Alphabet soup

These meme, and variations thereof, is making the rounds.

• Age: Hit the big 6-0 this year. Oddly, most of my trepidation about aging occurred during the approach. Now that it is past, I am okay with it.
• Betsy Beagle: I became convinced at one point that my dog had Addison's or Cushing's because of her pot belly and lack of energy. Tests came back negative and, once I gave up on keeping rabbits out of the yard, she perked up. Apparently, she was just bored.
• CT scan: The test that finally convinced my doctor that, yes, I really was sick.
• Doctor: My GP relocated, so I picked a new one, someone I had seen once before and thought would be a good match. WRONG.
• Elections: This year's elections were both entertaining and disconcerting. When did women become the enemy? I always vote in presidential elections because voting every four years keeps my registration active. Sometimes I am voting against someone which is perfectly okay, especially when that someone is a misogynist and/or an idiot.
• Finn: When I lost my cat Fern a while back, I decided that I would let my next cat find me. A friend of a friend of my daughter found a stray, and now Finn is mine.
• Gardening: Thanks to the weather, gardening was less than satisfying this past year. Gardeners and Cub fans have the same mantra: Next year.
• Health insurance: Our health plan at work is changing, to one with a high deductible and an HSA. I'm a little grumpy about this, because I am being forced to care about health care costs. I should have cared before, but it was too easy to simply wave my insurance card and say, Heal me.
• Internet: I am becoming more connected all the time, thanks to gadgets. Not only do I have a laptop and a Nook, I now have a smart phone. Not only do I email and blog, but I also FB and Twitter (@bittenbyknittin). Twitter is proving to be quite useful, to my surprise. I don't tweet much, but the local tweeters I follow have made me more informed of what is going on in my own community.
• Jogging: For the first time in my life, I can jog for an extended period of time.
• Knitting: Still knitting, signed up for a spinning class.
• Liver enzymes: If my liver enzymes had not been elevated, I doubt my doctor would have ordered the CT scan (see above).
• MRI: My new doctor ordered this when I complained about hip pain and seemed disappointed that it showed no nerve impingement which meant no surgery. (There would have been no surgery anyway.) The test did reveal the two vertebrae that occasionally cause a pinched nerve when I do something like sneeze.
• Nora: My granddaughter, whose favorite word these days is "No".
• Optometrist: New glasses this year. I have vision insurance through my employer, nyah, nyah, nyah. The job is a snoozefest, but the benefits are great.
• Physical therapy: I have been to PT in the past, for my back and shoulders. This time it was my hip and shoulders. Different place, different shoulder exercises. The new exercises have been more helpful.
• Queue: I am barely making a dent in my Netflix movie queue because I keep watching season after season of "The Good Wife", "Breaking Bad", and "Damages". Where is season 2 of "Downton Abby" anyway?
• Retirement: I can't afford to retire yet, but I did reduce my work week to four days.
• South Dakota: One of the destinations of our spring road trip, as my grandparents are buried there.
• Tai chi: My SO and I enrolled in a class. The instructor is a former co-worker of mine I have not seen in about ten years. I am curious about what the demographic of the class will be and whether the instructor will look OLD.
• Underwear: I hate bras except for sport bras. The problem with sport bras is the straps showing. Now they have sport bras with cami straps but their sizing is so ridiculous that I can't find any that fit. I wear a size L in regular sport bras, but cannot even get the XL cami sport bras over my head.
• Vacation: Other than the trip to South Dakota, I took no other vacations this year, thanks to illness. No business trip, either, thanks to Hurricane Sandy.
• Wisdom tooth: One of my wisdom teeth broke, and the dentist recommended having it pulled. I wish I had talked him into fixing the tooth instead.
• Xray: I went to the doctor complaining of an intermittent fever and abdominal pain. The x-ray resulted in a diagnosis of constipation. When I protested, I was told I could be constipated and not know it. WTH?
• Yoga: My SO and I signed up for a hatha yoga class and liked it so well we signed up for another.
• Zzz: I had been using Ambien as a sleep aid, but no more. For one thing, after the diverticulitis, I took steps to destress my life. For another, the doctor would not renew my prescription without an office visit. If I had not already dropped a fair amount of money at her office this year, I might have gone.