Starting this to vent I guess.....

Losing my mom in November.

Very sorry about your mom.

This is certainly not to compare, but we lost a beloved pet this year. I really miss my little guy.

Quoting MBMBOS (Reply 1):

Trust me, I'm not judging. A loss is a loss. If the one you lose is important to you, the loss is still significant.

For me, my worst 2008 memory is:

Well, starting it off with a broken ankle, and 6 months of being unemployed and not in school thanks to that blasted injury!

Then the aftermath of the economy taking a dump...

Not a fun year all around... at least not for me anyway...

I nearly died in a car accident about a year ago. I was cut off on the freeway, drove over some black ice, lost control and spun out into a ditch roughly 10 feet away from a frozen pond. Never before have I been so scared shitless.

Apart from that I went through three jobs, none of which really worked out for me.

08 wasn't so great, so 09 is very fine  

Worst memory of 2009 was the strike at Boeing. Not fun, not fun at all.

Lets see, lost my Grand Father in 2008 but also performed way below expectations in my IGCSE exams albeit I still did quite good - for me the important subjects were all A's/A*s

2008 was pretty bad overall for me, but the icing on the cake was breaking up with my girlfriend of 3 years at the end of November... that still smarts  

Oh well, there's hope for 2009!

Toni

Losing seven family members sucked pretty badly for 2008, I don't have a big family either, but unfortunately most are very old. Lost several friends too though motorbikes, cancer and other accidents.

I hoped this year could be a little better, but it started off at 5am on the 1st of Jan by reading an email which told me that my (estranged) Father had died. Yippie, here we go again  


Dan  

Quoting MBMBOS (Reply 1): but we lost a beloved pet this year. I really miss my little guy

I agree, I also lost a pet in January 2008. Tiggr was such abig part of the family and I'm only now beginning to get over it and come to terms without having him there.

JG  

I got fired by US Airways in March 2008 for "attendance issues" which definitely made me feel shitty. It did lead to me re-entering college full-time though, so I guess when one door closes, another opens...

Broke my right ankle , really fell into a deep funk. Could not exercise , could not do anything really. I never realized how active I was until I could not walk around very well.

The broken ankle was bad my head was worse , I still cant explain it . I just felt old and tired and like a real pussy ass. Meanwhile I neglected myself and people who depend on me while I laid up like granny saggy ass. I alienated away and played video games and watched the election BS ..and of course pissed people off on Anet.

I have broken bones before , but I guess turning 40 had something to do with my funk. I thank the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for my recovery. Seeing the hardships that they have to deal with inspired me to get the hell up and go ! Seeing guys at TVAH with serious injuries who still were positive gave me will to pull out. All in all in only lasted for a couple of weeks , but it seemed like a long time in darkness. Now I am back on the heavy bag , treadmill and playing football ..getting into fighting shape again . !!

My parents split up in june, my father got a nervous breakdown and couldn't help moving out of our old house.
In september I lost one of my cats, his kidneys didn't work anymore.
And at the end of 2008 I lost my job.

Hope 2009 will be better..

My dad's cousin dying in October of a heart attack. We were all very close and he took me golfing several times when I went to visit.

The "bailout" passing in Congress, a.k.a the beginning of the end.

My mom passed away on September 13, 2008.

Quoting Metroliner (Reply 7):

I feel your pain. I lost the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with in May and even now it still hurts. It's like a death because you have lost that person...

All I wish for in 2009 is a little more strength to help me get through it and to keep the friends that were there for me when my life turned to shit in May...

Well my worse was initially my best. Had my first kiss, first time and first girlfriend, which turned out to be my first ex-GF as well. In the beginning I'm sure she was for real, but in the end I guess I was just another guy in her to-do list, Though she did refer to me as her BF... but I still don't know WTF was going through her mind and 10 months later i'm still pretty enraged,as many if not all of you know lol

And '09 seems to bring no hope given that I'll be stuck in this woman-less town for longer than expected.

2009... bring it on indeed...   

My worst memory is the night of December 13, 2008, when I almost died.

I have an abnormally small throat, so any illness of the respiratory tract is a bit more serious for me. I had been fighting throat and nasal congestion since Dec. 7, with a bad cough. At around 11pm to 12 midnight on Dec. 13, my cough increased in severity so that I was coughing so hard that I was alternately choking and retching. This scared me quite badly, as I was unable to breathe for a while. I was in no condition to think clearly enough to call 911, and I did not know how long it would last.

A nurse friend at church, the next day, told me that was very dangerous what I went through, and that I should see the doctor first thing Monday morning (the 15th). She told me I could die from this due to my small airway. So I saw the doctor at the UCSF student health services clinic, who put me on Atrovent inhaler, Pseudovent pills, and recommended an emergency medical alert system like LifeLine since I live alone and have a higher risk of airway obstruction. The doctor also referred me to pulmonology to see if they can do something about my airway. I had been evaluated a year or so ago by UCSF craniofacial clinic for a major surgery (involving simultaneous osteotomy and forward distraction of both jaws) to open the airway, but concluded I was too risky for this surgery due to the fact I have no functional TMJ on either side of the mandible. Earlier in the fall, the doctor mentioned that there was a chance I might need a permanent tracheostomy in the future. Of course, I really hope not, because I've had tracheostomies before and they are not pleasant (that's an understatement). I would really like to keep using my voice, because I need it to do presentations in my research at UCSF as a PhD student!

Fortunately, I made it through that night, so I could travel home to visit family in Fort Wayne, IN, Dec. 16-Jan. 3.

I was harshly reminded that night that life is quite fragile (as if I really needed that reminder, as I've had many other close calls before).

Life is a miracle, so treasure it!

SmithAir747

Finished my girlfriend in Feb, boyfriend in May. Not really that bad but you still feel a bit guilty about it.

Probably leaving school was a bad one. I really miss the people and the place, even though I hated school.

To top off 2008, I got dumped on Christmas day. Not that she's horrible but I mean.... bad timing or what =/


It hasn't been a bad year, but maybe could have been a bit better.

I decided to go to a different in school instead of the private school I used to go to. My family really needed to save money and the private school is very expensive. I thought friends from my old school would still remember me and we would hang out during weekends. I was very wrong, most of my friends have just forgotten me. People at my new school treat me pretty well and I'm starting to make friends. Although a kid in my 4th hour class seems to hate me, I don't know why. Still haven't gotten a girlfriend sadly. Hopefully 2009 will be better and I'll have better friends.

Quoting San747 (Reply 10): I got fired by US Airways in March 2008 for "attendance issues" which definitely made me feel shitty. It did lead to me re-entering college full-time though, so I guess when one door closes, another opens...

This is going to sound trite but every job I lost, for whatever reasons, has led to a better situation. That includes the ones I've been fired from too, and in better than 40 years of working most of the time, that covers a lot of territory.

See, what it does is it forces you to do some real power thinking about what your situation is and how to fix it. No screwing around now, real hard thinking. And when you do that you find a lot more than a casual inspection reveals. It's like finding a winning lottery ticket under the seat of your old car.

Quoting Af773atmsp (Reply 20): Although a kid in my 4th hour class seems to hate me, I don't know why.

If he bullies you, confront him, avoid undue physical harm obviously but if things go that way let him have it. It doesn't matter if he's physically bigger than you, the fact that you have the guts to confront him will be enough to scare him off. It's psychological warfare.

I've been bullied plenty in my life and believe me, once you fight back, they NEVER bug you again.

Whatever you do, keep your head up.  

Quoting Dougloid (Reply 21):

That was definitely the case with me. It shook me and made me realize I need to figure what is wrong and how I can recover from this setback. And honestly, the way my schedule was, if I had continued that job (no matter how much I loved it), I can guarantee I would not be in school right now...

My worst memory of 2008: The death of my grandfather and the fact that I wasn't allowed to go to the funeral by my employer.

However, 2009 is currency even worse than 2008. My father fell from 5 metres high yesterday, and was lucky to get just a broken left hip and a concussion. And just today, we had to put up with a 6.2 magnitude (6.1 according to the USGS) earthquake near the Poás volcano.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009bpba.php

So far, the death toll is 4 people, three of them girls between seven and twelve years old, and an older woman who died of a heart attack from the scare she got. My father, who's in a hospital near the city centre, is doing just fine though, despite the whole mess.

So, like I said, 2009 is even worse than 2008.

My grandfathers death in August, and the family bullshit we had to deal with after his funeral.

2008 as a whole really sucked ass for me. Here's to a better 2009!

Aside from the totally unjustified "nice" letters of reassurance from the superannuation lot, I think that brief week or so after the second convention when it looked as if McCain might actually win.   

Aside from that, after the excellent start with "SORRY" a year of Kevin Rudd proving that not only did he strive to be like Howard when campaigning, but he also missed few opportunities to act like Howard while governing. Hope your guy does better than that!

Apology of an investigation of the Haneef case, a 5% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, oh don't get me to remember, PLEASE DON'T.         

For me the worst memory of 2008 is when I left my previous job. The last day, the last class, when you just handed in the access card and saying good-bye to everyone... not a good feeling indeed.

But as one door closes, another opens, I can say now I am way better on my own business, altough I have to admit that I still missing the great job environment I had.

Saludos,

Worst memory was a friend committing suicide on November 22nd.

Water heating breaking down and engineer sent to repair it under warranty being useless it took another two visits to sort it out.

Missing out on a permanent vacancy where I work as a temp. I am sure if I had made through I would every bit as good as the luck two got made it through at least I am still employed.


Trains & flights being delayed but I made it to my destination and home safely.

I would say I have been lcuky.