[coffeetime]

anais_pf Is someone else continuing to write/post these in the future?

Since my journal is locked, my answers:

1. What are you hoping for in 2024?
I hope I find a new-to-me car that I can afford, and I really truly hope I'm able to travel.

2. What was your low point of 2023?
When we set the clocks back in the fall. I knew it was coming, I did my SAD lamp diligently, but I was scary depressed for a couple of weeks.

3. And your high point of 2023?
My chronic digestive issue went away...for months (it did come back) and I was able to eat nearly anything I wanted for the first time in years. It was SO AMAZING to walk into a restaurant and think "that looks good, I'll have that" instead of "I wonder what's in this that's going to make me sick for days?"

4. Do you make New Year’s resolutions or are they just a waste of time?
New Year is as good a time as any to set an intention, but I don't save them just for that day. However, for things I want to measure, like read X number of books per month/year, it's a good place to start. (24 is my number of books for 2024...when I was a kid I read that many per MONTH. And I was an English major, many years ago. *sigh*)

5. Do you have any traditions for celebrating New Year’s Eve?
No, I think it's been different for me every year. I do usually end up cleaning house on New Year's Day.

[anais_pf]

Fear not -- The Friday Five will continue to be posted in the new year. My hope is that it will be posted here on DreamWidth with more frequency than in the past. Happy new year!

[intothisshadow]

I'm so glad to hear that! I'm always looking forward to seeing what the week's questions are :)

[dreamaastrid]

I look forward to the Friday Five, glad it will continue.

And Happy New Years to you!

[intothisshadow]

Here's mine: https://intothisshadow.dreamwidth.org/581871.html

[smallhobbit]

Thank you very much for all that you've done and are doing. I enjoy taking part, even if my definition of Friday is somewhat fluid. And as a demonstration of that I will be back with my response in a day or so.

[bookofdanielvol2]

https://bookofdanielvol2.dreamwidth.org/8892.html

[althea_valara]

Mine here: https://althea-valara.dreamwidth.org/1169615.html

And thanks to those who run this! I don't participate very often, but do enjoy seeing it on my reading page.

[wingedcatgirl]

happy mew year everynyan

Friday Five - End of Year

[dreamaastrid]

Here's mine:

1. What are you hoping for in 2024?
Getting all the boxes from my daughter's move out of my living room, hoping my husband administrating his father's insolvent estate is not too stressful for us, and planning to help my Sister-In-Law get Father-In-Laws house he left in her name habitable by the time her lease runs out in May.

2. What was your low point of 2023?
The 4th quarter of the year was horrible and it wasn't one thing but everything piled on and piled on:

I got COVID for the first time and was off work for 6 days, and missed my Aunt's Funeral, and while still sick with COVID a family member attempted suicide and got a grippy sock vacation in the mental ward, while my BFF was in ICU with severe complications from COVID trying her darndest not to die, and my husband lost his job.

Then while recovering from COVID, I took more time off to help my Dad as he needed two surgeries, and the week of his first surgery, my husband tripped and broke both arms, and at the same time our daughter broke up with her boyfriend of 4 years who was planning on proposing when we spoke to him just a few months prior. And both my husband's eyeglasses and my eyeglasses broke while all this was going on, and we had to schedule emergency appts to get new glasses so we could see.

And finally we ended the year with my Father-In-Law having a cardiac event, never recovering and dying a week later in the hospital. Over Winter Break we had FILs funeral, moved our daughter home, and helped her clean out the townhouse she had shared with her boyfriend and roommates.

And now we are working on the process of settling FILs estate and helping SIL clean out the house and make it habitable for SIL to live in by the time her lease is up on her apt. Now just imagine an episode of hoarders with everything reeking of nicotine and cat piss, so very gross. The dumpster is coming the end of the month and we talked to SIL last night and she's already started cleaning it out, bagging up trash, and has taken an entire truckload of trash to the dump, only making a small dent in the corner of one room.

3. And your high point of 2023?
Either our Spring vacation to New Orleans which was so much fun or me getting a particularly difficult software upgrade installed and finally working correctly at my job - Woo Hoo!

4. Do you make New Year’s resolutions or are they just a waste of time?
This year I made very "Doable New Years Resolutions":
1. Take naps on holidays and vacations
2. Eat more tacos
3. Spend more time with friends at the beach
4. Hug the hubby
5. Try a new Restaurant
6. Read a Novel
7. Snuggle the cat
8. Swap laundry next time Netflix asks if I'm sure I want to continue watching more episodes
9. Book vacations
10. Eat more cheese
and I'm still working on my list...

5. Do you have any traditions for celebrating New Year’s Eve?
We are usually at our beach house hanging with my hubby's BFF and his wife. But his year we were just home, on our sofa, watching the NYC ball drop on TV, and then talking to a friend that called us at midnight to wish us a happy new year.