Here's a prompt, do with it what you will

[drwex]

Explain your current situation to your five-years-ago self.

Feel free to ignore this, reply in a comment, write your own entry (and link it if you don't mind), share this, ask for others' input.

Comments

[badseed1980]

"Yes, you finally got a house. Yes, it was fucking expensive. But you're happy. There's a rollercoaster between you and me, but hang in there because life is good and getting better in many ways."

[chhotii]

Yo, Alex of 2014

I'm fucking trying to sell the house. Finally. There's more to it than cleaning out and painting. Sit down.

Open building permits? Go ask Town Hall about open building permits. Room 5 in Town Hall. They have a file on the house. Yes, you have deal with this, or you can't sell the house.

Oh, wait, before you even talk to Al the building inspector, be sure to have the hot tub taken out and replaced with new decking. Brace yourself: expect that, alone, to cost about $5,000. And rip down all the sheet rock that Rich put up over the studs in the barn. There will be more than that to make the building inspector happy enough to close the building permits, but, start with doing those things.

Getting the house into a state where it can be sold will cost money

but just fucking do it

because a thing made of wood is the worst possible investment, especially as we are not good with dealing with contractors, and the thing made of wood is in a location that we still hate driving to.

I shouldn't have to explain this to you, but you are in denial.

[flexagon]

(after looking up my 2014 retrospective)

Congrats on that promotion! Keep going... as you're starting to suspect, the management thing is working out for you, and you'll even get over your resistance to changing job titles in three more years.

Times won't always be easy and you will soon learn more about therapy, but things with both your major relationships will settle out and you will not come so close to divorce again, and Nala will in fact live to be 20; enjoy her. And don't be afraid to turn a valued friend into something more when the time comes.

[dianec42]

So about this work thing. You're right, the game team thing is about to explode in your sleep-deprived face. You'll find a soft-ish place to land, which will eventually get less soft and things will REALLY suck for a while. Then you get set free and end up with a ridiculous commute and happiness. Yeah, I don't really understand it either.

[intuition_ist]

oh wow.

Hey five-years-ago me -- that therapy that you're just finishing up? yeah it's expensive, but it will more than pay for itself in peace of mind. and that course you're in the middle of? will finally let you step into the career you've been wanting since 1997 but didn't know what it was. don't let anyone throw you off course -- not managers, not teammates, and most definitely not opportunities that look like they'll be better than that career. just don't.

i know you're still depressed and fucked up about your relationship status, but something wonderful is just around the corner. learn which people to depend on and which people to cut out of your life, and just do it. solitary pursuits when you're happy with what you're doing are better than hanging out with people who are never as {insert description here} as you want them to be.

Also -- you will end up staying in Boston, but you like green space more than you know. GTFO the city. And paint the damn kitchen ceiling before trying to sell your house. It will save you a world of trouble. Oh, and this coming winter will be hellish. Prepare now.

Five years

[gale_storm]

Hey there, five-years-ago Gale,

Yeah, this is yourself five years on, or else I'm just one possibility from one branch of reality setting off from there and then. I'm not at all sure how to explain our current situation to anyone, least of all myself, as you or I or we know really well. This mufflersucking -- used for its rhyming, figurative nature, not in any literal fashion -- disease of MS hasn't yet shredded us to bits, but it's now launched us into its secondary progressive state. Remember when 'progressive' was a positive next step? Yeah, that doesn't always hold.

Just know that, while things are getting worse inside our own head as the MonSter hangs on, some of the stuff happening outside of it is pretty fuckin' good. Per is the absolute top of the list of those. He loves me, treats me incredibly well and doesn't understand how or why I so easily say terrible things about myself. Those are the same terrible things that you said about yourself then, and they're on some kind of repeat. How fucking frustrating it is that we put this much energy into driving ourselves further into the ground instead of using that energy to get something more positive out of it. If there was any kind of redirection for this, well, maybe another-five-years-on Gale can tell us what it is, but that might require time travel to implement, so...

Oh! But before I'm done here, five-years-ago Gale, could you not drive the electric wheelchair (or mini-scooter or whatever it's called) into the bathroom, dismount close to the john and expect to be able to make it? { ... } Shit. Still here, still have broken leg healing up. Ah well, can't expect miracles!

Five-years-in-future Gale.

[mizarchivist]

... gah.
That would mean explaining to myself what I was about to go through. Uhhh-- hah.
But let's give it a try-
1. a kid with meds will make your life less hellish
2. you get a house! It's awesome! It takes a while to get there.
3. your spouse is about to be a phoenix and reinvent. You got through it, but it was really hard.
4. The world didn't end when you left that job. It'll be OK.

[jducoeur]

Don't spend so much worry about a full-time job being incompatible with working on Querki, and don't be so scared about working somewhere with more than a hundred employees. Landing at Rally is a big win, at least so far.

(OTOH, *do* worry more about ergonomics. Laptops are evil, and tendonitis is no fun.)

Other than that, life is pretty good...