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A New Year’s Meme

I join Rana in reflecting on 2009.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
I attended my first NHL Stanley Cup Playoff games!

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I always make the same resolution and always try to keep it: Practice non-attachment.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Mr. Shameless’s grandmother.

5. What countries did you visit?
I stayed close to home this year, again.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 which you lacked in 2009?
Better financial stability; the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team playing like they really want to win, every night, night after night.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched in your memory, and why?
November 13th. My first-born daughter turned 18.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I realized I’d had enough. I was pushed too far. It made me realize that I was done with something that I had previously enjoyed doing. Time to move on!

9. What was your biggest failure?
Putting myself in the position that allowed others to push me too far. I didn’t recognize the slippery slope of failing to say NO when I needed to just say NO!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My 15-inch MacBook Pro. Awesome! Well worth saving my mad money all those months and months!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
A candidate I advised.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Grace C., among others.

14. Where did most of your money go?
What money?

15. What did you get really excited about?
Hockey. Politics. Music. Researching memoirs. My writing.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Bright Lights by Placebo

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
I am the “or” in each statement.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Say NO when I needed to just say NO!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Gone to useless meetings and tried to advise people who wouldn’t listen.

20. How did you spend New Year’s Eve 2009?
Dinner at Molly Woo’s with Mr. Shameless, Ipsissimus and Shadow/J; watching the Blue Jackets lose to the Predators; hanging out with Mr. Shameless, my daughters, and Shadow/J and playing Bananagrams.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Still in love.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Brothers and Sisters, Californication, Top Chef Las Vegas, Project Runway.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
There are a few. I am working toward indifference. Much better that way.

24. What was the best book you read?

At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life by Wade Rouse

followed by

Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster

and

Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I re-discovered Placebo.

26. What did you want and get?
My 15-inch MacBook Pro.

27. What did you want and not get?
Help from the Dem Club officers selling tickets and sponsorships to their own fall dinner, which I planned for them.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Julie & Julia.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old did you turn?
Mr. Shameless took me out to dinner at Nona, my favorite restaurant. I turned 42.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If I’d remembered to say NO when I needed to just say NO, I would have spent far less time banging my head against a brick wall.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Same as always. Comfort: jeans and t-shirts, sweatshirts and cashmere sweaters. Doc Marten boots. Ed Hardy sneakers. (My daughter told me I was too old to wear them. I immediately ordered a pair!)

32. What kept you sane?
Music. My friends. My family. My puppies.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Still Damien Rice. And Brian Molko.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Too many to mention, again.

35. Whom did you miss?
My Grandma, Katie, Amber.

36. Who was the best new person (people) you met?
Maureen and Andy. And Wade Rouse followed me on Twitter! Yay!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
I need to remember to say NO when I need to just say NO!

(I still like what I wrote a couple of years ago: I learned that to live an authentic life I must speak from my heart.)

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

A heart that hurts
is a heart that works

5 Comments

  1. Posted January 1, 2010 at 10:41 pm | #

    I may have to use that meme. I need something to post for the new year in my personal blog!

    [Reply]

  2. Kelley
    Posted January 1, 2010 at 11:21 pm | #

    very cool. I might steal..er…borrow…that as well

    [Reply]

  3. Posted January 1, 2010 at 11:39 pm | #

    From one hurting heart to another, may we both have a better 2010!

    [Reply]

  4. Posted January 2, 2010 at 6:58 pm | #

    Very nice, I like that one. I might even get it done by NYE 2010! I expect we will hear “NO” from you more often? Have you been practicing?

    [Reply]

  5. Posted January 3, 2010 at 6:25 pm | #

    NO!

    [Reply]

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