This is how my year went:

January: Kitty arrived and we met up in NYC (along with Stina and Dylan). We got to see Wicked, and it was awesome. I also got killer food poisoning our first full day there and was unwell and cranky for most of the vacation. We came back to Virginia, where it was cold, with a lot of anxiety and depression for reasons beyond even the inhospitable weather to a girl who is temperature sensitive in old surgery scars and being in a rural, isolated community without a way to travel easily while I slept off nightshifts at a job I despised. This is not to say we didn’t have some excellent fun–we did!–it was just exhausting and saddening, largely.

February: Started off better than January did, Kitty still here, and with a lot of trips to the Blackfriar’s. But she had to go back to Melbourne at the end of the month, and that sucked a lot. Also, I began taking tompiramate to try to control my rising number of migraines again, and had an entertaining list of side effects to enjoy.

March: I decided I really was interested in pursuing med school (after thinking about it for months to myself), and my mom and I drove down to Savannah, Georgia, to check out the school I had targeted as my best option to finish my premed requirements. It turns out Savannah may actually be hell, hot and muggy even in March, with overpriced housing and a terrible number of bugs. Also, the university had stopped offering the premed program.

April: I turned 24 and had to find someplace to move. Because I had hoped to move to Georgia, Stina and Dylan were already set with a new apartment; luckily (?) there was a studio in the same house for rent, which suits my needs just fine. I mean, except the crickets. Those do not. But otherwise, yes.

May: Kit and I had our five year anniversary, separated by distance again. I can’t recall anything else of major importance, so May must’ve been fine.

June: Was long. I had a great job interview with a tutoring company, and found my car dead. I hiked to Whole Foods and spent a few hours on the phone with my mom, with her boyfriend, with Dylan, trying to get home. Dylan eventually was able to rescue me. I almost fell asleep in the bookshop waiting for him. Mom, her boyfriend, and I then had to load my car up on his tow (after they drove the 4 hours up here); it turned out that the battery was dead, after all that. I got a new car that was not evil. Kit came back to the US, and we again met up in NYC. I did not get food poisoning this time. I did have a major temper tantrum that lasted from evening of our last day in the city through to boarding the plane the next morning. But I also got to see Kate Miller-Heidke, wonder of wonderment (this is a semi-bad thing, as Kit did not get to see her–we forgot she’d need ID to get into the gig and she ended up missing most of it in traffic back to the hotel), and a lot of zoos. I love zoos.

July: Kitty’s vacation continued, with a trip to the drive-through safari (both awesome and scary) and the adoption of our evil kitten, Prosper. There were trials involving the loft bed necessary for my studio space, but this trip was a lot better than the January one as I’m at least now in some semblance of a town. Sadly, Kit had to go back to Melbourne again for school. I also completed my visit with my first adult psychologist, who turned out to be a bit of a nut with poor listening skills.

August: My migraines began really picking up again through August this year, starting an exponential increase that was sadly familiar. I got in contact with the great job interview again, to be told that they were restructuring and would get back to me soon. That never happened. I started seeing my therapist, who does not have poor listening skills.

September: I came off the tompiramate, as it was no longer stopping my migraines and the side effects were starting to get out of control. I had a quick trial of imitrex, which was useless. I also talked to Mom about this whole autism thing. I think it went well.

October: I had a brain MRI, which revealed a small lession, nothing to be concerned about–except that it made my GP panic and send me to the neurologist at the earliest appointment he could get (December?). I also got to see Kate again and, yes, it was awesome (Ben Folds was involved, and he was pretty fun, too).

November: Was long. Kit had a rough month, so I did, too, trying to be as empathetic and understanding as I can. She turned 23. I kept getting more migraines. I also started talking to my dissertation supervisor again. I booked my plane tickets to go see Kitty in May, for the whole month.

December: I applied to graduate with a graduate diploma instead of the MA (for now), which is an improvement as it’s doing something instead of pretending nothing is going on. I officially decided to move to Atlanta in April of next year, as Staunton has little to offer me at this point beyond frustration. I’m hoping being in a new place, a big city, will give me better job opportunities and the money to do my premeds. I saw the neuro, and he was mostly unhelpful. I started a trial of gabapentin against my better judgement. It snowed like a motherfucker–over 2 feet. I then slipped on black ice with apparently boiling coffee, and have burns across my shoulder and chest from it, some of which are looking like they may scar. I got some awesome presents and some silly presents. My car got hit and runned. I’m at work on New Year’s Eve.

I’m ready for 2009 to be over.