2024 sucked. To paraphrase Homer Simpson in a different context, it was the suckiest bunch of suck that ever sucked. It both sucked and blew, which, as Bart Simpson pointed out, is hard to do.
It started out with my mental health taking a nosedive to the point where I was having suicidal ideations. That put me in an intensive outpatient program. The IOP helped. It wasn’t fun, but it helped. Except I had another bit of a breakdown at the end of May. This one wasn’t as serious, and I pulled out of it without needing intensive intervention. It still sucked though.
If that wasn’t bad enough, I was working on a one-year contract that ended in June. I have been out of work ever since. Because the contract ended, I lost my insurance. I wound up going through the Access Health CT exchange and getting the worst insurance in the history of the world. Then it was a nightmare signing up for a different plan during open enrollment.
There were some other bad things that happened, but I didn’t write about them and I’m not going to. You’ll just have to trust me.
There were a few bright spots, though. My insurance saga had something of a happy ending. I called a broker, and he set me up with a good plan that I can actually afford. The only problem is that it doesn’t start until February. I have to wrap myself in bubble wrap for the next month.
My partner has been very supportive. As has my family. That’s been a big help both in getting out of my mental health issues and staying out through the summer and fall.
This blog has actually been a highlight, too. We’ve nearly doubled our prior best year. My series on my journey through an intensive outpatient program was a hit. As was a piece I wrote nine years ago called Jessica Jones and Sex Scenes. That one was the best performing essay on the site this year because it actually shows up on the first page of Google results if you search “Jessica Jones sex scenes”.
The really funny thing about it is that the essay is basically saying that the sex scenes in the show are completely gratuitous. They don’t build character or advance the plot. At best they titillate and that’s it. I imagine there were quite a few disappointed people who clicked on that link. There were no pictures or videos. Just me spouting my minority opinion.
The blog has also gone international. We’ve always gotten a few views from other countries, but this year only about 3/4 of the views came from the US. We got over 1,000 views from India alone. That’s kind of cool.
So, that was a quick recap of my year. Three good things and a whole bunch of bad things. In other words, it sucked. I’m glad it’s over.
