One year anniversaries (not exact)

I was struck by a thought this morning when I was switching on the heating pad that keeps my Kombucha jars warm... I bought that just about a year ago, so apparently I have been brewing KT for a year now.  Well, a little more, since I became interested in it after my trip to Italy in the summer.  But I guess by the time I decided to try it myself and actually succeeded in growing a scoby it was probably closer to Christmas.  I lose track of the passage of time easily, and started to wonder what else I got into a year ago that I'm still doing.  And, all I can think of so far is that I started making monthly payments of $500 on my hospital bill about a year ago, and I'm definitely still doing that!  That's depressing, but not nearly as much as the fact that I'm not close to having paid the whole thing yet.  I think I'm about halfway there, actually.  And, having recently quit my job, I am having a bit of a hard time mustering up any optimism about 2009...  Oh well.  Optimism has rarely gotten me anywhere in the past, so maybe it doesn't matter.