I have also been playing poker for 18 months now, and I found it interesting to compare your progress to mine. I started out playing micro-stakes limit in the summer of '04, losing about half a grand before I decided to quit. But in the back of my mind, I knew that I had to keep playing, that I could beat this wretched game. So I deposited $5o into PP this March and played $25 NL. And I started winning. And winning. So I started moving up in stakes, where I continued to run good. I am the kind of person whose performance suffers when not challenged/stimulated enough, so when I started running bad at $400 NL I started taking shots in the bigger games. As of now I play 5-10 NL and higher, and I'm still running good.
What's funny is that my goal in March was to be a winning player at 100 NL by the end of the year. Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself playing 10-25 against Esfandiari. I would just like to say that there is no way I would be where I am at today without 2plus2. Thank you all.