Yeah. I went to public school. First crush was on a boy in my class.

What I find interesting about public school is how so often you end up spending your entire school career in the same class as people you started first grade with. Assuming you don't move. So I have to ask, what happened to that boy as you aged?

I still know my first crush, kinda-sorta. We're facebook friends, but he almost never signs in and even when he does we don't talk. But I guess we keep tabs on each other a bit. I never did ask him out, but enjoyed quite a few years of friendship with him which I didn't find to be disappointing. He's a swell guy. I hope he's doing well.

My first crush moved, I think before third grade. Same happened with my first best friend, gone before second grade.
I only have one friend left from school days, a girl I met my junior year, her sophomore. Other than that, I really don't care to keep tabs on anyone I knew in school.

Originally Posted by Connielass

I wouldn't touch 2004 again with a Timelord's screwdriver.

Amen.
I was 13 and I was dating my second serious crush in 2004 and it didn't go so well. More like the opposite of well.

Shadows fall

And hope has fled

Steel your heart

The dawn will come

Happy New Year to all <3 and Happy Meneversary!!

Originally Posted by `Kitami

Amen.
I was 13 and I was dating my second serious crush in 2004 and it didn't go so well. More like the opposite of well.

Yeah... 2004 I was 20 and had decided to drop out of college and move in with my then-bf who ended up being an abuser.

Never again.

Oh goodness, that's awful. Glad you're safe now!

So what do you guys want to get done in 2015? My goals are to get a job that can support me, move out, and do great in my first semester at a university this fall. Plus generally becoming more responsible and capable.

I plan on going back to school to get my certification as a legal secretary. My local community college apparently has a good job placement program upon completion of courses. Crossing fingers that I'll still be with the same guy this time next year, maybe closer to moving in together.

@Cherry: re: public schools = Actually, my schools were big enough that I didn't repeat classmates that much once I hit middle school. Even in my elementary school there was still some variety since we had at least two home room teachers per grade.

Re:2004 = Oh gosh, I think I just entered high school then so I was in the prime of my weeaboo phase. I made a bunch of friends who also liked anime and that's all we talked about all day long. As for crushes, I technically had a "boyfriend" for all of one day. He asked me out via Gaia PM during computer class. But the next day he told me "I think we should break up since I have family drama right now." Then he tried to ask out my other friend. She said no and he had the nerve to ask me out again by note... with an awful picture of him holding a condom scribbled on it. I said no.

I would not like to revisit that year.

How is everyone?

Connie - Woohoo, good luck! Community colleges are great, they're an amazing resource. I just finished my Associate's at my local one, so now I'm about to start University halfway finished with way less debt than if I had gone straight there! Just be sure to register for classes as early as you can - wait a single week and all the places are taken and you have to get a really crappy schedule. And fill out your FAFSA soon!

Ferra - Oh my goodness. What a weird kid...

Andraus - I'm doing alright! Enjoying a nice little break from work since my boss scheduled me off for three days for some reason. How are you?

@Cherry: I know, right? Dodged a bullet on that one.

How were your holidays?

My holidays were great! Even though my boss had said everyone in my department needed to work Christmas eve, she let me off when I explained that that was the only day my family does Christmas. So I got to spend the day with my family (and my boyfriend came too! ). It's really the best day of the year for me!

How was yours? You and Kami went back to your home for the holidays, right?

Also, I love your narwhal costume!

Aww, it's so nice to see a story about a boss who is reasonable. So glad you had a merry Christmas Eve!

Yep, we had our honeymoon first so we spent a little over a week in Peru. Machu Picchu was gorgeous! After that, we spent the holidays with my family eating ourselves silly. It was nice though since I could take it easy for the first time in months. We just got back to Japan a few days ago and we're still celebrating the New Year holidays here. Today we visited the shrine we got married in and bought new charms for the year. (Next later this month there's a festival where you burn all of the old charms you bought last year.)

Anyway, it's been good but I'm kind of ready for the holidays to be over.

And thank you! I couldn't resist once I got the unicorn horn. There's not enough love for the unicorns of the sea.

Yeah, my boss is really nice. Honestly, I probably would have quit a while ago if it wasn't for her.

That sounds great! I hope there will be pictures on Facebook soon?

That's good! Although I hope that's not the only reason you haven't quit.

I'll try to put up some pictures, but it might take a while. Sadly my camera broke on our trip so I have a lot of weird/unusuable photos to sort through. Something in the sensor must have broke since it took mostly super dark or super bright pictures.

Uhm... it kind of is? That at laziness/complacency. The job doesn't pay me enough and I need to get a new one soon.

Oh man, that sucks! Do you at least have a phone with a decent camera for the meantime? It would be a shame to miss out on capturing memories because of a broken camera.

Aww... Well I hope you find a better one soon then.

Thankfully my hubby had his camera and we both have smartphones that take decent pictures too. Also, my camera managed to get it together during the most vital moments (like when we climbed to the tops of the mountains near Machu Picchu) so I have a bunch of nice pictures with my camera mixed in with the crappy ones. Good news is that I took it in to the shop I bought it from and they say they can (probably) fix it for around $100 so I can hopefully have it back to normal soon. I was looking into new cameras, but the one I'm most interested in is around $600.

Me too! My guy and I are talking about getting a place together when his current lease expires in June, so I need to have a job that will support me by then. We've run the numbers, and the minimum I can be making (while still having margin for error/emergency/unforeseen expenses) would be $9-10 an hour at 20 hours a week. Ideally I'd be working more than that, but we wanted to figure in that minimum so I wouldn't be SOL if I got scheduled badly a few weeks in a row. Right now I make $8.20 an hour and am barely making 17 hours a week, so I'm definitely not going to get there with my current job. The big problem is that wherever I would want to be working in June... is really far away for me to commute to now. The guy and I are trying to figure out solutions to this (like staying at his place the night before work so I don't have to get up crazy early and account for lots and lots of traffic, or get myself a tiny studio apartment with a month-by-month lease for the interim period), but... it's not something I'm chomping at the bit to do given all the hurdles in the way. Plus, you know, conflict. My boss really likes me and all the work I do in the department, so she really doesn't want me to go. I've already told her about all of this, but I'm just going to hate telling her when it's finally my time to leave.

Oh, well that's good! And a $100 fix isn't pretty, but way preferable to the cost of getting a brand new camera. Unless maybe you were looking for an excuse to upgrade anyway?