Good things that happened to you in 2018?

[jeremysteele]

This thread is about celebrating the good things in 2018.

Whether it is a birth, marriage, divorce (hey, it can be good!), graduation, getting a new job, or defeating Gannon in Ocarina of Time for the 73rd time - please share it below.

Keep it positive!
______________________

To kick it off -

I'm coming up on the 2yr mark at my current job. This is a really big deal - my past few jobs have been fairly short term at startups, and it is exciting to have some stability... which leads to my next point...

...My fiancee and I finally have everything all set for our wedding early next year! After delays, family drama, and more delays - we were finally able to pull things together. Our families were beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen

 

[eyoungren]

Bought a house. First time homeowner after 20+ years of renting.

My parents gifted the down payment and the terms for getting into the house meant that our car loan got paid off. So, we own our car outright now.

 

[Gutwrench]

I got home Tuesday and guess what. The doors from the garage into the house were locked. They’re never locked. The mother of the university daughter drove into town to pick up the last of the few things her daughter had in storage. And then mom locked all the doors on the way out.

Guess who doesn’t have any keys to his own house.

Yap me. That’s who.

I know one window in this fortress of a house that I never lock. It’s a small kitchen window that I don’t think my 88 pound step daughter could wiggle through. A locksmith was going to take forever and cost a bundle....and just then my bladder decided to send me a message of “remember the water you drank on the way home?”

So, that was my target.

Did I mentioned that window is 15 feet off the ground?

But, I’m in luck. It’s only three feet over the outside of the deck railing. So, my infallible plan was to climb over the railing of the deck, pry off the screen ... try to work the window open...then figure out how to get my ass over the three feet...and into that small rectangle of a window while dangling 15 feet above a brick patio without a net.

The girls were happy to see me. They were smiling and bouncing and wiggling their tails at me from the warmth of the dinning room on other side the sliding glass deck door. Lulu was tempting me with her ball she was holding in her mouth. All as I was freezing my “boys” off standing on the deck.

But don’t worry. I was fine.

Can you believe it? The sliding glass door separating the girls and me was actually unlocked. That thing is NEVER unlocked. In that sudden moment all the crap that I felt piled on top of me that day disappeared. It was a wonderful moment.

Then I sent the girls outside and they were looking back in at me.

Funny how the table has turned now, huh bitches?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

This year, I got to see parts of the world that I had only ever seen on TV, in wildlife or political documentaries or in atlases; wildlife parks in Kenya, wonderful museums and coffee shops in Nairobi, coffee and tea plantations in Kenya, Lake Naivasha, the Great Rift Valley.

The world is an amazing place, sometimes.

 

[eyoungren]

Guess who doesn’t have any keys to his own house.

Breaking and entry? You can arrest someone for that!

Oh wait…!

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Most of the good things that have happened to me this year have been fairly minor, but overall it's been a good year. I've taken some excellent classes in historical linguistics and typology that seemed like they were designed especially for me. I've gotten to know a couple professors and spent time with them outside of class (so I know who will be writing letters for my grad school applications!) At this point I am poised to graduate early (though I don't know if I will choose to do that).

Other than that, most of the other good things that happened were smaller moments, like hiking in Yosemite, a trip I took to NYC with close friends, or that night I was invited to dinner by three different people (I often think that I am too quiet and reserved and that friends would rather spent time with someone more interesting or fun, but when that happened, I realized that I should really take some time to appreciate the good people in my life, as there are many).

Next year is slated to be even better, as I will be spending a few months studying abroad in Europe! I've been looking forward to this for a long time.

 

[max2]

Got 1 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload connection!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Apple released a Mac mini?
Probably the highlight of my year.

 

[LizKat]

Well let's see... for openers, I haven't yet had to sing that song that the blues singer Doug MacLeod once proposed as "The Last Blues Song Ever Wrote." In its entirety on his album A Little Sin, the 31-second track goes like this, with a generous instrumental intro and and an outro of total silence: "I didn't wake up this morn..."

Past that, there's been a good side to most things happened to me this year. Sometimes I have had to squint and and try to shine a rosier light on them for awhile... but I'm still an optimist after I've managed to swill down a Keurig coffee and then assemble a French press and have some of the real thing. Counting my blessings any year now comes easily to me, and I count that as a blessing too.

 

[rbrian]

This year has been so long, with all the bad news, that I thought most of the good things were last year, but they're not!

I had the holiday of a lifetime in April. I flew with 4 friends to Miami, drove on the wrong side of the road legally for the first time, went on a terrifying waterslide at Volcano Bay (a hatch opened and I fell 30ft straight down), went upside down for the first time on a roller-coaster (The Hulk at Universal), drove back to Miami, got very drunk, boarded the Zumba cruise ship, danced and drunk and ate, and swam with dolphins! I don't want to be one of those people, but seriously, if you ever get the chance, do it! After the leaving the ship, and the girls, Raymond and I went to the Kennedy Space Centre, and saw an actual rocket launch!

That was the first holiday I've been on in 6 years, and I definitely got my money's worth.

Other highlights - I finally got round to fixing my friend's lights, so he's no longer in the dark; some messing about with Excel and Google Maps got me a £200 bonus at work; some progress has been made with my respirity problems (definitely not asthma).