I was kind of paralyzed about reviewing 2010, but I think it's a good mental exercise – sincethat's what most of this blog is, anyway - but then I saw this questionnaire and was reminded of the writing prompts we always had to do in high school English class. I loved those things. So this was kind of fun.
1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Swam/Biked/Ran a triathlon, held a newborn baby (23 hours old!), had my thesis proposal accepted, baked a three-tier chocolate mint cake, made cinnamon rolls from scratch.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn’t really make resolutions. I think I will make something like a resolution this year, because I enjoy checking out my progress a year later.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My sister, a couple of blog-writers I read (is that close?), one of my coworkers.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Chester Holton, a sweet old guy from my home town who would give me quarters when I was a little kid. He lived a full life, and according to my parents, his daughter was a little overwhelmed at the visitation with all stories of the kind things he did for people.
5. What countries did you visit?
I stayed in the good ol’ U S of A. Keeping life cheap these days.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
No debt. That’s a double-negative but I don’t care.
A real vacation with DH.
7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 26 – my niece's birth
September 18 – my big brother's wedding
October 24 – Bro and the Speaker's wedding
December 3 – DH's big bro's wedding (we found out about it three weeks later!)
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably the triathlon.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I didn’t finish my thesis in 2010. Loser.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had the flu in February for the first time in years, and I ran on a wrapped foot right before my brother's wedding which totally effed up my foot, so I was limping everywhere all weekend. That was stupid.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
The $26 dress I found at Marshall’s that I wore for my graduation ceremony and my brother's wedding.
12. Where did most of your money go?
Food, rent, savings, debt payment. So amazingly boring. This is probably why I get excited about the grocery store.
13. What did you get really excited about?
Bro and the Speaker deciding to get hitched in a small park ceremony 6 months earlier than originally planned. And they made pie in a jar as favors. We were really excited for them and the weekend was really, really, really, ridiculously fun.
14. What song will always remind you of 2010?
The “Inception” sound, which isn’t really a song: BWOOOOOOAAHH…
Also probably “Strange Overtones” by David Byrne, which is one of DH’s favorite songs ever ever ever.
15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
– happier or sadder? About the same.
– thinner or fatter? Almost exactly the same – so much for the triathlon!
– richer or poorer? Slightly less poor, on paper at least.
16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Taking days off to write the thesis, Vacationing with DH.
17. Wish you’d done less of?
Tried to make people happy who just aren’t, worked overtime.
18. How did you spend Christmas?
The weekend before, we went to my sister’s house and spent a long weekend putting up and decorating their tree, running a 5-mile run, making cookies and exchanging gifts. That Monday I went to work for one day, then stepped out the door of my office at 3:30 and was picked up in a car that contained my oldest brother-in-law (driving), my husband, sister-in-law (oooh – but I didn’t know she was legally my sister-in-law at the time!!), our cat, and a week’s worth of luggage, laundry and snacks. I spent 2.5 hours squished in the back seat, and then a week spread out and relaxed in Michigan, where there was much eating, drinking wine, sleeping, watching movies, finding out about secret weddings that had happened, laughing, cooking, etc.
We went to Christmas Eve Mass at the nice Catholic Church, which included a Christmas pageant and was really cute. Then we had a feast of Short Ribs, and we all exchanged gifts. I got a Wii. We drove back to Chicago on Christmas morning, dropped everything off at our apartment, took a nap (stayed up wayyy too late the last night in Michigan, which included late night couples’ laundry folding with BIL and SIL in the family room) and headed to the B grandparents’ for Christmas dinner and Scrabble/Yahtzee (SIL likes Yahtzee, which means I like SIL). We went home to our own place that night.
DH and I got colds from our niece, so we were pretty congested most of the time, but we were able to sleep a lot so it wasn’t a big deal.
19. What was your favorite TV program?
(This is what happens when you don't have cable).
20. What were your favorite books of the year?
Middlesex (part of Bro's online book club), and I think the book younger BIL gave me for Christmas might count, too. Though I'm still reading it.
21. What was your favorite music from this year?
Spoon. DH gave me “Transference” for Valentine’s Day because I finally admitted to myself that I’ve always loved Spoon. Whenever a genius mix would come on, as soon as a Spoon song started I would say “this is a good mix!”
22. What were your favorite films of the year?
Inception, True Grit
23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28, and we took a trip from Silver Lake to that town with the coffee shop, where I spent an hour on the café wifi and read a lot of birthday notes from friends. Later I had cake and ice cream with all my extended in-laws and played with my 9-month-old cousin. Since the whole week was vacation it was all very relaxed.
24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
About three more weeks of vacation time, probably. I feel like I’m always rationing my time off, and then misappropriating it.
25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Um, what? "Personal fashion concept?" Well, I got this hot short haircut in November, and started wearing more dangly earrings. And I brought back the contacts. So I guess my attempted concept was “Well-put-together young adult” as opposed to "schleppy grad student".
26. What kept you sane?
DH and Corina, my tag team of humorous understanding and unconditional (as long as there's tuna) love.
27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
You're probably not going to finish everything you wrote down to do today, so just do the important stuff, then go home.
I spent my lunch reading about your year. One of my better lunches.
ReplyDeleteQuite enjoyable, especially your answer to the "personal fashion concept."