What a year. I went through so many changes in 1999, it's a wonder I'm the same person.
I moved to Grafton, Massachusetts, got a job at The New England Center for Children, bought a car (after being without one for 5 years!), left the world of Philly behind-- my cool roommates all seemed to disperse into another arrangement about the same time that I left... and I found myself in a strange living arrangement-- renting a room in an older man's house, where really the only private space I had was the bathroom and my room. I didn't have room to spread out anywhere else in the house, because it was his... I felt crowded, and he was very nosey. At first the arrangement seemed fine because it was cheap and I was never home, but... as the year wore on, I realized that I wasn't happy living there.
I learned the true meaning of "job stress." I entered into the most stressful job I've ever had (hopefully it will remain the most stressful job I will ever have had, and every job I have from now on will be many degrees less stressful), and my level of stress got to the point where it actually started affecting my health. That sucks! Nobody should have to endure that...
But I endured it for 14 months. That was quite long enough...
The middle of the year was the worst. My dad ended up having surgery on his back-- fusion, which I was at home for, but it didn't really count as a home visit because my mom and I were trading shifts at the hospital-- I'd get there in the morning and stay there all day, and she'd come in sometime in the evening and stay all night, and I'd go to my parents' house. My dad was pretty incoherent most of that time. It was more a trip of obligation and worry than anything else...
Then in July a student broke my nose, forcing me to have surgery-- I was put under anesthesia in the hospital for the first time ever, and I was on paperwork duty at work for two long months. What sucked the most was that I didn't tell my parents as soon as it happened. And... that means that I didn't ever tell them. It was so hard to get through that without their support, yet it was my own fault for not telling them because I wanted to protect them-- I knew they already worried about me way too much, and I didn't want to add to their worry. *sigh*
In July I also got Cici, who proved to be a life saver. She still is... I don't know what I'd do without her.
Little did I know I was dating a liar and a cheater, an irresponsible asshole who took advantage of my (then) trusting nature. He put me through hell... a type of hell I hope I never have to endure again.
Soon after that I began dating someone else, who initially was the most amazing person I'd ever dated. He helped me heal through a lot of the pain I had just endured... but he too was to fail me. He was too immature to handle a "real" relationship, one with meaning, love, intimacy, sharing the deepest thoughts and feelings inside your soul... he just couldn't deal. He had too many issues with women in general, with commitment, with relationships, with plenty of other things as well. I don't hold animosity towards him-- I think that someday he will make someone very happy... *if* he ever grows up.
And finally, at the end of the year I was so fed up with everything that had happened to me, everything that I had been through, that all I wanted to do was spend time with my family at home in Texas. For about the last month and a half of 1999 I was so ridiculously homesick that I almost called it quits in Massachusetts. When I finally went to visit my family, everyone was so sick (especially my mom) that the time we spent together wasn't quality. My mom was sleeping for the majority of the week I was there, and my dad was feeling bad as well, so he was resting more than usual... and my sister was trying not to get sick so she stayed away from the house, and my niece and nephew were sick... it just kinda sucked. Of course, I got very sick, after being around a whole family of sickies myself... oh well.
But the year wasn't all bad. I was excited that I finally got to move to the Boston area (as far away from Boston as I actually was), I was excited to finally have a car again, I was excited to get a kitty... and I began to realize just how much my family means to me. With all of these things on the table, read at your own risk...