New Year's Meme

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
* Finished my first year on the tenure track
* Moved into a more adult relationship with my dissertation director
* Made a surprising number of friends in a new city, surprisingly fast
* Adopted a cat

2. Did you keep your 2007 resolutions, and will you make more this year?
I often make new year's resolutions, but didn't last year. (Maybe that was the problem?) I'm working on some for this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Three college friends, including Babe, my college roommate. This may be the beginning of the wave.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
England.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Oh, lots of things. More money saved, more work completed, more focus. And while we're in the realm of fantasy, let's say a healthy romantic relationship.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
All that tiresome self-reflection and personal growth stuff. I think I'm a better person now than I was a year ago. But it's really too dull to write about.

8. What was your biggest failure?
Huh. Maybe thinking that I a) knew what I wanted, and b) could make that outcome occur through force of will.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I've been ridiculously healthy this year. I probably had a cold at some point last January-March, but I haven't had so much as a sniffle since April. However, there was that brief freak event in May that necessitated a trip to the emergency room.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
I bought many things this year that I love--I'm a bit of a spendthrift, but I rarely regret purchases and I derive great joy from the objects in my life. But far and away the best expenditure I made this year (I'm reluctant to call it a purchase) was adopting my cat.

11. Whose behavior merited celebration?
That of most of my friends. And dammit, my own.

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My ex's. Over and over again.

13. Where did most of your money go?
If I knew that, it wouldn't be gone, now would it?

14. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Oddly enough, I'm sure I'm happier now than I was at this time last year. I'm somewhat but unintentionally thinner. And things are a wash financially.

15. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Saved money/gotten out of debt. Worked on my book.

16. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Sat on my sofa staring into space.

17. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Not romantically, no. But I do think I fell (or re-fell) in love with quite a number of people as friends and/or colleagues.

18. What was the best new book you read?
Is it too lame to say Moby Dick? But I'd never read it until this summer.

19. What was your favorite film of the year?
Probably The Lives of Others.

20. What kept you sane?
Work. Friends.

21. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
Realizing that we're always in the middle of interesting, meaningful narratives, even if, as we're living them, their shape and meaning are frustratingly opaque. And trying to enjoy the multiplicity of possibilities rather than struggling to predict or manage outcomes that aren't knowable in the first place and wouldn't be half so appealing if they were.

Happy 2008, everyone~~