Oh hell.....

....I forgot to mention the two other significant things that happened last year.

I quit smoking.  Oh yeah!  I thought this was going to be a tough thing to do, I wasn't mentally ready and I sure as hell wasn't physically ready.  Yet one day last June, after 30 years of smoking, I decided "enough".  And apart from one very minor blip two weeks in, I have not looked back.  Yes I put on weight, but I've almost shifted it all.  Yes I still have moments when I really need a cigarette, and I suspect that feeling will never go away, but one cry of "I need a cigarette!" and my friends all pile in and tell me "No you don't!".  It feels great to have finally go of that mental crutch.

And I grew up.  OK, let's rephrase that.  I didn't actually grow up, that would just be a little bit too scary to contemplate, but I did do something very grown up.  I bought a house. My own four walls.  It's tiny, it needs a little bit of work, but it's mine.  It's somewhere I can escape to and be at peace.  It's home.  And I love it.